My "Review" of Pokemon Scarlet [SPOILERS FOR ENDING/DLC]

[DrampardonMe]

You HAVE been warned:

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If anyone has any questions, I'm going to sleep. See you soon.

EDIT: Okay, I'm back. To address the main concern you all might have, don't worry! This game has a HAPPY ending:

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As for The Teal Mask, WELL...

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The only thing you need to know about The Indigo Disc is Crispin is a huge dork, but in like, the coolest way ever. Mere images cannot illustrate what was previously perceived to be the physically impossible.

And perhaps the BIGGEST spoiler of ALL...

[spoiler]Blatant jokes aside, while I do feel many parts of the game, especially its plot, were rushed and/or cut* (including the DLC, which I pretty much only got because I had spare eShop money), I enjoyed Scarlet a lot more than I thought I would. Some time around Gen 6, I was getting burnt out on the series, and I actually skipped on getting Shield (for better or worse). I tried Legends Arceus off a whim and enjoyed it for what it was, so I gave Scarlet a try, too.

*I mean, this isn't anything new. Why is a "DNA Splicer" a family heirloom, for example? There's no other reason I can think of.

Is it the perfect Pokemon game? Absolutely not, but then what is? Will I get the new Legends game? The first one was enough for me, but I'm interested to see the inevitable new Mega Evolutions (if we get a Bug/Ground Mega Pinsir Z with Arena Trap, I will forgive Game Freak for the abomination we actually got) more than I am playing it.

Here are a few more opinions I have:
1. Arven > Nemona > Fossilized Pokemon Manure >>> Mega Pinsir > most Gen 9 Pokemon >>>>>>> Penny.

If you think that's harsh, it probably is, but I can't stand Penny's attitude, particularly her bizarre trust issues towards her friends (which, by the way, all of them except Ortega are awesome) Her only redeeming quality is having a Palafin poster in her room. I guess you could argue her whole "DAAAAAAD!!" issue is funny if you get who's being referenced in that one DLC arc, but I didn't when I first played it. Turns out it's a Sword/Shield reference.

Arven strikes me as the Gen 5-appeal character, and Nemona the Gen 1-appeal character (or Gen 3, I guess, since she's a "friendly" rival). I have no major issues with either of them.

2. I didn't care for the whole school setting, especially in the base game. The school trip and Blueberry Academy weren't terrible overall (though regarding Kieran, it felt like they were clearly leading up to something between him and Pecharunt, but I guess that was dropped because brainwashed children/possessed antagonists was overdone at this point? That, uh, didn't stop Pecharunt from trying, I suppose...) but that was in spite of the school context. Probably silly to complain about for a children's monster-collecting game, but I would assume there was a reason it was never done before. Director Clavell and Cyrano are both super cool, though.

3. Dendra is Best Girl with Best Taste in Second-Best Type. Her only flaw is substituting her Falinks for Hitmontop (but then I just don't like Hitmontop)

[Points 4 and 5 redacted because I was complaining about pokemon designs and we don't need two paragraphs dedicated to THAT, even if the criticisms were legit. It's been said everywhere else!]

6. As stated above, Crispin is the best dork. He's gonna be a great chef some day, and when he gets older he'll be as cool as Steven Stone. Just you wait!

The young man just wants to fly on his Magmortar. LET HIM!![/spoiler]

(Spoilered the "actual" review after the fact of posting it. It's gotten a bit long, lol)

I don't suppose anyone else has any hands-on experience/opinions to share regarding Scarlet/Violet?

And yeah, I should probably address the Koraidon in the room-- the game is buggy and slows down at parts, but I think I got off relatively easy there. Other than when my LIZARD STEED decides to take a nosedive into some polygons, get stuck, and teleport me somewhere else, I haven't had too many major problems (except early on in the game's life, like a Pokeball inexplicably being in almost all the Arven cutscenes, or this one time when I couldn't pick up two items relatively close to each other in a cave. Oh, and the Elite Four music glitch, which was apparently so bad they didn't bother reusing it for the DLC...I don't think that constitutes a major spoiler at this point?).

Some of the bugs were pretty cool, though-- I'll never forget the time I saw a sleeping Makuhita by a tree, and right next to it, a SHINY one emerged from the ground. Long before that, I got lost in one area when a Yungoos encounter got me to somewhere I don't think I should have been yet, which helped me progress elsewhere, haha.

I assume it's worse when you play with friends online? Or is it even terrible connecting in person? Or is it really down to a coin toss?

