My (hopefully) final note about Scarlet is that it taught me what alfajores are and I am forever grateful because I looked up a recipe and they are so delicious.
Scarlet went back to the library a couple days ago so hmmm lemme try and sum up my feelings and experiences quickly.
Spoiler alert: it's not quick lol.
It's hard deciding how much I do or don't like the game, I like it except when I don't, and I think I've settled on a reason why: the first two-thirds (ish) for me were kiiiiinda dull while the last third was really good and fun. For the first two-thirds I feel like I spent too many hours fighting against exp share to keep my party levels more or less even, and also just wandering aimlessly without a clue where I'm supposed to be. I'm gonna focus on that aspect first because it took up a lot of my time so I have the most to say about it.
Wandering aimlessly isn't always bad in an open world game — a large part of the appeal of that genre is exploring and finding points of interest. But when the world itself isn't that interesting (if you're not working on the pokedex then pretty much the only thing to discover are the stakes trapping the legendary quartet) and none of the content scales with your level so there is an intended order, then an open world brings nothing to the experience except lagging issues. Apparently the bug gym is supposed to be first? It was my third. Which meant that by the time I got to it, I was way over leveled for that whole area and it was boring. And that kept happening. I spent the first third of the game usually either over leveled or under leveled without any good indication of which side of the map I'm supposed to be on. And this did not stop until I reached the water gym and (except for having to backtrack to the psychic gym which is completely out of the way of everything in the corner of the map on top of a plateau) the map does become more linear from here as you work your way clockwise from the western gyms to the mountain to the northeast corner. (More or less. Because I had to return to Casseroya Lake for Arven's quest after all that.) Or at least that was my experience. Another reason why this game can be hard to talk about is because probably no two people have the same experience.
And I don't think my lack of enjoyment of the map structure is necessarily a me problem. I've played loads of open world games at this point. The thing about these games is that their maps have to be constructed carefully to avoid railroading while still providing players with direction. Having a story to guide the player to farther and farther reaches of the map, providing incentive for going to these places at the right time (even though it's all technically open from the start), helps immensely. Pokemon dumps every single boss you gotta get to on the map at once and says "go beat all of them. at some point." The closest comparison I can think of is BotW, and then, the points of interest in that game are fairly organized. Pick a divine beast and go, and you'll probably be pretty focused on the path towards it and area around it for a while. So there's still structure. Structure that you can ignore if you want, but if you need direction, you have it. And if you want to wander around, there are so many random little locations that are just nice to be in — I haven't played that game in a few years but I still remember various ruins and patches of distinct woodland and an abandoned orchard that I just chilled in for a while because they were pretty. Also there's only four divine beasts. How many bosses does Scarlet/Violet drop on the map immediately? Almost twenty? And nothing happens on the map or in the story except at those bosses, as I recall.
I guess I just don't see the point in Pokemon being open world if this is how they're gonna handle it. The map this time around is better and more distinct than Legends Arceus (a game whose maps I can only say would be impressive for a PS2 game) but it's still miles behind other open worlds, even open world games on the switch so I'm not giving them a pass for console limitations. Xenoblade is not open world, instead splitting its world into several different maps like PLA did, but those maps are still quite big — and they are beautiful and distinctive and run perfectly fine. Scarlet/Violet has a lot of plain green grassy areas with cliffs that don't look different from each other so they're not that interesting to see, and if I'm running too fast the frame rate gets pretty choppy. Sometimes I had so much trouble with objects taking too long to load and suddenly popping in that random encounters were pretty much back because so many wild Pokemon popped in suddenly the second I stepped on the spot where they were — sometimes they didn't even appear until a second or two after I was suddenly stopped and sat there wondering why the game froze me. The first time I went to a couple cities they were just ghost towns because NPCs didn't load in until after I ran past them. Closing and restarting the game helps with this but I didn't even have it on for that long. After the first couple of days I started closing and restarting it every day to make it run faster. The issues never went away entirely. Either something is very wrong with my switch that only started after I put this cartridge in it, or Pokemon has no idea how to make a big game function properly.
