The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are out! Are they the best games in the franchise, the worst, or somewhere in between??
Edited by FiveToedSloth - / @fivetoedsloth
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#Pokemon #Gaming #PokémonScarletAndViolet

[@luckytriples]

the worst part honestly is knowing that all of the issues are so easily solved simply with more development time. you can clearly see all the love and hard work put into the game to make it work with the scrap of time they had, and simply giving another year or two to truly work on those big connections to fit everything together would truly make this the best pokemon game ever made. the story, music, characters and pokemon are all amazing, and with better graphics and performance, it would so easily be a 10/10 :-(

[@kaiite]

Yeah they had no business releasing two open world main line games in the same year! those poor dev teams

[@Averagejon95]

@@kaiite at the end of the day the Pokémon company doesn’t care. They need these games to be pushed out so they can push merch and the anime

[@Crunchy_Troll]

@@Averagejon95 and the fans don’t care at all either If they really do care they would boycott But as long as they get their Pokémon fix they will pump out half baked games to feed the masses

[@Averagejon95]

@@Crunchy_Troll but look at Bayonetta 3. People were going to boycott but it still sold well after the truth came out. I bought Pokémon day 1 but I have heavily criticized it. I am enjoying fully and know the performance can be patched in. But this also shows that Pokémon company have to let gamefreak have time and spread them thing or else the games won’t do well in the future

[@powwowken2760]

The issues aren't a matter of time but of competence. Gamefreak just isn't good at making games using console hardware and people need to accept that

[@saltmines5761]

Other than the technical issues, my biggest let down was the lack of scaling among the gyms, titans, and team star raids. I was disappointed to find out that there was a sorta set path to tackle the three objectives.

[@ichi8088]

If they wanted a true open world experience for pokemon games in the future, scaling with level needs to be in the game otherwise its not a true open world because your still following “set” order in which things need to be done unless you go out the way to level past suggested levels

[@cuck1ngfunt]

There’s nothing more “true open world” than being able to go to areas that you’re too weak for early. Reminds me of trying to take out the Deathclaws in Quarry Junction at the start of fallout new vegas.

[@ichi8088]

@@cuck1ngfunt no its the fact they advertised it as you can do whatever in which you can in terms of exploring but there are 3 story lines which was also advertised as you can do them any order but basically the other are side quests and its just battling 8 gyms then elite 4. I am not saying we should be able to go do the elite 4 as the first thing but gyms should scale that way they can be done in any order which makes sense.

[@Supersctar]

@@ichi8088each gym can have a minimum level so not all can be taken on immediately but also scale up when player goes above that min level, best of both worlds. The real challenge is how to determine what it should be scaled to. Scale to the average level of pokemon in the party? Throw a level 1 or 100 into a party of 50’s and that scaling will be off. Scale to the highest level pokemon in box / party? Would require grinding for party to catch up to overleveled pokemon. Maybe simplest way is to scale based on gym badges, scale up by 5 levels for each badge. Over leveling would still be possible which would probably be a good thing for a pokemon game. This method ruins the open world feelings of coming across a challenge too great, returning to it and beating it. You can still get that experience with higher level obstacles like the cave to the psychic gym or through a titan like quest that doesn’t scale.

[@KrissyBlues]

The scaling I feel was necessary in order to provide a semblance of structure and encourage people to experiment with what sidequests they take on instead of only blitzing the gym challenge and saving everything else for later, since that's kind of the worst way to experience the game from a structural standpoint. I agree with Ye's comment above tho that having a minimum level for these challenges but scaling after you've surpassed a higher level challenge would've been greatly appreciated, since if you didn't go to the bug gym till last for example that'd be pretty embarrassing.

[@konkeydong5146]

as someone with an elder dog, the storyline with arven almost brought me to tears

[@nxtlvlzeph]

I think the game should’ve scaled depending on which bosses you’ve defeated, and not on the number of badges. For example, if you chose to clear Eri or Grusha first, the rest of the bosses would scale up to their level. Bonus points if their teams changed as well.

[@secondaegis9190]

Yeah, I agree. Here's how I think it could be done. Disclaimer, I have no idea how to do ROM hacking First, create a variable with a stored value of zero. When you go to any challenge, it'll be scaled to the base level of trainers, around 15 or so. Then, once you beat something major, the variable is increased by one, adding more levels to the teams, though not changing the teams and movesets. At an even higher variable score, say 3 or so, the gym teams are updated for an even harder challenge. By level the time you reach the cap of level 17, it's BDSP post game levels of hard

[@wholelottanuts]

it's Gamefreak, of course they won't do that

[@MrBradly93]

I would also add that this is one of the best stories they have ever made. All three of the companions were actually enjoyable and by the end game, I liked all of them.

[@probablyzaddy]

Came here to say this. Sad to see the launch of the games overshadowed by technical issues. The Path of Legends and Star Street had some of the best stories I've seen in my 25 years playing the franchise.

[@blur2055]

Same!! Tbh I had fun playing the game and it is the first Pokémon game I’ve ever beat.

[@TechnoArpan]

@@probablyzaddy Even the Victory Road was one of the more fun versions of the gym challenge due to the uniquely quirky gym leaders, the e4 which feel like a found family and are actual characters interacting with the world instead of people who only appear once to battle. Especially Nemona, who's such an interesting character choice for a rival. She's probably my fav character in the franchise.

