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Pokémon Scarlet & Violet - Review Thread

Saber

Gold Member
Pokemon's never been about graphics or performance, and honestly it shouldn't focus on those aspects either. Sure if the quality is as bad as some of those videos suggest that's one thing, but good graphics and performance don't make a bad game good, nor does bad graphics/performance make a good game bad. Sure you'd love to have a good game with good graphics and good performance, but I'll always prioritize the quality of the game over what it looks like or how it runs

Lol, problem is that pokemon doesn't have quality and neither a focus on any of its aspects.
If the game isn't about performance and graphics then whats this game is about? Catching all monsters? You no longer can catch all the pokemons. And it isn't about battles either, since people can simply ignore trainers and the game let's all your monster gain xp equally(meaning you don't even need to trade pokemons much), making training also redundant.

Just face it. Pokemon is a massive franchise beyond the scope of their own games. You just throw a new region and some new pokemons, sell gazillions and move to the next generation. Theres no depth on this. Also lol on "bad performance doesn't make a game bad", dude you can't play a game properly if it doesn't run/work well.
 
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Jsisto

Member
Pokemon's never been about graphics or performance, and honestly it shouldn't focus on those aspects either. Sure if the quality is as bad as some of those videos suggest that's one thing, but good graphics and performance don't make a bad game good, nor does bad graphics/performance make a good game bad. Sure you'd love to have a good game with good graphics and good performance, but I'll always prioritize the quality of the game over what it looks like or how it runs
I agree completely under normal circumstances, but I feel like there’s a fine line there. If this were an indie developer or a new franchise without the huge financial backing of literally the LARGEST MEDIA FRANCHISE in history, I would be immensely more forgiving. This isn’t like other big franchises like Marvel or Star Wars. Pokémon owes all of its success to its gaming roots, and it continually shits on its legacy by releasing games that are barely up to the standards of consoles from 2 generations ago. They’re phoning it in and doing as little as possible to make money as quickly as possible. I hope the people that buy it enjoy it, but I can’t justify supporting a franchise that has such little respect for itself.
 

chromhound

Member
time to let another developer shine
pokmonbattlerevolutionwii-11513-369-1_1190507.jpg
 

jaysius

Banned
It's 100% true that undocked mode has no issues running, the second I docked my Switch the EXACT SAME AREA I walked through shit the bed on FPS and had massive frame drops, this was early on, very little action was happening on screen.

This might be Nintendo's Cyberpunk 2077 fiasco if Nintendo fans find some nuts to cause a fuss.
 
Ironically Genshin Impact is having an event which is heavily inspired by Pokemon right now and that game is so technically superior in every way it's kind of amazing. And it's a game made for phones.
 
Pokemon's never been about graphics or performance, and honestly it shouldn't focus on those aspects either. Sure if the quality is as bad as some of those videos suggest that's one thing, but good graphics and performance don't make a bad game good, nor does bad graphics/performance make a good game bad. Sure you'd love to have a good game with good graphics and good performance, but I'll always prioritize the quality of the game over what it looks like or how it runs
Just stop it ..you’re so full of shit and part of the problem.
 
Have been playing undocked, and the only issue I've seen is disappearing shadows based on the camera angle; haven't had those weird severe slowdowns yet.
 

Assaulty

Member
Have been playing undocked, and the only issue I've seen is disappearing shadows based on the camera angle; haven't had those weird severe slowdowns yet.

Heard this a couple times in the reviews/vids I've been watching. Seems like the game isn't optimised and can't run at the resolution they've set for it in docked mode.

I personally always play in handheld mode (can't stomach the Switches graphics on the 4K tv on any game for that matter) so it's a non issue for me
 

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
Pokemon's never been about graphics or performance, and honestly it shouldn't focus on those aspects either. Sure if the quality is as bad as some of those videos suggest that's one thing, but good graphics and performance don't make a bad game good, nor does bad graphics/performance make a good game bad. Sure you'd love to have a good game with good graphics and good performance, but I'll always prioritize the quality of the game over what it looks like or how it runs

While graphics quality may not be important, I would argue that performance matters. A poorly performant game with extensive visual faults and glitching will pull players out of the experience.
 

Roufianos

Member
Such a shame Game Freak own a piece of it, the IP would be so much better off with a competent dev.

Glad reviewers aren't giving it a free pass. I'll never forgot IGN and GameSpot giving shitty Sword and Shield a 9.
 

