This review contains spoilers
After 7 months of on and off playing, I finally rolled the credits on Pokemon Violet. There was so much of this game that I was in love with, but its visual performance issues gave me bad motion sickness that prevented me from playing it as often as I wanted. I had this issue in Sword/Shield as well, but I had a worse time with it in Violet because of how much I was enjoying myself (and therefore pushing myself to play) otherwise. I really wanted to immerse myself in this game, but I couldn't because I had to pace myself carefully so I wouldn't get sick.
For this review, I'm going to focus on the positive things about Pokemon Violet because truthfully I don't have anything else worthwhile to say about why the game frustrated me without being a broken record. If it was not so painfully evident how much this game was rushed, it could have been the best Pokemon game yet.
Paldea was a region I really enjoyed spending time in. I tend not to like open worlds but it was just big enough to feel like I was on an adventure but not so vast that I was overwhelmed by details. The landscapes were conceptually varied and beautiful even when the graphics fell short and the way wild Pokemon were incorporated into them was often very clever. I loved the music at every point, it was some of the best they've ever made for a Pokemon game.
The biggest advantage to the open world was the three story paths: Victory Road, Starfall Street, and Path of Legends. I was interested in all three and appreciated how they filled the map in a way that felt pretty natural. I tried my best to spread my exp over as many Pokemon as possible so I wasn't too over-leveled at any point but I inevitably ended up trivializing some battles anyway. It didn't feel as bad I feared because I was focused on the plot rather than how easy the battle was.
I loved the story's main NPCs (Nemona, Arven, and Penny) and it was easy to get attached to them and get invested in their problems. Arven's story made me actually tear up on more than one occasion and Nemona being her unhinged self made her a great rival. The way everyone came together in Area Zero paid off really well with their dialogue and banter. It really felt like me and my weirdo friends were getting into something good.
The side NPCs were even better and I was in love with the presence of adults of this world. There was an emotional undercurrent in this story about the loss of youth and struggling to find joy and purpose when the freedom of childhood is gone. With so many adult Pokemon fans who grew up with the original Game Boy games being old enough to relate to these feelings, it genuinely felt good to have these NPCs in the game. I'll never expect to be able to play as an adult in a mainline Pokemon game but it's cool to imagine that there actually is a place in these worlds for us as Pokemon trainers and students too.
The Pokemon that were new to Gen 9 were overall super cool. There were some exciting freak designs in this batch and while I didn't fall in love with every single one, I always saw what they were going for. A lot of them were very inspired and it was a delight to see them in motion both in battle and at picnics (even those rancid sandwiches grew on me).
I wish this game had gotten the development time and money it deserved and that they had prioritized patching the game more after release. For me it came down to a major accessibility issue. It was really disappointing to not be able to fully enjoy this game because I knew I could have. I don't see myself being able to play the DLC, nor do I think I should pay for it if they're not going to fix the base game, but I am going to hold out hope for Gen 10 being better. If I could ask for anything, it would be that they stop rushing these games.
For this review, I'm going to focus on the positive things about Pokemon Violet because truthfully I don't have anything else worthwhile to say about why the game frustrated me without being a broken record. If it was not so painfully evident how much this game was rushed, it could have been the best Pokemon game yet.
Paldea was a region I really enjoyed spending time in. I tend not to like open worlds but it was just big enough to feel like I was on an adventure but not so vast that I was overwhelmed by details. The landscapes were conceptually varied and beautiful even when the graphics fell short and the way wild Pokemon were incorporated into them was often very clever. I loved the music at every point, it was some of the best they've ever made for a Pokemon game.
The biggest advantage to the open world was the three story paths: Victory Road, Starfall Street, and Path of Legends. I was interested in all three and appreciated how they filled the map in a way that felt pretty natural. I tried my best to spread my exp over as many Pokemon as possible so I wasn't too over-leveled at any point but I inevitably ended up trivializing some battles anyway. It didn't feel as bad I feared because I was focused on the plot rather than how easy the battle was.
I loved the story's main NPCs (Nemona, Arven, and Penny) and it was easy to get attached to them and get invested in their problems. Arven's story made me actually tear up on more than one occasion and Nemona being her unhinged self made her a great rival. The way everyone came together in Area Zero paid off really well with their dialogue and banter. It really felt like me and my weirdo friends were getting into something good.
The side NPCs were even better and I was in love with the presence of adults of this world. There was an emotional undercurrent in this story about the loss of youth and struggling to find joy and purpose when the freedom of childhood is gone. With so many adult Pokemon fans who grew up with the original Game Boy games being old enough to relate to these feelings, it genuinely felt good to have these NPCs in the game. I'll never expect to be able to play as an adult in a mainline Pokemon game but it's cool to imagine that there actually is a place in these worlds for us as Pokemon trainers and students too.