The thought I keep trying to get to: what's even the point in making it such a big game? I don't think this generation gains anything from having an open world that is worth the issues it causes. Issues with story, with structure, with lag. I mean I think we all probably know the point: open world games tend to sell well and Pokemon has to get on that bandwagon if they want to be considered modern. And it doesn't matter how good or bad their open world is because fans can still say they at least MADE it, and brand recognition alone will keep them going for another 30 years. I think Nintendo is under the assumption that open worlds are just the next step for games and that having one automatically makes it better, and that just isn't true. (It's not just Pokemon — I have concerns for the future of Zelda too. BotW was unique and that's what made it so strong. I did not enjoy TotK very much, I didn't even finish it. It just made me miss the structure of the old games.) A linear path is good when it's well done. I've become increasingly grateful for good linear games, and especially interested in maps that are large but structured as a path and may have points to unlock that allow you to quickly circle back to older areas. These maps can be very clever and very pleasing to play through, and nothing would be gained by scrapping them and replacing them with open worlds. You have to be thoughtful with your game map no matter what type it is. Open worlds aren't inherently better.
Alright alright enough yapping about the open world. There is more to this game. Including stuff I actually liked, I promise.
I was not fond of almost any of the new Pokemon designs for this gen going into the game, but I must say they look a lot better and more fitting when I can see them moving around in their world. I changed my mind on several of them after seeing them in-game. (Espathra is maybe the biggest change, I went from hating it to liking it a lot because of the way it moves and how lovely its frills look in 3D. I still think it looks a little dumb but in a way that's fine.) Also, while this isn't the first game to do it, I loved seeing Pokemon wandering in the overworld and hanging out and reacting to my presence. It's very cute. It's also cool that fully evolved Pokemon can appear in the wild, and I imagine that must make building a live Pokedex a lot simpler. Picnics were delightful too. I barely touched the sandwich minigame but watching my Pokemon run around together was nice. It's a great way to make a team more memorable. I'll forever think of my Skeledirge as sleepy and snuggly because it seemed like he was always asleep during picnics and he once woke up, waddled over, and immediately fell back asleep with his head on (actually, clipping through lol) my trainer. It's the possibility for little things like this that can breathe a lot of life into creatures in video games, and I always appreciate it when devs make that effort! The Pokemon are very lively and show a lot of personality.
I'm not sure where to put this so I'll say it here. The camera during battles is often frustrating because Pokemon have to stand so far apart when they fight and the camera has no idea how to handle that. Almost every time I used my Kilowattrel in battle, I only saw his wingtips and one foot because the camera zoomed in and he's big and flying. Or sometimes I wouldn't see any Pokemon at all because they were standing so far apart that they were both out of frame. So often I would adjust the camera to be able to see everything, and then the next round would start, resetting the camera back to the bad angle. It's just a little annoying. I don't remember if this issue popped up in other switch games too, but it certainly wasn't a problem on the 3DS and it's weird that it came up now. I think that's my last major gameplay complaint though.
Pokemon stories can be kinda hard to talk about because there's generally not much to say unless they're extremely good or extremely bad lol. Most are just fine, just nice little stories, and yeah I'd put this game in that category too.
The gym route is... the gym route, there's not much to say there. So quick thoughts. The gym challenges vary wildly in quality and I am trying hard to remember most of them. I guess it's a new take on the old gym puzzles and it's fine? I prefer the old way but that may just be because I've been used to the old way for many years. The gym leaders themselves are nice, actually fairly memorable so far (I guess we'll see if I remember anything about them in a year). My favorite is Grusha because he's pretty. I'm shallow. I was disappointed in the lack of victory road, but not really surprised either. I got a little tired of the elite four popping into every gym to talk to me after a while, but meeting them at the actual league was nice. It's kinda cool how the ones you beat stick around to watch your next match! I wanted to make Rika proud (also I understand now why the internet is so obsessed with her). Geeta is... a bit boring, but that's okay. After I got over the hurdle of not knowing what gym to fight when (so after my... fourth gym I think?) things smoothed out and most gym leaders — and the elite four and champion — were a decent challenge, which I appreciate. Either Scarlet/Violet is better balanced around the exp share than previous games, or I just happened to have the right team comp for the right level of challenge. No NPC trainer (as far as I recall) ever uses items or switches out their Pokemon (without moves like volt switch), which is kinda lame, but whatever.
