Tera-ble Performance
With Pokemon Sword and Shield setting the tone for where the Pokemon series would go next, as well as Pokemon Legends: Arceus taking that Poke’ball and running with it, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet would have a lot to prove. This is especially as the newest entries in the Pokemon series would arrive within the same year as the quite enjoyable and ambitious, Legends: Arceus. While Scarlet and Violet are enjoyable adventures, this newest entry suffers from extremely poor visuals, dated systems, bland characters, and catastrophic performance woes.
Set in the Spain-influenced Paldea, you play as a fresh face to the region, signed up to attend its prestigious academic institution in the Naranja or Uva Academy, a choice built upon which of the two games you have purchased. While the character creation tools are fairly robust for a Pokemon game, the only real customization you have fashion-wise is through your boots, hats, gloves, backpacks, and a few other accessories as your main outfit is one of four seasonal school uniforms, which is somewhat disappointing given what we've had in previous games.
While this adventure places you as a student at the start of a new school year, it rarely does anything substantial with the concept. There are several classes to take that grant you special rewards as well as a wealth of knowledge that is quite useful for a newcomer, but everything you do here feels incredibly optional and rarely does anything to keep your attention or focus. In fact, the few narratives that spin up throughout the journey rarely connect back to the school in any meaningful way, apart from the Starfall arc that has you interacting with the school’s Director fairly often. It also doesn't help that your classmates run at around 5 frames per second sitting at their desks, something that is an eyesore when you see it; it is painful.
As you complete courses, you’ll unlock new scenes with each of the faculty. These do reward you with various rewards such as new Poke’balls, Pokemon that are exclusive to these conversations, and even how to unlock the coveted shiny charm. Each class has a series of exams and a final that as long as you pay attention in each course, you’ll pass with flying colors. Though do know that Google has your back.
At the start of your school term, you are given a quest to find your “treasure”. This act is designed around having you out of class and exploring the vast land in front of you, finding something to call your own. This triggers the three core stories to then begin; Victory Road, Path of Legends, and Starfall Street. These scenarios are all fairly enjoyable with a good collection of supporting characters whom your trainer will eventually become good friends with. With the completion of these quests, it then leads into another arc that has been mostly going on in the background but then starts to become the focus of the rest of the journey.
While I certainly enjoyed the story more here than what was present in Sword and Shield, I found that the core narrative surrounding each game’s Professor to be far too short and lacking the depth needed to make its ending really resonate with the player, especially since once again there is no voice work to help sell its emotional impact. It’s a shame that the Pokemon Company doesn’t use its animation division to voice their games as the anime series has consistently delivered up voices for characters that have had appearances in nearly each and every entry. Why Nintendo is so afraid of voice acting in their titles is absolutely beyond me.
Victory Road is designed around conquering each of the region’s gyms and then taking the fight to the Elite Four. You’ll also have Paldea’s champion to challenge as well as a final showdown with your battle-obsessed rival and a slew of endgame activities to keep you busy well after the credits. However, I found the gyms to be rather disappointing in not only their lack of challenge but the designs of the gym leaders themselves. That said, I did enjoy Iono, the streamer/Vtuber-like personality who was absolutely delightful.
Apart from her, the rest just don’t stand out in any meaningful way. And, when I had to battle them again in the post-game, they merely doubled down on everything that made them boring in the first place. Sword and Shield had some fantastic gym leaders and the stadium aesthetic made those encounters feel like something special. Here, the gym battles lack any sort of excitement or scale to feel worthwhile and unique. The fact that the same four or five NPC's surround each battle is just bizarre as well.
Each gym requires you to complete a challenge in order to confront the gym leader such as taking part in a game of I-Spy, a drifting snow race, to rolling a seed around an obstacle course. These mini-games range in their quality for sure with some that are decently fun, to one that has you tracking down some Sunflora that just saw the game chug along at around 10 frames per second as I had a large group of them following behind me; It was barely playable. It's a shame several of these games are not available as co-op mini-games, especially the snow race as I feel it had potential to be something special.
While the Elite Four do manage to have a bit more personality to their roster than the bland gym leaders that precede them, the fact that one of their members is a repeat challenge to one of the gyms was downright disappointing, despite the difference in their Pokemon types during the endurance bouts. I also wasn’t a fan of the Elite Four battles taking place in such a basic singular room that zapped all the prestige out of the air. The champion battle at least felt somewhat impactful, but only barely.
