I anxiously awaited Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s release. I preordered Pokemon Violet a month or two ago and painstakingly counted down the days until release. Early reviews and reports of Glitches and Poor Graphical Performance didn’t dissuade my excitement. Finally the day was here. I spent that weekend delving into the game.
I chose Sprigatito for my starter but was torn between him and Quaxly. Don’t think the “Surprise Trade” is all garbage – you might get surprised! Last night I received Quaxly AND Fuecoco. – But yeah mostly Surprise Trade is pretty garbage. People stop putting in garbage please. (Not like they’ll listen to me lol). I don’t have any real life friends playing the game though so I tried my luck at Surprise Trade.
@geekysweetie.com OMG I just got Fuecoco. A few minutes ago I got Quaxly both from surprise trade. and I started with Sprigatito. Now I have all three starters. Amazing!!!!! #PokemonScarletViolet#happy#thankful#thankfulgratefulblessed#blessed#YES#youdabest#youthebest#thanku#thanks#thankyou#becauseofyou#youmakeitpossible#allbecauseofyou#pokemon
♬ Dreamers [Music from the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Official Soundtrack] – Jung Kook & BTS
Pokemon Home will not be available until “Spring of 2023” which prevents you from brining over your higher level pokemon right now. They want you to enjoy the experience from the ground up the way it was meant to be enjoyed. It also prevents people from flooding the game with the starters.
The game is all about freedom and gives you options and suggestions on what to see or do, but it doesn’t follow a linear path. I like to go with the Path of Legends first because it gives some useful enhancements to Miraidon like dashing, flying, swimming, etc which make traveling a bit easier and exciting.
Pokemon Picnics let you breed Pokemon from the same egg groups. I have bred many eevee by finding one female eevee (and lots of males. The rarity of eevee female is 12% compared to 88% male). Pokemon get EXP from Picnics too. You can also increase your bonds with the Pokemon. You can play ball and wash your pokemon. You can make sandwhiches, which look … whack… lol. Especially when the main character bites into it sideways. Weird.
Breeding is not hard. People just like to bitch because people suck. AND you can even invite your friends and breed with THEIR pokemon too for the first time ever. I haven’t tried that yet. I find 2-3 eggs anytime I picnic. Here’s what I do:
- Click Picnic
- Decorate the table
- Make a sandwhich (any, but there are some that increase likelihood of eggs)
- Play ball
- Talk to and wash my pokemon
- Go AFK 5-10 minutes
- Come back and collect my eggs.
- Rinse and Repeat.
But let’s talk about food for a minute…. The little uhm pixel graphics? or whatever in the shops, all the icecream and sandwhiches and spanish food looks SO YUMMY!!!!!!!!!
@geekysweetie.com The #food in #pokemon#pokemonviolet and #pokemonscarlet#pokemonscarletviolet is seriously making me #hungry#hangry#whenslunch#yum#yummy#yummychallenge#yummyfood#getinmybelly#delicious
I have a Hispanic husband from Peru and the first day with Pokemon I was like babe look there’s Ceviche and Arroz Con Leche – and all this other food. I have been to Peru once with him and his family and the food is so good (I did not try Guinea Pig lol but people in USA eat rabbit and Guinea Pig is in the same family). Some of the food in Pokemon I didn’t recognize, but my husband did and went on to tell me all about it and how delicious it is. It was fun to share this cultural aspect and gain insight and knowledge. My husband doesn’t play Pokemon (or any RPGs) so I was just showing him my screenshots lol.
Is Pokemon Scarlet and Violet perfect? Nope absolutely not. There is some janky looking graphics for sure. The grass and shadows are the worst – or the sideways mouth sandwhich. Some people claim to experience lag or pokemon stuck in walls or stuttering – I have not experienced this. Your mileage may vary. Is It as bad as they say? I sure don’t think so!!
Pokemon is cute!!! Yes even despite some janky graphics. – The terrastilized pokemon remind me of those little crystal swaroski figures in hallmark and I have always loved those (never collected them but love to admire them.)
The towns and world DO feel empty as some people say. Need more NPCs maybe or more things to interact with and explore.
Also if I travel too fast, Pokemon don’t have time to spawn. If you are looking for a specific Pokemon go slow and give it a few secs.
You can increase your bonds with certain NPCs and doing so can get you rare one of a kind pokemon like a Galarian Meowth. I would have liked to have seen these features taken further. The “dating” “bonding” and school life features. Also cooking more than just sandwhiches would be nice – I think cooking was more fun in Pokemon Sword and Shield.
The rarity of Shiny Pokemon may have been lowered for this game. I found my first (and so far only) Shiny before I even arrived at Uva Academy. A pink Lechonk near the starting zone. Who is now a pink Oinkologne.
Day and night pass quickly, it is not tied to real time, which is nice for those pokemon who only spawn or evolve at one time or another.
The music is nice but does get repetitive. I think I read that Ed Sheeran sings the closing credits? WTF? LOL I haven’t finished the game yet so haven’t heard it yet but I might youtube that later. People think that’s why the graphics suck that the company spent all their money on Ed Sheeran. I doubt that seriously.
You can customize your playable character to the extreme but in face only. I look like a six year old hooker I have so much makeup on my face, but still kinda cute, but Nemona’s body would have suited my character more. Missed opportunity by Game Freak and Nintendo here. And the body’s are already drawn assets in the game, there’s all ages and all skin tones and all body shapes and sizes for NPCs, and yes some of the more mature people ARE STILL STUDENTS – such as Nemona.
Like most Pokemon games, there’s not much story. Pokemon has never been about story.
There is online and local play options to roam around and battle together with friends near and far.
So hate it all you want, I actually quite like it. I’m having more fun with it than any other Pokemon game since Sword and Shield. It’s a close tie which one I like better.
I am sure we will get updates and new ways to play Pokemon Scarlet and Violet soon.
And Pokemon has never been about graphics either. This isn’t Call of Duty. Pokemon doesn’t NEED groundbreaking graphics. It started out as a black and white game for god sakes. People forget that.
Pokemon are still cute and do cute things. My eevees weave in and out between my legs as I picnic and sit idle waiting for eggs. They prance and show music notes or hearts when I pet and wash them. They fight cutely, and look like cute little hallmark crystals when they transform. The whole game is very cute.
Does it have flaws? Yeah! Of course.
Is it worth $65? Yeah to me it definitely is. I’m really into it. Sorry if you’re disapointed. Not sure what you were expecting, but Pokemon is never going to be on any system other than a Nintendo console. So you can bitch how Nintendo is holding it back, but if it wasn’t for Nintendo there’d be no damn Pokemon in the first place, so sit down and shut up.
I don’t have a console bias. I have a PS5. I have owned the first several Xboxes – but stopped buying them because there’s ZERO exclusive titles – because Microsoft wants to sell Windows PCs which I already own. If they bring back Lost Odyssey I’ll go out and buy an Xbox right now this very second. But that will never happen cuz Microsoft doesn’t see value in JRPGs.
Out of all the “current generation” – I play my switch way more than anything else – and why? It’s all about the Exclusives baby. That’s it. End of story. Mic drop.
