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StarTopic Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet |ST| Who You Callin' Paldea, Friend?

Yeah, the game is quite buggy. In less than two hours I've encountered all sorts of consistent bugs. The battles are very janky, which I don't understand since Legends did them so well. Basically anything can happen in a battle, it's like the game is holding on to its life.

Other than that, the worst offender was in the cave where you first encounter the legendary, there were invisible walls scattered all around. I could see an item but walking up to it I would suddenly be stopped by an invisible wall, and going around and coming in the opposite direction I could pass it. It was very weird and broke all my immersion at that set piece.

I also can't decide if the PokeBall floating midair when you catch a flying Pokemon is a conscious decision or not cause like... Legends wasn't like that, why does the new gen game has all these problems that a game that came out a year ago had already solved?
 
Just hit the credits. The ending sequence really is very good

I gotta say, as bad as the technical aspects are, I kinda... stopped noticing them after a while lol
Lol, we continue to be parallel here. I am roughly 28 hours in and I am at about the same spot in Scarlet. It is quite the jump from God of War to Pokemon, lol. Not sure what to play tonight, though.
I’ve been doing 2-3 hours of GoW and an hour of Pokémon. Seems like a good ratio.
See I would play Pokémon while I should have been working, where GoW could only happen at night or on weekends. As a result I finished Pokémon in less than half the time, althougg the game times were closer. 35 hours for GoW and 25 for Pokémon

(I have not played video games so heavily for a long time lmao)
 
Yeah, the game is quite buggy. In less than two hours I've encountered all sorts of consistent bugs. The battles are very janky, which I don't understand since Legends did them so well. Basically anything can happen in a battle, it's like the game is holding on to its life.

Other than that, the worst offender was in the cave where you first encounter the legendary, there were invisible walls scattered all around. I could see an item but walking up to it I would suddenly be stopped by an invisible wall, and going around and coming in the opposite direction I could pass it. It was very weird and broke all my immersion at that set piece.

I also can't decide if the PokeBall floating midair when you catch a flying Pokemon is a conscious decision or not cause like... Legends wasn't like that, why does the new gen game has all these problems that a game that came out a year ago had already solved?
Make sure you're shutting off the game every 2-3 hours to avoid memory leak issues. It's annoying to do but it really helps a lot.
 
After complaining about things being too easy, I have got to say that the final stretch of the game has finally thrown some decent challenges my way. Maybe that's because I stopped battling trainers and catching all new Pokémon I saw to avoid being overleveled, but the final parts of the Star Bases and Titans quests have kicked my ass back to the nearest Poké Center.
 
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The game is fun when you’re running around catching Pokémon, and the music is good, but maaaaaaaaaaaaan, everything else is bad. It’s the ugliest video game I’ve ever played, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating. Objects more than thirty feet from you look like they’re made of clay. There are times when it actually, for real, 100% looks like something from the PS2 generation. NPCs move like they’re in flip books right in front of you, which not only breaks immersion, but it’s creepy as all heck. Objects popping in and out of existence like a strobe light. Moving the camera is actively unpleasant. It’s so slow, and combined with the lag and the stutters, I’m afraid it’s going to cause motion sickness at some point. The camera alone is almost enough to get me to stop playing the game.

Everything takes forever. Switching a Pokémon in battle? Hope you don’t mind waiting 30 seconds between choosing which Pokémon to switch to and actually continuing the fight. Starting a fight with a trainer or a wild Pokémon? The game freezes for like two seconds while it figures out what it’s trying to do. Load times are awful, no matter if you’re trying to go through a door or bring up the menu. I find that I miss how snappy and fast everything was in PLA.

And yet…

Despite how awful it is (and my god is it awful), despite ScarVio being a freaking horror show at times, I find that I can’t wait to get back to it. I wanna see all the new Pokémon. I wanna find my old favorites. I wanna spend time with my buddy Fuecoco. I wanna explore this big world with Koraidon. There is a great game here, buried beneath all the ugly jank. I just wish I didn’t have to look past so much to see it.
 
But I was expecting far more criticism of the open world design
Oh I have criticisms for the open world in Pokemon S/V. I might try properly putting them into words once I finish the game, though with how many improvements I can think of, it’s a daunting task hahaha.
 