[Del]

awful performance aside, I thought S/V were pretty fun games. I have a few issues with it, mainly performance, but also the fairly rigid, fake open-world feeling (boss levels never scale based on you, so if you do stuff out of intended order, it's a breeze), and the grind required for fully unlocking the Terrarium in the DLC being truly insane unless you co-op it, but even then it takes a while.

I don't really know what people's beef with the designs are, a lot of them are really cool and I think it's a pretty nice dex overall. my full Paldea team might be one of my favourites I've used in ages, in fact? I didn't love the school setting, not because I particularly care about the school setting, but because they used it as an excuse to remove all the customisation and force you into ugly uniforms, which isn't great. Otherwise it was a fine setting, I suppose. It's not like you really engage with the setting beyond the first like, 20 minutes and then the ending anyway. Don't have any particular issues with any of the characters, and thought the story was pretty fun throughout base and DLC.

Think it was a massive shame that they introduced the Link Cable in Arceus, removed it here, and then doubled down on annoying mandatory-co-op-evo methods (Palafin), but at this point it is what it is I suppose. I also think some of the raids are just kind of Too Hard? I spent a lot of the 7 star raids trying to carry a friend through them and unless I basically give them a Pokémon and a set of instructions on what to press when, we were basically never duoing them, but I suppose this is what they wanted us to grind as a post-game now that they've removed basically everything else.

Fun games overall though, I enjoyed them. Fix performance, make boss levels scale, add real post-game content (Battle Tower/Frontier/whatever), make 7* raids a bit easier, and re-add real trainer customisation, and Gen 10 should be great I think.

[DrampardonMe]

^The lack of scaling was disappointing, to be sure. It wasn't a deal-breaker for me, but it would have personalized people's experience/choices that much more if it did, right? And yeah, I only recently got all the terrarium buffs. Found out the hard way wild Torchic were in the very last biome I decided to enhance-- and even then, not out in the open!

For me, it's less that the designs are outright terrible and more that most of them don't stand out. The ones that do really are cool (Armarouge, Dachsbun and especially shiny Cetitan are some of my new favorites, and I kinda liked Espathra after trying Flittle off a whim), but for every one of those, there's a few which look like cheap 3d models-- which, in all fairness, CAN be better than being just plain bad. Either way, I WANT to like Spidops, but it looks... artificial. My current team was mostly Pokemon from previous gens, though... I personally think they started to develop designs with 3D first and foremost in mind around Gen 7, but that wouldn't exactly explain the ones from this gen (and I suppose it doesn't apply to stuff like cross-gen evos or others based off previous Pokemon)

As for characters/setting, I guess I forgot some of the cooler parts, to be fair. I hinted at Team Star's bosses being cool (and Clive!!) and it's hard for me to pick my favorite gym leader between Katy, Kofu and Brassius, and some of them even grew on me over time (When I realized Ryme's design was a skeleton-arm for hair, it just clicked, you know?) but I still think Arven's route is my favorite, base-game-wise. If I didn't say already, I like Kieran, too. Was invested enough I kept calling him "friend" when prompted, haha.

I was fortunate to get a Palafin in a Tera Raid, and to be fair, a lot of trade-only evos are available that way, too, but I do get it's quite annoying. (I haven't paid for Nintendo Switch online at all, so I'm making things harder for myself, I guess!) And yeah, the harder Raids almost killed my enthusiasm for the game entirely. I found myself using EXP Candies on some Pokemon I'd have rather raised naturally, just to try and get the Mighty Cinderace I deep down only wanted for the novelty of it. Not fun. I ended up catching Scorbunny later at Blueberry Academy, anyway. I almost feel dirty just thinking about it...

Overall, definitely fun. A step in the right direction in some ways, needs polishing in others. I've been dying for the PWT to make a proper return, but I miss the Frontier(s) too, and none of what they do these days is a(n excellent) replacement for those. I'm so desperate for a new Frontier, I'd pay for amiibo based on the corresponding Frontier Brain. (Not saying that's a good idea, but I think Game Freak is allergic to amiibo anyway, so whatever). Re-battling previous Trainers from the current game is nice, but you still have to grind for it. In paid DLC. And you can only summon two at a time because there are three others by default (and lately I haven't seen Crispin... Rotten RNG, I guess?) I miss the Vs Seeker/Trainers' Eyes...

Customization is/was always cool, but I'd be happy if I could just BE the Blackbelt instead of, say, the Protagonist merely dressed as one. (One of the cool Blackbelts, though, some of their designs are weird) Considering all the Trainer classes/designs over the years, I'm surprised customization for the MC has been pretty limited overall, even when there ARE more options (Custom battle quotes like in Battle Revolution would be neat too, but I'm asking for a miracle there). I'm hoping Gen 10 is good, too, whether I play it or not.