Interestingly the story I learned was that Johto was considered too cutesy since it also introduced the baby Pokemon, so alongside the ability to add more details as tech got stronger they aimed for monstrous/powerful designs starting with Hoenn. Did things change since?
re: Sprigatito's second
@Cinder I think that if you look at the newer starters, their heads are bigger, their bones doesn't make sense and are all designed in the same way (they have to be cute). Instead of being more monstrous like the Hoenn trio (no way anyone could tell me straight in the face that Treecko is conventionally adorable). There's less bulk and weight and more focus is placed on making them adorable.
I know it's not the actual evolutions, but how fun would this have been?
@Satsuki Oh my god this is what I wanted it to be so much.
I am warming up to the fruity ass bird though
Been hearing about various performance issues, bugs, and glitching which is very unfortunate.
Steam Friend Code ---> 48796480
Which starters did you all go with? I went feucoco and shall have eggs when i get the chance if anyone wants to do some trading.
I'll be using Quaxly
If I ever buy the game, a Sprigatito I'm never ever evolving. I love cats and grass is my favorite type, so that pokémon is made for me.
Nothing more fun than beating strong Pokémon with a kitten.
I wasn’t feeling any of the starters until I saw the artwork and now Skeledirge is finally growing on me.
I don’t dislike the others, but too humanoid Pokémon always takes me out of the immersion.
@KaizokuJinbei said in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet:
Been hearing about various performance issues, bugs, and glitching which is very unfortunate.
It’s hard to tell how constant they really are, though.
Pokémon fanbase is made half of people that will pretend nothing is ever wrong and shut down any form of criticism; and half of people who will try to say the franchise is doomed and everything about the current games is shit.
It’s feels almost impossible to get an unbiased opinion unless you check for yourself, but I will probably hold until the DLC is released to buy the game.
@access-timeco Almost every reviewer has said the same thing about performance.
I was talking about the bugs/glitches. There are multiple examples online of characters phasing through stuff, or suddenly start walking on air and... what do I call this?
https://twitter.com/t_a_b_e_r_u/status/1593570678116323329
But when there are millions of people playing, it's hard to tell if those glitches are a common occurrence or something very rare.
As for the performance problems, that definitely is something everyone is experiencing. It seems like if you can enjoy or not the game depends on how much you can overlook the performance issues, rather than whether or not you face them.
Considering Sword & Shield had performance issues that people rightfully criticized…..
@access-timeco The reviewers mentioned that same stuff. Legitimately, every major reviewer talked about clipping, falling through the ground, and all types of stuff.
This is from IGN
Everything has a weird, shimmery blur to it, and shadows frequently disappear and reappear suddenly and illogically. Pokémon clip in and out of walls or floors at odd angles, or get stuck in them entirely – I spent an entire Gym Battle with one Pokemon halfway buried in the floor. The camera will occasionally clip through mountainsides and give a full view of a video gamey void, sometimes ruining cool moments (like, for instance, the evolution of my Wooper). Everything lags all the time, from battles to menus to cutscenes. Two of our guides writers have experienced hard game crashes. It is, by far, the worst-running Pokémon game I have ever played, and among the worst-running AAA games I’ve played on the Switch so far. And yes, this is with the day one patch.
Not to forget the other graphical glitches which persist in the 1.0.1 patch. I would be fully immersed in the game only to have an opponent's face flicker uncontrollably, scenery jump into existence or, during a victory celebration, have the ground clip out from beneath my feet.
Unfortunately, this is perhaps the least technically sound a mainline Pokémon game has ever been. In Legends: Arceus, I criticized pop-in and low-resolution textures, but Scarlet and Violet are even worse in that regard. 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.
Oh, well, that sucks. I was ready for the lags and drop in framerate, but was hoping the glitches would not be common.
At first I was uncertain if I would buy SV since SwSh turned out to be a regrettable inve$tment, but when I realized this is definitely the last generation coming out on Switch and is very unlikely I will buy another console (I only bought one game in the last 2 years for Switch, and ended up giving my PS4 because it was just piling dust), I decided to just go and not skip what is probably the last pokémon generation I will get to play.
But I am definitely not feeling like buying it "right now".
Even though I really like the new pokémon (turns out 90% of the best designs weren't revealed before the release), most of my old favorites are not in the game and I will have to hope for a late addition; the lack of league rematches and battle facility gives me a feeling like there's barely anything to do in the post-game; and now all this performance issues really tells me I have zero reason to rush. If anything, chances are the game will be much more enjoyable in a few months (worst case scenario, it will be just as bad and an used copy will come cheap).
