🔮revieuw: Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

It is still unbelievable to me that after 26 years of linear, straightforward RPGs, developer Game Freak really looked Pokémon players dead in the eye and said, “It’s fine, go wherever you want.” In the lead-up to the launch of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, I thought this claim would end up being a marketing gimmick, a little joke, something we’d all be mad about later. But from the moment I left the hallowed halls of Uva Academy, that promise has been wonderfully fulfilled, with open-world, open-ended gameplay serving as a shining beacon for the future of this beloved franchise. And yet, a finger on the cursed Mankey’s paw has curled anyway – Scarlet and Violet’s wonderfully innovative design is dramatically undermined by the numerous ways in which they feel deeply unfinished, with issues ranging from an incomplete world to massive and ubiquitous technical problems. So even though I want to celebrate how this generation reinvents and reinvigorates the world of Pokémon, I can’t without putting a great big warning label on it.

The actual act of playing Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is some of the most fun Pokémon has ever been, thanks to Game Freak’s commitment to a truly open world. From the second you leave the school after the tutorial, you can run all the way to late-game areas full of powerful trainers and Gym Leaders, catch high-level Pokémon, and make the adventure very difficult and rewarding for yourself accordingly. For anyone worried about accidentally leaping into a too-difficult area, fear not: Paldea is largely arranged to be friendly to those looking for a more gradual challenge, and even moreso is designed just right for getting pleasantly lost, backtracking, and wandering off the beaten route.

Given that there’s no level scaling at play (as is Pokémon tradition), exploring Paldea at a steady but unguided pace will somewhat inevitably have you encountering foes that are either extra challenging or too easy at different points. Running up against a trainer who’s just a few levels higher than you can be a blast, especially when an unexpected Pokémon on your team comes in clutch to get the win and earn a giant pile of EXP. I had multiple tense moments against Team Star especially, like when their giant car Pokémon nearly decimated my slightly underleveled team as I pushed down a more challenging road. But even when I briefly ran roughshod over several areas in a row because I’d outleveled them, I didn’t find it dull. With roughly 400 different Pokémon species available, I was still enjoying poking around the lower-level areas and finding monsters I hadn’t seen yet, and those discoveries were rewarding even when the battles weren’t. It’s a process made especially delightful by how silly and clever many of the new Pokémon designs are this generation, like the apparently edible Lechonk, or the absurd not-actually-Diglett eel Wiglett. The monster behavior is much improved too, as I loved stumbling upon flocks of Starly, Magikarp flopping on the shoreline, Hoppip floating nervously out of the rain, or herds of Deerling protected by a kingly Sawsbuck. With so many monsters to see, it was wonderfully easy to get lost and distracted in the enormous “areas” – Scarlet and Violet’s replacement for routes.

Moving across the grassy plains and rocky deserts of the land of Paldea is made easier thanks to a legendary Pokémon you obtain right at the start that’s determined by whether you are playing Scarlet or Violet. Either way, this Pokémon can be used as a bike and is upgraded with new movement options through one of the three main storylines. The dash, climb, and swimming upgrades are all helpful for crossing big Paldean expanses quickly, but one of those upgrades is a glide ability that can’t hold a candle to the one we got earlier this year in Legends: Arceus. It’s better than nothing, but I’m disappointed by the way you almost immediately lose altitude when gliding, dashing my dream of jumping from atop the highest mountain and soaring across the whole map.

The realization that almost the entirety of Scarlet and Violet are their interconnected outdoor zone is even more pronounced when you look closely at the detail that is there. Towns are all unique, colorful, and full of personality. Each one has distinct buildings and landmarks, like Artazon’s windmill or Porto Marinada’s fishing docks, and there’s clearly been a lot of thought put into modeling them after diverse and specific locations in and around real-world Spain. But for the most part, that’s where the thoughtfulness ends. Most buildings are facades you can’t enter, with nothing to do around them. Most stores are just menus you open when you interact with the door, and the biggest cities have the same storefronts repeated over and over. To give an example, in one city I was excited to run into what was clearly a warehouse for in-game store chain Delibird Presents – it looked like a warehouse, had the logo, and everything. I expected I’d be able to go inside, and that there might be workers, a sidequest, vendors, or something unique in there. But it was just an unopenable box. Someone put enough thought into the world to imagine this company would have a headquarters in the town I was in, but the idea went no further.

Ben je benieuwd naar de gameplay? Kijk dan de onderstaande video.Bron

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