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StarTopic Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet |ST| Who You Callin' Paldea, Friend?
- Thread starter EvilChameleon
- Start date
lightning16
Bob-omb
Decided to pick up Violet. Not entirely sure what I think of it so far. I think I like it a lot more than Sword/Shield so far, but I'm not very far yet.
I'm considering doing a "train everything as I get it" run. I did this for ORAS years ago and it was actually pretty fun, in a weird way. I should probably check out the auto-battling and see if that will aid in my attempt to play this way. I'm on my way to the city with the first gym, after the school stuff really early, and I have like 26 lvl 10 Pokemon and 10 or so that are lower levels than that. Nothing higher than level 10 at the moment lol.
I actually wanted to do this with Sword/Shield but 1) they made it annoying difficult to catch things that were higher levels than you, and 2) there were just too many Pokemon dumped haphazardly into the Wild Area that it just didn't provide a very good tempo to actually catching them as I went. I think so far it feels doable here.
I'm considering doing a "train everything as I get it" run. I did this for ORAS years ago and it was actually pretty fun, in a weird way. I should probably check out the auto-battling and see if that will aid in my attempt to play this way. I'm on my way to the city with the first gym, after the school stuff really early, and I have like 26 lvl 10 Pokemon and 10 or so that are lower levels than that. Nothing higher than level 10 at the moment lol.
I actually wanted to do this with Sword/Shield but 1) they made it annoying difficult to catch things that were higher levels than you, and 2) there were just too many Pokemon dumped haphazardly into the Wild Area that it just didn't provide a very good tempo to actually catching them as I went. I think so far it feels doable here.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
So I mostly chilled with my partner playing around in the area before the big city instead of making much progress. I enjoyed it, but playing with someone else did slow the pace more than I usually would go for!
Despite raising like 12 Pokemon at the moment, it is very clear that I am overleveled. My starter got to level 14 through the first Team Star encounter when other NPCs are still around levels 7-9. Given that the weakest gym leader is at Level 15, I'm going to have to work really hard to stay within the proper level curve, huh?
At least I got to spend money on new accessories! That was pleasant.
Despite raising like 12 Pokemon at the moment, it is very clear that I am overleveled. My starter got to level 14 through the first Team Star encounter when other NPCs are still around levels 7-9. Given that the weakest gym leader is at Level 15, I'm going to have to work really hard to stay within the proper level curve, huh?
At least I got to spend money on new accessories! That was pleasant.
- Pronouns
- he/him
I’m delighted to see how much optional (?) content is tucked away in the academy. Pokémon games are always interesting to me since so much seems to be of such little consequence yet is delightful to explore lol.
First session yesterday took care of most of the tutorial. Then wrapped it up this morning and started to explore west. This evening I went after my first gym and took down Katy, explored the academy and took all level 1 classes, then explored our east to the sunflower town. Tomorrow I’ll probably take care of all 3 quest lines in that area!
First session yesterday took care of most of the tutorial. Then wrapped it up this morning and started to explore west. This evening I went after my first gym and took down Katy, explored the academy and took all level 1 classes, then explored our east to the sunflower town. Tomorrow I’ll probably take care of all 3 quest lines in that area!
PK_Wonder
Cappy
- Pronouns
- He/him
I do something like this with every Pokémon game and it takes me like months/200+ hours to beat them. I experience using and learn to love so many Pokémon I otherwise might not use.
zumaddy
Starman
- Pronouns
- She
After planning out my first few destinations I decided to get lost today and had heaps of fun, picked up a new Pokemon I hadn't seen before 9 levels higher than my team. I also love that they kept "interaction" personalities from Arceus; I entered a cave and Sneasal immediately came over to fight, while a Snorunt watched our match and then walked over to have a look at me. Makes the Pokemon feel like actual creatures!
I found a sparkly Espeon and chased after it. Turns out it was 12 levels above my strongest mon, and I was not equipped to handle it because 4/6 of my party were mons I was just trying to level up to evolve and fill out the dex. That was fun.
Still, there are so many improvements GF could make to the gameplay and open world design.
Still, there are so many improvements GF could make to the gameplay and open world design.
Sukairimu
Rattata
I've played for like 15 h now and I think this could've been a really great game. Sadly I don't think patches can iron out all the gripes I have with the game but let's start with the positives:
If I had to rate the game now I'll give it a 5/10. Without the performance issues and bugs/glitches it would be like a 8/10 for me.
- The selection of Pokémon (especially early on) is superb and the best the series has ever been.
- The new gen 9 Pokémon are also great additions to the roster.