The Pokemon that were new to Gen 9 were overall super cool. There were some exciting freak designs in this batch and while I didn't fall in love with every single one, I always saw what they were going for. A lot of them were very inspired and it was a delight to see them in motion both in battle and at picnics (even those rancid sandwiches grew on me).
I wish this game had gotten the development time and money it deserved and that they had prioritized patching the game more after release. For me it came down to a major accessibility issue. It was really disappointing to not be able to fully enjoy this game because I knew I could have. I don't see myself being able to play the DLC, nor do I think I should pay for it if they're not going to fix the base game, but I am going to hold out hope for Gen 10 being better. If I could ask for anything, it would be that they stop rushing these games.
I will play more now bye
best main line pokemon game since black 2
this game might be a glitchy and unoptimized piece of shit, but the Pokemon introduced in it and the story finale were some of the best stuff yet. All the Paradox Pokemon are also some of my favorite mons of all time.
plus Iono supremacy
plus Iono supremacy
It is a very fun game that had great potential. Even if they fixed everything, which won't happen, it is forever tainted by its release
After legends arceus, I was so excited. This was a let down
I have been playing every mainline Pokemon game and nearly every spinoff game since Snap, experienced all sorts of ups and downs, and had my fair share of complaints along the way just like anyone else.
Which is why I need you to understand that this is neither recency bias nor blind favoritism when I say these are my new favorite Pokemon games. The characters, the storytelling, all the new Pokemon, and even the changes to the battle system all delivered in ways I'd either been begging for for years or never even knew I'd wanted. Peak fiction, 10/10, Area Zero is better than the thing you like
Which is why I need you to understand that this is neither recency bias nor blind favoritism when I say these are my new favorite Pokemon games. The characters, the storytelling, all the new Pokemon, and even the changes to the battle system all delivered in ways I'd either been begging for for years or never even knew I'd wanted. Peak fiction, 10/10, Area Zero is better than the thing you like
É o melhor jogo da franquia, uma geração que não tem pokémons muito memoráveis, mas em termos de gameplay, mundo, vida, é o jogo mais completo de toda franquia, é o que Pokémon nasceu pra ser
Not the best pokemon game in the world, and with Tears of the Kingdom showing what the switch is capable of, it just hurts to see that the graphics and framerate of this game are so marred in comparison. However the story the game tells and some of the new pokemon designs were really good, and with it being more open world it felt really nice being able to visit different places, in an order likely not intended, providing harder challenge for those 'later' areas while making the 'early' areas trivial, which I don't see as an expressly bad thing as both linear and none-linear progressing have their own merits.
Disappointing but still heavily addicted to just collecting pokemon in beast balls and getting shinys. Wish this game was more but maybe the dlc will fix some things or not, who knows.
Full of glitches, slightly bad performance, but overall a really good game.
lixo.
I adore the new Pokemon and characters as well as the world exploration, but there's still some things holding it back from being more than great (like the bad performance)
Puto juego roto
A fun game to explore but does seem to get stale after a while.
I shouldn't say much since I haven't completed it, but I'm kind of in burnout mode, but I wanted to review it a bit. The most fun I have so far is either with Arven or when I'm watching my Pokémon try and catch a ball but end up glitching on a rock. I also enjoy catching random Pokémon a lot, but maybe that's why I am so burnt out. I'm usually not burnt out while catching since I do that in every game, so I'm not sure why I feel that way. Anyway, that's all that I'll say for now because I know my opinion will change once I finish the game.
I shouldn't say much since I haven't completed it, but I'm kind of in burnout mode, but I wanted to review it a bit. The most fun I have so far is either with Arven or when I'm watching my Pokémon try and catch a ball but end up glitching on a rock. I also enjoy catching random Pokémon a lot, but maybe that's why I am so burnt out. I'm usually not burnt out while catching since I do that in every game, so I'm not sure why I feel that way. Anyway, that's all that I'll say for now because I know my opinion will change once I finish the game.
This game is undercooked
just ignore the visuals and it's fun :-]
One of my least favorite Pokémon games. Let's start with the positives, Area Zero was very fun and the Paradox Pokémon were an interesting idea. The game is also fun to just run around and catch Pokémon for a little while until the novelty wears off anyway. The main cast of characters is also pretty good and the soundtrack is good as well. The story is also one of the better Pokemon stories. Now that's it for the positives, now for the negatives.
This game runs like dogshit. This game also looks like dogshit. The framerate is super inconsistent and annoying. The gyms have the most God awful challenges and the gyms themselves are just the same building copy and pasted into several towns. The gym leaders are also super forgettable. The Team Star missions are repetitive and boring aside from the leader battles. The sandwich quest with Arven was easily the best of the main 3 stories and even that was just alright. The world is lifeless and not fun to travel through after a couple hours. The map is also atrocious and hard to navigate to find out where you are going. The trainer NPCs also have no life as they just kind of stand around waiting for you to challenge them.This game is such a slog to get through. This game isn't worth your time.
