By: Daniel Kendle

And now, the saga continues…

CHAPTER TWO: I LOVE (HATE) LOOKING AT SAWDUST!

The Nintendo Switch, the console that ‘Pokémon Violet’ exclusively runs on, is turning 7 years old soon, being first released in the US in early March of 2017. So, that means that it’s a pretty dated piece of hardware, relatively. I love the Switch, but I can’t deny that it’s seen a lot, and it might be time for the next console successor from Nintendo soon.

When ‘Violet’ released in November of 2022, it was over 5 years past the Switch’s launch, and we’d obviously seen some very high-end graphics from the platform’s games in prior games, especially open-world ones. The Switch was never the most powerful console; it had the visual fidelity for games rivaling early 2010’s systems. Then again, for a handheld-stationary console hybrid – something not seen very often – it was perfectly fine, in my opinion.

On that note, ‘Pokemon’s’ ranged in terms of their games’ graphics. The pixel-art era is a revered time for the series, featuring some of the best visuals shown on their respective consoles. Then in the 3D era, we’ve had some… mixed results, to say the least. Nothing terrible, but nothing really looking like “the pinnacle” of their visual possibilities. Just kind of generic scenery all-around.

We’ve had a good few other 3D Pokemon games on the Switch who’ve – again – ranged in quality. Some games look really great! Some games look like dog water! It’s all up in the air, frankly. The only other ‘Pokémon’ game I’ve reviewed looks like the latter, and I can safely say that ‘Pokémon Violet’ is definitely in the middle of the scale.

To begin, we’ve had models for the actual creatures themselves remodeled. Now, instead of looking plastic-y and fake. They have bumps and grooves, more natural proportions, and realistic textures. For instance, a Pokémon made out of metal will have a bright sheen to it, reflecting light like an actual shiny iron object. Furry ‘mons now have a faint fur texture to them, instead of solid colors. It’s like the difference between a stock image drawing of a sunflower and an actual sunflower.
This is overall a net-positive, and I haven’t seen many people complaining about this change.

As for the graphical representation of the world, things become murky. Human characters look alright; the artists went in a [slightly] more-realistic direction in designing them. Models look alright, but the animations for them are very stilted, and are very limited in how they move and express themselves. A lot of the time an important character will have 1 or 2 key poses that they’ll strike every now and then and it looks real stinky. Other than that though they’re fine.

Then we come to the actual environments, and they’re… interesting-looking. Like, they’re all-around better than the only other Pokemon game I’ve reviewed, ‘Pokemon Legends: Arceus,’ but comparing the 2 is like comparing a pile of literal garbage and a pile of sawdust. Either way, you’re kind of screwed.

Textures are very muddy and of low quality; any detailed sign lets you count the pixels it’s made up of. THAT’S how bad it is. This also holds true for more natural textures, with grass and leaves being flat, monochrome images spread across a field. Rock faces aren’t as bad, but you notice the fact that they only use one repeating image for the cliffs, as you’ll get the same image in a grid-like pattern and it breaks immersion.

Buildings look fine, but they suffer from an adjacent problem to the pixelated signs, in which being a few meters away from a texture causes it to look blurry and unrendered, but moving closer causes it to become crisper. This is a mild headache and makes certain areas of the region a pain to get through. Also, I don’t know if this’ll sound strange but if you’re out in the wilderness and walking near a hill, the hill will terraform around you (not on purpose, of course) and it’s physical model will warp and bend at the base, making for an odd optical illusion that gives me an ACTUAL headache.

You might be able to tell that I don’t have a lot of energy in this chapter, mainly because, other than the “highlights” above, there’s honestly not a lot to talk about in terms of ‘Violet’s’ visuals, because while some parts of the game look bad, there are other parts that look pretty good, honestly, like the Pokémon models or the User Interfaces (UI). These look good, but the mix of good and bad make this a middling experience to look at. Like, I’ve seen much worse – even from Pokemon – but then again, I’ve seen better. Compared to the franchise’s other 3D outings, ‘Pokemon Scarlet’ and ‘Pokemon Violet’ land around the middle of the pack. They don’t look good, but hey, they don’t look bad! Just sawdust, that’s all.

Gosh, I can’t believe I didn’t hate the graphics of the game as much as I thought I would. Despite what I’ve said so far about the region’s just-okay region design and middling graphics, I’m feeling pretty good about this review so far! What could possibly bring down its score now?

CHAPTER THREE: THE THING THAT BRINGS ITS SCORE DOWN NOW

If you haven’t heard already, there are some notable glitches in this game. If you’ve searched up some of said glitches online you’ll find some interesting results. I can’t show anything because of the wonderful world of the US copyright system, but I assure you that they’re bad. REALLY bad. Say, here’s a [short] list of notable bugs and issues in ‘Violet.’