[@harmony6643]

I still think the story in Black and White was better (and XY wasn't bad either) and the characters had more depths, but it's clear they put effort into the story of Scarlet and Violet and I do appreciate that and think it's not bad. I just sadly can't really take TeamStar seriously ...

[@Zerox_Z21]

The frustration at the inexcusably cheap and rushed nature of these games hasn't gone away. But, it's nice to see a more favourable and nuanced take as there's a lot of good to be found here. Just wish it wasn't always 3 steps forward, 2 back with Pokemon.

[@bagelprince3]

honestly i think my biggest gripe is the steps back with costomization. i dont wanna wear a dumb uniform all the game! even if it comes in four different forms! edit: and furret not being in the game should be counted as a war crime.

[@averagechannelname9969]

Oooo true that got on my nerves as well! We went so many steps forward with the dozens of options they provided yet at the same time, the clothes have like nothing

[@bagelprince3]

@@averagechannelname9969 i like some of the hats but like. Having the shirt and pants icons still in the shop menus feels like theyre mocking us dnjsjfjfj

[@averagechannelname9969]

@@bagelprince3 Yes exactly! I had to look up where the shirt and pants shop was, only to find out there was none lmao

[@Thunderhawk51]

60€ decision... Do you want to wear orange pants or purple pants for the rest of the eternity?

[@LuminesBreezer--]

Lol I just threw on a hat a called it a day.

[@AGuyNamedBryson]

The games are really fun, and the story shows that the heart is still in it, it’s just that they should have delayed it a bit to iron out the kinks. It’s a shame that the higher ups probably will never allow a Pokémon game to be delayed, but these games had so much potential to be the best that was completely squashed by rushing the games out.

[@idrissb9742]

Its not that they wont allow it, but they cant. They need the games out to get new content to create merchandise. Pokemon games will never be good again since gen 5 :) but people will keep buying them , so no big deal

[@secondaegis9190]

I keep hearing people say that the story is very good, especially Arven's. How good would you personally rate all the paths of the story?

[@Calmasis_1025]

@@idrissb9742 That means wont, if the only thing stopping them is merch, which they could easily make from the literal thousand other characters they have, then its not a can't; its a wont. they would easily still make tons of money if they just worked with the characters they had for at least a year. Not to mention they could always have another dev studio make a spin off, like a mystery dungeon game. It wouldn't sell like a new generation, but it would still sell.

[@Lmjacks]

@@idrissb9742 i very much agree with calmasis here. sure, things like merch and the anime and cards depend on mainline releases, this has been true for decades. however, the structures of those businesses can and should be changed to accommodate a longer development cycle for the games. 3 years is just not remotely enough time anymore considering how small gamefreak for the scope of their projects and the artstyle they now operate in. i'm sure they recognize this and i just hope something changes as a result of this release

[@raph3699]

@@secondaegis9190 victory road storyline 5/10 not much story but you have some neat interactions. Path of legend storyline 9/10 very touching story with a lot of dramatic moments and serious subjects. Starfall operation storyline 8/10 it talks about interesting subjects with a unique point of view but it lacks some consequences.

[@marcalcantara1174]

If only they made the levels scale. The performance issues will be fixed eventually but the open world without scaling is such a bad decision

[@francescomoretti934]

The didn’t even put a “suggested level” in the description of every boss battle

[@Sootielove]

I honestly think the lack of scaling made it more interesting. It made the game have a sense of challenge where you could intentionally test yourself with higher level areas or learn to follow the steady increase. I think more signposting of levels with the bosses could be helpful, but I found you could use wild pokemon to get a good sense for it

[@ProgidyTaco]

@@Sootielove It would be cool if there was an option at the start of the game where you could choose between having everything level scaled or leave it as it is.

[@taylorjames14]

@@Sootielove yeah but it's impossible not to be over levelled at some point with no level scaling unless you change your team a lot.

[@handsoaphandsoap]

I don’t get why people think the bugs and glitches in this game will “be fixed eventually”, Pokémon aren’t known for doing performance patches and they’re not gonna start now. This is the game we have and it’s unlikely to change.

[@PaladinNathan]

Honestly, a perfect articulation of the thoughts I had. The story is phenomenal, especially against previous stories. The level scaling being absent really annoyed me because I remember sitting and thinking of what order I could do the challenges in for various run throughs of the game, only to find out there is something of a set pathing. Regardless, the games are still pretty good. The technical issues are something, but they don't detract too terribly from the core gameplay. It feels good to be a Pokémon fan right now.

[@solivares]

While fighting the Elite 4 and Champion, the soundtrack was bugged and I played all those battles with the soundtrack on a 10 second loop. At first I thought the soundtrack was a little underwhelming but didn’t pay much more attention to it. Then, by chance I heard both the full Elite 4 and Champion themes on KZbin and it was such a letdown.

[@LordLucario12]

From what I've heard, the soundtrack bug is a part of the memory leak issue

[@michaelhernandez1841]

I had that same issue with the E4.

[@vanderson83]

I had no idea that was a bug, I actually thought the soundtrack was terrible

[@frank2mb]

Damn, I also had that looping bug.