Path of Legends is built around tracking down a series of Pokemon Titans that has you journeying alongside a man named Arven to investigate them. These battles pit you against a larger version of a handful of Pokemon who are unnaturally strong and oversized. Arven’s arc is also part of you being granted the Legendary Pokemon that is on the cover of each game as his storyline is tied to that Pokemon’s progress to become a more reliable traversal element to the game’s world. Whether it is flying, climbing, swimming, or a simple dash, this storyline sees you taking care of Koraidon or Miraidon, the Legendary Pokemon of Scarlet and Violet, respectively, and nursing them back to fighting health. His own arc itself is well put together but the lack of voice acting causes the emotional beats around him to fall flat.
Starfall Street has you taking out this title’s gang. Ever since the likes of Team Rocket, Team Yell, and Team Skull, among others, each mainline series adventure has had some sort of goofy gang to dismantle and defeat through a series of Pokemon battles. Team Star is such a gang and yes, you’ll challenge their respective leaders to a battle that has you systematically dismantling the gang one by one. I’ll add that the designs of most of these trainers were leagues better than the Gym leaders and any of the Elite Four. This arc had far more heart to it than I had anticipated and ended up being one of the best parts of this whole adventure, especially due to a certain character that ends up being behind the whole plot and might just be my favorite Pokemon character in a long ass time.
One of Scarlet and Violet’s much-touted features was the ability to go anywhere and tackle any challenge in whatever order you wanted. Now while that is still technically true, each Gym leader, Team Star leader, and Titan have their levels set, meaning that there is almost zero chance you can even come close to defeating them at the start of the game. I do love that you can honestly just explore almost anywhere you want from the very beginning, but claiming that you can take on any challenge in whatever order you want is not exactly as easy as it sounds or even possible in some cases unless you grind a team up extremely high and then start your journey. While you can have a slightly different order than someone else, it's unlikely you be tackling the level 55 gym right after or before the level 25 one.
When it comes to battling and catching Pokemon, not much has really changed since Sword and Shield. Legends: Arceus shifted things up a bit and allowed you to catch Pokemon outside of battles, as well as cleaning up much of the sluggishness to its battle prompts and more, making it one of the best playing and streamlined Pokemon games to date. While Scarlet and Violet ignore nearly all of the significant changes made with Legends: Arceus, it still does offer the same tried and true combat and systems many fans expect out of the series. While they do function well enough, the pacing and constant status prompts cause the action to feel sluggish and dated, especially if you were expecting big changes to push the series forward. There are some small quality-of-life features here, sure, but nothing that is wildly drastic or as modernized as what we were treated to in Legends: Arceus, which I still feel is the best Pokemon game ever made by a mile.
While I’ll dive into the performance issues shortly, it is rather easy to run into tiny Pokemon that are barely visible due to the game’s low resolution or significant pop-in, having them appear almost out of nowhere due to the inconsistent frame-drops and limited draw distance. Battles themselves take place wherever you encounter the Pokemon, and it isn't that rare to find yourself with a bit of an audience during battles as most wild Pokemon will gather around your fight. Now, while that is endearing, they can also run into you once you have finished a battle and trigger an unavoidable encounter. Granted you can usually escape the fight with no issue, or take on the fight anyway, but it can be a bit of a nuisance from time to time when it does occur multiple times after a single battle.
Previous entries have brought us some sort of additional battle mechanic to shake things up, such as Dynamaxing in Sword and Shield, or even the Z-Moves present in Sun and Moon. Here, in Scarlet and Violet, we have what is called “Terastallize”. While it simply appears to crystalize the Pokemon and give them fancy hats, it is a bit more involving, even if the system isn’t initially that impressive. This system gives the Pokemon a crystal-like exterior, as well as what are called their “Tera-type”. Each Pokemon’s Tera Type is generally related to their own type, boosting the moves of what they currently have equipped such as Lucario initially having the Tera type for Fighting. However, there are Pokemon that have a mixed Tera type that are found out in the wild or through Tera Raids that allow you to battle them and then toss out any Pokeball to then capture them. Out of all the Raids I have completed, I’ve never had a Pokeball break open, it has always been a critical catch.