Got my copy at around 2 pm and played until a few minutes ago and had no significant performance issues.
There are some minor ones that stick out like soar thumbs though when you are a certain distance away from no name NPCs their animations slow to like 5 FPS while anything else is normal.
One of the gyms where u had to find 12 over pokemon to follow u is unbearable at -10fps, its painful.
Gamefreak's patches aren't gonna to fix the most heavy parts of the game.
Anyway, 8 hours in and I can say that it's only challenging if you change up your rooster or deliberately go for the tough gyms/challenges at the start. Or just stick to using Pokemon nearby the gym/challenges, that'll make it a lot more fulfilling. It's really fun because I didn't spoil myself and is catching every new mon but I get the complains:
The towns look pretty but is mostly identical. I kid you not, this location had 4 ice cream stores within close proximity and they all sell the same thing.
No shop interiors anymore - that's sad. XY had a few great interiors, I hope they bring it back. This really felt like they use streamline as an excuse to cut things out.
Lack of animations for things that matters (Quality of life) such as fly.
Terrible, terrible outfit customization. You get a variety of hats, shoes, and spectacles but almost nothing in terms of clothing. I know there's like two to three to be unlocked but that's just sad. Even NPCs looks more personalized than you will ever be.
Repeating Minigames that is braindead easy (even for kids).
No dungeons, no puzzles worth talking about.
Open world is fun and fine if you are into the collecting part of Pokemon but gets really stale for literally everything else. It's always the same few slopes and hills.
Post game is trash as per usual, seems to be open for DLCs.
TMs is a hassle and using Pokemon ingredients for it doesn't make sense because at a higher level, you'll still have to grind out low level Pokemons to grind TMs. Instead of "magikarp scales" they should just put something like "water scales" so that water -fish types drop them as a whole.
You can now access Boxes ANYWHERE, make that as you will. I don't like it but some people will.
Pros:
Variety of pokemon, old and new.
Open world for collecting is pretty good, when it rains, some pokemon appears, when its at night, you can only catch some.
It's challenging if you give yourself some restrictions/rotate parties. I had some trouble with one of the grunt leader and it was fun because of this.
Music is a banger.
I actually like the open-Pokemon centre, but some variety would be nice. This doesn't mean I like the removal of interiors, just that the concept of an outdoor pokemon center works.
Not having to avoid Trainers eyesight is great.
Tera will be great for Meta/Competitive play and is great if you are into finding the best/weird combinations, such as a Growlithe with a Ghost terra the other day.
I love the textures added to Pokemon/items, it feels close to Snap but it is also hilarious considering the game runs terribly.
Besides the lack of level scaling and sometimes stale overworld, Open world actually do promises that you can choose whatever Gym you want, as long as you can stomach it. So that's cool.
Pokemon ingredients are a good concept if they can actually use it for other stuff than TMs, maybe items, maybe for a chance at a shiny, maybe for Tera-types, maybe to craft things for the camp. But no, guess not.
Which game do you guys prefer, Pokemon Legends Arceus or Pokémon Scarlet/Violet?
Legends Arceus. There are things I really like about Violet, but I never stopped missing the catching mechanics of Legends and they never stopped feeling like a missed opportunity for the world imo.
Haven’t play one since Y so neither
@Shiebs Haven't played S/V yet but I knew I was going to miss anything traditional after Arceus. It was my Pokemon fix after skipping Gen 8, and even if it wasn't perfect, it still had a lot of great ideas that I hope Gamefreak refines in the future.
I'm glad at least S/V takes open world cues but I wish instead Arceus just had more time in the oven to be "the" Pokemon game of this year.
A friend talked me into getting Violet for the new multiplayer features, and it already locked up on the first screen of the game.
I couldn't get out of my chair until I pressed home and went back to the Switch menu.
I know Pokemon games have been rough the last few years, but this is really something.
I'm a few hours into Violet and, in spite of all the obvious bugs and lagging issues, this is a pretty darn fun experience. If they had just given it a few more months to bake this could've been something truly great.
I've finished the game.
For what it is worth: it's a damn good game for Pokemon standards. I might even place it on the same level as Arceus.