[@wedding6515]

@@vanderson83 its still terrible in full, dont worry

[@CarbRundum]

Hyped for the FlygonHG essay arc

[@Alulucard]

From a shiny hunting perspective, I'm so happy that overworld shinys are a thing, I just wish that they had something kind of sparkling effect especially for the pokémon that have very similar shiny sprites

[@Pheonee]

Seeing how much soul and innovation they tried to inject into these games just makes me even more heartbroken about the incredibly cramped development cycle, and the fact that it's currently next to impossible to extend it due to the fact that multiple other industries hinge on the mainline games - the anime, TCG, and all the tie-in merch. The mainline games dev cycle essentially set the pace for like 20 other dev cycles and they HAVE to keep to that pace. There's so much about these games that clearly show where the creators tried to do something amazing but ran out of time to really pull it off, from the clunky "open-world" progression to the ambitious but incredibly unrefined graphics. The devs are clearly, CLEARLY trying their best to expand on these famously formulaic games and put more refreshing spins on them - you can see them starting this back in XY, and every gen since then has attempted to add variety to the structure of the games as much as they've added gimmicks to the combat. I unironically love this, but it's inevitably resulting in games that are just more and more clearly crunched and unpolished. It's to the point where I've kind of started feeling like each new generation is less a complete game and more an iteration they have to get through in order to make more time for the next one. Boycotting is meaningless. Still, nothing but respect to the devs, and I'm glad that these games are still able to be enjoyed in the meantime! Thanks for the video as always!

[@daveyinblade]

In defense of the auto heal, not having status effects healed makes purposefully having a status effect bit easier to maintain. Now why there isn't a toggle to use status curing items or even revive pokemon is beyond me

[@TheEnigmaticKasai]

But how often are you purposefully trying to keep a status effect vs wanting to heal everything? I'd much rather have to skip the auto heal and go into my bag for 1 pokemon, than have to do that literally any time one of my team gets status'd

[@thescrimble]

Time crunch go brr Poor programmers :(

[@palibakufun]

Thank you for being one of the people whose takes I can almost always agree with. I got the game and played through it before interacting with any content, and for sure the biggest complaint I had was the game performing like shit, but I had such a fantastic time that I kind of forgot about it after a while. But I was a little flabbergasted when people were saying EVERYTHING was bad, and was incredibly confused, because I do think this has one of the best Pokemon games inside of it somewhere, and I certainly felt that playing through it.

[@IceG321]

For real, the game definitely has some issues, but it's a bit upsetting seeing some of the rants on reddit and having that turn people away from the game. I feel like a lot of games and media either have to be 100% or they get torn apart.

[@lusciouslocks8790]

@@IceG321 Honestly, I think even if they were 100% perfect they'd be torn apart. Maybe I'm just projecting here, but I get the vibe from a lot of Reddit-like rants on newer entries in _any_ video game series that the crux of the issue is the ranter just got tired of the series (which isn't a bad thing) or is remembering their nostalgic childhood through rose-tinted glasses (which is understandable), but doesn't understand this themself and is misdirecting that disappointment towards the new games because "well why else would I dislike them?" At least in the Pokémon fandom we've seen this attitude present at least for a few people since all the way back in Gold and Silver 😭

[@intergalactic92]

@@lusciouslocks8790for real it is a vocal minority but they are very vocal. It’s a problem in basically all fandoms, once they get old enough OG fans will get tired of it, and starting pining for the good old days, regardless of how good the new stuff might be.

[@BelligerentPenguin]

This was an interesting and well thought-out video essay! I feel like you did a good job, and I would love to see more videos like this.

[@ghostcatgaming13]

My only problem with S&V is the "no level scaling" Like the leader (GYM/team star/titans) doesnt need to scale to lower level, but just scale to higher level to make it interesting and challenging

[@kribixis]

This is the first actually sensible critique of these games I've come across. Very informative as well. Nice job mr. Flygon 👏

[@skullers1648]

Video essays seriously suit you, mr flygon sir

[@blueythedragonknight3949]

Despite the flaws presented, Scarlet and Violet are genuinely good pokemon games and i can tell you that it's miles better than Sword and Shield and the 10 million sold proves that any publicity is good publicity. The region of Paldea actually looks and feels like an actual an actual region and not the long hallway that was the Galar region.

[@BossaruMan]

Great video essay. This is my preferred style of content. I've dropped off watching Nuzlockes recently, but I loved the analysis style of this video. If you make more of these, I will watch.

[@jacobyounce3223]

I WILL SAY, you definitely can out strategize even the most over-leveled bosses if you so choose! I remember finding out the hard way that Great Tusk was roughly double my level at the time (i had lvl 18-22 pokemon), and it wiped my team. I came back immediately, this time with a couple larvestas i caught in the wild which had flame body, so I got the burn to proc on it. Then, I cycled through multiple drifloon that had the aftermath ability, each one taking out 1/4 of its health when they fainted. This got me a very scrappy, no-holds-barred victory that gave me a rush that I haven't felt in pokemon since I was 10 years old, 12 years ago. I'm glad there's no level scaling tbh. Let the limits be set by what a person is willing to face up against, not walls, nor by making everything be close to your level.