• Rendering issues with come textures
• Shadow problems (shadows of large cliffs or buildings will appear and disappear at will)
• Sometimes hair on people will flicker and move around weirdly
• Problems with the aliasing on objects in water, where the object’s borders will appear pixelated and gross
• Sometimes when riding your bike-dragon (more on this later), if you jump with it into a small-enough gap it’ll become frozen in the air and cause you to be teleported back onto solid ground after 10-or-so seconds
• Lag spikes
• The FPS (frames per second) drops to single-digits if you’re in the giant lake area
• Sometimes when setting up a picnic table, it won’t appear. If you try to do anything that interacts with the table, like making a sandwich, you won’t be able to see it.
• During one cutscene your character is supposed to be talking to someone else, but instead they’ll awkwardly continue walking in a strange fashion, almost walking off-screen until teleporting back to where they were supposed to originally be, letting the cutscene commence. It’s hard to describe this bug in words but it’s one of the most bizarre bugs here.
• Pokémon disappearing into walls
• You’re actually able to escape the first area in the game and bypass the opening tutorial. Simply go to the left corner of the first area and chuck one of your Pokémon at another wild ‘mon from a cliff beyond, and if you’re lucky you’ll be teleported into the battle menu, with your character now in the new area. You can then run away and explore the whole map. I haven’t done this myself, so I don’t know if there are any notable changes before the tutorial is completed.
• Music not appearing in some instances

And there’s much more, I could go on!

But for the sake of speeding along in this review I’ll cut it here and say this: remember the metaphor in the beginning? Here, these glitches, these obstructing bugs and problems, this is the weasel. This is the snake in the kitchen, the problem that gives these games such a controversial guise.

And honestly, the people who call out these issues are in the right, in my opinion. I think there’s a line between “the developers being rushed for time and not being able to fully-polish their game” and “the developers programming ‘Sandwich Simulator 2042’ instead of making a working product.” Like, I’d rather have a bland-as-sand game that runs relatively-well over a (somewhat) packed title that makes me reminisce about the days when video games looked about the fidelity of a ketchup packet filled with salt.

Why did ‘Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’ come out like this? The most astute and probably-correct answer is time. The ‘Pokémon’ franchise operates with a new generation of games coming out every 3 years. You’ll get a game with a new region and creature designs to kick off the generation, usually a follow-up package the following year being either a second, similar pair of games that act as an “enhanced package, or DLC.

Then next year they’ll have a separated package, either being a remake of a past game or something else entirely.

Then, the generation ends with the next leading game for the NEXT generation.

This means that, for one company, this is a lot of stuff to do, and especially in the 3D era of games has caused the franchise to have a select few half-baked end products from the lack of time. This has caused a lot of people to say that the series should relax and maybe take some time between games, letting developers put more content – and better content, frankly – into future games, as well as higher-quality graphics that don’t make me want to chug quicksand.

This problem comes with that the games essentially “lead” the series forward: with each new generation of games comes a new batch of creature designs and characters, and so forth new trading card lines, plushies, clothing and apparel, movies, the on-going TV show… the Pokemon franchise is so large and has so many facets of entertainment that taking time to iron out and not rush a new game brings a detriment to the rest of the show.

The television series can’t run new seasons in the new region forever, the trading cards can’t print new sets forever, and merch lines won’t last. It’s an ever-repeating cycle of new content becoming old, and eventually being filtered out by the newer, which is then filtered out by the newest, each having a 3-ish few years to shine.

The Pokémon franchise is the kitchen, and these glitches are the irritable animals. However, instead of being inside one’s minute apartment, the kitchen is a part of a network reality cooking show. Just because you’ve got some pests in the kitchen doesn’t mean you can slow down; you’ve got an audience waiting for you, judges to value your dish within an hour’s fray. Just because you’ve got some glitches in the game doesn’t mean you can slow down; you’ve got an audience waiting for you, players waiting to buy your products within 3-years’ time.

And that is the leading issue with ‘Pokemon Scarlet’ and ‘Pokemon Violet,’ as well as the Pokemon franchise as a whole: time is the enemy, and your audience – and surrounding cooks – will not wait for a better dish.

…But YOU can! That’s right kids, this here article’s, again, a 4-parter, due to several factors such as the inevitable heat death of the universe looming closer and also length. We’ll pick up with the gameplay section in this review of a video game in the third part.

By: Daniel Kendle

Let’s start off with a metaphor. Again.

Okay, so you’re at home one day watching TV, and you get the sudden urge to do something productive with your life. So, you naturally head on over to the kitchen to try and create the next great American dish, only to open up the sugar jar and have a rabid weasel pop out. Oh, the horror! It bites you in the upper-most vertebrae (somehow) and runs away.

Being immortal (and the subject of an already-strained metaphor), you magically-shrug off the blistering wound and pop off the lid to the salt shaker and out pops one of those fake rubber snakes magicians use, except replace “fake” with “real” and “rubber” with “blood-driven.” It – again – bites you and also runs off (?).

