OK, so, Donphan in the room, the technical issues. They're definitely present and noticable. For me personally, as a connoisseur of janky-ass games like Zero Escape, I'm not the kind of person to have my enjoyment affected by them, even if "the most profitable franchise in the world" should give its developers time to do actual QA. That said, I honestly don't think other aspects of the game feel that rushed at all.

First of all, as a baseline, it's Pokemon. This might be a hot take these days, but that's a pretty good thing to be! Palling around with these cute creatures and building your team in this accessible but relatively-deep JRPG framework is fun and satisfying.

The new facets of gameplay are great. A good open world is, IMO, characterised by being able to fuck around somewhere you have no right to be, and taking a risk to cheese a later-game event for an early reward. I was able to do both of those in this game, so it gets a thumbs up from me. I cannot comprehend the people who wanted this game to scale its levels to you. Have you ever heard of FF8? Oblivion? It would have been a disaster!

The multiple progression tracks, instead of having them arbitrarily and linearly interwoven, is a big winner for me too. It was great to be able to choose at my own pace when I'm sick of zipping between gyms, and go off to try another kind of challenge - with their own unique rewards. I actually found the gyms the least interesting part, because, get this - they had the least story attached.

Crazy, I know! I actually really like the writing in this game. It's no thematically deep narrative, but there's just enough going on to be interesting, and the character interactions - along with facial expressiveness - is honestly, actually, no-qualifiers good. Arven's desperate hope - almost in denial - that his injured companion can recover, Penny's blatant trans-coding, Team Star's unity in the face of being outcast, and the whole party dynamics when they come together at the end of the game - I love these idiots! There was a lot of love poured into the flavour for the school part of the game as well. And then the finale was actually a somewhat tense climax instead of a rote champion battle, complete with good old convoluted JRPG melodrama.

The multiplayer was a little disappointing - I get the impression that they couldn't do everything they wanted, because systems like the real-time, in-world battles feel made for multiplayer spectating but apparently it doesn't actually work that way. Still, just being able to hang out with friends in the same space while you do your own thing is a good time, and it does work very well with wild Pokemon, seeing each other battle and being able to share exclusives.

I dunno man! The game's good! Probably my favourite Pokemon game! I get that hating on Pokemon is the cool thing to do now because you couldn't import Scrimblo Bungus from Generation 2 into the last game but stop missing the forest for the poorly-rendered trees for just one second and actually evaluate the game on its own merits.

edit (13/11/23): this review sucks. lol

I don’t understand Pokémon fans. When Sword and Shield released in 2019, it was understandable that Pokémon fans were quite upset. To start off with, the “graphics” at the time were considerably worse and when it was revealed that some Pokémon were not going to even be in the game, the game received heavy backlash from fans and was regarded as one of the most weakest mainline entries.

Then we got Pokémon Legends, which most fans agreed was a major improvement with it’s new formula of catching Pokémon out of the wild. However this also received some backlash as well, with a common theme running that the plot was shallow and the.. gameplay wasn’t fun? Wait, hold on, Game Freak has just changed the entire meta of the game for you and you’re still complaining. The fights were too easy? The graphics were too ugly? The characters are too one dimensional? It’s hard for the common Pokémon fan to find what they enjoy.

And as of now, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have released (although it leaked a week earlier if you know what I mean). And as of now, although a lot of positive comments, Pokemon fans are still complaining! The frame rate and performance is actually so bad now because you guys bullied poor Masuda into trying to produce good ones on a console that has the same specs as a car battery. The fights are too easy? The characters are too one dimensional? You want the mechanics back from a spin off game, even though some of you DIDNT EVEN LIKE IT????

You can hate this game. If you genuinely just don’t like this game or anything in it you are perfectly fine to criticise whatever you want, we are a website that criticises everything for god’s sake. What I just don’t understand is the Pokémon fans. Why do you guys stick with this series for so long if you do nothing but rag and complain about how bad they all are? Pokemon is a series dedicated to putting out low budget titles that appeal to 10 year olds and adults who can never seem to grow up, of course the fights are too easy and everything looks shit. And maybe if you’re favourite Pokémon didn’t make it into the new game, take it as a sign that maybe it’s time to move on and try new things. Go outside and take a nice walk.