[@Thunderhawk51]

Exactly this. You can always add more salt by yourself if the food is too bland... But there's no way of taking the salt out if there's already too much... 😉 Let people spice up their own games. Me, personally, I love to be as OP as possible. I just steamroll over everything with one hit because I literally couldn't care less about any challenges. I just want to play the game and play the story. I know, these games don't really have any storyline but what little is there I'll take it.

[@timmaia5082]

Really nice to see this, not only a fun watch but also super informative! Keep up the good work my dude

[@edithprince5305]

I really like this style of scripted essay/review. You have a really measured way of going about it, I found it really useful as somebody thinking of getting the game. Would love to see more videos like this

[@Agroveb]

You’ve summed up my feelings so well!! I don’t want to just ignore the issues with the game, but people seem so quick to trash on what is easily the biggest jump forward in game design Pokémon has ever taken!

[@4wilmo]

Biggest they’ve ever taken, which is minuscule compared to other franchises that are worth a fraction of what the Pokémon franchise is worth.

[@DarknessDust]

@@4wilmo this is my biggest problem too. Nintendo has the money and they had the time as they had already pumped out Arceus and the remakes of Diamond and Platinum. They could have waited until 2023 easily. It seems like a big jump and if we compare these to previous pokémon games then yeah, absolutely, but that doesn't take away the fact that all jumps have been little for such a huge franchise. I just hope they learn from this and give the devteams more time and maybe resources (and ffs STOP MAKING CAT STARTERS BIPEDAL xDDD) Also, @alex Belden for some of my friends this game is almost unplayable with numerous crashes, so if there are people who are allowed to trash on this game, I'd say it's people like them xD

[@vesrra8185]

@@DarknessDust remakes are diamond and pearl. They didnt include anything from platinum.

[@DarknessDust]

@@vesrra8185 typo, meant pearl

[@TechnoArpan]

@@4wilmo fairly true, but an improvement should atleast be acknowledged, else we end up with a BW situation. Those games had a lot put into them but ended up being the worst selling ones, which ended up with GF not trying and us getting gen 6

[@benjolin5208]

Excellent video. You touched on a lot of good points. I would enjoy more videos like this

[@Its_Shio]

Regarding level scaling, I think a nice compromise would've been keeping the level caps exactly as they are, _however,_ if you, say, defeat the 8th gym 5th, like I did, all of the lower-leveled challenges _scale to that level._ This would ensure that if you want to take on something 10 levels above you, you totally can, but it won't babymode all of the challenges prior to that.

[@blissfulstatic2563]

fellow early grusha fighter :D i was excited because i thought the game was picking up in difficulty but it turned out it just meant i could sweep every other fight

[@DragonDArrior]

I'm a Fan of Pokémon, but that doesn't mean I buy every game with no questioning...

[@JustJamieonYT]

Smashed it on this video dude! very informative and brutally honest where needed!

[@magnemitegaming2203]

Honestly while it would be better if there was information for boss fights in game, it was pretty fun taking on grusha with Pokemon in the mid 20s and winning. Hell I beat all 5 titans with 2 badges and pokemon in the early 20s and it made the fights pretty difficult as I had to figure out what each of my goobers could do before getting obliterated but it still would be nice if the game gave you better hints.

[@Rocky112x]

A very well thought-out video! I agree with these points totally. Nice job as always! It's sad to see the fate of your first Nuzlocke team, I caught the stream for a little bit when the game first came out lol. Spoilers ahead! Gotta say though, while the exploration is overall fun, the north (higher-level) part of the map leaves A LOT to be desired. With so many open-world games making the overworld mostly wilderness, I really liked all of the larger cities dotted around the south half of Paldea, while still keeping in a great amount of pretty nature to look at. But the whole north half is dominated by the huge lake and mountain. The lake has a nice little forest nearby but a sleepy little lake village, with or without a gym, would have been great to add some more depth to the north area. The mountain has one town and two gyms - the second gym has just a tiny pokemon center and nothing else, which, given its snowboarding theme, is another missed opportunity. These are all minor issues over an otherwise largely polished part of the game, but it really takes away major incentives and rewards for exploring in the toughest areas in the game.

[@iacorati7905]

about the lynel comparison with the gym leader: the most important difference is that you DON'T have to fight a lynel if you wanna comlplete the mainlain story of the game

[@hissingwillows668]

Yep! Even if you do the Zora area first and get handed a Lynel with the implication that it's going to try and murder you, you can use strategy/stealth/resources to avoid/dodge/escape fighting it but there's nothing like that possible with Pokemon currently.

[@flprtc]

great essay, dude! Really brings useful info on the new games, I'm still not sure if I'll buy them or not, since I'm an oldschool fan of the series, but since the bdsp rollout I've genuinely excited about pokemon again. I liked this new format, think it would be really interesting and diverse to bring these types of essays in between nuzlockes. Personally, I would love to see reviews/essays about older generations and pokemon's overall history. Sending you much love from Brazil!

[@Torosiken]

you bring up A LOT of good points in this video without sounding biased, props to you. This is a good video. And I agree on making the gyms doing flat lv50 rules would be interesting, especially when they actually explained the rule in the class and give you access to all kind of team building material.

[@flamoctapus4445]

Really great video man, would love to see more like it. Curious about what you meant by the games being perfect for nuzlockes, the opposite seems true to me.