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Just hit the credits. The ending sequence really is very good

I gotta say, as bad as the technical aspects are, I kinda... stopped noticing them after a while lol


See I would play Pokémon while I should have been working, where GoW could only happen at night or on weekends. As a result I finished Pokémon in less than half the time, althougg the game times were closer. 35 hours for GoW and 25 for Pokémon

(I have not played video games so heavily for a long time lmao)
Lol, I won’t tell! I miscalculated my time on GoW - I am nearing 29 hours now and have about 5 missions left. I don’t feel compelled to get the Platinum so once I feel satisfied with the number of side quests, I’ll push through.
 
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After playing for a while, I got used to the frame rate and now I can barely notice it's not locked.

The bugs during wild battles are still annoying, though.

I'm a bit disappointed that the wild battle theme is so good but seemingly it's replaced by remixes of the area themes most of the time? :( The battle theme in the area south of Mesagoza is kinda of a snooze fest, I want my Pokémon sounding battle theme everywhere!
 
After playing for a while, I got used to the frame rate and now I can barely notice it's not locked.

The bugs during wild battles are still annoying, though.

I'm a bit disappointed that the wild battle theme is so good but seemingly it's replaced by remixes of the area themes most of the time? :( The battle theme in the area south of Mesagoza is kinda of a snooze fest, I want my Pokémon sounding battle theme everywhere!
It changes by area, yes. I’m not sure what you mean by the wild battle theme? Is there an original one? I love the battle theme in the south and east especially, haven’t been up north or west yet. The bassline is amazing on the one… I think south? I’ll have to confirm which spot.

The field music to the south of Electric Gym town (it was featured in a lot of trailers) is SO DAMN GOOD, it’s been stuck in my head literally all day
 
It changes by area, yes. I’m not sure what you mean by the wild battle theme? Is there an original one? I love the battle theme in the south and east especially, haven’t been up north or west yet. The bassline is amazing on the one… I think south? I’ll have to confirm which spot.

The field music to the south of Electric Gym town (it was featured in a lot of trailers) is SO DAMN GOOD, it’s been stuck in my head literally all day

I mean the first one you hear, before you get to the first big area. It sounds very Pokémon, I thought it was the main theme but I'm starting to realize it probably only plays there :(
 
I need to evolve my Fenizin but won't be home for like 2 hours if someone can help me around then. I also have no clue how the union room works lol (I have a rare candy sob should be quick)
 
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I mean the first one you hear, before you get to the first big area. It sounds very Pokémon, I thought it was the main theme but I'm starting to realize it probably only plays there :(
Ah, I went and tested and I see what you mean! I believe that theme only plays right near your house, as far as I know. Sorry. It does feel very classic Pokémon
 
1 more gym (ghost), 1 more titan (dragon), and 2 more star bases (fairy and fighting) before I'll be able to head into the endgame. Hoping to be finished before the Thanksgiving vacation is over.

I’d say top two, only behind Blue. Silver is a try-hard, Brendan/May are literally just another version of you, and everyone else is basically a wimp or a loser (sorry Wally). Nemona is awesome.
The decision to have your rival be a champion who's essentially starting a new game to keep pace with you while you catch up to her end game team is a truly inspired choice. It allows Nemona to still be a character who "always loses" to the player while maintaining her credibility.
 
I’d say top two, only behind Blue. Silver is a try-hard, Ethan/May are literally just another version of you, and everyone else is basically a wimp or a loser. Nemona is awesome.
Blue and Silver are the ones I think come ahead of her (Silver may be a try hard but to ten year old me he was the best, and also, the remakes give so much more cool nuance to him).

While I agree the bulk of Pokemon rivals at this point are meh, I think you are underselling Ethan/May and Lucas/Dawn! They're not amazing, but they were at least memorable (beyond generic annoying archetype I know exists in this game but literally remember nothing about that comes in later games, even trying, I can't remember anything about Hop and I don't even remember who the rival in SuMo is. I think he had an Allen Raichu?).
 
Got my first badge, the bug gym. The one the game pushes you to. My levels lined up perfectly, my team is currently 10-17.
 
Blue and Silver are the ones I think come ahead of her (Silver may be a try hard but to ten year old me he was the best, and also, the remakes give so much more cool nuance to him).

While I agree the bulk of Pokemon rivals at this point are meh, I think you are underselling Ethan/May and Lucas/Dawn! They're not amazing, but they were at least memorable (beyond generic annoying archetype I know exists in this game but literally remember nothing about that comes in later games, even trying, I can't remember anything about Hop and I don't even remember who the rival in SuMo is. I think he had an Allen Raichu?).
The SuMo rival was Hau, who was basically Hop 1.0 (or I guess you can say Hop was Hau 2.0). They're basically the exact same character (with the exact same animations cause GF) only Hop actually has an interesting idea for a character arc between his relationship to Leon, his inferiority complex caused by losing to the player and Bede, and his ultimate destiny during the finale. Hau wishes he could do shit when it mattered most.
 