Fbh

Member
Fh2TenuaYAA4Mix


What annoys me, I cannot make a Male character without it looking Female! This is the closest I could get to looking like me minus a beard

Well the interiors at least seem to looks pretty decent (visually).
But yeah, the whole school uniform aesthetic is the worst one in a mainline game yet. It's like they are doubling down on having it looks like it's for 5 years olds.
One of the directional button on the D-pad (don't remember which one) let's you customize your clothes, but they all look pretty bad.

What's also weird is that your rival/friend in this one, who goes to your same class, looks like she is 2-3 years older for some reason.

To be fair, the gaming division and the merchandise division are two different entities. It's not like they got billion-dollar budgets.

The mainline entries consistently sell in the 15+ million range. Sword/Shield have sold 25+ million units.
And keep in mind they are Nintendo published so it's 25 million units at full or near full price, not like other games which celebrate 20+ million sales after years in the $15 bargain bin.
There's few if any franchises that could afford to increase the budget more than Pokemon. If they need to double the size of the dev team or hire key talent to get shit under control they absolutely could afford to.

But it always goes back to the same: They don't have to because people buy the games anyway.
You'll see some funny gifs about bad performance and some bitching online, then at the end of the month we'll hear how it has already sold 10+ million units in 12 days.
 
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Celcius

°Temp. member
Lol, problem is that pokemon has doesn't have quality and neither a focus on any of its aspects.
If the game isn't about performance and graphics then whats this game is about? Catching all monsters? You no longer can catch all the pokemons. And it isn't about battles either, since people can simply ignore trainers and the game let's all your monster gain xp equally(meaning you don't even need to trade pokemons much), making training also redundant.

Just face it. Pokemon is a massive franchise beyond the scope of their own games. You just throw a new region and some new pokemons, sell gazillions and move to the next generation. Theres no depth on this. Also lol on "bad performance doesn't make a game bad", dude you can't play a game properly if doesn't run/work well.

Just now seeing this and wow! Worst running/performing first party game on the Switch? That’s unplayable territory imo. I’ve never seen a Switch game run THAT poorly. Digital Foundry is going to have a field day reviewing this one.
 
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Bragr

Banned
The mainline entries consistently sell in the 15+ million range. Sword/Shield have sold 25+ million units.
And keep in mind they are Nintendo published so it's 25 million units at full or near full price, not like other games which celebrate 20+ million sales after years in the $15 bargain bin.
There's few if any franchises that could afford to increase the budget more than Pokemon. If they need to double the size of the dev team or hire key talent to get shit under control they absolutely could afford to.

But it always goes back to the same: They don't have to because people buy the games anyway.
You'll see some funny gifs about bad performance and some bitching online, then at the end of the month we'll hear how it has already sold 10+ million units in 12 days.
I don't disagree, it's unacceptable, I was just pushing back at the idea that the games should be based on the franchise value.
 
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gundalf

Member
Tech wise this game is under cocked by at least a year and then still, I think they may never get the engine up to speed due to internal management issues where they won't let in internal and external experienced devs do their work properly.
 
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What's also weird is that your rival/friend in this one, who goes to your same class, looks like she is 2-3 years older for some reason.
the academy is for all ages, they don't do classes based on age grades either; I think there are students in their 50/60s there.
 

SCB3

Member
What's also weird is that your rival/friend in this one, who goes to your same class, looks like she is 2-3 years older for some reason.
Neomona? Shes supposed to be a last year student I think (in a lot of UK schools they do a mentor thing for older students to look after the new ones for a year, I think thats what they're doing here)
 
I hope that Nintendo sees these glitches and forces better QA on GameFreak.

Personally I am still having a blast and the bugs/glitches (thus far anyway) have been mostly funny and similar to what I find in the typical Bethesda release - but still shouldn’t have released in this state.
 
The game does feel like it's running way shittier docked.

Also I didn't realise the home transfer doesn't go live until months from now...
 

AetherZX

Member
I take it back. I've been playing for a couple of hours and this is better than all the others. Oh god I love it. And I found a shiny in the first zone fuck you.
This would pretty much be my thoughts if the game gets a patch. As it stands the performance straight up sabotages what should be a defining moment for the series.
 

Celcius

°Temp. member
who needs QA when there are tons of fans that will put up with this crap? They are all drunk on copium
A lot of companies seem to be like this these days.
Nintendo: “no need for QA, our fans will buy it anyway”
Nvidia: “no need for lower prices, our customers will buy it anyway”
 

SCB3

Member
A few hours in and performance aside, I’m enjoying this, just got the mystery gift pikachu as well

I do wonder if the OLED model improves anything? I’m still on my launch switch
 
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