[@McKayla24798]

I think this is a great video! I pretty much agree completely with all the positives and negatives, I actually went and challenged Iono first cause I didn’t know she was supposed to be the third gym leader and then Katy and grass guy wound up being total jokes

[@LuminesBreezer--]

Agreed there. Katy was an absolute run-through.

[@justafossil]

I'm really hoping the release schedule slows down for mainline games in the future ( I doubt it will, because capitalism, but I'm hoping) if only because this new style of game takes MUCH longer to develop and polish than the old ones did. If we got more time between releases and a little bit of outsourcing to or hiring-on of devs that are more familiar with creating open world titles, I really think we'd get something amazing out of the next gen of pokemon. A lot of the issues I had with scarlet/violet simply came from things really obviously being rushed out the door, and while I still really enjoyed my time with these titles, I can't help but think how great they'd be with even just a few more months in QA than what they got.

[@fellowpassenger_54-67]

It seems that your wish has been granted with Legends Z-A, I think it will be one of the more polished games in the franchise thanks to having legends arceus to build off of for development

[@KrystalFairyFriend]

It's unfortunate they aren't going to be fixing the performance issues, I watched a clip from another youtuber where apparently the frames were so bad it didn't register an hour and a half in game. I adore the game. But yeah it needs to be fixed, via performance and level scaling (I at first went to the bug/grass cause I got fire starter then I just went to basically every strong gym. I like a challenge)

[@gregorymcafee4946]

I think a ghost type monolocke in scarlet could be really fun there are a lot of different/cool ghosts in the region.

[@daniel6678]

always love a flygonhg video essay!!

[@josephbrewer8206]

Everything you said is spot on. It's nice to see a critique that gives the ups and downs. Good job.

[@Aristele]

8:37 amogu-- this is nice, i like seeing you try other types of content instead of just challenge runs! Honestly would also love to see more videos like that one where you dissed Onix as well. idk if it's just me though, but the audio quality feels a bit off on this one? maybe i'm tripping ;_;

[@gauravaaditya]

This was such a great review! I really love your commentary so much. Though I did miss a TS reference in this video. Is it only restricted to nuzlockes? XD

[@bystander003]

Nemona was definitely one of the best rivals. Love her personality.

[@Thunderhawk51]

Same. She actually felt like a true friend and she had a lot of facial expressions. Although a bit one dimensional battle freak, it never really got too boring or repetitive for me. Still puts last few gens to shame. Most of them in fact.

[@TechnoArpan]

Nemona is probably my fav character in the franchise. There's just something about a rival character who's done it all and is therefore perpetually bored and wants a challenge that's appealing to me. Geeta is her idol but she's surpassed Geeta, by Geeta's own words, so she doesn't have anyone to look up to. She's like a character study into what being the MC of a pokemon game is like. When she battles us at the end of Victory Road, she wants to be beaten because she's become too strong and if the player can beat her, she'll finally have a reason to keep trying harder and improving. She places limits on herself when battling others and holds back so it isn't too easy, which is something a lot of players do. Placing self restrictions. Also, she desires violence 24/7 which is valid

[@sven3316]

I know you probably won't see this, but I'd really like to see a bug types only run in X/Y, seeing as how much you like Kalos and I love bug types and there's many to use, I think it would be a great vid!

[@slowbrodragon6951]

I wish I could listen hours to this essay, it's so beautifully crafted, completely hones, but still praising what the game does right. I would love more video's like this! You should become video game reviewer!

[@ExActa]

I'd love to see videos in this style covering other generations of pokemon in some sort of retrospective

[@pulchrare2]

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it! I don't like the direction of "only open world games can be good", but that's a personal gripe and is obviously not true for everyone. But even beyond that, I'm not super inclined to support a game that was clearly crunched. It needed some more time, and I think it would have been a more well received game if it had gotten that. I might pick it up eventually, but I'm definitely going to wait a bit to see if it gets patched before I do.

[@ethanbuck1403]

no one thinks only open world games are good lmao

[@alexandermullarkey210]

Thank you, Dr. Flygon!! I love the video essay content and your voice, and I do appreciate all your work!

[@ebberry_jay3144]

Given that I watch your videos to wind down, I'm loving the hg dip into video essasys!

[@tanalincia6314]

I have to basically 100% agree with everything you've said. I'm kinda easy to please so none of the issues detract from the fact that I absolutely adored these games. But you bring up several concerns which if fixed would improve the games tremendously.

[@danielhale1]

Same here, I was saddened by the bugs and problems, but not enough to curb my enjoyment of these fantastic games. Also Larry is the best gym leader. Also? The end area blew my mind. I didn't know the Pokemon franchise could make an area look so majestic. I got some serious Made In Abyss vibes from it.

[@TheAlexEah]

The level scaling was the biggest issue I had with the game. I set myself the goal to complete the pokedex eventually, so from the beginning I started catching every Pokémon in any new area I reached. That, thanks to catching giving exp and it being shared across my team, meant I was ridiculously overleveled for the first Gym (I was around lvl 20 and the Gym itself around 10). I kept going west and found lvl 29ish pokemon, so I thought that was the natural progression of the game. I kept filling up my Pokédex and eventually reached my third Gym in Las Brasas at around lvl 40. Then, thanks to a friend, I found out that Gym is in fact the FOURTEENTH you're meant to face, which means I had completely skipped the low level areas and gyms in eastern Paldea. I had to ditch my entire team in the PC and start over with 6 low level Pokémon, it was insane.