- On the overworld the Pokémon act believable.
- The open world itself has lots of points of interest and I'm constantly finding something new or rewarding. Exploration in this game is a giant leap above sword and shield
- Coop is fun and a good implementation
- I like the character designs of the main characters
- The performance is atrocious. No need to sugarcoat it. There is no justification for this game to run this bad. Even the menus and the actual battling are slow. Sadly playing in coop amplifies the problems.
- The game is really ugly. I had one view yesterday which looked like some of the background objects in Mario kart 64. Overall texture work is bad. View distance is not good. The worst part is that the game is performing this bad while simultaneously delivering a really ugly image.
- Bugs and glitches.
- Next to no interiors. Which is sad because the towns would feel way more lively if they did this.
- They have a big openworld but made just a few subquests. I don't need 100 collect x amound of stuff quests but something would've been nice and could've been used to flesh out the overworld.
- As a result I usually don't have any incentive to do more in a town than the gym or whatever the main quest is there.
If I had to rate the game now I'll give it a 5/10. Without the performance issues and bugs/glitches it would be like a 8/10 for me.
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Twilight
One & only #1 fan of Sparks of Hope and FFXVI
Played 4 hours, did one gym and one titan. Is fun.
First impressions, really slow intro, with Arceus I was like, of all the things Game Freak could have picked from other modern games and they pick slow cinematic walking, I did not like the cave bit at the start of this game. The main city reminds me of Lumiose and that isn't a good thing.
New Pokemon so far are cool, I like their designs, good music, more of a fan of Unova/Galar style for a soundtrack, but this one already has some standout, the first province battle theme is great, in general the main motif from Toby is fantastic, Star Team Grunt is also great, glad they kept the final Pokemon theme for the leaders, Tera Raid is another Toby banger.
Characters are ok so far, if Nemona gets something like Hau did in USUM or Hop in SS I'll be satisfied with her, Arven exists so far, first gym leader wasn't anything special.
The open world I'm kind of indifferent, my general focus in Pokemon is to progress through the main stuff, and only catch new Pokemon, so is not something that really changes my play style besides making me walk more. Not something I would call a step forward whatever that entails, but a different flavor of design. I can at least appreciate that it seems to be an actual open world that allows you to tackle it how you want, while still having a "recommended" order without being locked to it.
Overall I'm happy that I'm not getting angry at trainer battles due to the combat like Legends. Not happy about the lack of a set option, or not being able to lock the mini map to the North, or the performance of the game as a whole.
First impressions, really slow intro, with Arceus I was like, of all the things Game Freak could have picked from other modern games and they pick slow cinematic walking, I did not like the cave bit at the start of this game. The main city reminds me of Lumiose and that isn't a good thing.
New Pokemon so far are cool, I like their designs, good music, more of a fan of Unova/Galar style for a soundtrack, but this one already has some standout, the first province battle theme is great, in general the main motif from Toby is fantastic, Star Team Grunt is also great, glad they kept the final Pokemon theme for the leaders, Tera Raid is another Toby banger.
Characters are ok so far, if Nemona gets something like Hau did in USUM or Hop in SS I'll be satisfied with her, Arven exists so far, first gym leader wasn't anything special.
The open world I'm kind of indifferent, my general focus in Pokemon is to progress through the main stuff, and only catch new Pokemon, so is not something that really changes my play style besides making me walk more. Not something I would call a step forward whatever that entails, but a different flavor of design. I can at least appreciate that it seems to be an actual open world that allows you to tackle it how you want, while still having a "recommended" order without being locked to it.
Overall I'm happy that I'm not getting angry at trainer battles due to the combat like Legends. Not happy about the lack of a set option, or not being able to lock the mini map to the North, or the performance of the game as a whole.
- Pronouns
- he/him
What's wrong with the breeding changes?
Based on what I've heard it's basically a strict improvement on almost every front
I could not control myself and I bought it yesterday.
What are you people smoking? Sword and shield runs and looks much worse than this.
Why was everyone complaining? I was playing with my wife and it freaking awesome.
What the hell…. Just got to the school after losing myself and everything is top notch.
I still believe the biggest problem with pokemon is the lack of real people talking and the inexistent sound of the monsters.
Got scarlet by the way.
What are you people smoking? Sword and shield runs and looks much worse than this.
Why was everyone complaining? I was playing with my wife and it freaking awesome.
What the hell…. Just got to the school after losing myself and everything is top notch.
I still believe the biggest problem with pokemon is the lack of real people talking and the inexistent sound of the monsters.
Got scarlet by the way.