This new Tera system causes Pokemon to have a strength of another type added to it and while that can come in clutch from time to time, I’ve also had it completely backfire and make my current type at a disadvantage after the transformation. However, that disadvantage can occur towards your opponent’s end as well and allow you to deliver some super effective damage when it previously was less effective. In fact, one gym leader did such a thing and I was able to one-shot their Pokemon when its non-Tera form would have survived the hit. In fact, nearly every gym challenge ended in such a fashion now that I think about it.
Similar to Max Raid battles from Sword and Shield, Tera Raids allow you and up to three players or AI to fight these Tera Pokemon in Tera Dens that appear all over the map. These Pokemon have high stats and feature a rare Tera Type, so they are worth it to track down. While you don’t have to wait for other players to take their turn, some battles can feel like you are rarely doing anything with fairly long wait periods between attacks. It is also possible to join a Raid and simply one-shot the Pokemon, but that sort of luck runs out when you start to take on Raids that are five stars and higher. Upon completion of the Raid, you can capture the Pokemon and are rewarded with numerous experience candies and additional rare items, so they are worthwhile to complete and seek out even if just for those goodies.
Because of how lucrative they are in their rewards, I would often load up the online menu and search through the available Tera Raids, seeing the wealth of challenges that awaited me such as the featured Raids with Eevee and Charizard that were promoted during the game’s opening weeks. The Charizard battle can be downright difficult if you don’t approach it correctly and once you do, it can be rather simple to complete even with a few AI teammates alongside you. Spamming these Raids back to back is a great way to earn those experience candies to concentrate on leveling a specific Pokemon to get them ready for a great deal of the endgame content or min-max their stats to make them a force to be reckoned with.
Scarlet and Violet also allow you to bring three friends with you as you explore Paldea. While you can’t battle alongside your friends in duo battles or anything of the sort, you can join up for some Raids or simply explore alongside each other. I personally had no connection issues with playing with a friend and was able to explore anywhere I wanted with no tethering that I could spot. It’s also a solid way to track down Pokemon that you don’t have in your own version as the world will display both version’s Pokemon around you.
Speaking of version differences, the traditional split of having exclusive Pokemon found in each version is pretty much the only significant difference here as the story and characters within are identical. The choice to release this adventure in two feels largely built to have players purchase both versions to double the number of games sold, which seems to have worked as Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s initial sales numbers are absolutely record-breaking.
Each version has a select number of Pokemon that will need to be traded from one version to the other, both consisting of standard Pokemon such as Larvitar, Drifloon, and Deino via Pokemon Scarlet, and Eiscue, Dreepy, and Passimian for Violet, among several others. This doesn’t hold true for the Legendaries as the game features four core legendaries that are not version exclusive, but instead have a series of what are called Paradox Pokemon, those who are time-displaced versions of existing Pokemon such as Jigglypuff and Donphan, all sporting a look that is based on the era they hail from.
The new Pokemon exclusive to Scarlet and Violet are made up of some that are destined to be new favorites, but plenty of them feel bland, boring, and uninspired. The new starters in the form of Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly, are each cute and endearing, but in my opinion, only Sprigatito, the grass cat, maintains a solid look throughout all of their evolutions. When it comes to some of the best of the all-new Pokemon, I certainly enjoyed Palafin, the new Dolphin Pokemon, as well as the hammer-wielding Tinkaton, who is easily going to be a fan favorite. Out of the entire roster of new additions, I do have to throw out Chien-Pao as my personal favorite as its design is just incredibly badass and I’ll leave it vague as it is one of the new Legendary types.
A new feature to Scarlet and Violet is through the use of picnics. As you explore, you can set down a picnic table almost anywhere that isn’t close to a town or in a dangerous location. As you visit shops, you can purchase new ingredients and picnic supplies, allowing you to customize your table and presentation. Picnics are where you will either wash up your Pokemon, toss out a ball for them to play with, or use a Ditto to breed Pokemon, but the main focus for the picnics are for preparing sandwiches. As you set down a picnic table, your current group of Pokemon will be released from their Poke’balls, taking in the break as you prepare said sandwich. Each sandwich you prepare with select ingredients will affect your stats in various ways. From boosting your chance at finding shinies, and more reliable eggs from breeding, to boosting your overall damage and capture rate. Sandwiches are crucial to getting the most out of this adventure across all areas of the game. If you act fast, you can use the Mystery Gift code HAJ1ME0R1G1NAL to gain a few ingredients right now. (Expires Jan 31st, 2023.)