[@HazeEmry]

One stretch of a pro I can say is that if you plan to play according to the levels while unfortunately overlevelled, this game makes it easy to swap battle teams and sorta incentivises people to use different lower levelled mons. Of course this is a roundabout way to look at this but its one way to see it. That being said, I had 12 mons I cycle around and I still got overlevelled nearing the end of all 3 paths lmao.

[@pepagacy]

At least Sneasel made the cut, so I am happy for this game. 😉 I think there is a bit of level scaling going on in the game, but that only involves the rival battles. I've seen some other videos where the timing of (and team composition) are different if you fight the gym battles out of order. But I would have really liked to have seen a suggested order for the battles in game, as opposed to have found one on online in an IGN walkthrough. (Even then I got the gym order wrong by fighting the Water gym before the Electric gym, which made the Electric one rather trivial.

[@chada4806]

Love this video, as someone who loves this game but has mixed feelings about the development, I think this video does a great job of expressing said feelings. 💜❤️💜

[@Lexon3096]

Great video I think it perfectly resumes the games experience

[@RighteousToast]

Best recent game in my opinion. Just needed more time to not be broken

[@enriquemagdaleno7885]

This was an incredibly fair-minded review!! I appreciate the honesty in acknowledging that the games aren’t perfect but nonetheless still pivot the Pokémon franchise into a better direction. One thing I appreciate is the complex cave systems in the game (looking at you Galar Mine 1 and 2 😠), and I can’t wait to see what the DLC’s will bring!

[@Razius33Officiel]

You spoke nearly all the details I thought about while playing, and probably a lot of others. You're essay is super well written. Two things you didn't mention: first is the overall more realistic story line not so much centered around the end of the ocean, time and space or wathever would change the world and be given to solve to a 10 yo, with all the appropriate changes to the characters, letting the player feeling closer to them. The other thing is as you put it, when Game Freaks gives a nice change, it's not as polished as it should be, because the potential of the school environment is not even touched. It would have been so much fun to have both the academy grape and orange be included in the story line, or the scolar courses be more integrated with the game (like take a course on to unlock some area or mechanics by going in the field with the teacher) rather click buttons to go through text. Otherall, thank you for the video, and I'm looking forward your nuzlocke on this nice Games. PS : I hope they'd rather fix bugs than work on DLCs

[@steaktastebetterpill]

Fun fact, I actually tackled that Donphan titan way early. All I had was my level 23 Azumarill and a couple of "Intimidaters". After a few turns of intimidates and revives, he was at -6 attack, and Azumarill could take him just fine :>

[@bucketaxolotl2203]

The only performance issues I've had was during a Dondozo outbreak which, after moving at 9 fps resulted in a shiny.

[@MattGOG666]

Nurse Joy giving a new meaning to "we hope to see you sometime soon"

[@emilybankscreative]

this is a really good assessment. my enjoyment wasn’t ruined by the issues but it came close - right at the beginning I experienced a game breaking glitch where the entire screen went white during the cutscene where the starters are introduced. the text kept rolling but I couldn’t see anything. it stayed white even after the cutscene ended and I had to quit the entire game and restart. it put a really bad taste in my mouth. I’ve had fun with it since but for what I paid it truly just feels unfinished, missing it’s full potential by miles, and in a lot of ways, like the test run for PLA rather than the other way around.

[@R0ckyoS0cks]

Great vid!

[@Hyac1nth]

At this point, I don't even know about wanting a Gen 5 remake anymore..

[@andrewince8824]

Beating all the gyms and kicking the "evil" team is a staple. Glad they still have these even in this much more open take. Still miss Team Msgma, those guys had a valid point, Hoenn was too wet and could stand to gain a few km² back.

[@TechnoArpan]

Not really, the Hoenn map is pretty close to 50% land and 50 % water

[@koyoyoyo1170]

i think that random trainer and wild pokemon battles should be scaled but i think the boss battlles should be static. having a team of lv 35s and getting wrecked by myne, ortega and barely squuezing by grusha with healing items are some of my favorite experiences in scarlet.

[@canaldecasta]

Pokemon fans are so used to mediocre content they get a decent character arc and they lose their minds. The amount of stuff the public is overlooking baffles me. Why does Pokémon get a pass for something any other company would get backlash?

[@ludwigkoopa3343]

@Gordie Gordon bc gen 8 was even worse than gen 9 probably

[@trentonanspach7628]

When on the map screen if you zoom all the way out and hover over one of the gyms it will give you the order of events that is recommended for the game.

[@adud6764]

Can someone explain to me what is even going on with the terrain at 14:00 for example? Like this weird glitching happens so often, that no one event mentions it ... it's just part of the game.

