Pokemon Scarlet & Violet is the best game that barely works
I’ve been a Pokémon fan since the anime first landed in the UK ahead of the Game Boy games. I immediately adored the world, characters, and creatures, and in the last 25 years Pokémon has been a constant in my life to some degree. My investment in the series dropped off over time, and the rarest and most powerful monsters in my collection are still somewhere on a mix of DS and GBA carts, but I always make time to jump into Pokémon latest iteration to find out what’s happening, and in Scarlet & Violet, something is certainly happening.
Pokémon is now fully open world and the two DLC expansions released in 2023 – The Teal Mask and The Indigo Disk – add more monsters, more open environments, and dozens of tough battles to fight your way through. The consistent drip feed of Pokémon games and content we’ve had over the last few years almost feels like a renaissance for the series – or it would, if the games weren’t a bit of a mess.
Pokémon Sword & Shield was the first hint that something was wrong. The games had a distinct and beautiful art style in linear routes and towns, but taking to the new open world park areas would cause frame rate issues and make the games look significantly worse. Still, as long as the issues were solved over time, it seemed crystal clear that these open-world areas were the future of the franchise.
Looks nice in a still, but lags hard in motion.
The Pokémon Company / Nintendo
Moving on to Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and dynamic resolution causes regular stutters when playing the game docked, but in handheld it was smooth and satisfying. Unfortunately, that didn’t help the world, which looks barren, even when compared to other large-scale Nintendo Switch games. It was never going to hold a candle to the likes of Horizon: Forbidden West, and even Breath of the Wild feels like an incredibly high bar, but what about Monster Hunter Stories? The world had become the star of Pokémon’s show, but it wasn’t inspiring to look at or explore.
I had high hopes that a true new Pokémon generation would solve those teething problems, and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet absolutely nailed the design of an open-world Pokémon game. Once again, however, the problems haven’t been fixed. The world looks pretty bad, honestly, and the frame rate will regularly tank when exploring. It’s a huge, undeniable blemish on what is an otherwise incredibly well-designed open-world JRPG. And then there are the bugs which also hamper battles and exploration. Oops.
I wish the games looked half as good as this.
The Pokémon Company / Nintendo
With The Teal Mask, my hopes of Game Freak’s Pokémon games on Nintendo Switch looking and performing well were truly dashed. Upon starting The Teal Mask I ran through the paddy fields towards the first town, and when my character slid down the terrain, the game incurred a freeze that last for a full second. And yes, even in The Indigo Disk, it’s the same experience.
I have always loved Pokémon, I still love Pokémon, as evidenced by the fact that I’m playing DLC for a game I clearly had some significant issues with. But I no longer have faith that Game Freak can develop a Pokémon game that looks and performs like it belongs to one of the most valuable IPs in the world. Scarlet & Violet are great games, with worthwhile DLC, but all of that is hidden underneath an offputting appearance and awful performance. I pray that whatever Game Freak has cooking for the inevitable Switch successor is a big improvement over what we have now.