I’m a few hours in, I’m enjoying the game. I like the fruity duck starter and the evil team leader’s a baddie so hey good job Game Freak 4 stars!!!!!

changed the rating from 8/10 to 7/10 to reflect my thoughts on the game after about a week since i've finished it

pokemon scarlet and violet are the ninth generation of pokemon games and the third set of entirely new games set in 3d. following the mediocre and unfinished x and y, the unexpectedly good sun and moon, and the disappointing and ultimately hollow sword and shield, my hopes for scarlet and violet were not high, even if legends arceus felt like a step in the right direction. pokemon moon is one of my favorite pokemon games and counting the hoenn remakes, they pokemon company managed to make my top 2 pokemon games back to back during the 3d era but at the same time, the other two new generation titles released since the jump to 3d are without a doubt my least favorite games in the series.

well, i'm happy to say that scarlet and violet are fun pokemon games and aren't offensively terrible! the game certainly has issues, however. the story is largely unremarkable until the 4th story segment (which is probably some of the best pokemon content we've gotten since sun/moon) and arven is the only interesting character out of the 3 main rivals, but he's great enough to carry the entire game narratively and character wise. the main champion in this game is also very uninteresting and probably my least favorite after diantha.
visually the game is very okay, it doesn't look spectacular but it's certainly nicer looking than something like legends arceus or sonic frontiers. there's a lot of fps issues though, the game will sometimes struggle to keep a solid 30 seemingly out of nowhere and NPCs in the world will move at staggeringly lower framerates to everything else, it's really odd. i can't complain too much because the pokemon company's last outing on switch is easily their ugliest game so there is definitely an improvement but i think the lighting engine especially could've used just a bit more time in the oven.
you also can't rematch the elite 4 or champion which is an incredibly weird choice but i guess it makes sense because of paldea's weird pokemon league. the gym challenges weren't particularly fun either, but they haven't really been fun since alola's trials utterly outclassed them back in gen 7. it feels like they're just gyms for the sake of it now and for the last two gens they've just been tacking the challenges on just to say they're there. progression was also a bit odd, i found myself not really knowing where to go every now and then because paldea's round shape makes it hard to discern which direction is going to follow a sensible level curve, but this could've been fixed by team star and the gyms having different teams based on your number of badges (of which there is a badge for each type, something i think is really fun) or just having a more well designed region in terms of layout.
the tm crafting system also kind of blows if only because you are left to completely guess what random creature you need to harass in the wild for the ingredients and i ended up just not using the tms often like i would in the games before they became infinite.

the last negative i really have to touch on before i get into singing this game's praises is that character customization is utterly gutted, and as a result ultimately pointless. you are limited to a selection of four color locked and ultimately boring uniforms that are easily the worst default outfits any player character has had in the series' almost 26 year long run. i would rather look like nate from black 2 white 2 than wear these fucking awful uniforms, and you should never force your player to wish they looked like nate from pokemon black 2 white 2. gamefreak is, however boasting the most customization options in any pokemon game! sadly this is all fluff and ultimately pointless. you get a ton of facial customization options and the hair isn't locked to gender anymore which is great! but you also have to keep in mind that the game is open world and free camera the entire time, so you are literally only ever going to see the back of your head for 90% of the game.
outside of the face/hair options, there's a pretty standard amount of shoes/gloves/hats/bags and the addition of.. phone cases. lovely. they come in a pretty wide assortment of colors but so few colors actually go well with "lavender + violet" or "ugly light blue + orange" that it's utterly pointless to have included at all. everyone is going to end up looking so similar because so few of the clothing options actually look good that it was genuinely pointless to even keep character customization in this entry. you can make the argument that it's because you are in a school but 1.) no one actually likes wearing school uniforms in real life, 2.) you spend most of your time in the game outside of the shool, and 3.) there are literally other characters who either just don't wear uniforms or modify theirs even if the latter get reprimanded a bit near the end of the story. it's utterly bizarre why they just completely gutted the one feature that set 3d pokemon apart from the (mostly superior) 2d games in a game that boasts freedom and doing things your way.
it's honestly the biggest issue i have with this game because at least in swsh and xy, when those games were boring, i could at least take pleasure in the fact that i was playing as my trainer and expressing that through the customization, but now when i'm bored i also have to stare at the stupidest looking kid in any of these games and it's just annoying.

