Are Scarlet and Violet the worst Pokemon games?

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

I know people that would definitely agree with you there. I'm not sure if I'd call Gen 5, or Gen 8 my favourite generation.... but I definitely feel like the franchise has gone back down hill.

My personal opinion? Gen 5 was waaaaay better than Gen 8. (And if you ask me, the franchise has been going downhill for a while now.)

 

[Snowy]

My personal opinion? Gen 5 was waaaaay better than Gen 8. (And if you ask me, the franchise has been going downhill for a while now.)

I think for me... I was ready to walk away from Pokemon after Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon... I was just... Not feeling it anymore, and I felt like the franchise had gone in a direction that wasn't compatible with me... And this is on top of the news about DexIt.

But I played Sword and Shield as part of my work for Bulbagarden, and I thoroughly loved it. I hadn't felt that way about a Pokemon game since Black 2 and White 2.

I think Legends was a fairly decent game too... but now I feel like I'm ready to walk away again after Scarlet and Violet.

 

[Beer&Nyquil]

Keeping in mind that "good" is subjective, but personally, I would not go that far. It pales in comparison to Sword and Shield, and definitely in comparison to Black and White, Black 2 and White 2.

This is honestly the first time I’ve ever seen anyone say sword and shield had a good story

 

[R1ke]

Not at all, they’re heaps better than sword and shield even

 

[Greninjaman]

While I enjoyed Pokémon Scarlet, I am burned out with playing the games. Gen 9 is the last one I plan on doing, unless they come out with something like, a remake of PMD Explorers of Darkness/Time/Sky.

Of course, I will still play the ones I have.

 

[R1ke]

While I enjoyed Pokémon Scarlet, I am burned out with playing the games. Gen 9 is the last one I plan on doing, unless they come out with something like, a remake of PMD Explorers of Darkness/Time/Sky.

Of course, I will still play the ones I have.

Honestly same, between this and PLA I’m kinda done with the main series. Feel like I’ve played enough and it’s starting to get repetitive, especially with how rushed some of them can feel. These games are still cool though

 

[Snowy]

This is honestly the first time I’ve ever seen anyone say sword and shield had a good story

In my opinion, Sword and Shield has one the best stories in the franchise, after Gen 5 (All four games collectively). There are of course places in Sword and Shield that I think were weak, and places that I think could have been improved.

But overall, I really do think Sword and Shield are up there are the best the franchise has ever done. No game is perfect, and I don't expect Sword and Shield to be perfect.

I never expected Scarlet and Violet to be perfect either... but while there are parts I like, and a couple of characters I like, overall I just did not find the game fun or enjoyable.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Well, if you ask me, Black and White (and their sequels,) is about where the series peaked in the quality of their games (in terms of the story, at least.)

Story yes, for almost everything else, Platinum and HGSS were the peak. I feel like BW gets too much of a pass because of its story, what a lot of people seem to forget is that BW started a lot of the more controversial game design decisions people tend to complain about with games like XY and SM, such as making the regions more linear, too much handholding, the gym/trainer rosters being too small, and removal of fan favorite features and implementation of "region specific" features. BW2 is also good, but more because it did things that no other game before did and less because it shares a similar philosophy to the 4th gen games. And sadly, what it did was never repeated either, with LA being the only game that even comes close.

Keeping in mind that "good" is subjective, but personally, I would not go that far. It pales in comparison to Sword and Shield, and definitely in comparison to Black and White, Black 2 and White 2.

I think for me... I was ready to walk away from Pokemon after Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon... I was just... Not feeling it anymore, and I felt like the franchise had gone in a direction that wasn't compatible with me... And this is on top of the news about DexIt.

But I played Sword and Shield as part of my work for Bulbagarden, and I thoroughly loved it. I hadn't felt that way about a Pokemon game since Black 2 and White 2.

I think Legends was a fairly decent game too... but now I feel like I'm ready to walk away again after Scarlet and Violet.

This is a very interesting take, it kind of surprises me to see someone love SwSh and hate SV, SV seems to be what they wanted SwSh to be but didn't have time to implement (I suspect that they originally wanted SwSh to be like SM, then they saw BotW's success and wanted to trend towards open world, but couldn't scrap the game and start over so we got the sort of half measure we ended up with). What exactly do you like about SwSh that SV doesn't do? What exactly do you not like about SV that SwSh doesn't do (besides the bugs that you mentioned previously)?