Nemona might be the best rival character ever.

At the very least she is top three.
Nemona is great because she takes the "let's have a battle!" thing that all the Pokemon rivals have and just dials it all the way up to 11 to the point where she's cripplingly addicted to combat.

Also she's not trying to prove herself against you or anything, she's already done your arc. She's just there because you're another potential victim fight buddy

The SuMo rival was Hau, who was basically Hop 1.0 (or I guess you can say Hop was Hau 2.0). They're basically the exact same character (with the exact same animations cause GF) only Hop actually has an interesting idea for a character arc which is far more then Hau.
There was an idea with Hop that was kinda lost because SwSh's story was seemingly written by a very sleepy intern, but that does give him a leg up on Hau, who stands out more because SuMo is generally fairly decent with its cast. Hop is probably still, by sheer process of elimination, in the top 2 SwSh characters
 
What the fuck happened to the birds this gen

There's so many mediocre single-stage birds. Why? Flamigo, Squawkabilly, and Bombirdier all seem like they could have been conceptualized as being part of different evolutionary lines, but nobody actually bothered to finish coming up with the rest of them, so they just dumped a ton of random-ass birds in the dex and called it a day

Given how rushed this game feels, I have to wonder if they just didn't have time to finish an evolutionary line for any of them, so they just threw em all in there separately for the sake of padding that shit out
 
The SuMo rival was Hau, who was basically Hop 1.0 (or I guess you can say Hop was Hau 2.0). They're basically the exact same character (with the exact same animations cause GF) only Hop actually has an interesting idea for a character arc between his relationship to Leon, his inferiority complex caused by losing to the player and Bede, and his ultimate destiny during the finale. Hau wishes he could do shit when it mattered most.
Oh yeah! He… existed

Nemona is great because she takes the "let's have a battle!" thing that all the Pokemon rivals have and just dials it all the way up to 11 to the point where she's cripplingly addicted to combat.

Also she's not trying to prove herself against you or anything, she's already done your arc. She's just there because you're another potential victim fight buddy
For sure. She’s just someone who loves Pokémon battling, has already achieved what she wants to, and now just wants to share her passion with an up and coming rookie. It’s the friendly rival done right.

What the fuck happened to the birds this gen

There's so many mediocre single-stage birds. Why? Flamigo, Squawkabilly, and Bombirdier all seem like they could have been conceptualized as being part of different evolutionary lines, but nobody actually bothered to finish coming up with the rest of them, so they just dumped a ton of random-ass birds in the dex and called it a day

Given how rushed this game feels, I have to wonder if they just didn't have time to finish an evolutionary line for any of them, so they just threw em all in there separately for the sake of padding that shit out
Not that I disagree with you about the random single stage birds feeling underwhelming (though I need to remind you this is hardly unique to this Gen, and 2 and 3 especially were also littered with single stage Mons), but as of where I am in the game right now, I disagree with the characterization of the game as rushed in this context. Not because it isn’t rushed, it obviously is, but that is evident because of the lack of polish and QA on the game; it very much feels content complete, and more importantly, it is packed with a MASSIVE amount of content, most of which is of great quality. There is no indication there was any content compromised because of a rushed development, nothing like X/Y or Sword/Shield at all.
 
Penny, Arven and Nemona feel like the XY friend group done right.
It's like giving your friends memorable personalities and ties to the different things you do in the game might actually make for some good characters or something. I dunno, just a thought.

I'm still hurt by how bad the XY friend group was, such an awful, awful set of characters. The new cast here is indeed so much better.
 
Oh, and not to double post, but out of context spoilers for the cutscene I just watched in this game:

Screen_Shot_2017_07_13_at_1.09.20_PM.png
 
What the fuck happened to the birds this gen

There's so many mediocre single-stage birds. Why? Flamigo, Squawkabilly, and Bombirdier all seem like they could have been conceptualized as being part of different evolutionary lines, but nobody actually bothered to finish coming up with the rest of them, so they just dumped a ton of random-ass birds in the dex and called it a day

Given how rushed this game feels, I have to wonder if they just didn't have time to finish an evolutionary line for any of them, so they just threw em all in there separately for the sake of padding that shit out
you know not everything you dont like is dex padding
 
gotta say i forgot how fun it is to steam roll the shit out of everyone that i find. "but its too easy!" shut it im gonna curbstomp all these dweebs with level 12 pokemon with my lv 28 hariyama. they must be humbled.
 
