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Discussion Digital Foundry || Pokémon Scarlet / Pokémon Violet - DF Tech Review - Incredibly Poor Visuals + Performance

ILikeFeet

Warpstar Knight

We weren't able to go hands-on with Pokémon Scarlet/Pokémon Violet until the game launched, but having compared it to Pokémon Arceus and a bunch of Switch open world titles, it's clear that this game has severe problems and should not be sold in this state. Oliver Mackenzie has the DF review.
  • object detail is pretty sparse, textures tile in an ugly fashion
  • normal maps clash with the poor asset quality
  • really poor draw distance, NPCs pop in very close
    • pokemon aren't tracked, so once they pop out, they're literally despawned
  • NPCs are time sliced (reduced animation rate) at extremely short distances
    • at far distances, animated objects just stop animating
  • cutscenes transitions drops frames
  • camera clips through geo a lot
  • many visual glitches
  • indoor areas look nice, character designs are good and have good animation (for important characters)
  • 720p to 1080p, 864p average
  • 576p to 720p, near 720p outside of towns
  • no AA
  • constant frame rate drops under 30fps, can hit 20fps often
  • battles perform the best
  • animation slows down when frame rate is lowered
  • game seems cpu limited
  • game is not bound by hardware
  • Legends Arceus ran much better and has a better visual makeup
    • animation rate, texture quality, resolution, frame rate etc
  • Oliver thinks the development was truncated, but this game was in development at the same time as Arceus and has a larger staff count
  • Game Freak's tech needs an overhaul
 
Hearing that Oliver was going to cover SV in the latest DF direct weekly had me excited for this video. The man is going to rip it apart.

Can't wait to dive in! lmao
 
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I admit, I've been waiting for this one. The game gives perhaps the worst first impression in a first-party Nintendo game ever. After a few hours the fun picks up and you can start ignoring the problems, but still. Woof. And I don't mean from all the new doggo Pokemon.
 
I hope Game Freak can get more time on the next game. This video states that there’s a lot of developer overlap between this and Arceus in the credits, meaning this had less that a full year with the full staff. Absolutely unacceptable conditions to make a game this ambitious.

I do think the bones of an incredible game are here in SV, but it needed another year or more in development. They could have held onto Arceus for this holiday and given SV the extra time it clearly needed.
 
I hope Game Freak can get more time on the next game. This video states that there’s a lot of developer overlap between this and Arceus in the credits, meaning this had less that a full year with the full staff. Absolutely unacceptable conditions to make a game this ambitious.
this is an incorrect read of the situation. the staffing for SV exceeds Legends Arceus. they came onto help finish SV, or were working on both at the same time
 
this is an incorrect read of the situation. the staffing for SV exceeds Legends Arceus. they came onto help finish SV, or were working on both at the same time
Well, that’s fair. In any case, I hope they get more time on the next one.
 
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I got the game yesterday. It looks nice resolution and color wise, assumed it was dynamic 1080p and this confirms it. But it is absolute jank.

So much 'we need Switch Pro' chatter out there, booting up the current version of this game on Drake with a boost mode will get it to 1080/30 and that's it, it won't fix the myriad of other issues like the camera going Primeape-shit.
 
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Tbh I couldn't care less about the texture quality. It's the frame rate and bugs for me. I can do 30FPS with some drops here or there but it's a huge problem in it's current state. Unless they fix it by the time my backlog challenge is done, I'm not getting this game. Zero interest.
 
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first-party Nintendo title
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Looks really bad, and plays even worse, yet I still had fun with it. Going to continue the post game and DLC.

This isn't me condoning the unfinished game, but the gameplay was captivating.
 
pokemon aren't tracked, so once they pop out, they're literally despawned
Actually this is a good thing, otherwise we had to flew out and flew in to refresh all the spawns. It'd be tedious to search for rare pokémon.
 
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Honestly, in 2022, inexcusable. The gameplay loop of Pokemon is still strong, but this is an embarrassment on any type of technical level.
 
a complete embarrassment for everyone involved. nintendo, game freak and the pokemon company.

in no way they needed to release 3 mainline titles within 12 months. this is them just being greedy, and while i guess they will still sell millions shipping something of this quality is a black mark on their history.
 