I was also ready to walk away after USUM (and even more after LGPE), but the shift towards BotW style open world has brought me back in. SV, aside from the bugs, is practically my dream Pokemon game. I definitely want to see less bugs and I'd also like them to implement level scaling, but other than that SV pretty much nailed it for me, there's not much else they need to do for this to be an outright 10/10 experience.

 

[Norzan]

Story yes

I didn't even think the story was really all that good. Better than the average Pokemon story? Sure. But way below something like Final Fantasy 6 and Dragon Quest 8, so to me the story didn't really made up for a lot of the missing stuff that the previous games had.

SV seems to be what they wanted SwSh to be but didn't have time to implement (I suspect that they originally wanted SwSh to be like SM, then they saw BotW's success and wanted to trend towards open world, but couldn't scrap the game and start over so we got the sort of half measure we ended up with).

Until i see some concrete evidence, i'm going to believe that SwSh started as a 3DS game in development, but like halfway through was changed to a Switch game. Which explains how rushed and empty the Wild Areas feel like because they didn't had the time to properly develop them but also needed something that the 3DS couldn't do, and everything else is something that could have been easily done in the 3DS (outside of the HD graphics).

 

[Bolt Strike]

Until i see some concrete evidence, i'm going to believe that SwSh started as a 3DS game in development, but like halfway through was changed to a Switch game. Which explains how rushed and empty the Wild Areas feel like because they didn't had the time to properly develop them but also needed something that the 3DS couldn't do, and everything else is something that could have been easily done in the 3DS (outside of the HD graphics).

https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-...ohmori-about-pokemon-sword-and-pokemon-shield

I'd say this is pretty definitive. We know the following from this interview:

• SwSh started development in 2016, just after SM released.
• The game was themed around trying to become the greatest or strongest, due to the Nintendo Switch being the most powerful hardware they've ever worked with.
• The concept of Dynamax came from the Nintendo Switch having a high resolution and being playable on large TVs.

The game started development at a time where the Switch was just being introduced to the public (meaning Game Freak had likely known about it even sooner) and the game's core mechanics and themes were designed around the Switch's capabilities. I don't really see how they would suddenly change key mechanics and themes that far into development. I think the Wild Area was the only thing they really added somewhat late, but maybe more like a year into development after they saw BotW having massive success.

 

[NinjutsuSen]

ShSw was a blueprint of a Pokemon game. The games focused on the gym quest, reintroducing them after they were absent in gen 7 and nothing else like they thought "People want gyms so we make them return in Galar in the most praised way and forget about anything else".

The region was small, the story was bad and it felt like it only did the necessary stuff in a very minimalistic way.

SV on the other hand much much better in pretty much every way, not only better than SwSh but pretty much better than any game since B2W2. I even think Paldea is from what the exploration, the story, the lore, the characters and the overall tone and atmossphere gave us the best region to date.

 

[godiego]

This is a very interesting take, it kind of surprises me to see someone love SwSh and hate SV

idk if it's all that surprising considering that there are people out there that aren't the biggest fans of open world games. don't get me wrong, i don't think SwSh is really better than SV, but i've also found it hard to fully get into SV in comparison to SwSh. sure that's probably one part the performance issues with the game, but i also know the other part is that i do prefer more structured games. i think Pokemon would be better served following a design philosophy like in the Xenoblade games, rather than chasing after the open world flavor of the month (slash decade).

 

[Welkamo]

In retrospect even as a staunch SwSh defender, I admit that its story was one of the weaker ones. The characters were great, but I think there were a lot of issues with how the main plot with Rose and Eternatus was handled. SV, in my opinion, has great characters and a great story. Like holy cannoli, I almost cried four times. That's never happened to me with a Pokémon game or any piece of media, really. I will say there are issues with SV, mainly technical ones (though whether that's because of optimization issues, game crunch, testing kits of consoles being more powerful than consumer products, differences in consumer models, or some combination of those issues. It could be a lot of things. But I think "GF is lazy" is a very dismissive and frankly problematic take). I think it would have been nice to customize your character with outfits beyond the school uniforms, but the character creation in this game is the best we've ever had. It spoke to my nb femme-androgynous heart.
I wouldn't personally say SV is the worst Pokémon game, not by a long shot. While I understand why some people dislike it, I personally really enjoy it.