Oh, also I never used terastallizing even once so that added to my challenge a little bit. I do think that if Pokemon has to have a random gimmick in every gen, terastallizing isn't bad. I found dynamaxing boring (and gigantamaxing just irritating because fucking really? pokemon that I lovingly raised can't have a fun form to play around in? only ones that I get from raids? what is the POINT for a casual, non-competitive player? but anyway enough about swsh). And z-moves were just kinda dumb. Terastallizing is a better balance because you can change your Pokemon's type which shakes up strategies a bit, almost reminiscent of mega evolution, but any Pokemon can do it. So it's fine as a gimmick. I just personally haven't cared about these gimmicks since mega evolution so I didn't bother to use it.
OH, also Nemona, I made a whole other post about her, but I think she's a fine rival. I actually like that she's a champion herself already so fights with her are just for fun and to test me, so beating her means I'm making her proud. I think it's a nice way of handling a rivalry that can fall a little flat (and has, in previous games) by the player always being so far ahead.
I'll talk about the Team Star route next so I can save the best for last. I've said it before and I'll say it again but I hate these bitches. They're boring and swagless and they are the only thing besides cliffs that are too tall to jump over that completely block my progress and ability to explore. And their base challenges are just: part one, a simplified auto battler, a type of gameplay that I hate (thanks to genshin for teaching me how much I hate them from all the horrible event minigames we got in the past year, ugh); and part two, a battle with a team boss who always ends with the same goddamn CAR. The reason this bugs me so much is because ALL of them are the same. They change their type but that's it. Same exact challenge and same exact battle, just against different types. It was so boring, and annoying because I couldn't even see a point to this storyline happening at all. At least the team bosses have cool designs for the most part. The best thing I can say about this route is that I enjoyed being a little nuisance by calling out Clavell's identity every time I saw him in disguise lmao. I knew Cassiopeia was Penny from the moment she showed up after I beat the first boss. There's just nothing interesting going on here. This entire route felt like one very long joke. The only point of it existing is just so you could have Penny be a friend that comes with you to Area Zero in the ending. This could not be more blatantly obvious from getting directly told to bring a hacker. And then she didn't even have anything to do there. She could be deleted from the whole game and nothing would change in Area Zero. If that's because of version differences and she has more to do in Violet where the Pokemon coming out of the time machine are, well, basically machines themselves, then I guess that's on me for playing Scarlet, but that's just a wild shot in the dark on my part. Idk if that's even a thing. I really have no idea what she's here for except to have a useless Team Whatever in the game. And don't get me wrong, she's fine and I like her alright as a character, I just hate Team Star and Penny existing is not enough of a reward for me for going through all that nonsense lol.
Arven is the star of the show. His story is emotional and sweet, and the progression feels natural — not too fast and not too slow. It's precious to watch him go from "ugh that lizard is the WORST, don't let me see it" to "I went out of my way to make your lizard a sandwich." Pokemon loves to deliver on storylines about kids with broken relationships with their parents, and I always enjoy them. I was just a little disappointed about his line at the very end about how he understands his parent now. I don't remember the exact wording but it was something about how he gets how his parent would be more excited about a time machine than raising a kid. No buddy, you're still allowed to be mad. Time machines are indeed cool, but child neglect is not! That one line aside though, I did enjoy seeing his conflicting emotions, being angry about how his life has gone while still empathizing with (in Scarlet) Koraidon and his mom. His journey to heal Mabosstiff was heartwarming and I really wanted to be his friend and help him. I was so proud of him for succeeding! Truly all of the writing effort went into Arven's story. The titans themselves weren't super memorable (except for Great Tusk because its size was SUCH a jumpscare) but the cutscenes after fighting them were great.
