Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet - The game is out but let's be careful with them spoilers!

I've seen some thinking could have a motorbike, why wheels in the Legendaries and the pokestop fuel stations.

Also looks like Scarlet is the past sorta with Violet future, looking at the professors outfits, names and the Legendaries. That wonder how story of all that will play out, then your school looking outfits always being scarlet or violet if the other a rival.

Unsure what version to get at the moment, legendry poll?

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

https://twitter.com/PokemonNewsUK/status/1531985405729464323

That's brilliant news. Just let me stoat about with my Lechonk at my own pace, that's all I want and need.

Oh. Huh. Hmm.

They could make it work, I suppose. Dynamic levelling everywhere, a really obvious main path, or just the approach Legends took. I have enjoyed the linearity of previous games though, going through a gym at a time in an increasing order. I guess we'll see.

Treesmurf wrote:

I won't have much more to say though, will want to try and so some sort of blackout too although that's near impossible nowadays with the Pokémon Company insisting on showing every little detail.

I will probably do the same as you and Buska, and it will probably be unsuccessful for this reason. Nintendo Life will splurge the details onto its front page as well.

Lechonk will take the Pokémon series to new heights.

I do agree with you guys in regards to the multiplayer likely being a gimmick, but it could be fun for a session or two to ramble around the wilds with you bunch. I'm still going to be paying attention to the news for this game because I'm not as into Pokémon as some of you guys and also as I'd like to see the later stages of the starters to make sure I'm not lumped with a Quilladinesque monstrosity later in the game.

The new trailer from the showcase


Looks like Pokémon, and some of the new info sounds good

I thought it looked like Call of duty tbh.

Hahaha fucking hell that looks so bad that I actually want to play it.

I actually think that, besides the tryhard edgy nature of the sweatshop bit, that looks okay.

It's just thematically all over the place and looks like it was made by grabbing random words out of a hat & the words were: Fortnite, pokemon & guns.

Seeing the red legendary run around the world in the latest Direct rather than using its bike wheels to glide about was hilariously awkward and I kinda loved it.

The_Jaster wrote:

It's just thematically all over the place and looks like it was made by grabbing random words out of a hat & the words were: Fortnite, pokemon & guns.

Sounds like exactly what the kids are after these days, no?

Yeh, probably but I'd say they deserve better.

Out this week, then. God knows if I'll actually have time to play the bloody thing, given the daft writing thing I've set myself like an idiot - but I do have the week of the 28th off, so I'll have a crack at it then if not before.

Do we think we could make this thread non-spoilerish (including official post-Lechonk reveals) from now, so Buska and m'self can come back in and get HYPE?

Get hyped

I had two hours on Pokemon Scarlet this morning. I really liked it. Lots of new Pokemon already, I have a team of six with a good spread of types. Great music. A really alive world, with just enough lessons learned from Sword and Shield and Arceus. I haven't gotten far into the story and stuff yet. Has it been a little talky? Maybe, but I've also had plenty of freedom to wander about meeting creatures and it seems like a big world I'll get to explore.

I made the mistake of going online and seeing everyone and their mum talking about performance and subsequently some bad reviews.

The frame rate stuttered a little. I saw a man far away do a jerky walk. Some slightly glitchy animations moved everything into place for cutscenes.

I could not imagine caring less about anything.
I find myself less and less interested in gaming discourse and reviews and all of that. I like Pokemon. If you like Pokemon games, you'll like this one. If you don't like Pokemon games, I'm not interested in your review of this Pokemon games.

You guys and a couple of podcasts are my only contact with "gaming" these days, beyond talking to my friends or seeing the odd meme. Do people still get all worked up about IGN this and Gamespot that?

I watch movies and read music, but besides the vague buzz I don't feel the need to read a big review of the new Taylor Swift album or monster movie. I know what I like and I seek it out.
I think I'm becoming that way with games, and I don't really see myself as a "hardcore gamer".
And god it feels better . . .

I still look for reviews and take Black Adam, because of reviews I'll wait till it's on something to watch it as I do like Superhero Movies & The Rock then in turn due to the good reviews I would like to see Wakanda Forever in the Cinema.

Then of course maybe if I see an indie game review well I might go check it out for instance, and not stuff I normally like same on here why I bought Chicory as good reviews and Smurf seems to like it.

On Pokémon yet to play yet, and performance is a worry for me as I've had issues recently with A Plague Tale Requiem, God of War Ragnarök and Bayonetta 3 with the FPS as in the 30fps & uncapped have gotten to me with wooziness.

Buskalilly wrote:

You guys and a couple of podcasts are my only contact with "gaming" these days, beyond talking to my friends or seeing the odd meme. Do people still get all worked up about IGN this and Gamespot that?

I wonder about this sometimes, but I think it's pretty safe to assume that people very much still do. Because whenever I read any review on that site, there's always somebody frothing about it.