The two tricks that are known actually did help when I was playing last night (move the game to internal storage, close the app after 2-3 hours), but if you play for a long time it eventually gets nauseating.

I don't think I can remember a Nintendo game that has ever shipped like this. This is truly a first. They need to patch this shit ASAP.
 
It was crazy to me how many people were saying they thought this ran and/or looked better or the same than Legends Arceus. One of the first things I did after starting Scarlet was go back to Arceus to compare, and it's night and day. I think it was the very first thing I said on here after starting the game, that I couldn't believe what a step back it was from PLA.

I'm convinced that it's an issue of skill/talent as much as it is time (though it's both). The texture tiling thing is an issue of pure incompetence. Any modern dev can get that working. It doesn't require an extra few months. And they already had that working in-house on PLA!. How is that not incompetence?!?

Arceus is such a well-designed, well-built game. It doesn't look all that great due to the hardware it's on, but it's polished. It has an artstyle. It creates a sense of place. S/V are the total opposite. I know that a large portion of the credits are shared between games, but looking at 9.36 onwards - this has got to be two different core teams working on these games. Nothing else makes sense. And whoever is responsible for Arceus needs to take over the main series.
 
The worst part of S/V looking this bad is how it makes Legends look way better by comparison. That one wasn't what I'd call a good-looking game either.
 
Oliver is definitely one of the stricter DF folks, and he doesn't hold back here. I feel for Game Freak - their release schedule is ridiculous. Why did both Arceus and S/V release in the same year when both games obviously needed more time in the oven?

S/V regularly looks like an unfinished Unreal Engine 2 map. It's sad that they had to throw this out before it was done - I thought the reveal trailers looked nice and a step up from Arceus, which was a rough looking game I felt. Hopefully TPC reconsiders their timing strategies.
 
I actually cannot believe they made a game so ugly it makes me think Legends looks good. Nothing in these games comes together visually. Even the art style fails.

I like Scarlet and Violet, they are incredibly well designed and wildly addictive, but Game Freak needs to stop and rethink things. Arceus was absolutely on the right path, S/V feeling like such a step back from that just ten months later legitimately feels shocking.
 
This will surely make Gamefreak rethink their production proccess in the future because it will stop people from buying 15 million units minimum.
 
This will surely make Gamefreak rethink their production proccess in the future because it will stop people from buying 15 million units minimum.
I mean, at what point is the reputation of making ugly buggy disasters detrimental regardless of sales? I think the next game would be a good time to rethink things, with what so far seems like a huge number of people being exposed to an especially bad product; i.e., will they buy the next one?
 
but will they? surely eventually the technical shortcomings will be too great for people to ignore and they'll skip the next one
It's Pokemon. People will buy it everytime for their kids, not knowing of the tech problems.
 
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I guess so, insofar as their impact to the schedule and investment

they simply are not equipped to make good games this fast
they definitely aren't equipped, but they may be trying to fix that at least

Nah, it's the Pokemon Company's fault. There's no way Game Freak devs wanted it out this year.
GF makes their own schedules and TPC et al dance around that. if GF needs more time then TPC will have to yield. releases are a group consideration, not a hard stance dictated by TPC
 
but will they? surely eventually the technical shortcomings will be too great for people to ignore and they'll skip the next one
They will not. There's a point where you have to just accept that the wider audience of those games are not the kind of people that go on Twitter to retweet buggy videos with "💀gamefreak fell off fr fr". They have been consistently outclassed by their peers for like 10 years now and the sales never slow down. I remember when the whole Internet was melting down about those Sword Shield games being atrocities and when I brought up the drama to my cousins who were interested in those games they just straight up were not aware of said controversy.
 
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2fps is literal PowerPoint territory

I can't believe this game was allowed to be shipped. Straight up embarrassment.
 
How true is it that Nintendo is actually giving refunds for S/V? I've only seen a couple of sites corroborate the same source.

If it's true and starts to gain traction, the hammer is 100% coming down. Especially for a new Pokemon generation.
 


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