Pokémon Scarlet And Violet Review In Progress

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet hit store shelves and the Switch eShop tomorrow. You’ll probably be seeing reviews right now. While we would love to be one of those reviews, we’re not quite ready to publish our final verdict for a couple of reasons. First, the online servers are not yet available, and with four-player co-op serving as a big addition to the series, we want to fully test it out before delivering our review. I also just want a tad more time with the game before slapping a score on it; I’ve finished most of the main story, but I haven’t fully explored the end and post-game content. 

However, the review embargo has ended so I am able to share my complete impressions and publish my final review. I’m generally positive about Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. These are good mainline Pokémon games that take the series forward in some pretty substantial ways. Open world exploration is great fun. I love being able (generally speaking) to solve problems in whatever order. My time spent in Paldea has been great, with the help of Miraidon (and Koraidon) greatly facilitating my exploration. Each area features a ton of monsters to battle and catch, giving me ample reason to go off the beaten path, and the new Pokédex design makes it more satisfying than ever to fill it out. 

The learning aspect introduced in Legends Arceus earlier this season has disappeared. Now, the Pokédex entries are complete upon catching the Pokémon – no observing them performing certain moves or other requirements. This will please long-term fans as well as purists. But I think that Legends: Arceus convention was an excellent evolution.

Pokémon battles out in the world are now optional. While you can still fight other trainers as much as you like, encounters in big open areas must be initiated by you and not the NPCs that you pass. Of course, there are several reasons why you’d still want to battle NPCs; in addition to experience and money, you can also speak to a Pokémon League representative at most Pokémon Centers to receive a reward when you defeat a set number of trainers in the adjacent area.

Wild Pokémon battles are also mostly optional, as random encounters in tall grass are completely a thing of the past; now, you simply see Pokémon grazing out in the wild, and you make the decision to engage with them – unless, of course, you accidentally run into them, which is easier than it should be thanks to technical problems (more on that later). If you want, you can simply send out your partner Pokémon using the new Let’s Go mechanic for an auto-battle. This is useful for defeating meddlesome wild Pokémon that are in the way, taking down Team Star bases, and collecting materials for TM crafting.

After you win a battle you can Terastallize. While Pokémon look uniformly goofy in their Terrastallized forms, this is perhaps my favorite battle gimmick to date. Terrastallization does not work like X and Y’s Mega Evolutions or Sun and Moons Z-Moves. Sword and Shield Dynamaxing and Shield’s Sword and Shield are more “click to win” options. While it has the potential to change the course of a battle thanks to its ability to shift the type of your Pokémon and power up that set of moves, you need to be much more strategic with your timing and implementation of this gimmick. Terrastlization only works once in between visits to the Pokémon Center, so if you blow it before a moment in which you truly need it, you’re out of luck.

Gym challenges require that you complete Gym Battles before you can face the Gym Leader. You will need to perform a task in your locality before you are allowed to take on the leader of the gym. These are sometimes enjoyable but they can feel like extra padding that is there to give us something to do in between gym battles.

The new Pokémon designs are largely strong; a few even made me gasp or laugh out loud. While I cannot go into detail, one design in particular made me stop and think, “No way!” The designs of new creatures in recent generations have been very hit or miss for me, but the new Pokémon featured in Scarlet and Violet are mostly great. For those wanting to see their favorites from past generations pop up, Scarlet and Violet do a solid job of bringing both classic and deep-cut Pokémon spread across various previous generations.

The mission structure is the most freeing we’ve ever seen in a mainline Pokémon game. It’s refreshing to be able to complete the mainline quests in any order, however Game Freak will dictate how you play. If you focus only on the gyms and skip the Titan or Team Star bases, then you will be too high-leveled to do many of the other missions. Similarly, if you don’t do the gym battles and instead focus on other quests, you won’t be able to make Pokémon of an appropriate level for those Titan encounters and base raids reliably obey you. The game does seem to level with you to an extent, but there are a couple of times when I ran into a buzzsaw of a Gym Leader that was of a higher level than me – thankfully, the description on the map typically gives you a good indication of what time in your journey it recommends you tackling that gym. Although I like the fact that these missions chains are interconnected, they can be a bit restrictive.

Unfortunately, this is perhaps the least technically sound a mainline Pokémon game has ever been. Legends: Arceus was a game I criticised for its low resolution textures and pop-ins. But Scarlett and Violet are worse. Add in a chugging FPS (particularly when you’re in a big water area with several Pokémon) and characters phasing in and out of existence as you run through the world, and this is clearly something Game Freak hasn’t quite figured out. I hope they learn how to create large, open spaces that run well on the Switch prior to the next Pokémon game to use that convention.

Again, I’m overall positive about Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, and I’m excited about the future of the franchise thanks to this game. The format needs to be refined and Game Freak still has some work to do to create open-world, technically competent games for Switch. Regardless of its shortcomings, I’ve had a good time playing through Pokémon Violet, and I’m excited to continue my journey through the Paldea region. Check out my complete review at GameInformer.com.