I found my first shiny!! Was farming Sinistea for another Ceruledge and thought "huh, that one looks like it's all purple-"

Now I gotta try and get a Cracked Pot, I have the Chipped but not the right one for my Shiny
 
Did the game ever say what the deal with Nemona's arm brace is? My theory is that she Terastallized too hard one time and shattered her wrist

also, I noticed the Squawkabilly on top of the player's home can be caught at pretty low levels. I wonder how many people backtracked to catch one so they could use it on their team
 
What the fuck happened to the birds this gen

There's so many mediocre single-stage birds. Why? Flamigo, Squawkabilly, and Bombirdier all seem like they could have been conceptualized as being part of different evolutionary lines, but nobody actually bothered to finish coming up with the rest of them, so they just dumped a ton of random-ass birds in the dex and called it a day

Given how rushed this game feels, I have to wonder if they just didn't have time to finish an evolutionary line for any of them, so they just threw em all in there separately for the sake of padding that shit out

Good lord, a lot of things were rushed in the completion of this game, but the Pokemon were not one of them... big "lazy dev" vibes here.
 
Good lord, a lot of things were rushed in the completion of this game, but the Pokemon were not one of them... big "lazy dev" vibes here.
I'm just puzzled by the surplus of single-stage birds

They're all pretty unremarkable, have no relation to each other, and Game Freak decided to make three of them in a row and stick them in the Dex next to each other. Like, is that not kinda random

Like why. Why birds
 
I'm just puzzled by the surplus of single-stage birds

They're all pretty unremarkable, have no relation to each other, and Game Freak decided to make three of them in a row and stick them in the Dex next to each other. Like, is that not kinda random

Like why. Why birds
I'm confused as to why you're confused about it
 
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I'm just puzzled by the surplus of single-stage birds

They're all pretty unremarkable, have no relation to each other, and Game Freak decided to make three of them in a row and stick them in the Dex next to each other. Like, is that not kinda random

Like why. Why birds
petrels, frigate birds, storks, parrots and flamingos. doesnt seem that strange to group them together especially given that some of these are species that werent really repped before (chatot doesnt count). plus if they were cut pre-evos and evos there should be major gaps in the internal pokedex numbering.
 
Bombirdier is a Titan, and those are all standalones, so that one makes sense. Squawkabilly has low stats but it's also got the colors thing that they may not have wanted to bother doing unique evolutions for

Flamigo is a weird one, though. 500 BST, base 115 Atk, and they let you catch it at the start of the game. Was USUM Hawlucha not busted enough for something
 
Bombirdier is a Titan, and those are all standalones, so that one makes sense. Squawkabilly has low stats but it's also got the colors thing that they may not have wanted to bother doing unique evolutions for

Flamigo is a weird one, though. 500 BST, base 115 Atk, and they let you catch it at the start of the game. Was USUM Hawlucha not busted enough for something
people really wanted that flamingo pokemon i guess and gamefreak went here have it and its busted as shit.
 
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I found my first shiny!! Was farming Sinistea for another Ceruledge and thought "huh, that one looks like it's all purple-"

Now I gotta try and get a Cracked Pot, I have the Chipped but not the right one for my Shiny
On that note where the fuck do you find sinistea??? Bronzor are everywhere, but I have yet to find a sinistea
 
I'm just puzzled by the surplus of single-stage birds

They're all pretty unremarkable, have no relation to each other, and Game Freak decided to make three of them in a row and stick them in the Dex next to each other. Like, is that not kinda random

Like why. Why birds
Tbf they also did a bunch of dogs, but those are at least two stagers

Gamefreak kinda just decided they wanted to do some animals this gen. Lots of "oh we finally have this" animal designs
 
Flamigo, Squawkabilly, and Bombirdier
Squawkabilly I think is fine as a single stage mon. Its color variations are its gimmick.

Bombirdier does feel like it could have a pre-evo, but it’s a Titan and all the Titans are single stage. Meanwhile Flamigo looks like it could evolve into something else, but its design is already amazing so I’m not too bothered haha.

Lots of "oh we finally have this" animal designs
That’s what I thought when I found the dung beetle, flamingo and bottlenose dolphin.

I wonder if it was a conscious decision to go with more animalistic designs this time around, in order to better sell the “trekking the wilds” concept. That might be it, since the map doesn’t have haunted mansions or abandoned laboratories or other weirder areas.
 