 

[AngryBinacle]

SV's issues are hardly graphics/glitch-exclusive.

The world is empty and wonky, there are next to no awesome landmarks, and that's but the tip of the iceberg.

As some people on the internet have said; Don't just defend it, we deserve better. It's a massively rushed game.

Are there good things? Of course, but those are the bare minimum for most other games out there.

 

[zoroarctic]

As some people on the internet have said; Don't just defend it, we deserve better. It's a massively rushed game.

Nobody's "just defending it." The people who liked SV have clearly explained why.

 

[AngryBinacle]

Nobody's "just defending it." The people who liked SV have clearly explained why.

We still deserve better.

 

[FelipePR]

Scarlet/Violet is both a refreshing reinvention of the franchise and a letdown for me.

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On the positive side, it should be noted that the great freedom provided by an entirely open world, that can be explored in any order you want, is, in fact, a new milestone in the franchise.

The lower amount of bureaucracy in battles and faster animations are also welcome, even if such improvements are a step or two behind those featured in Pokémon Legends.

The division of the player's objectives into three, with the respective increase of storytelling and the presentation of new interesting characters, is also a positive factor.

And, In the final stretch of the game, when the player joins a group, we have one of the most incredible character interactions in the franchise. Such moments were real delights for me.

Furthermore, terastallize is a very interesting mechanic and the new Raids system is quite challenging. I also positively noted the greater freedom and ease of making our Pokémon competitively viable.

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However, there are some disappointments.

The first is, obviously, the technical aspects, that is, the performance, the bad battle camera, the recurrence of bugs and glitches and the poor textures in some environments and slopes.

But not only that, there is no reason not to allow Set battle mode and the total removal of movement animations in battle. I, in all games, always activate these options.

In addition, it lacks competitive content or simply interesting post-game battles. There is no battle facility, the player cannot have a rematch against the Elite Four, and there is only a single rematch against the Gym Leaders.

On the other hand, there is the lack exploration of buildings in cities. In general, the only buildings you can enter are the gyms, which are made up of a simple reception. That is, despite the aesthetic beauty of the external side of the buildings, with their varied styles depending on their location, we have, possibly, the poorest cities, in terms of relevance and content, of all games.

As for the map, there are several desolate meadows without much to add to it other than pure and simple exploration. Which, for me at least, is enough.

Beyond that, the evolution of the Pokémon games, and the augmentation in their scopes, make some unpleasant characteristics of the franchise more and more evident.

One of the things that bothers me the most is the lack of audible dialogue, which makes the game more boring than it should be. When tired, there were several times that I fell asleep while playing the game, Lol.

The protagonist, the simple-minded goof with no personality, who is unable to speak and communicates mostly with nods and half-smiles, also bores far more than in other instances.

The story, while broader, is still rather elementar and over-told, not to mention poorly told. Despite this, yes, it manages to bring some commotion.

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Well, those are some of my thoughts. Thanks for listening/reading lol.

 

[Isaac Gravity]

Not at all.

The game has A LOT of functional problems and as much as I love the games overworld and how alive it feels at times, the lack of opposing trainers is disappointing. Despite that, the game has a fairly endearing cast enjoyable subplots and again, despite the lack of overworld trainers exploring the world with our respective box legendary is way more fun than it really should be.

Tera Raids are actually quite fun.

 

[shadowcelebi]

i wouldn't say its the worst pokemon game. there are some spinoffs that are probably worse than pokemon scarlet and violet. although, the reviews for this game are actually worse than sword and shield reviews. but yeah its probably not the worse pokemon game out there despite all the flaws it has like performance issues and glitches and the poor quality textures, and don't get me started on the animations, especially the animation of you eating a sandwich and they just threw everything they learned from the cooking mini game in sword and shield out the window by having your character bite on a JPEG of a sandwich or food that you buy. maybe if they had delayed the game, it would of been acceptable. but i doubt they'll even put much effort into their games cause they know people are gullible enough to buy them.

 

[Defiant]

No way. The worst games in my opinion are still Gen 7, by a long shot. My ranking would be


EXCELLENT TIER
1. Gen 2
2. Gen 8 (I'm biased)
3. Gen 4
4. Gen 1

GOOD TIER
5. Gen 9
6. Gen 3
7. Gen 6

BAD TIER
8. Gen 5

AWFUL TIER
9. Gen 7