Belinda Blumenthal
Sales Director
It doesn’t run worse than this. Sword and Shield were basically a locked 30fps outside the Wild Area and even in the Wild Area offline. If you went into the Wild Area online it was definitely lower. This is worse all around though, as I’m sure Digital Foundry will confirm with their video.
Once you leave Megasoza and head East or West the framerate tanks.
damondamon
Moblin
I have been playing for the entire day today and I have to say if it wasn't for the horrible performance, the game could have been regarded as the best Pokemon game, at least in recent years. Co-op is really fun; I actually like the character designs more than I thought. It could have a much better game is my only complaint. All I'm hoping for now is a patch that fixes bugs and improves the game a bit.
Went wandering for a couple of hours and I ran into a Titan (finally an earthworm that really looks like an earthworm, it's so adorable) and took down two of Team Star's bases.
Hmm, I don't think the open world has quite justified itself to me. Granted, I don't tend to like open worlds, but still. It's certainly fun to wander around, but I find myself beelining for objectives once I've caught everything in an area. I also think the environments could stand to be more fantastical. I'm thinking of areas like the Old Chateau in Gen 1, Chargestone Cave in Gen 5, or Glimwood Tangle in Gen 8.
The overworld behavior of the Pokemon has improved, and I hope they keep on building on the monster animations. On the topic of the overworld, it needs more work-- oftentimes the smaller mons are too small to see, and other times a Pokemon will charge at you while you're battling, such that when the battle ends you're immediately thrown into the next one. It actually is rather odd the wild Pokemon can't gang up on you.
The Team Star Raids are honestly kind of boring. You just brainlessly mash the Let's go command. Would have probably been cooler if their camps were booby-trapped, or if there were puzzles to solve. I do like the boss battles; I stumbled into one such fight underleveled and almost got wiped. The Herba Mystica missions are much more fun. They're nothing too complicated, but at least they have neat gimmicks. Also they have the best quest rewards which are more movement options.
The new Gen 9 Pokemon have been great. Maybe not quite at the level of generations 5-7 in my book, but definitely a step up from Gen 8 at least. Love that convergent evolution is a thing in Pokemon now. And color me surprised, we finally got the bottlenose dolphin mon! One big criticism I have that the previous Pokemon gens are also guilty of-- obscure evolution conditions that are barely hinted at in-game. I only figured out how to evolve Bramblin because my friend told me how to, and he only learned how by googling it.
Hmm, I don't think the open world has quite justified itself to me. Granted, I don't tend to like open worlds, but still. It's certainly fun to wander around, but I find myself beelining for objectives once I've caught everything in an area. I also think the environments could stand to be more fantastical. I'm thinking of areas like the Old Chateau in Gen 1, Chargestone Cave in Gen 5, or Glimwood Tangle in Gen 8.
The overworld behavior of the Pokemon has improved, and I hope they keep on building on the monster animations. On the topic of the overworld, it needs more work-- oftentimes the smaller mons are too small to see, and other times a Pokemon will charge at you while you're battling, such that when the battle ends you're immediately thrown into the next one. It actually is rather odd the wild Pokemon can't gang up on you.
The Team Star Raids are honestly kind of boring. You just brainlessly mash the Let's go command. Would have probably been cooler if their camps were booby-trapped, or if there were puzzles to solve. I do like the boss battles; I stumbled into one such fight underleveled and almost got wiped. The Herba Mystica missions are much more fun. They're nothing too complicated, but at least they have neat gimmicks. Also they have the best quest rewards which are more movement options.
The new Gen 9 Pokemon have been great. Maybe not quite at the level of generations 5-7 in my book, but definitely a step up from Gen 8 at least. Love that convergent evolution is a thing in Pokemon now. And color me surprised, we finally got the bottlenose dolphin mon! One big criticism I have that the previous Pokemon gens are also guilty of-- obscure evolution conditions that are barely hinted at in-game. I only figured out how to evolve Bramblin because my friend told me how to, and he only learned how by googling it.
Vernal
Apologist
Yep. Performance is objective and empirically measured. No need to bring up the receipts when the DF videos on previous Pokémon switch titles are all on Youtube, just a couple of clicks away, for anybody who actually wants to discuss the game's performance without resorting to bad faith arguments and hyperbole.
I want to play a few more hours before giving early impression and maybe, y'know, actually participate in the ST, but my goodness, I'm hoping for the technical aspects to be clouding my judgment here because otherwise...
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well uh... picked Scarlet on launch day.