The plot is one of the best since Sun Moon and is really well thought out, there is no single divisive character (Leon in SwSh) because everyone is genuinely likable + well developed throughout. It is challenging as long as you don't keep the same 6 throughout and I believe they did try to stutter exp growth a little, the raids also allow you to raise more mons with a bit of a grind. For anyone getting the game: please go in blind because there's so much new and cool pokemon + forms to discover. The evolution mechanics + how to get some legendaries require a walkthrough or so but I find going in blind knowing nothing about the plot + new designs is a blast.
The overworld really felt alive as compared to SwSh, pokemon interracts with each other, they do weird stuff and there's a great variety of them. To put it simply: this is what the Pokemon experience would be like if you were Ash Ketchum. Well, not a 100% but still.
A lot of the cons I mentioned in my previous post still stands but I get the logic of single use TM now because it is in exchange for no move tutor (you can just remember any moves if you so want to). A lot of competitive elements are also streamlined, I thought that was a huge QoL jump.
The lack of clothing customization is a design choice to fit the story, you'll get it once you reach the end game. You might not like it but there's a logic there.
The two major gripes that I have no matter how much I enjoyed it, if we put aside the technical aspects, is that the gym leaders SHOULD still level scale. There's really no excuse or a valid counterpoint to this. Post game is still lackluster and empty, I know the whole competitive=post game is a meme now but come on, game freak. Your DLC is going to come waaay after most people have played it. And the open world just had so much more potential because after a while it does feel a bit repetitive, there's really much more that can be done and this is the same problem with the towns too, it just really screams "this game was rushed to sell during holidays!". It is still fun but there are a fair share of problems and ALOT of wasted potential with the open-world design. Minigames are way too easy and there are way too many children NPCs, so you..you get the idea with how Gamefreak + Pokemon company biggest market share is from kids. But it is still weird as a 26 year old beating up a 7 year old. It was never really noticeable but there are waaay too many children NPCs with a gym leader team in this series. Gym leaders are pretty great + elite four has better characterization than most games. Larry is just the best.
To sum it up: one of the better pokemon games in ages but it hurts so much because of how much potential it has and how it would be the GREATEST if left in development for another year or two.
I intended to wait until the DLC or at least until the Home connectivity was available before buying Scarlet, but due to unforeseen circumstances I was home-bound for nearly two weeks so I just said fuck it and bought it.
And, what do you know, I REALLY liked it! I don't know if it was because everyone and their mom already made such a huge deal of the graphical glitches and performance problems, but when it was actually time to face them all it really seemed something really inconsequential. I mean, the framerate problem is notable whenever you are inside a city and I don't think I ever saw something like that in a game, but still nothing that compromised the experience. The only real problem I had was whenever I had a battle in the water the game would become slowmotion.
But anyways, I really enjoyed the hell out of it. The first hours not so much, as I was too worried about not sticking to the planned path and end up overleveled, but once I let go of it (after the second gym) and decided to just freely explore the region, the game instantly became a real pleasure.
It really seems like everything I disliked about SwordShield was corrected here. The entire game actually seems properly designed and all the design choices work with each other... I couldn't even believe it, but even EXP Share - the one thing I hated the most in the recent games - this time actually didn't bother me because the game was properly designed around it and, unlike in SS, this time it was actually enjoyable to just switch pokémon on the fly and use everything the game offered you (there were times when I training over 20 pokémon at the same time and not a single pokémon from my actual team went active for hours).
Sure, I still made some conscious decisions to make the game more challenging and "long" (I pretended Set mode was still there and ignored the "free switch turns", avoided having more than one pokémon from my main team on hand at the same time during exploration/training so I would still need to train them individually, never used the picnic/sandwich feature until the post-game, etc.), but I think at this point it is a given that the difficulty on pokémon games are up to you and how much you want to artificially handicap yourself, anyways...
As I kept trying new stuff, I ended up liking SO many of the new pokémon that at the end of the day my final team had 13 fix members on rotation (even more than my already huge team of 10 in Sun). Definitely the most pleasing pokémon experience I had since as an adult, behind only Sun.
Too bad the post-game content is barely existent, so regardless of how engaged I was, as soon as I finished the game it was like there was nothing left to do.
Hey! Very cool you ended up enjoying it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
If it helps to give you some ideas on what to do next, what I'm doing now is completing the Pokedex, random shiny hunting for some favorites, and doing the raid events as they come out. I actually haven't encountered the legendaries yet, since I'm wanting to explore and search myself without using a guide.
I'll also share a summary of my go with it:
What I liked:
What I didn't like:
Probably my favorite last Pokemon track:
Union Circle wishlist:
What I hope to see in the next game:
@Cinder said in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet:
I wish it didn't rotate... telling directions in union circle was a bit of a nightmare
You can lock the map by pressing in the r stick.
