Pokémon Scarlet/Violet - 2022

[RubberJohnny]

On 24/11/2022 at 09:07, Melon_Bread said:

If I was running Pokemon I'd reboot the whole thing, cut it back to a smaller Pokedex, only include the fan fave Pokemon (there's some terrible Pokemon now that look like a couple of pingpong balls with a smiley face drawn on them), then make future proof new models for a reduced amount of Pokemon and build from that base, but no, that makes too much sense.

 

They already did that with Sw/Sh and Dexit though, it was only a couple of years ago. They've been reusing future proof assets and models since the 3DS.

[strawdonkey]

Did anyone get the little pre-order bonus statue and it's looking to shift it on?

[shirubagan]

The Eevee Tera Raid event has started. Details here: https://serebii.net/scarletviolet/teraraidbattles/event-eeveespotlight.shtml

[thesnwmn]

So not the Eevee Tara Reid event as I just read it. Now I want to know what that event involves.

[Vorgot]

Was on the fence about grabbing this until I saw that DF video.

 

Not played a Pokemon mainline game before and was hoping to jump in, but the quality of this is shocking. 

 

If it wasn't a Pokemon game this would be getting the living crap kicked out of it as a £50 game, but instead people seem to be giving it a light boot and a "well, it's Pokemon innit"

 

I've got Arceus and people complained about the visuals in that, its a masterpiece compared to this.

 

As a newcomer, I'm not touching this with a bargepole, I really don't get why people are even beginning to defend it and recommending people give it a go.

[moosegrinder]

Or people might be enjoying it despite it's shortcomings. It's not defensible that it's so technically inept, but it's also daft to write off a game because of it. Especially if the underlying game is actually good, like most pokemon games tend to be.

[Vorgot]

11 minutes ago, moosegrinder said:

Or people might be enjoying it despite it's shortcomings. It's not defensible that it's so technically inept, but it's also daft to write off a game because of it. Especially if the underlying game is actually good, like most pokemon games tend to be.

 

Maybe but I can't see myself putting up with that level of shonky if I've not played one before. It's great people are enjoying it, not trying to take away from that at all, but just amazed about how it seems to get a pass because it's still enjoyable for Pokemon fans. 

 

EDIT : To be honest, I wish I'd not posted now as I don't want to annoy anyone who is enjoying it. Should have just decided it was a pass for me and moved on

[CovisGod]

Started this today and even though granted, I am a huge Pokémon fan, I really can’t see what all the fuss is about regarding it being shoddy, it’s a bit shaky in places but overall it’s brilliant and I’m loving it, Not encountered any of the crazy bugs or anything that I’ve seen about,

 

Looking forward to completing a new Pokédex and getting obsessed with IV scores and breeding post game 

[robdood]

It's my first proper pokemon game, I do think it's spectacularly bad / stupid in some ways. For example, am I being thick or is there really no way to sort my "boxes"? The grid is soooo unintuitive I can't even. The search is fucking hilariously bad.

 

The ui / management of *stuff* it terrible. Which is baffling I a game about collecting all the stuff

[Not Thread Owner]

3 hours ago, robdood said:

The ui / management of *stuff* it terrible. Which is baffling I a game about collecting all the stuff

And this is the same as most recent Pokémon games.

[robdood]

Can I do another one? 

 

Why are only like half of the actual shops visible on the map? Maddening. 

[Not Thread Owner]

They’re only there if you’ve visited them, I think

[robdood]

2 hours ago, deKay said:

They’re only there if you’ve visited them, I think

Nope. I've tested it at each town I've visited. Some are shown when you first arrive, some aren't. Visiting makes no difference. 

[Not Thread Owner]

I’ve only got shops showing in towns I’ve been to.

[CheekyLee]

I've not even been looking at the map for the shops, if I'm honest. There are so many items laying around everywhere, and coupled with an absolute surplus of poke-centres that you can air taxi to, I've simply not needed to shop. I would like better choices of clothing, but I'm sure I'll find some eventually. 

 

I may never complete this game. Every session I start off, I see something and then go off on a tangent. 6 tangents later, I have no idea where I am or what my plan was. It's a lot like BotW in that it takes some actual effort to progress the story, and that is the highest praise I can give to an open-world game.

[robdood]

14 hours ago, deKay said:

I’ve only got shops showing in towns I’ve been to.

I think we've misunderstood each other.   Lets say a town has 10 shops.  If I've never visited the town, sure nothing is shown on the map.  But once I visit the town, icons appear on the map.  However, it only seems to show a limited number, e.g. 6 of the 10 shops appear on the map.   Even if I visit the unmarked shops, they don't then appear on the map. 

[robdood]

Another goofy one.  If you press X and select a pokemon form the list, you can choose 'check summary' and look at more details of the pokemon.  There are tabs on the top of the screen, the second tab lets you press A to remember / forget / reorder moves. Handy!! 

 

However, if you access the 'check summary' screen from the Boxes menu, the second tab DOESNT let you do any of those things.  Despite it being literally the exact same screen. 

 

Baffling. 

 

 

[Not Thread Owner]

4 minutes ago, robdood said:

I think we've misunderstood each other.   Lets say a town has 10 shops.  If I've never visited the town, sure nothing is shown on the map.  But once I visit the town, icons appear on the map.  However, it only seems to show a limited number, e.g. 6 of the 10 shops appear on the map.   Even if I visit the unmarked shops, they don't then appear on the map. 