This game runs like dogshit. This game also looks like dogshit. The framerate is super inconsistent and annoying. The gyms have the most God awful challenges and the gyms themselves are just the same building copy and pasted into several towns. The gym leaders are also super forgettable. The Team Star missions are repetitive and boring aside from the leader battles. The sandwich quest with Arven was easily the best of the main 3 stories and even that was just alright. The world is lifeless and not fun to travel through after a couple hours. The map is also atrocious and hard to navigate to find out where you are going. The trainer NPCs also have no life as they just kind of stand around waiting for you to challenge them.This game is such a slog to get through. This game isn't worth your time.
so fun but man this game is so fucking unfinished this couldve been amazing
I know this game is a buggy mess. I know it's performance sucks. But, I'm sorry, this game was the most fun I've had with a pokemon game since black and white 2 (ignoring the excellent Ruby/Sapphire remakes). It is so fun to run around, see these little critters out in the wild, and catch them to slowly but surely fill out the pokedex. I happily put 100 hours into it, even if trying to find certain pokemon was a time-consuming pain sometimes. I honestly didn't run into many glitches that impeded my ability to play the game, which was really surprising to me given how much people were talking about them. If it looked better and played better, it'd easily be a 4.5/5 for me.
The gameplay is an actual step in the right direction, but it's held back by an open world that is so bland and bare that it makes me miss the days when locations in pokemon were unique and memorable. This game is a buggy, ugly, bland mess of a game that was rushed out to meet deadlines and nothing more
pokemon.
The open world is great. Miraidon and the skills you earn to traverse the map to do what you need to do makes the game really fun.
That being said, most of what you need to do is pretty lackluster. I had a great time finishing the pokedex but the gym battles were a pain.
I do not necessarily mind that gym battles are easy in the game but the event/mini game that you have to play before every gym were pretty bad. I was playing Pokemon Black before this game came out and there was always something cool happening with the story before every gym leader. Some of the gym leader characters were cool but having to beat all the gym leaders then the champion and then beat the gym leaders again to unlock 5+ star raids was terrible.
Story was really good thought Area Zero and it's theme song SLAPPED that last part of the story was awesome almost died in last battle.
Shiny hunting in the game was amazing I probably walked away with 25 of them which was really cool.
I maybe could've give this 4 stars but the FPS was inconsistent, its the only game I've had on the switch that would crash on me (in the middle of shiny hunting), and end game content isn't that great I stopped playing the raids after I got Greninja and Charizard.
That being said, most of what you need to do is pretty lackluster. I had a great time finishing the pokedex but the gym battles were a pain.
I do not necessarily mind that gym battles are easy in the game but the event/mini game that you have to play before every gym were pretty bad. I was playing Pokemon Black before this game came out and there was always something cool happening with the story before every gym leader. Some of the gym leader characters were cool but having to beat all the gym leaders then the champion and then beat the gym leaders again to unlock 5+ star raids was terrible.
Story was really good thought Area Zero and it's theme song SLAPPED that last part of the story was awesome almost died in last battle.
Shiny hunting in the game was amazing I probably walked away with 25 of them which was really cool.
I maybe could've give this 4 stars but the FPS was inconsistent, its the only game I've had on the switch that would crash on me (in the middle of shiny hunting), and end game content isn't that great I stopped playing the raids after I got Greninja and Charizard.
It didn't quite deliver on the open world Pokemon game
Mainly held back by hardware and lackluster designs. Area Zero was actually amazing (mostly from the music)
Some of the best Pokemon designs in the series? Check. Some of the best music (including some by Toby Foc)? Check. An actually good story that makes sense beyond a superficial goal? Check.
The only thing holding these games back from 5 stars is Game Freak's obsession with rushing their game. Glitches galore!! While I do appreciate a good glitchy mess sometimes, not here. Also those graphics for an AAA game? Rough.
The only thing holding these games back from 5 stars is Game Freak's obsession with rushing their game. Glitches galore!! While I do appreciate a good glitchy mess sometimes, not here. Also those graphics for an AAA game? Rough.
Pokemon is one the most valuable names in the world. And Pokemon games are published by Nintendo eversince.
My question is: Why is this such an disastrous technical failure?
My question is: Why is this such an disastrous technical failure?
rushed but still fun
Es un juego muy disfrutable (en el contexto Pokémon ), a mi criterio es el mejor que he jugado, lo disfruté como cuando niño.
Es una lástima todo el maltrato técnico por parte de los desarrolladores. Tiene un desempeño muy mal trabajado y se nota que fue lanzado con problemas a propósito.
Es una lástima todo el maltrato técnico por parte de los desarrolladores. Tiene un desempeño muy mal trabajado y se nota que fue lanzado con problemas a propósito.
5/10, Just worse at everything legends arcues succeeded in. Some really good Pokemon were created tho