[@ethicalcohol5956]

me who went for the titan route first, beat around three gyms, then decided to go for the bug type gym just to find out the levels arent really scaling and that i just happened to get lucky w my first three gym choices

[@VikasRaj_Hyd]

Ohh! you did change the name after all !! Good to know 👍

[@FrostyFrostySnow]

Really liked this, I felt you managed to put what I've been thinking into a clear and logical format

[@verrine_s]

Personally I found like you the underlying game-play to be very fun and engaging. Something I personally don't see addressed too often is the big divide in lore heavy characters and locations of the main story vs everything else. Especially towards the end the story is very personal and the people feel alive, but the rest of the region feels hollow and fake. I'm aware this somewhat existing in every Pokemon game and this in comparison is still pretty decent. But none the less its terrible obvious how so many towns are just gorgeous facades with shells of people living in them. They tragically feel more like tourists than me, the kid who just started exploring the world, they give no lovely information from the clearly displayed inspiration-rich cities game freak beautifully crafted. Further more, with exception of like 2 gym leaders they all feel like they could easily be re-located to different towns because barely anyone there except the person who works for the gym has any lore or information about them. You battle them, they go away, end of story. And this is a region with chefs, artists of many types, pro athletes and an online streamer. And you tell me they have no impact in the world, no banners or events to tie them in their job/town that I get to see in other places beyond the gym challenge ? The pokemon also lack some individual interactions, I get to see from the blackout screen the birds who is the taxi, but I don't think you even see one in action or anyone explaining what it is. Other fun little "hey did you know pokemon x is famous for y" is also missing. Like this region is home to a whole super hero pokemon, and for once i'd tolerate a fun little superhero set thing going on in one of the towns. Also bunch of ride pokemon around that everyone uses apparently, but no cyclizard racing, not even tauros run? things like that to anchor these pokemon to the culture are really missed. Again, these are not harsh critiques on the game on my part. I am simply stating how much of a plus the visual eye candy they have given us and lore-rich design based on the real locations is. But by doing so and saying nothing about it AND removing indoors, was very disappointing, I have very little to remember the towns by and crucially no idea about their role for paldea. Something stupidly simple towns in older gens do have and do make me remember them by.

[@nathanhale7400]

Revenge of the smurfs at 1:03 was hilarious

[@taiwanisacountry]

Love the game, already done 4 victory road playthrough, and now I am only missing Goodra for my solo Pokédex completion (no trade evolution and exclusive from other games)

[@BynineStudio]

great, nuanced dive!

[@doomguy676]

I really loved this game. Even with fps issues and shadow issues (I never got any bad model glitch issues like some I'm honestly not sure those are even real.) The pokemon were great, the characters and story unexpectedly great, the sound track on fire as usual. I hope they keep working and improving this formula because I have not had this much fun with a pokemon game in a while.

[@nilesamon7577]

If I told someone who hasn't heard of Pokemon yet, that this is the newest game of the single biggest gaming franchise they would probably be disappointed. It is just not as good as it could have been.

[@andrewdsadfsdafvxcvfsafznw2]

I definitely think my biggest gripe is the level scaling, because ultimately, it would not be that hard to make it more cohesive. For example, there's no way you could fight the battles up North early on, and vice versa for the South, so you could cut down the number of potential battles that way, and second, you could keep the world open BUT lock certain battles either behind a requirement or a roadblock, letting you explore while still keeping the bosses difficult.

[@rc4780]

For me one of the most glaringly bad design flaws is the need for friends codes in this and the continual removal of the GTS. It’s an awesome feature in theory but if you could have the same features just as a random encounter thing like Surprise Trade that would make it better. It’s nearly impossible to finish the dex without another person now. In the time I have gotten 5 Deviant Art cats I haven’t gotten a single spicy Spanish crocodile or child-snatching balloon because it’s just so difficult.

[@CrabSage111]

Meanwhile Sword and Shield were shit and this didn't happen with its launch and they are still bad even without being buggy messes.

[@yoinks2830]

thanks for the review, i was waiting for somebody i watch a lot to review this considering i want to wait until somebody thinks this is worth getting because most pokemon games have been quite mid, I didnt play legends arceus, but i like how in these games they have the gym leaders, and the new things like defeating team star and the titans, and they let you do them in any order you please. I'll cut gamefreak some slack there are very new into making an open world pokemon game. I may buy these games but I will still think about it

[@grunkleg.3110]

Another critique of these games I've yet to see anyone complain about is that S/V takes away a ton of options for no real reason. We all know how they took away both Set Battle mode and the ability to turn off animations, but then they also do things like preventing you from changing the order of your Pokemon's moves in the PC, not being able to directly withdraw / deposit Pokemon from / to the PC, or not being able to organize your items differently based on which Bag pocket you're in. I couldn't even tell you if these were intentional changes, oversights, or glitches. And then on top of that, battling in this game is so goddamn slow. It's like you're playing Smash Bros online every time you enter a battle with how long you're forced to wait to perform a single action. Switching takes like 10 seconds, multi-hit moves take like 30 seconds, raising or lowering more than one stat still has a text prompt for each stat, making moves in general is slow. To make matters worse, wild battles can be an absolute bitch to avoid, especially when a tiny-ass Pokemon pops in right in-front of you as you're crusin' on your dragon, and you can't dodge out of the way because battle activation hitboxes are oddly huge for especially the tiny Pokemon. Have fun trying to lead with anything remotely slow, so much of your time will be wasted no matter what you chose to do

[@darkestlight660]

it seems way faster? i've never seen anyone call it slower, hmm

[@tris9889]

god thank you, i thought i was insane i don't know what it is but there's something about the battle animations that makes it feel so sluggish, like there's lag between every single animation and text box or something. i pray for competitive players if the 10 hit move becomes meta. another one i've yet to see anyone bring up is that there's no reason for this to be an open world game, since there is nothing in the open world except the three main questlines. you could put the quests in a chronological order, make the player run through it, and you'd have the exact same structure as all other pokemon games. it's bizarre, it's like they just made the game open world last second.