now that i've gotten the negatives out of the way, there is a lot i have nice to say about these games.
first and most importantly, the 9th generation of pokemon introduces one of the best dexes of new designs, being my absolute favorite behind legends arceus and on the same level as gen 2 for me. so many absolutely great designs, especially the paradox forms introduced later in the game. roaring moon is an absolute new favorite, and kingambit is fucking amazing (and hopefully people will realize that the bisharp line were based on shogi/mountain bandits/samuari and never had anything to do with chess because of him). the quartet of 4 legendaries is also the best sub-legendaries we've gotten since the regi trio in gen 3, it's fucking great. i could make teams entirely out of the new designs introduced in gen 9 and not be disappointed in any of my choices. like any dex there's two or three i'm not too big on, but the bangers go so hard that it's incredibly negligible to me.
outside of the new pokemon, the new characters are also incredibly solid. the gym leaders are pretty hit and miss (kofu and larry especially are some of my new all time favorites though, larry is great) but the elite 4 is probably the best elite 4 other than unova, they all have a lot of character and are fun even if the way they show up throughout your story is pretty boring and standard. the teachers at your academy are also really fun and make sitting through a system that's just blatantly supposed to evoke feelings of modern persona more enjoyable. outside of your school and the pokemon league, the team star admins are probably my favorite set of admins in the series. team skull and guzma are still better in terms of "evil team that isnt really evil" but the star admins are all at the very least interesting, with the really good ones being really fun. an obvious and definite improvement over the abyssmal team yell.
arven as mentioned previously is also just one of the best rivals in the series. imagine hugh without the edginess and stupidity of his arc and you've got a rough idea of arven. probably the only rival in the series who actually feels like your friend, it made me smile every time he called me his little buddy and his battle theme is probably the best one in this game.
in terms of the soundtrack, it's pretty good. there's a few really good themes (arven and penny both have really good battle themes) and the worst ones are forgettable at best. this does kinda suck though because the elite 4 theme is one of the more forgettable ones. before the first patch it would just loop the intro of the song infinitely which is really funny to me.

the entire game i feel like is a very firm 7/10, but then after wrapping up all of your story routes, after reaching the champion rank, disbanding team star, and collecting the herba mystica, you are tasked with entering the great crater of paldea. i won't spoil anything because it's one of the most enjoyable parts of the game but i love it to death. you get a lot of dialog between your entire set of rivals and you all feel like a rag tag friend group, if one mostly held together by your presence. the final boss is also really fucking cool and i enjoy it a lot, even if there technically isn't an overarching antagonist or apocalypse scenario it's done really well. the story also gets weirdly deep and personal and even tragic for a pokemon game, it's enough to bring the game up to a firm 7.5/10, or a very low 8 for me. celestial by ed sheeran being the credits song does kind of take a lot of the wind out from under the finale's sails of enjoyment and excitement though, i don't want to be too preachy about my music taste but he's one of the least interesting musicians i've heard on the radio in years and him being in pokemon is lame as hell. i can't even describe how quickly i muted my switch and put on something else while his garbage played.

overall, pokemon scarlet and violet are very solid first steps toward a direction for the series that i think will ultimately prove beneficial to the franchise while also finally justifying the leap into the 3d that had felt like a pointless downgrade up until now. i imagine with DLC, this could easily be one of the best games in the entire series, especially with hints towards new paradox forms and teasing towards mega evolution coming back and a "return" to the area in kalos we never got to explore in gen 6. just for the love of christ game freak, give us back the character customization.

also there is no fucking way anyone actually believes gen 8 was better than these games. gen 9 is buggy and isn't optimized but even when swsh runs perfectly they are still the worst pokemon games lmfao