At this point you’re feeling hopeless, and in one last ditch attempt to eat you open up your patented… bean drawer, and see it: a shining beacon of light, being a glistening can of ‘Jean’s Beans’ is waiting on the shelf. ‘Huzzah!’ You think to yourself, ‘I have found the light at the end of a tunnel of suffering!’

But… Why is your kitchen like this? This new flat you bought has weasels and walking snakes in it, yet also contains some normal stuff too, like beans. Why is that? Why aren’t there either just normal kitchen items instead of animals, or some kind of hydraulic torture device instead of beans? Why are there genuinely good parts of this kitchen, yet also stuff that inflicts great pain onto your physical body? Why is this kitchen so lopsided in terms of quality?

…..

‘Pokémon Scarlet’ and ‘Pokémon Violet’ are the (relatively) most-recent games within the franchise of the same name. Being the first truly “open-world” entries in the 28 year-old series, the games have garnered a very desicive reaction. Selling over 10 million copies in just 3 days, they’ve become one of the fastest selling games in recent memory, but with that success comes the large amount of generally-negative reviews and returns of the product.

But why? Why do these 2 games carry such a degree of inconsistency? We’ve had controversial ‘Pokemon’ games in the past – especially on the Nintendo Switch – but none to this scale. These games are different from past entries in not just their contents, but their reception.

So, to solve this mystery, it’s time we take a deep look into the pair. This is my first open-world game (I’ll explain what that means soon) that I’ve reviewed here, and I want to give it my all. I’d like to go in-depth into every meaningful mechanic and element of these titles that I cared about.

The only part I’m not touching is the story, because I’m not really the kind person to talk on that matter; I don’t focus a lot on a game’s story in my articles because I just don’t care as much about plot in games as I do gameplay, personally. I just don’t think I’m fit to speak on the matter. However, I will be mentioning story beats whenever needed to explain something better.

So, with introductions out of the way, let’s put on our detective caps and sleuth our way into ‘Pokémon Scarlet’ and ‘Pokémon Violet:’ the most middling experiences I’ve had in a while.

CHAPTER ONE: THE PROSPECT OF AN OPEN REGION – ON THE HALF SHELL

I think that we need to start by having a look at past games in the franchise, and how they’ve tackled their regions – the fictional settings where the games take place in. We’ll also briefly glance at the linearity in previous ‘Pokemon’ so we can therefore talk more about ‘Pokemon Scarlet’ and ‘Pokemon Violet’s’ region, and how being open-world implements new changes and impacts the series. I’ve had to rewrite this entrance a few times now, but I think this’ll help paint a good picture of the most subversive part of these games.

Most ‘Pokemon’ games since the very beginning have released 2 versions, which is why I’ve been discussing the newest games as a unit (I personally bought ‘Pokémon Violet,’ however, so I’ll just be talking about that game for the rest of the article). Each game in a pair is structured about the same, with minor differences between each, such as the types of Pokemon that you can find there. Pokemon exclusive to each version of the pair of games are called version exclusives, a whole sort of “is the sky blue” kind of label.

The regions, however, generally stay consistent between the pairs of games. To summarize, a region in these games is basically a fictionalized landmass where the story takes place in, usually being vaguely based off of real-life areas. For instance, the first games in the series, ‘Pokemon Red’ and ‘Pokemon Blue,’ have their regions based off of the Kanto region of Honshu, Japan, the biggest island making up the country (funnily-enough, the region in the games is also called Kanto, the only time in the series where the IRL and fictional locations are under the same name).

Regions before ‘Pokemon Violet’ were made up of 2 main types of locations: routes and towns. Towns are what you think: locations with buildings, roads, the like. Routes were the connecting lines; small or large paths that contain the Pokemon for you to actually catch and train with to use for battle. Combined, they formed a structured path for the player to follow as they went about their journey.

However, different games varied in their linearity. From generations 1-5 of games, routes and towns were usually very complex: structured trails and cities that had lots of depth to them, and routes especially were essentially point A to point B concepts, but had branching cutoffs and split paths. They weren’t maze-like, but instead each route in a game was a deeply-layered and invigorating experience. That’s not even to mention extra unique locations in routes or towns, such as towers or ruins, which often had even more content of their own.

Then, in generations 6-8, it felt like some major shift happened – for the worse. Routes eventually turned into small, short, simple paths that almost-never tried to divert off the main trail. You could even traverse an entire route in a matter of seconds; THAT’S how bad it got. No cool extra locations, barely-to-no unique mechanics… if there’s one thing to take away from the regions of newer games, its that they’ve become far more cramped, dumbed-down experiences.