[@haste6883]

i have a nuzlocke idea sugestion that i think will be pretty cool. in addition to the rule of having the same number of pokemon as the gym leader, you could also try to mirror each pokemons level. For example gym leader pokemons: pidgeot lv 33 altaria lv 37 tropius lv 35 peliper 35 so you need to choose 4 pokemons and who will be better with the higher/medium/lower level based on evolutions and moves by lvl and the other things ur big brain can think

[@paulnicholas7798]

Great video Fly

[@KoolKyurem25]

Doing a mostly blind hc nuzlocke(I looked up the order so I could do it "right") in this game is horrifically difficult in this game. I'm stuck at Atticus because I just don't have a way to beat him even with infinite mulligans until I find a good strat.

[@kenedic7495]

the worst part about the level scaling is that for the gyms, nemona *does* level scale. i didnt do the bug gym first so my team was overleveled, and to keep it interesting, i raised another team to be on the same level. since this was my 3rd gym, nemona runs in and forces me to fight her even though her pokemon were at least 10 levels higher than mine. of course i lost! and i couldnt even fight her again. the cherry on the top is that when you see her again in the future, she's like "oh i'd fight you right now but my team is built for the gym and not for fighting you!" YOURE A HYPOCRITE!

[@samueltaylor6421]

The more I think about it, the less upset I am about the lack of level scaling. When I realized there was no level scaling, I immediately thought, "okay, there's one right order -- the game's just not telling me what that order is." And there are a lot of restrictions on where you can go, but there's definitely not just one right path. I challenged the last 3 gyms in the "wrong" order, and I didn't even notice. I was able to cheese out the Fire star boss despite being underleveled, and then Iono's Mismagius wiped my overleveled team. I still agree the game needed some other help to make the open world feel more open, and I especially like the idea of Nurse Joy actually being helpful. But the open world is a lot more flexible than I originally thought. Also, this was a lovely review / video essay and if you have more to say in this format, I'd gladly watch. Thank you!

[@CharlieZColt]

That revenge of the smurfs joke had me dying lmao

[@alko9210]

BGL, i have seen some videos like yours and yours is by far the best. I almost agree on 100% of your points. I still hoped they stoped do open world games and do what they were known for and improve on that.

[@Juli_is_Online]

You did a really excellent job presenting both good and bad here, both addressing criticisms while not dismissing even those that you don't find as impactful personally while also not being overly negative and nitpicky. Very nice! Wish more people discussed things in this manner

[@Juli_is_Online]

Bot alert

[@seraph481516]

I agree with a lot of what you said. These are by no means perfect games, but they are highly enjoyable. I've been able to overlook a lot of the flaws because I am having so much fun. This feels like a step in the right direction for the franchise. I'm really curious to see what they will do with the DLC. Gen 8 DLC showed improvement from the base game, so I'm hoping gen 9 DLC will too.

[@frostyclouded]

i think one of the worst levelling issues is the ghost type gym being so much lower levelled than the things surrounding it.. it's literally in the middle of three higher levelled challenges, no matter which way you approach it from you're likely to come across one of those first, and either do it first or turn away completely because it's too difficult. i appreciate the non-linearity but at the same time having the levels jump around so much in nearby areas is very jarring and leads either to impossible battles or battles that you're apparently way overlevelled for. i also think the early game levels are kinda too close because i was at a completely reasonable level doing the bug gym > flying titan but then i think i did dark type team star right after that and i was already overlevelled. i didn't even use autobattling once, nor did i do any manual grinding, and yet i breezed through the first half of the game just from being a higher level than most of the bosses. on the flipside i think the late game has some weird level spikes but i felt that way about swsh too. that said it was still a breath of fresh air in a lot of ways and i genuinely loved the story and the new pokemon (although i cant help but wish there were more of them)

[@peter_schomus]

Would love you to see that video on Scarlett and Violet nuzlocking.

[@fufucuddlypoops20]

i honestly think most the general issues can be resolved with a few patches i enjoy the game and have had a lot of fun playing it the 1 improvement i would ask for is better side quest away from the main story and this isnt something many people have brought up but once you have completed the podex and the trainers you have terra raids and the post game in the middle but it would be nice to have some missions where you need to use your pokemon to help out the public you could clear out a den, investigate a pokemon that is usually calm but has gone out of control heck even some random fetch quests would be nice the charcadet evolution is a good example of what to expand on.

[@thegirlwiththatface]

I clip (visually) into the ground nearly every battle and the lag is crazy compared to every other pokemon game I’ve played (which is most). Pokémon straight up spawn on top of my character or are considered touched even if visually I have space, making it really frustrating to play a soul link with my brother. Like, we expected to accidentally run into Pokémon we didn’t want but not to this extent. I’m still having fun but the lack of polish to the game is giving the sims 4 vibes which if you’re unfamiliar has been extremely lack luster for most of its existence even if you dump thousands of dollars into the DLC.

[@Astronic]

I like this kind of video. You have a good view on games.