I have to say, first contact was ROUGH, i was expecting the game to be technically poor, but never to this extent, even without suffering those extreme glitches i've been seeing in Twitter, the game is clearly held by strings, so many issues going on at the same time! From the aggressive LoD to Pokémon and NPC appearing and disappearing through the overworld.
The saddest thing about it is that otherwise the game is fantastic. Gamefreak learned a lot from the SWSH DLC and Legends Arceus and it shows in the game, the world is fun and the Terastal raids and terastalized wild pokémon are juicy rewards for straying from the main path, i love how there isn't any sotblocks aside from wild pokémon and trainers levels. Also, Having trainers outside of the main path is a fun addition to it.
I've been paying attention to sound. Music is dinamic to an extent, the bgm changes in real time when you're battling, riding or sprinting while riding. I though it was a nice touch.
Lots of QoL improvements, some strange QoL issues (Limited TMs. WHY?) and the Terastal raids are now more agile, wich is PERFECT.
This had the potential to become Switch's GSC, if only they ironed the bugs before release....
I have to say, first contact was ROUGH, i was expecting the game to be technically poor, but never to this extent, even without suffering those extreme glitches i've been seeing in Twitter, the game is clearly held by strings, so many issues going on at the same time! From the aggressive LoD to Pokémon and NPC appearing and disappearing through the overworld.
The saddest thing about it is that otherwise the game is fantastic. Gamefreak learned a lot from the SWSH DLC and Legends Arceus and it shows in the game, the world is fun and the Terastal raids and terastalized wild pokémon are juicy rewards for straying from the main path, i love how there isn't any sotblocks aside from wild pokémon and trainers levels. Also, Having trainers outside of the main path is a fun addition to it.
I've been paying attention to sound. Music is dinamic to an extent, the bgm changes in real time when you're battling, riding or sprinting while riding. I though it was a nice touch.
Lots of QoL improvements, some strange QoL issues (Limited TMs. WHY?) and the Terastal raids are now more agile, wich is PERFECT.
This had the potential to become Switch's GSC, if only they ironed the bugs before release....
- Pronouns
- he/him
The first area does feel a bit smoother than the rest of the game (I think it might be a bit less dense?)
But I'm kinda with you on feeling the performance complaints are a bit overblown. Granted, I feel that about most performance complaints
- Pronouns
- They/them
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'd be more annoyed by limited tms if
1) Every tm you found isn't instantly makable in the tm machines
2) Any move a pokemon forgets can be retaught at any time for free, including forgotten tm movez
I think those two combined are a decent trade off for unlimited use tms.
Started playing the game last night for about 3 hours. I’m sure I’m not saying anything new here but this feels like a solid, pretty ambitious Pokémon game trapped inside a shell of embarrassing technical performance. IDK if it’s more dev time or more technical expertise that Gamefreak needs (probably both tbh), but my goodness TPC/Nintendo or whoever really ought to step in and prevent such obviously undercooked games from releasing like this. (I get the holiday sales argument but at a certain point long term reputation as a developer/publisher becomes more important than maximizing the sales of a single game)
GattaiMon
Cappy
- Pronouns
- he/him
So far I've been enjoying my time despite the very clear technical limits. it's fun to roam around the world, explore and catch Pokemon and I like that they don't spoil most of the new pokemon before the game comes out nowadays. Gives a sense of wonder that has been missing from the past few gens.
I miss some of the features from Legends, but of course, being developed almost alongside it, they probably didn't know if Legends would be successful and as such they didn't adopt everything from it, so this game feels almost like something that should've been released before it in terms of how well the gameplay flows.
The new ideas are interesting and splitting the story in three main paths has been working well so far to let each event breath on its own. Team Star is fun and has amazing themes. The way characters are handled also feels much better than in Sword/Shield, where it felt like the traits weren't exactly used to do anything interesting...Then again, the story of that game wasn't even finished, so you know...
I miss some of the features from Legends, but of course, being developed almost alongside it, they probably didn't know if Legends would be successful and as such they didn't adopt everything from it, so this game feels almost like something that should've been released before it in terms of how well the gameplay flows.
The new ideas are interesting and splitting the story in three main paths has been working well so far to let each event breath on its own. Team Star is fun and has amazing themes. The way characters are handled also feels much better than in Sword/Shield, where it felt like the traits weren't exactly used to do anything interesting...Then again, the story of that game wasn't even finished, so you know...
- Pronouns
- he/him
I have. I was conflicted on its design until it evolved. What an odd creature. Or set of creatures, as it were.
There's something funky going on with the Team Star parts. My game crashed after I did one, too.