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I'm just puzzled by the surplus of single-stage birds

They're all pretty unremarkable, have no relation to each other, and Game Freak decided to make three of them in a row and stick them in the Dex next to each other. Like, is that not kinda random

Like why. Why birds
Gotta add “Pokemon that we can give a cross-evolution to in a future generation that makes everyone excited” to keep the magic flowing. Otherwise Sunflora will continuously be left shafted fulfilling that role 😝
 
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I love the music and the vibe that the Great Crater gives me, it gives me memories back from Explorer of the Skies, also feels strangely similar to a more recent piece "Made in Abyss". When strolling through the Crater it also becomes apparant how dull the rest of the games atmosphere feels in comparison to the sense of adventure this area is giving.

I am quite far in the game now and when looking back on my experience the game is really addicting to me but I also feel like a lot is missing in comparison to what earlier Pokemon games pre 3D Era did much, much better, namely, world building.

I would like to feel like I live in a adventure and this is not quite it, quite far from it in fact. there is never any real danger and camping doesn't feel like camping at all. In fact I barely even touched it because it didn't feel like it was implemented well within the progression of the story itself.

Again, mainline Pokemon feels like a game that makes me wish for so much more because the framework is definitely there but an empty feeling haunts me at every corner after the Pokemon open-world gimmick has shown its boundaries. what's left to do in the world itself after collecting them all and raising them all? The world itself doesn't breathe at all.
 
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I agree with a good bit of this video and am excited to see how they may merge some of Arceus unique (er, botw inspired) ideas into the mainline series in time. Specifically, player health/damage and not getting locked into battles, craftable items, so on....

but I honestly disagree with the notion that all open world games need to follow botw's open air direction in world design. I really like that Scarlet and Violet feels like they wholeheartedly have the classic pokemon world design DNA in them, but made open world. It feels remarkably different than Arceus did in a way that fits the games themes. Mainline Pokemon games always exist in a more manmade / sculpted world, I think open field design can be left to the Legends series. Between this and Sonic Frontiers, it feels so good to play open world games that are so different from one another... I'm not suffering from open world fatigue in the way I thought I would!

I completely agree with that, not every open world needs climbing mechanics or similar "botw things". My dream is an open world RPG based on the TV show, with Ash and Pikachu, with huge cities, roads, forests... it would be very extrange if you could climb everything lol
 
Did the first Titan fight (Stone one) yesterday ... and i gotta say i'm a bit disappointed. I had a lack of good types against Rock Pokemon in my team, Wiglett doesn't survive anything. So i just caught a Skiddo in that area and, without doing any prep or training with it, used it in the Titan fight.

Two hit KO'd the Titan after Grass-terathingamajing.

I know it's the first one, but i hope the others have a bit more difficult to them. I had more problems with a NPC trainer in the area than with the Titan. ^^
 
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On that note where the fuck do you find sinistea??? Bronzor are everywhere, but I have yet to find a sinistea
The town at the very bottom left/south west of the map with the gym leader with pink hair. They spawn there at night outside the town.
 
I assumed the identification was part of the fun, per Pokémon's inspiration of bug finding. If it's always been this way I understand the complaint

If it were up to me shinies would be somewhat more common but harder to identify. Noticing variations would be a very immersive experience imo

Nah, the barely changed shines suck, almost nobody wants more that are like gengar where they changed the shade of purple very slightly.
 
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I'm just puzzled by the surplus of single-stage birds

They're all pretty unremarkable, have no relation to each other, and Game Freak decided to make three of them in a row and stick them in the Dex next to each other. Like, is that not kinda random

Like why. Why birds
Flamigo is great you're gonna catch those legs talking slander about it. Not every Pokemon needs to evolve, as long as a single stage mon has good stats that's the most important thing.

What's strange/"bad" about Flamigo is it's base stats are strong enough to be a stage 3 mon, but you can catch it during the tutorial. It has the base stats of something like a Scyther, which in the original Pokemon games was a mid to late game Pokemon. For game balance you probably shouldn't be able to catch a Flamigo until around the point your Pokemon are in there mid to late 30's where many of you early game mons are starting to hit their stage 3's.

Course game balance for where Pokemon should or shouldn't be found is a very different discussion from how they look and if they should or shouldn't evolve. I'd much rather gf not force things to have pre-evolutions/evolutions just cause, let them design Pokemon as 1/2/3 stage based upon what they believe fits the Pokemon.
 


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