Today’s release of two new mainline Pokémon games hasn’t gotten Pokémon enthusiasts raving about the games’ enormous new open environments. The vibrant ensemble of characters and the cute beginning designs are not being discussed. Nobody seems to be mentioning how enjoyable “Scarlet” and “Violet” are to play at their core.
Fans and journalists alike are understandably talking about how poorly the games run and look right now, especially on older Nintendo Switches. Just have a look at the video below to see how the entire game seems.
The gameplay loop in “Scarlet” and “Violet” is addicting and entertaining, but it’s apparent that the plethora of graphic and performance flaws continuously pulled us out of the game, as my colleague Alyse Stanley and I noticed in our assessment of the games. Even during the most basic of animations, there are significant frame rate difficulties, models that appear and disappear apparently at random, and assets that clip into one another.
Because the rest of the game is so wonderful, “this game can be incredibly cumbersome in a manner that’s almost painful,” Alyse said.
How many instances of poor graphics can you get away with before you have to stop giving the developer passes? “I can overlook lousy graphics once. I answered.
The truth is that Game Freak has encountered performance and graphical difficulties before. After more than a decade and five Pokémon game generations, Game Freak ultimately shifted its visual aesthetic from a top-down 2D perspective to a more contemporary 3D appearance. Growing pains have been a part of that change.
The October 2013 release of “Pokémon X” and “Y” combined a top-down 2D perspective with a 3D viewpoint. When the game was first released, critics berated the murky colors and jagged textures, which led to the creation of various fan modifications that significantly improved the resolution and textures in the game. Game Freak switched to full 3D for “Sun” and “Moon” for the following generation and enhanced the world’s general color scheme. However, several Pokémon attacks’ ridiculously crude animations and how the ragged, murky quality persisted bothered enthusiasts. Once more, fan modifications and emulators were the games’ saviors.
The next titles to release on a home platform, the Nintendo Switch, were “Pokémon Sword” and “Shield.” Game Freak said that it couldn’t realistically feature every Pokémon in its games.
Due to technological restrictions, this is a first for the series. If Game Freak could demonstrate that their decision resulted in improved visuals and performance, this controversy—dubbed Dexit by the fans—might have provoked less backlash. Players discovered frequent issues with draw distance and pop-in from models, Pokémon, and interactable objects, as well as what they perceived as sloppy texturing, particularly with background objects.
The last game is “Pokémon Legends: Arceus,” which was launched earlier this year and represents Game Freak’s initial foray into a truly open world, albeit on a lesser scale than “Scarlet” and “Violet.” Players again reported graphical and performance concerns, with fans harping on the appalling backdrop textures and making special note of the game’s trees. Issues with draw distance, sporadic pop-in, and murky color palettes have resurfaced.
The Pokémon community has clearly split with the release of the 3D games. Some claim that performance and visuals are unimportant. It’s important that the games are enjoyable to play! Then there are many who counter that Game Freak is way out of date. These frustrating technical issues keep us from participating in the games.
The “performance doesn’t matter” camp of Pokéfans has given Game Freak a pass with each new Pokémon game since the switch to 3D, which is somewhat understandable. After a decade of inactivity, Game Freak wanted to revive its franchise. There should have been some wiggle room. And with each each generation, the Pokémon games have gotten a little bit closer to what fans have long wished for from the series: a genuine open world adventure comparable to “Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.” We, Alyse and I, feel ourselves to be a member of this fandom.
However, following “Scarlet” and “Violet,” it will be very hard to support the claim that performance is unimportant.
The notoriously poor visuals of the games may have reached their breaking point with this most recent round of technical issues. Fans’ tolerance with the developer appears to be waning, which is probably for the best. Despite the fact that “Scarlet” and “Violet” are entertaining games, they are both in an unacceptable state: They are hardly playable, with graphical problems appearing almost everywhere.