Check out my podcast for conversations about Greatness in anime, sports, music, and whatever else we can think of.
Trainer battles not being triggered on sight anymore was one of the design choices that sounded bad when I first heard about it, but playing the game I could see it was needed.
I thought it was just GF making the game easier for the sake of it, but it would hurt the exploration aspect if you had to worry about being spotted by trainers (particularly when they could be many levels ahead of you).
As for the Elite, I noticed the lack of Full Restores, but overall I found the fights a lot more challenging than in previous games.
Before it was a miracle if I ever lost a battle. In both Sun and Sword I only lost to the champion and that was already something noteworthy enough for me to still remember.
Here I lost to Grusha (granted I was under leveled a bit, but type advantage should compensate that), Clavell, Penny…
In X I completely ignored Mega Evolution existed, but here there were multiple times when using it was needed if I wanted to counter the overpowered last Pokémon the enemy was using (Clavell’s Quaquaval would solo my entire team if I didn’t rely on it).
Geeta however was a let down compared to the previous Champion fights. After Hasell left me 4 HP away from a defeat, I go to Geeta expecting some real challenge and turns out I have to switch out Skeledirge at the end just to avoid beating all of her team with a single Pokémon.
I mean, who had the idea of giving her a Pokémon that is probably the best entry hazard setter to date, but have it be the last Pokémon she uses instead of the first?
Meanwhile, she has this other Pokémon that is powered up by how many teammates where already defeated (and who could benefit a lot more from Tera getting rid of its 4x weakeness) and that is not saved for last???
Locking the map is legitimately a game changer. It should be default since the map is nonsense when in free form.
If I had to summarize my opinion of S&V in 2 words? Wasted potential
Story:
I feel they really dropped the ball here. The Area Zero portion after completing the 3 questlines was the only part with real plot and it was rather good first time I completed a Pokemon game and was just like "........whoa" you don't see those kind of dark twists in Pokemon games much and I loved it.
But the Titans and Team Star questlines were just a disappointing waste of potential I felt they could have done SO much more with them to add to the game's plot/story. Team Star is undoubtedly my least favorite of the evil teams though they can't really be called "evil" I was honestly hoping to see a big twist where Arven was the Team Star leader and wanted to sabotage the Area Zero lab because of his parents neglect.
I did like that there was historical lore in the game that you can learn about via classes like the pokemon war against the tyrant and stuff that is actually really cool and lent to the world building well.
I had very little to no glitching in my time with the game though there are a few areas where I got pretty noticeable lag spikes (like the Poison Team Star leaders area)
Steam Friend Code ---> 48796480
How would you say the story fares in comparison to Black/White? Those are my favorite games partly because of how they built the world and dared get a bit more involved and darker compared to previous entries.
@KaizokuJinbei said in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet:
Team Star is undoubtedly my least favorite of the evil teams though they can't really be called "evil" I was honestly hoping to see a big twist where Arven was the Team Star leader and wanted to sabotage the Area Zero lab because of his parents neglect.
I for one approve that we are moving away from Team Something = the villain group.
GF is learning at an incredibly slow pace that having staples doesn’t mean they need to always play the same part (see Final Fantasy Cid’s) and the more they go in that way the more unique the games are starting to get.
The first aspect they understood could be used in different ways was probably the rival. But with time the Champion, the gyms, the Elite 4, the Professor, the Legendaries and the Teams started diverging more and more from their original role and thanks to that the game are finally not sounding like “Pokémon Red remastered”. And of all those staples, the evil Team was probably the one that held the game back the most since it dictated too much of the plot. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a couple generations the Team is actually the main character’s party.
The next 7 star tera raid is Poison Greninja
Runs from January 27-29 and February 10-12
I wish we knew the movesets when they are announced. All waiting to show us does is delay creating the right pokemon.
This frog has some serious ninja skills. Look at his tongue around his neck and still no tongue coming out of his mouth... How does he do it!? Ninja!
Just saw this video, and it made my day. Watch with subs.
Pet fish playing Pokemon!
...And revealing owner's credit card details on livestream
When Nemona says "Those punks are a serious hazard", do you think this was an intentional One Piece reference or a coincidence?
Good news for those of us without Switch Online: the same Slowbro you used against Cinderace can solo Greninja.
Might take a few tries because Double Team, but 3~4 hits are enough.
