Arriving in 2022, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is an ambitious entry into the beloved Pokémon franchise. As with previous generations of Pokémon games, it introduces new Pokémon, characters, mechanics, stories and environments, but is it actually any good? I must admit some bias because I am a huge Pokémon fan, but even with this consideration, I feel as though Pokémon Scarlet and Violet (2022) may be entertaining for younger, and newer fans, but lacks a lot of love and refinement to be considered an objectively good game.
Gameplay – 7/10
Firstly, the game’s biggest strength is probably the gameplay. It reuses the same classic formula of catching Pokémon to battle and train whilst considering all the nuance of Pokémon and move types, stats, battle items and abilities which mix well as an easy-to-learn, hard-to-master gameplay that many people have grown to know and love over the years. This is still very satisfying to play and is enabled further with new Pokémon and players will absolutely enjoy the fun of choosing and catching their own team that they can grow emotionally-attached to. On top of this, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet (2022) have introduced a new battle mechanic, ‘terrastallizing’, which throws another curveball into the gameplay which was very fun, especially combined with #tera raids’ and local or online multiplayer. There were, however, a few notable shortcomings. For a game that has the tag lin ‘Gotta Catch ’em All’, it was rather disappointing that not every Pokémon was included in the game. This was developed in the DLC, which players will have to pay further to have access to, which added more Pokémon and interesting storylines and characters, but, call me old school, but I prefer to have my games released all in one go. Further to this, playing through the game at times felt more like a grind a chore that needed to be done, rather than because I wanted to play it. The game marketed itself as being more ‘Open World’ than its predecessors and to an extent that is true, you can indeed walk from one end of the map to the other and approach the game in any order you like, but there is already a set level of difficulty for each gym leader and boss encounter so good luck battling Norman with your Level 10 Sprigatito. It must also be said that outside of this main gameplay, secondary gameplay elements are rather boring. This includes extras such as ‘picnicking’ which is designed for you to hang out with your Pokémon and can have additional benefits such as boosting stats and breeding, but can quickly become a gameplay chore as a means to an end rather than a fun activity in itself. Whilst the core gameplay is still as fun as ever, Nintendo still have a way to go to make the Pokémon games more diversified an fun in gameplay. I am personally still waiting for the triumphant return of Pokémon competitions.
Game Narrative – 4/10
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet (2022) starts with three main quest lines that the player can choose freely how and when to pursue (if the player can overcome the aforementioned set difficulty). There is the standard gym battles culminating in battling the Elite Four and becoming a Pokémon champion, ‘Star’ missions that pit the player against a gang of rogue students that attend the same school as the player, and ‘Titan’ missions that see the player fight large Pokémon to obtain special herbs to help the character, Arven, in the game. The gym battles were standard but rather monotonous and lacking anything special. There are gym missions one needs to complete before battling the gym leader but they are not difficult and feel to be more of a quirky filler for the game rather than anything of real substance. I found the ‘Star’ missions to be flat out boring. It was a side mission that goes into depth about bullying but I found myself lacking empathy for the characters involved and this was due to poor writing and narrative development on behalf of the developers. The ‘Titan’ missions, however were actually quite fun and a rather enjoyed the story as I felt involved in developing the characters on their journey in this arc. I also found the concept of the ‘Titan’ Pokémon to be very engaging and an interesting challenge to defeat. These three storylines all culminate in a somewhat interesting, if not predictable ending. The game narrative was saved from a lower score with the addition of an extra story in The Teal Mask and Indigo Disk DLC with characters Kieran and Carmine that I found very entertaining and had a reasonable story with Kieran in particular going through character development that I was actually interested in.
Art Direction – 2/10
The game is supposed to be set in the region of Paldea, which is mostly inspired by culture from modern day Spain. If it was not for the occasional Spanish word inserted in dialogue by NPCs, I do not think I would have been able to tell you that this game had direction with Spanish influence in mind. Unfortunately, I believe the art direction for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet fell very flat. It appears to be a generic copy of other 3D Pokémon games, such as Pokémon Sword and Shield (2019), that came before and even they had much to be desired in artistic direction back then. Granted, the Art Direction of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet (2022) has the basic charm of a Pokémon game that has taken many years to cultivate, but it definitely still lacks anything close to honing its own personality. This is likely a challenge for the developers as Pokémon has traditionally been a 2D series of games and has only recently made the leap to 3D over the past few years. Hopefully, with time and technology, Pokémon will be able to find its artistic form and flourish. Admittedly, the best use of colour and art direction was probably at the game’s climax in the forbidden Area Zero, but it is not the standard throughout the whole game.