Yeah I think one-time use TMs make perfect sense for the gameplay loop S/V is going for.
Agreed. The three gym leaders I've encountered are all far more memorable than anyone in SwSh. The Team Star captains have been great too. Special mention to Director Clavell whom I did not expect to be as goofy as he is. His "Clive" persona which my character refuses to acknowledge has major "grandpa trying to be one of the cool kids" energy.
- Pronouns
- They/them
Ran into a 3* Tera Raid after collecting 6 of the 18 badges. Guessing there's a big level jump here because I was barely doing anything with super effective attacks and the boss (it's a Spidops, if anyone cares) could nearly 1HKO me with Counter. Guess I'll look back into them when I'm higher level.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It’s super interesting that the overwhelming response to ScarVio, here and elsewhere, is “the game is great BUT”. Game Freak have something special here. If they can fix it in any meaningful way, ScarVio might be regarded as among the very best in the franchise.
I didn’t notice that when I played the opening last night, but it wouldn’t surprise me that you encountered a bug like that.
Yep. I haven’t had any crashes yet, but I’m not gonna trust autosave and I’m saving a lot.
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Leica
Chain Chomp
- Pronouns
- he/him
3* raids are level 35.
- Pronouns
- They/them
That would explain it, yeah. I was using a level 25 mon.
GattaiMon
Cappy
- Pronouns
- he/him
Oh yes, haha, I loved that bit! Overall there seem to be more heart put in the character angle, something that I hope will stay and be expanded on from now on. I've been kinda feeling the story/character angle has been kinda restrained after the highs of the Black/White games. Sun/Moon did do really interesting stuff but still felt a bit off the mark.
Legends finally broke that cycle for me and so far it looks like S/V will keep the trend up, so I look forward to see what it has to offer.
My first impression was without Egg Power. Waiting 30 minutes for 1-2 eggs was horrible. Eating boosted those rates to a ridiculous degree. Way beyond what I expected. Down to 1 egg per minute.
Still slower than I could knock them out previously, and I still don't like how breeding and hatching are seperate activities now, whereas previously I took care of both simultaneously. Nor the lack of in-game text hinting at whether pokemon are compatible or not. But at least it ain't horrible enough to keep my farm set-up in Sword & Shield until Gen 10.
kimbo99
Spirit Detective
- Pronouns
- He/him
Someone said this is a bad porting job from the Switch 2 version 
.
But seriously, this game is good but really lacks in presentation(frame rate, graphics, interactivity). It felt like a lot of corners were cut during the making of this game. Some store fronts are just text boxes, and so many homes aren't allowing you inside these days. I thought that was a staple of Pokemon games?
.But seriously, this game is good but really lacks in presentation(frame rate, graphics, interactivity). It felt like a lot of corners were cut during the making of this game. Some store fronts are just text boxes, and so many homes aren't allowing you inside these days. I thought that was a staple of Pokemon games?
- Pronouns
- he/him
Hm I feel like trainers should still autobattle in a certain radius rather than line of sight
Between that and boxes being accessible everywhere it’s such an odd experience, truly choose your own difficulty I guess lol. I still can’t get over the box change, it just made too much sense to access it at the poke center
Between that and boxes being accessible everywhere it’s such an odd experience, truly choose your own difficulty I guess lol. I still can’t get over the box change, it just made too much sense to access it at the poke center
D
Deleted member 2807
Guest
The no clothes customization is such a bummer to me.
I think BDSP had the access anywhere boxes, it was also very much choose your own difficulty haha (love that phrase btw)
I know it’s too early for the competitive scene to get going, but any word on what the online features are for competitive battles? Also, where do online battles take place? For all of SwSh’s graphical shortfalls I always liked the stadium backdrop used for online battles.
Amen. I was so disappointed that you can't really go into any home like we used to.
Appelsider
OvO/ ✨
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Has anyone followed the classes in school yet? You can take them by talking to the receptionist.
It's a bit tedious doing them back to back due to the loading screen.
But it let's you meet the teachers and learn stuff, after 3 or 4 lessons (i forgot) you also get a midterm for eachlsubject. If you get most of it right you also get 5 small exp candies as reward!
The tests gave me flashback to school hell LMAO
It's a bit tedious doing them back to back due to the loading screen.
But it let's you meet the teachers and learn stuff, after 3 or 4 lessons (i forgot) you also get a midterm for eachlsubject. If you get most of it right you also get 5 small exp candies as reward!
The tests gave me flashback to school hell LMAO
- Pronouns
- He/Him
LGPE had access-anywhere boxes too.
