welp with 2022 coming to a close and literally on the final day of it, I have finally finished this game.
it's a mixed bag. there's stuff I liked, and stuff I didn't.
an open world Pokemon game is all I have ever wanted since I was kid, then we got Legends Arceus, and I disliked it quite a bit. But then they revealed Scarlet and Violet which was a proper open world pokemon game and I got hype.. and then I forgot about it. Did not stay up to date with any of it so I went into this mostly blind.
The game, is very unfinished. Obviously everyone and their mother has made fun of the frame-rate issues and uhh yeah it gets VERY noticeable at times.
and yeah, we do finally have a open world where you can go anywhere, but the world is sooooo fucking bland. I could not tell you any of the town names except maybe like, two. Every area just feels so simply designed and empty. at no point in this game did I feel like going out of my way to explore, because every area was basically just the same as everywhere else. There's no secrets to find, there's no hidden area's just out of the way to discover, it's all just, bleh.
The hand holding.... in recent years these games have developed a series cause of intense hand holding, where they literally tell you everything you had to do. Now, the hand holding in this game isn't as egregious as it was in SW/SH because "freedom" is the aim of this game, but it is still very much there. They've tried to go the BOTW route with a big open world where you can go anywhere you want and do anything you want, and yet as soon as it is opened up to you they immediately start pushing you in one direction. "You can do any gym you want in any order.... put you should probably go do this one first over there or else your fucked"
Traversing the world is a pain in the ass as well. Thanks to the world being bland you don't really wanna run anywhere because it's just boring. so you have to take the new bike pokemon, which at the beginning is slow and just a pain to use. HOWEVER as you power him up traversal does get ALOT better. Being able to glide/climb up walls is a real game changer that just makes the entire experience sooo much better.
speaking of the new bike pokemon. I don't like the legendaries. Some of the most mid legendaries ever.
However, I did like some of the new pokemon additions. There are some pretty cool new ones. Shout out my boys Bellibolt and Cetitan, both came in absolute clutch and were nothing but top G's the entire game. I also love Baxcalibur, funny Godzilla pokemon.
oh also, FUCK. THE. RAIDS. The raid system from SW/SH has been brought back, and while it was the most fun part of that game, it is the worst part of this one. They just suck. they don't work properly because of how they restructered them. Having everyone attack at once does not work. Just makes it buggy and weird, also all my raids where stupidly low level even towards the end so they dropped shit rewards.
Also Terastilasation or whatever it is is such a shit mechanic.
Easily the worst out of transforming mechanics. I really liked Gigamazing and Mega Evolution, hell even Z-moves where cool. But this Tera shit sucksssss, I honestly kept forgetting it was a thing throughout the entire game.
I just really didn't feel the pokemon magic in this one.
going into the positives there's obviously the gameplay. It's just classic Pokemon, can't really go wrong.
I found the gyms and elite four and other boss enemies in the game to be actually fairly challenging which was a nice change of pace from SW/SH.
The gym challenges were a lot more creative this time around with the stuff you gotta do before hand which was nice, although I miss the hype af stadium fights.
The story... well it's a pokemon game past Black and White so it's mid, however there was some decent stuff that just kept getting glossed over. I think if they took the time they could make an actually decent story.
and I will say, the last hour of this game, once you reach Area Zero goes surprisingly hard. Very enjoyable final bosses.
Also also, please, for the love of god give these games voice acting. It was fine for 2D sprites, but 3D models? it's so awkward all the timeeee.
Barely any post-game as well.
Pokemon Violet is nowhere near the worst game in the series, but also nowhere near the best. They really need to give these things more time in the oven. give yourself a solid few years to really craft a perfect pokemon game, because they definitely have the ability to do it, they just never get given the time, which sucks.
but as a final game for 2022? I definitely coulda done worse. I had fun with it.
it's a mixed bag. there's stuff I liked, and stuff I didn't.
an open world Pokemon game is all I have ever wanted since I was kid, then we got Legends Arceus, and I disliked it quite a bit. But then they revealed Scarlet and Violet which was a proper open world pokemon game and I got hype.. and then I forgot about it. Did not stay up to date with any of it so I went into this mostly blind.
The game, is very unfinished. Obviously everyone and their mother has made fun of the frame-rate issues and uhh yeah it gets VERY noticeable at times.
and yeah, we do finally have a open world where you can go anywhere, but the world is sooooo fucking bland. I could not tell you any of the town names except maybe like, two. Every area just feels so simply designed and empty. at no point in this game did I feel like going out of my way to explore, because every area was basically just the same as everywhere else. There's no secrets to find, there's no hidden area's just out of the way to discover, it's all just, bleh.
The hand holding.... in recent years these games have developed a series cause of intense hand holding, where they literally tell you everything you had to do. Now, the hand holding in this game isn't as egregious as it was in SW/SH because "freedom" is the aim of this game, but it is still very much there. They've tried to go the BOTW route with a big open world where you can go anywhere you want and do anything you want, and yet as soon as it is opened up to you they immediately start pushing you in one direction. "You can do any gym you want in any order.... put you should probably go do this one first over there or else your fucked"
Traversing the world is a pain in the ass as well. Thanks to the world being bland you don't really wanna run anywhere because it's just boring. so you have to take the new bike pokemon, which at the beginning is slow and just a pain to use. HOWEVER as you power him up traversal does get ALOT better. Being able to glide/climb up walls is a real game changer that just makes the entire experience sooo much better.
speaking of the new bike pokemon. I don't like the legendaries. Some of the most mid legendaries ever.
However, I did like some of the new pokemon additions. There are some pretty cool new ones. Shout out my boys Bellibolt and Cetitan, both came in absolute clutch and were nothing but top G's the entire game. I also love Baxcalibur, funny Godzilla pokemon.
oh also, FUCK. THE. RAIDS. The raid system from SW/SH has been brought back, and while it was the most fun part of that game, it is the worst part of this one. They just suck. they don't work properly because of how they restructered them. Having everyone attack at once does not work. Just makes it buggy and weird, also all my raids where stupidly low level even towards the end so they dropped shit rewards.
Also Terastilasation or whatever it is is such a shit mechanic.
Easily the worst out of transforming mechanics. I really liked Gigamazing and Mega Evolution, hell even Z-moves where cool. But this Tera shit sucksssss, I honestly kept forgetting it was a thing throughout the entire game.
I just really didn't feel the pokemon magic in this one.
going into the positives there's obviously the gameplay. It's just classic Pokemon, can't really go wrong.
I found the gyms and elite four and other boss enemies in the game to be actually fairly challenging which was a nice change of pace from SW/SH.
The gym challenges were a lot more creative this time around with the stuff you gotta do before hand which was nice, although I miss the hype af stadium fights.
The story... well it's a pokemon game past Black and White so it's mid, however there was some decent stuff that just kept getting glossed over. I think if they took the time they could make an actually decent story.
and I will say, the last hour of this game, once you reach Area Zero goes surprisingly hard. Very enjoyable final bosses.
Also also, please, for the love of god give these games voice acting. It was fine for 2D sprites, but 3D models? it's so awkward all the timeeee.
Barely any post-game as well.
Pokemon Violet is nowhere near the worst game in the series, but also nowhere near the best. They really need to give these things more time in the oven. give yourself a solid few years to really craft a perfect pokemon game, because they definitely have the ability to do it, they just never get given the time, which sucks.
but as a final game for 2022? I definitely coulda done worse. I had fun with it.
NOWITSREYNTIME17
1 year ago