Koraidon/Miraidon itself is an interesting take on a box legendary and I really enjoyed it. (It's a lot like Sun and Moon, and I loved the story in those games too.) Being introduced to it at the beginning of the game and having it alongside you for the whole journey is really smart. I like when legendaries matter to the story, and being Koraidon's friend was really sweet. It's like Nebby in Sun/Moon except it's traveling with me instead of a friend. For that matter, is it even technically a legendary, or is it just another Paradox Pokemon? It's neat either way. And very cute. I love Koraidon's big googly bird eyes when it's eyeballing a sandwich. The only thing I have to say against it is why does it have to be a motorcycle. It looks dumb as hell when I'm riding around. Games are so obsessed with motorcycles and I'll never understand it.
Area Zero was kinda cool. It could have been more visually interesting on the top layers, which were just more bright green grass next to cliffs like so much of the map outside the crater, but I still enjoyed it (and the bottom layers with the crystals were really pretty). I liked going deeper and deeper until we were underground and looking up to see the sky so far above us. And it was fun seeing my friends' dialogue as we explored too (even though it kept getting interrupted by random Corviknight attacking me lol). And the music slapped. I knew the final boss of the game was gonna be "AI Sada" (or "AI Turo) because I've had that battle theme saved for months (it's so good!!) so I knew something was up with the professor but it was quite startling to find out she died! AI Sada was a tough boss since I didn't know the types of almost any Paradoxes, and I enjoyed trying to guess at type advantages. If I have a favorite Paradox, I'd say probably Slither Wing (Roaring Moon is also pretty cool). I just think it's cute and fluffy. Idk how I feel about Paradox Pokemon in general. I think it's a neat concept, like almost legendary forms of regional variants. I think I just find all the future versions really boring. They're all Iron Whatever. But I played Scarlet so that didn't matter. I still don't entirely understand what the deal is with them, presumably because there's DLC about it and I'm not buying DLC for a game I don't even own.
After the ending, the final tasks are rechallenging all of the gym leaders, fighting in the tournament at school, and catching the legendaries if you feel like it (this was the last thing I did anyway, since I don't care about raids so I never touched those). I enjoyed all of these! I somehow got a little overleveled for the gym rechallenges by then so most of them were pushovers, but it was still a fun boss rush. Sort of a last hurrah and celebration of my grown-up team before I was truly finished. The tournament was also fun, though it also varied wildly in difficulty. Arven's Mabosstiff almost swept my whole team in round one, and then I one-shot Dendra's whole team because she has absolutely no way of countering a Kilowattrel and it happened to start raining so I just spammed hurricane lmao. (Also very funny of anyone at the school to say they're proud to have taught me what I know. I never set foot in that school between being released to travel in the beginning and coming back to fight Penny in the end.)
The legendary quartet is pretty cool. I knew a bit about their lore already from hearsay (I assume the game teaches you more if you actually attend history classes) and it's neat. Their theme is also really good. Finding the stakes to unlock them in the overworld instead of going through a dungeon is... a choice, and not even a bad one, it's just different. And that's fine tbh. I'm completely neutral on that. I do wish I could go inside their caves to fight them though because half of them have a nice sunny grassy field as a backdrop and that feels pretty anticlimactic when they're evil little beasties using a move called ruination, you know? Anyway, Chien-Pao is my favorite because kitty. :3
In conclusion! This game was a really mixed bag. I'm glad that I played it. I'm glad that I was able to get it for free because otherwise I never would have. Pokemon has moved in a very different direction than it did when I was a kid and while I know it appeals to many, many people, it's a difficult transition for me. I have a post kicking around somewhere on my main blog from a couple years ago where I was saying in the tags that my love for Pokemon was gone and it wasn't coming back and that made me kinda sad. If anything though, my experience with Scarlet has taught me that there is still stuff for me to love about this series! It's just that most of it is in the design of the older games. I found myself frustrated with modern Pokemon game design ridiculously often while playing Scarlet. They did make some genuine QoL improvements, don't get me wrong, but I'm not fond of every change. So I think it's safe to say that although there are things I liked, I'm probably not playing Scarlet again and this may very well be the end of the series for me. I might check out PLZA eventually if the library gets a copy, but if I do it won't be for a long time because of all the complaints about modern gameplay listed above (and because if I'm honest I'm still kinda bitter that XY have existed in an incomplete state for 12 years, putting off Z for so long that it got slotted into a generation I don't like all that much. congrats to people who do like it though I guess). But yeah. I'm not getting a switch 2, I kinda doubt I'll be getting another Nintendo console in the future at all tbh — I just don't really play new Nintendo games anymore — so I suppose it's gonna be the end whether I like it or not anyway.