I should be picking the game up over the weekend. I will be getting Scarlet and the partner will be getting Violet.

I do admit I'm a bit put off by some of the footage I've seen as whilst Arceus certainly wasn't a hallmark of performance by any means, but it didn't stutter as much as some of the clips of Scarlet and Violet. Still, it sounds like they've improved the actual game itself with the amount of things to do, different questlines and such, so I'm still likely going to pick it up. It'll probably be a Christmas gift though and hopefully there might be a patch or two to fix some of the more glaring issues.

Buskalilly wrote:

I made the mistake of going online and seeing everyone and their mum talking about performance and subsequently some bad reviews.

...I find myself less and less interested in gaming discourse and reviews and all of that. I like Pokemon. If you like Pokemon games, you'll like this one.

Oh. Er. You, er. You probably don't want to read this then.


Maybe it's just because Arceus spoiled me, but I don't think I've been this disappointed by the beginning of a Pokémon game since... maybe Diamond. The opening section is monstrously slow (no pun intended), your first friend character makes Hop look good, the first town is full of characters who judder like nobody's business, and there have been times when I'm out exploring the world where it's almost been painful to look at. Bear in mind, I'm somebody who thought Arceus looked fine! While the art feels a touch more colourful, the performance has taken a noticeable hit, and I don't think the trade-off's okay. And it feels like everything, from sending out Pokémon to getting through a trainer battle, is that bit slower.

I've also seen a bunch of design choices/removals I don't understand. They've got rid of Set battle (where you don't get to change monster after every KO), my default way to play the game, because... why? I know you folks won't care, but why get rid of it? What's the point? TMs are still disposable, apparently so there's a point to all the materials you gather up, because what the franchise really needed was more clutter. We all already knew about the lack of capturing from the field as in Arceus, but I still don't understand it.

On the plus side... I'm struggling to be honest. The new monster designs are decent I guess, but I thought SwSh's were better. The world looks lovely nice in stills. The "Let's Go" ability is okay.

Back at the start of the year when we wondered what the heck Game Freak/TPC were thinking releasing another main game less than a year after Arceus, and how they'd manage to wrestle with that timescale, we were right to wonder. That's been my main takeaway so far and I don't like it.

I hated the bit at the school because it was slow, boring, and ugly as hell. In fact that whole town is a lifeless husk with some random menus scattered about in the form of shops.

But when the game let's you out I think it's fun. I've enjoyed exploring a lot, and found lots of new pokemon that I really like.

I do think it has been rushed. There's so much clipping, juddering, and so on that it's hard not to notice. But once I'm out in the world it's not a big deal to me. I've enjoyed the open world a lot and in particular the way some pokemkn behave. You see some eating, napping, or roaming in herds. This makes it feel alot more alive than sword.

I loved meeting team star and immediately wanted to join them as Star Muss haha. I also find the hop replacement to be likable honestly.

Absolutely agreed about the town. Especially since they've repeated a bunch of the shops, it feels like they made it big for the sake of being big.

I'm yet to go out into the open world post-school. I guess I should probably have reserved my bile for after I've actually experienced the main point of the game, but even when I come back to this later slapping a 9/10 on it and calling this the best Pokémon game ever, that beginning will still deserve a slap.

I've gone into this completely blind and performance aside I'm loving it so far. The freedom to roam around, catching mons, exploring and they doing the quests in my own order is honestly so refreshing.

I also like all the new designs so far... Apart from wiglett who quite frankly disturbs me...

Muss I've been trying to get hold of ya

On Pokémon, I'm enjoying it quite a bit and the performance hasn't really bothered me as yet due to the game being fun

Yeh, the school bit was kind of boring so I was really happy when it did a timeskip.

But now I'm back into the open world, I love that stuff.

The Balls Man wrote:

A bunch of complaints.

The lack of set is a weird choice, I'll give you that one.
Wait, scratch that, thought of a funnier answer.
You can just choose not to switch Pokémon if you want. Therefore, I will only accept this as a valid criticism if you admit Meteos is shit.

You know they introduce other characters to be the mean rivals, so you're banned from getting all weird about nice rivals every time. Especially as Hop actually had a great character arc.

I actually think they made the right choice vis a vis not having Arceus catching or reusable TMs. An open world needs silly collectibles and making TMs is the right level of useful but not essential. The Arceus catching was cool in that game but it meant the game barely involved using your Pokémon team. You could deal with wild Pokemon and bosses entirely through the action mechanics, you only had to do like five trainer battles if you didn't deliberately seek out battles.

As for the graphical stuff, I just hard disagree. The world is exciting to explore, it looks fine and the Pokémon look great, so that's all I need.

EofGizmo wrote:

Apart from wiglett who quite frankly disturbs me...

I love Wiglet and I assume Muss does too . . .

Wiglet is love.