Pokemon Scarlet and Violet on Switch
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet offer some of the best, most fun experiences I’ve had in the series. Unfortunately, there are also several aspects of the game that take a step backward from previous entries. It has plenty of strengths that make it worth playing, but its shortcomings hold it back from reaching excellence.
This ninth generation of Pokemon takes place in Paldea, the first completely open-world region. Other Pokemon titles on the Nintendo Switch have taken bite-sized attempts at an open world (Sword and Shield’s Wild Area and Legends Arceus’s open biomes), but this is the first time you can travel in any direction for the entire game and choose which challenges to take on in whatever order you wish.
The open-world of Paldea works well, and I think it does so because instead of a single storyline to follow, there are three paths to take that break up any potential monotony or forced path. As usual, one of the routes involves the gym challenge to collect eight badges and take on the Pokemon League. This time, the game also includes a separate story regarding the mysterious Titan Pokemon and another following Team Star, a rebellious group of students at your school.
Since you can take on these paths simultaneously, I traveled around the map at my own pace, taking on challenges from each one in the order I thought looked most interesting. If I felt like a challenge was too difficult, I left and came back later. There’s no level scaling, and while that feature might have worked well, I was perfectly fine with returning to the tougher areas later.
When it comes to open-world games, many players worry that the map will be so large it becomes void of interesting content. I didn’t feel that way when playing. Wild Pokemon appear in the overworld as they did in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, so I was always on the lookout for rare species and shinies. There are also plenty of item drops across the map that respawn over time, so even doubling back to an area I had been to before yielded something new.
Another way that Scarlet and Violet took inspiration from Legends: Arceus was by riding on Pokemon to navigate the world. This time, you have the ability to ride on the game’s main legendary from the start of the game. Though it’s limited at first, you can improve your traveling skills throughout one of the story paths, eventually gaining the ability to climb, glide, and more. This kept the game balanced by making it harder to access the more difficult areas of the map before I was ready for them.
The new Pokemon designs in this generation are fantastic. I finally love all three starters when they are fully evolved. Animals that had been highly requested for years now have a Pokemon equivalent, such as a dolphin, a peacock, and a flamingo. Some of the new Pokemon have totally unique ways to evolve that we’ve never seen before.
I’m a fan of Terastalization, this generation’s gimmick in which Pokemon are assigned a Tera Type that can be different than their usual type. The Pokemon can transform into a beautiful crystalized version of themselves (I fondly refer to this as “Bejeweled Mode” or “Swarovski Crystal Mode”), and it really changes the strategy of battles since now a Pokemon can essentially turn into any type, like a Pikachu having a Water Tera Type.
There’s also a new concept called Paradox Pokemon, which are Pokemon based on species from the past (in Scarlet) and future (in Violet)—these special species give new life to old designs, and they tie into the game’s story after all three paths are completed.
Speaking of the story, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet have what is probably the best one in the series. Initially, the storylines throughout the three paths are nothing to write home about and are pretty typical of any other Pokemon game: opposing team tries to make your life harder as you collect gym badges to become the champion of the region—we’ve been there, done that plenty of times.
But then the story really kicks off in the game’s ending sequence after all of those other storylines are finished. Without spoiling anything, the final section of the game is absolutely superb, is much more mature than I ever expected it to be, and contains what is easily the most memorable final battle in the history of the series.
The last positive I want to discuss is the game’s multiplayer experience. Given Nintendo’s history with online multiplayer in games, I initially didn’t have high hopes for it in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. But my reservations were proven wrong when I was able to quickly team up with three other friends and play together.
The cool part about the multiplayer experience here is that you can play the entire game independently while in a friend’s world. In other words, I was able to take on a gym challenge while two of my friends teamed up for a Tera Raid battle while the fourth friend was on the other side of the map working on completing his Pokedex. We met up to take selfies, make sandwiches on a picnic, and ride around on our legendary Pokemon together.