i haven't played a modern mainline pokemon game since X and the last pokemon game i ever beat in full (and sank a lot of hours into) was emerald. gen 6 was the point where i basically fell out of pokemon because i felt like the formula just wasn't being shaken up enough for me to keep interest, even with sun/moon and sword/shield trying their best.
but dang, they took a gamble with scarlet esp with the rushed dev time, and even with a pokemon game destined to print money regardless, there's a whole lot that caught my interest in the release months enough for me to actually WANT a copy.
the open world isn't visually great, but it's a blast to explore with your bike lizard. not too fussed about the open world not scaling since i just approached it like morrowind in the case of "maybe don't come here unless you're properly prepared". like dang, i actually had a use for pokedolls this time around!
picnics are fun, autobattling is handy, story's fantastic for once, music goes hard, i'm bad at raids but they're fun, there's a whole lot of QOL stuff in terms of EV training and other stuff, but the big grab for me is tera types. teras feel like a drastic step up from the previous games in terms of gimmicks, since it doesn't just feel like "uhhhh pokemon/move but stronger" but actually has some interesting utility potential. you want a huge STAB bonus or a pure type change? maybe both? maybe neither but a different use? it's a fantastic game-changer which makes me angry that it's not going to be brought back for future gens.
obviously the game's not without it's flaws, but i'm sure everyone's brought up how the performance sucks and the stability ain't all that great. i'm just gonna say the "musou" segments for team star kinda suck, but at least the presentation for the bosses makes up for them. honestly the gyms are also pretty lacking, especially when compared to the FANTASTIC gym presentation in sw/sh. but sw/sh also didn't have a rapping gym leader with a dancing ghost dog, so that's one thing s/v has over sw/sh.
all in all, to me, scarlet and violet feel like coming home after a long break from pokemon. again, i haven't played a mainlike pokemon game in nearly a decade, but i sure wasn't expecting to sink as much time as i did, especially considering i never beat pokemon X back then. but man if this isn't a comfy time and i'm genuinely hype for future content for scarlet/violet.
man though can you imagine how even greater this game would be if gamefreak had an extra year of devtime on it
but dang, they took a gamble with scarlet esp with the rushed dev time, and even with a pokemon game destined to print money regardless, there's a whole lot that caught my interest in the release months enough for me to actually WANT a copy.
the open world isn't visually great, but it's a blast to explore with your bike lizard. not too fussed about the open world not scaling since i just approached it like morrowind in the case of "maybe don't come here unless you're properly prepared". like dang, i actually had a use for pokedolls this time around!
picnics are fun, autobattling is handy, story's fantastic for once, music goes hard, i'm bad at raids but they're fun, there's a whole lot of QOL stuff in terms of EV training and other stuff, but the big grab for me is tera types. teras feel like a drastic step up from the previous games in terms of gimmicks, since it doesn't just feel like "uhhhh pokemon/move but stronger" but actually has some interesting utility potential. you want a huge STAB bonus or a pure type change? maybe both? maybe neither but a different use? it's a fantastic game-changer which makes me angry that it's not going to be brought back for future gens.
obviously the game's not without it's flaws, but i'm sure everyone's brought up how the performance sucks and the stability ain't all that great. i'm just gonna say the "musou" segments for team star kinda suck, but at least the presentation for the bosses makes up for them. honestly the gyms are also pretty lacking, especially when compared to the FANTASTIC gym presentation in sw/sh. but sw/sh also didn't have a rapping gym leader with a dancing ghost dog, so that's one thing s/v has over sw/sh.
all in all, to me, scarlet and violet feel like coming home after a long break from pokemon. again, i haven't played a mainlike pokemon game in nearly a decade, but i sure wasn't expecting to sink as much time as i did, especially considering i never beat pokemon X back then. but man if this isn't a comfy time and i'm genuinely hype for future content for scarlet/violet.
man though can you imagine how even greater this game would be if gamefreak had an extra year of devtime on it