Audio Design – 8/10
One thing that is consistent as a good feature throughout the game is the use of audio design. Each Pokémon has their own distinctive sound which some hardcore fans of the series may even recognise individually. Other good uses are battle noises and the healing theme at the Pokémon centres that players will become used to. These are iconic throughout the Pokémon series and Scarlet and Violet are no different. One very good use of audio design that come to mind in this game are listening for ‘Gimmighoul’ noises that can appear all over the map so that you know a Gimmighoul coin is in the area – useful items for evolving a Gimmighoul itself if you manage to catch one. Another good use of audio design was incorporated in the Indigo Disk DLC where the player can catch the legendary Pokémon, Meloetta, by performing a series of actions that I absolutely did not have to look up in order to work out. Beyond these uses though, the audio design only falls short in that it can often be repetitive and many players may well find themselves confused at audio design choices in Pokémon, such as their generic cries, because the sounds often have no natural pairing with the Pokémon making them. Perhaps an updated version of Pokémon noises might help this?
Score and Music – 5/10
Earlier Pokémon games, such as Pokémon Red and Blue (1996) and Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (2006) have very recognisable score and music to many fans of Pokémon. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet (2022), to my mind, does not have anywhere near this level of impact in music. It does the job in that I cannot think of any score or music that felt out-of-place or inappropriate in any context, but the overall quality was ok. The one exception I have is when the credits started rolling and Ed Sheeran’s song, ‘Celestial’, started playing, which caught me completely off-guard. It was a brilliant song made all-the-more special because it was about Sheeran’s relationship with Pokémon and that did tug on my heartstrings in a very relatable way. Whilst ‘Celestial’ is great, it unfortunately cannot speak for the score and music for the game as a whole, so overall it is profoundly average.
Game Design – 4/10
It is noteworthy how Pokémon Scarlet and Violet (2022) has noticeably less guided tutorial than its recent predecessors, which is definitely a welcome improvement. The game design is entertaining in the early stages with a large variety of Pokémon to battle and catch which is fun for new and veteran players alike. Without holding your hand, you can do some exploring at the early stages too to experiment with traversing the environment with the reward of more Pokémon and exposure to different elements of the game, such as secret doors which are unlockable later in the game. This sets the game up rather well. However, a huge negative is simply how much empty space there is in this game. For some reason the developers saw fit to create a very large game but not necessarily fill it with content. As a result, many areas throughout the game lack personality, interest and even soul. This is a very big negative as a basic mechanic of an role-playing game like Pokémon is to explore and discover and find adventure wherever one looks but this simply is not the case for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet (2022).
Technical Execution – 3/10
I shall start by saying that I encountered no game-breaking bugs or glitches during my playthrough, but this should really be the minimum expectation for any video game. Beyond this, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet (2022) was very underwhelming when looking at its technical performance. There were many times where the framerate dropped and the game slowed down greatly, presumably to load content. There were also times where wild Pokémon could not be interacted with or Koraidon (your mountable Pokémon in Scarlet) would take a few tries to climb a perfectly-climbable surface. It was also awkward when you are travelling to another destination and a wild Pokémon would literally spawn in front of you and block you getting to your destination, a step backwards like in previous games when Pokémon had random chance of appearing in the wild. These technical niggles and inefficiencies were enough to make playing the game jarring and, at times, annoying. This definitely did serve to ruin some of the fun when trying to play the game.
Character Design – 6/10
The character design in the game, including that of the Pokémon is good, even if I am still getting used to the 3D Pokémon models compared to the 2D sprites. The characters fit well into the Pokémon universe with their individual quirks and characteristics, definitely leaning into the family-friendly nature of what Pokémon is famous for. It is even nice to be able to customise your character, but the selection of outfits and clothing is rather limited and often many clothing items look similar. Some of the characters are definitely more interesting than others, with my favourites being Kieran, Carmine, Arven and Norman. Other characters are eminently forgettable but I suppose time will determine which characters, if any, are remembered fondly. As with multiple storylines, different characters will interact with the player and have their own journeys and quests that you can help them with. Some characters are rather dull with poor-to-mediocre character arcs and some have very bizarre design altogether that sometimes does not feel as though it works with the setting of the game. The overall character design is good enough for the setting in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet (2022) but can definitely be more focused in future to bring more investment from the player into these story characters, but the Pokémon look pretty good!
Overall Fun – 5/10
Game Direction – 4/10
The overall fun of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet (2022) can be derived from the general gameplay of the core game, which many people can enjoy. However, the game is held back on its great core gameplay due to limitations in technical performance, game and narrative design and art direction. Pokémon is one of the biggest global brands and is loved by many people all over the world and it is disappointing to be reviewing on of their video games with such criticisms. They are definitely capable of doing so much better and this ultimately all reflects on the score given to the game direction. I did enjoy playing this game but I freely admit that I perhaps see Pokémon games through biased eyes. Looking at this game as openly as I can, I see that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is an ok game – not terrible, not great.
Overall Rating – 48/100