I've started replaying Emerald since finishing Scarlet and I'm having a blast with that despite some really bonkers choices in that generation (like the enormous empty boring ocean or the way they handled the physical/special split). And I'm grateful to Scarlet for reminding me that this has been a genuinely good series for such a long time despite its many bumps in the road. Pokemon has always been weird. Every generation makes mistakes and has wonderful moments. Scarlet/Violet is no exception, for better and for worse. It's been an adventure! I guess you could say I found my treasure in the end: a rekindling of my love for the series. And I'm thankful for that.
Oooookay I think that's all I had left to say. Lastly, look at my little guy, he's cute as a button.
I'm working on a final post about Scarlet but in the meantime can I just say how much it aggravates me when people say that Pokemon having DLC is objectively better. "Now you don't have to buy a whole other game for QoL improvements." Idk man. I remember it bothering me when ORAS came out with megas that can't be traded to XY because they obviously don't exist in those games. Having legendaries and other Pokemon locked to DLC is that problem x20.
Not to mention that the 3DS shop was defuct within, what, a decade? How long are we expecting the switch shop to last? People playing switch games for the first time in another decade will likely have no access to DLC Pokemon without hacking. I just don't think that data being kept digitally and temporarily only for people who want to buy it NOW is ever preferable to being able to buy a full game in the future and own the whole thing.
Because all this means is that in the near future, the only way to own the full game is to buy an entire game PLUS DLC (more expensive than just waiting for a "third version") and in the far future, you can only buy an incomplete game. How is that ever objectively better? Reminds me of an argument I once heard that digital games are better because you never lose them, and lo and behold now tech companies are doing everything in their power to make sure you never own the things you buy.
Well, I guess it doesn't affect me either way, I doubt I'll play these games again so I definitely have no reason to buy DLC, but it's just such an annoying statement to hear all the time while games keep vanishing off the market because longevity doesn't matter to corporations — and apparently doesn't matter to most players anymore either.
the role of the "evil team" has been a joke since... team skull I think. but even then, team skull had the narrative purpose of drawing attention away from the real villain, the aetherius foundation, while Guzma worked with them. so like... most encounters with team skull were just jokes but they still DID something in the end. and they were at least kinda swaggy.
Nemona is a decent rival. not because she's like, super memorable as a character (so far), but one thing that I think about a lot with rivals is how nonsensical they can be. because bro if I beat you in every single fight how is this even a rivalry lol. but the thing with Nemona is that she is already champion level, so she's just fighting you for fun and to test you. the fact that I'm beating her every time means I'm meeting her expectations and making her proud. and idk I just think that's nice!
WHY did they make a gym challenge collecting TEN sunflora that follow you in a game that struggles this much with its frame rate. every time I turn a corner too fast I'm afraid it'll freeze entirely lol.
very exciting how this game lets you customize your trainer at the start instead of having to wait til you're hours in to even choose the hair color you want. and there's SO many options? so points for a good idea there.
but then I have to immediately take some of those points away because you can't buy clothes, only accessories, so you're stuck in a student uniform forever. which, I get it, my little guy is a student, but I'm not IN school, I'm running around the countryside doing fuck all. imagine having to wear school clothes on the weekend because you're doing homework in your house.
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