Before I dive into the wealth of technical and performance issues that plague nearly all aspects of this adventure, I do want to shout out some major wins when it comes to the game's presentation. The library aesthetic for sorting the Pokedex is fantastic and sorts your collection in such a well-thought-out and approachable manner. Each Pokedex entry has its own picture for the Pokemon, and this same level of thought and care is also present in the TM crafting tab as well, shown above, flush with colorful images of the moves in action. This element of the presentation is superb and while my only issue with the mini-map is that you cannot lock it to not move, the map and navigational elements are equally as strong.
With Scarlet and Violet coming out within the same year as Legends: Arceus, many were concerned about whether or not this latest generation would be polished enough to perform on the now-aging Switch hardware. While this year also gave us the gorgeous open-world adventure in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Scarlet and Violet are embarrassingly under-optimized for the hardware and clearly show the lack of skill of its developer. Scarlet and Violet have blurry and disappointing texture-work everywhere you see with pop-in and shadow flickering every time you step forward. Ground and rock textures repeat anywhere you go and apart from close-ups of certain characters and Pokemon, nothing present in Scarlet and Violet looks even remotely good. Fighting on uneven terrain also clips through the map, showcasing how unpolished this whole game is. As it stands, Sword and Shield and even Legends: Arceus are vastly better looking and performing titles as Scarlet and Violet can barely even maintain a constant 25-30 fps, regardless of the resolution of playing portably or docked. It's also the first Pokemon title I have had reliably crash; thank goodness for autosaves is all I'll say.
While much of this could be thrown in the direction of the underpowered hardware, it’s hard to make that argument stick with what Monolith Soft has been doing on the hardware since launch and their contributions to games like Breath of the Wild and its upcoming sequel. As you walk around this open world, which can occasionally be aesthetically decent, you are constantly seeing NPC’s and moving objects in the background operating at less than 5 frames per second until you get closer to them, seeing their animations speed up to a more natural presentation. Nearly every aspect of this game runs dramatically poor to the point where this title was clearly not ready to ship and comes across as an embarrassment for not just Game Freak, but Nintendo themselves. For Pokemon being one of the most successful IP’s of all time, there is simply no excuse here as Nintendo and the Pokemon Company clearly have the budget to pull off a vastly better-performing title here but chose not to.
This performance can also affect exploring and encountering Pokemon. With Legends: Arceus, you have a strong visible and audible method to finding shiny Pokemon, making it quite an enjoyable process. Here, those helpful assists are not present and due to Pokemon having this strange white glow to their models, or horrid lighting in the final outdoor area, it can be very difficult to even tell if certain ones are shiny or not, especially those that are a shade or two different, let alone those that only have different color eyes. How the game’s performance affects this is Pokemon can disappear or move out of range quite easily and when they fade away they are gone. It isn’t just moving ahead to catch up with them, they are just… gone. I’ve seen content creators running across the map and when they see the shiny and double back to approach them, the Pokemon moves two steps to the left and then disappears. It’s heartbreaking to see.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet do have some pretty enjoyable games hidden amongst the performance issues that plague nearly all aspects of the adventure. Many of the new designs and type combinations make for some interesting changes to the meta as well as seeing all new takes on existing favorites. While I don’t find the Tera system to be that engaging or truly worthwhile due to the game having very little challenge to take advantage of this mechanic, it is an interesting system that I can see affecting certain matchups online.
Now, all that said, it’s a shame that Game Freak and Nintendo shipped Scarlet and Violet in this state as it only goes to show how desperate we are for new hardware to allow these teams to create large expanding worlds when they lack the technical prowess to make it work on the Switch as it is now. Scarlet and Violet certainly have their issues, far more than any previous adventure, but there are fun games here with an equally well-put-together narrative that I truly feel deserves to be experienced. However, if performance issues make you cautious about whether or not to take part in this journey, I would pay close attention to the patches that Game Freak are putting out to see if these titles have their core issues addressed soon or at some point in the future.
Developer - Game Freak. Publisher - Nintendo and The Pokémon Company. Released - November 18th, 2022. Available On - Nintendo Switch. Rated - (E) Mild Fantasy Violence. Platform Reviewed - Nintendo Switch. Patch 1.0.1. Review Access - Pokémon: Scarlet / Violet were purchased for review.