 

Ah, right. Is it, perhaps, only certain types of shop showing up? Like only those that sell sandwiches or hats or something?

[thesnwmn]

25 minutes ago, robdood said:

Another goofy one.  If you press X and select a pokemon form the list, you can choose 'check summary' and look at more details of the pokemon.  There are tabs on the top of the screen, the second tab lets you press A to remember / forget / reorder moves. Handy!! 

 

However, if you access the 'check summary' screen from the Boxes menu, the second tab DOESNT let you do any of those things.  Despite it being literally the exact same screen. 

 

Baffling. 

 

 

 

I've not played this so at a guess is the first mechanism the Pokemon in your party, i.e. the ones you have on you. Meanwhile the ones in the boxes are your storage. So you cannot change them because you don't have them with you.

 

Even if that's the case it's pointless. It creates busy work for no reason.

[RubberJohnny]

Despite the technical issues, this is pretty good, but it's annoying how many things feel like a step back from Arceus.

 

That game had super fast and fluid traversal, here your Miraidon is slow and just has the worst jankiest floatiest sluggiest jump to crawl about.

 

And the town in that game was barebones as fuck, but it had all the critical stuff in a little compact area so you could go back and knock out everything super quick, here it's way too big, it's like an MMO town when the servers are down. There's loads of massive empty areas where there's no reason to ever go and there's like 10 identikit cafes because they've had to stretch everything out too much.

 

Same goes for the regions, they're massive, but really lacking in points of interest and so you just end up seeing the same creatures everywhere, Arceus actually did more with less, there were a lot more unique areas in a more compact space like a little lake with an island that has a unique creature that rewarded exploration.

[CheekyLee]

34 minutes ago, RubberJohnny said:

That game had super fast and fluid traversal, here your Miraidon is slow and just has the worst jankiest floatiest sluggiest jump to crawl about.

Beat some Titans. That gets better!

 

The shops thing is weird, I now see it. Zapaldea Footwear I'm Mesagoza just does not show on my map. I have left the area and come back, but the shops don't refresh. I doubt they are so independent that they refuse to appear on tourist maps, so what the hell?

[CheekyLee]

34 minutes ago, RubberJohnny said:

That game had super fast and fluid traversal, here your Miraidon is slow and just has the worst jankiest floatiest sluggiest jump to crawl about.

Beat some Titans. That gets better!

 

The shops thing is weird, I now see it. Zapaldea Footwear I'm Mesagoza just does not show on my map. I have left the area and come back, but the shops don't refresh. I doubt they are so independent that they refuse to appear on tourist maps, so what the hell?

[robdood]

46 minutes ago, thesnwmn said:

Even if that's the case it's pointless. It creates busy work for no reason.

Sums up how I feel about a lot of the UI / UX - everyone's banging on about the graphics being low polish, but jeeeeez the menus, man.  

 

Using a potion mid fight?  Yeah here's about 5 dialog boxes you need to press A to click through before it actually happens.  

 

 

[robdood]

I do love how quaxly's final evolution is like some baffling kung fu drag queen.  Defo chose the best starter. The top tier fire Croc looks hella ugly. 

[thesnwmn]

Almost* all Pokemon that evolve from cute animals into very humanoid forms are cursed.

* There are exceptions like Ludicolo.

 

It seems to have become a big thing in the more recent generations. Not just that they often become bipedal but very horrible human in cosplay vibes.

[Popo]

Yikes, the visual shortcomings of the game are laid bare when playing on the big screen. Playing handheld really hides the low quality textures and basic geometry. But it’s really bad. 

[Popo]

What the fuck is that giant olive rolling gym test at Cortodo all about? 
 

Complete garbage. 

[robdood]

4 hours ago, Popo said:

What the fuck is that giant olive rolling gym test at Cortodo all about? 
 

Complete garbage. 

Lol the gym tests don't get much better. 

 

I think you have to remember it is for kids, ultimately. My 9yo kinda digs the goofy stuff 

[Popo]

6 minutes ago, robdood said:

Lol the gym tests don't get much better. 

 

I think you have to remember it is for kids, ultimately. My 9yo kinda digs the goofy stuff 

I don’t mind it conceptually, to be honest - Mario and Zelda have exactly this kind of stuff and it’s fine. But this was mechanically woeful and devoid of any sense of imagination. You can’t say it’s fun, unlike say the BotW Goron boulder rolling mini game, which has a much higher skill ceiling and deeper mechanics. 
 

This was just a single ramp asset repeated ten times and placed at random in a small enclosed square. I might be flogging a dead horse but - well, it’s massively, objectively, thrown-together-in-an-hour terrible. 

[robdood]

15 hours ago, Popo said:

I don’t mind it conceptually, to be honest - Mario and Zelda have exactly this kind of stuff and it’s fine. But this was mechanically woeful and devoid of any sense of imagination. You can’t say it’s fun, unlike say the BotW Goron boulder rolling mini game, which has a much higher skill ceiling and deeper mechanics. 
 

This was just a single ramp asset repeated ten times and placed at random in a small enclosed square. I might be flogging a dead horse but - well, it’s massively, objectively, thrown-together-in-an-hour terrible. 

Oh totally.  The later ones are hilariously bad. 

 

A lot of the game is hilariously bad if I'm honest. I'm not sure why I'm persisting, but there's definitely something compelling about catching them all.  And doing up my schoolgirl character in new hats/socks/shoes.  Shame you can't change out of your school uniform.