This goes for towns as well: before they could reach giant sizes, but even smaller settlements were still full of lore and content, stuff to see and do. Now some “towns” were merely 2 houses right next to each other. Both acting as copy-pasted mirrors of one-another. It was miserable.

But with ‘Pokemon Violet,’ we’ve now gotten the exact opposite: a large, sprawling map to traverse in any way we desire. But now that we’ve gotten some history out of the way, how does this new formula impact the region design? How does ‘Pokémon Violet’s’ region stack up against both past and modern region design?

To start, routes aren’t actually a thing anymore! After a few minutes of slow buildup, we’ve now got “areas” instead, which are basically ways to split up the north, south, east and west parts of the map. Each directional province has multiple areas, and each is usually different from one another. For instance, “South Province, Area One” is a humid meadow-y land, with twisting hills and a small marsh. Meanwhile, “South Province, Area Two” is an olive orchard, with aged, beige grass and populations of olive trees.

Then there are areas that aren’t just called “Area #.” For instance, the western Province of the island has multiple Areas, but also a desert called Asado Desert. There’s a lake called Cassaroya Lake. There’s a foggy wood called Tagtree Thicket. I could list more (including one I’ll save for later), but we’ll talk more about the entire region itself for now.

In comparison to past ‘Pokémon’ games, this new region’s a lot more realistic-looking than others. Past games’ regions had mushroom forests, electric caverns and the like, whereas Paldea (apparently the name of the island) is lacking those. We’ve instead got [relatively] average roads, a quarry, some grasslands, a mountain, stuff like that. Nothing out of the ordinary for these games, but it’s missing a lot of the mystical locations of prior titles.

And that segways into a problem I have with Paldea as a region: it’s very bland. Unlike other open-world games which usually have varied landscapes and memorable places, ‘Violet’ instead has mostly biomes, with towns occasionally. In the game, there’s a set of 10 sights that operate similar to our world’s wonders of the world, though when you go to one they’re literally just a big waterfall or some rocks or whatever, it’s boring. The whole world is boring, actually, and that’s one of ‘Pokemon Violet’s’ biggest problems.

In terms of landmarks and locations, you’ve got these watchtowers that give you a nice view of the surrounding area, as well as some assorted items. They also function as waypoints for you to zip to at the press of the button. These are alright; most games with a sizable setting have things like these, and it’s no different here. You’ve also got 4 lighthouses in the 4 corners of the island that function almost-identically.

And really, besides towns and squad bases (something we’ll take a look at in the “gameplay” section of this article) that’s kind of… it? Like, you’ve got some ruins with unique collectibles and ‘mons, ancient stakes to find and pull out of the ground (another prospect for “gameplay”), and… bridges, but overall the world’s pretty empty with its main attraction being its biomes. But other than having different species of Pokemon and maybe some geographical variation, they don’t really do a lot of other stuff. I think having geographical differences of biomes impact gameplay would be super fun, honestly.

For instance, maybe in the mountains you could be stuck in a permanent light snow that causes fog to appear. You could bring a Pokémon that could breathe fire and the fog could dissipate, revealing items you couldn’t find before. Or, maybe the desert could be filled with quicksand, and you could traverse it normally, or breeze across it with a critter that could dig around and surf you across the sand.

The franchise did something like this before with HM’s, moves that you could teach your Pokémon to bypass certain roadblocks preventing you from continuing the game. These were generally annoying nuisances, so we don’t want a repeat of that. They were annoying because you had to replace a move first to teach a creature the HM, so instead of prohibiting the amount of moves you can have, just have a Pokemon meet the standards required (ex. fire-breathing, “diggable”) in front of your team. You could also just ignore the benefits provided and play the game normally.

To end this section, we’ve talked about the emptiness of the region and the missed opportunities with Areas, so let’s talk about cities. In ‘Pokémon Violet,’ there are a good few towns to its name, each pretty different from one another. You’ve got a small olive-farming town, a super-modern city, a multi-leveled waterfall town, one with cool art pieces and natural sights, and so forth. Each town has multiple shared buildings: a place to heal your team of ’mons, a battle court, some shops, and the gym. We’ll look deeper into the latter later.

I’m generally mixed on how I feel about the towns in ‘Violet.’ On one hand, they generally look alright and all feel unique from one another, normally for the better. On the other hand, they’re pretty void of content. One port town has an auction area, which is cool. Another has a game where you roll this giant olive into a goal, and you’ve got some other sparse games to try out in a couple others, but besides those you don’t have much to do in them. They’re pretty, but are mostly just set dressing for the story.

In the end, Paldea is fairly-okay, with some alright sights but very dry amounts of stuff to do. It doesn’t sustain itself enough to provide content after beating the game (or during it, to be frank), and almost-definitely needed some more time in the oven before the game’s release to add more. It’s a good start, but an okay final product.

This may be the end of going over Paldea in general, but stay tuned as PART II will delve into graphics and glitches in the game.