Open world. To truly be free to explore anywhere. Pokemon is exceedingly by the formula, which is a comfort in one way, but it can get repetitive. A goal we all have had was to become fully immersed, choose our own paths, and use our training with our beloved Poke pals for more than just solely battling for glory. However, that is always a fun option.
And in 2022, the technology and ambition of the Pokemon Company finally made this dream not only possible but a reality.
In came Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.
Paldia, a heavily Spain-influenced region, a land of six unique area terrains gave us an opportunity to learn (in a school nonetheless; how fitting) about what an open-world modern Pokemon universe would gift us. AND, we now have three pathways to complete, but in any order of our choosing: traditional beating the league, defeating the evil team, and now taking down Titan Pokemon for research purposes.
So once again, let’s switch to our Switch, stock up on Pokeballs, mount our stead (this time a robot lizard bike from the future,) and meet a colorful cast. It’s time to search for our truest treasure!
Please remember these are my personal opinions.
I also made a huge accomplishment during this game! Check it out at the bottom of this post!
All images were found on Google Image search and all the credit goes to the original creators.
FINAL NOTE: I did not play this game until over a year after its release. I was overwhelmed at the open world and the main city where the town was. MY MEW! It is insanely big and confusing! It gave me a headache so I decided to take a break from it. Which turned into a year. LOL! But it was due to life. Sadly, on Christmas Eve 2023, my grandma, the most beautiful soul I knew, passed away. π This game literally saved my heart after the funeral for it gave me something to focus on and distracted me for a month. I DOVE in and I am so grateful to it for this. So, thank you. <3
STORY/CHARACTERS: 14/15:
This game has engaging, entertaining, and fairly involved characters. Your ‘rival’ Nomona, is an interesting concept. She is already a high-ranked trainer, being a junior champion when you meet her and she gets stronger during the game. She is intense, but not in a bad way. More like…passionate, VERY passionate, about battling. I feel she’s been a gifted trainer her whole life that she is looking for someone to match not only her skill set to challenge her, and make her better, but her drive and love for Pokemon too. Even when she loses, she has fun and learns. And she struggles to get takers to battle because of her talent. So, she is not an old-school Blue or Silver rival type, but also not your BFF either. I feel you both have a kinship, and mentor each other, but it blooms into friendship. She is an energetic and kind person. And to be honest, stronger than the real Champion in my mind.
Geeta has an epic design for a champion and her team is okay (I know her team gets a lot of hate online. I like how it represents each region of Paldia, but I also agree that she did not use them to their fullest abilities and I bet her so often in the school tournament it gets annoying.) It does not feel as legendary as I wanted it to. She also did not have a large role other than being the headmaster of the school or the champion, I running into her because she heard of strong trainers nearby. A champion is supposed to help protect their region. Now, they did remedy this in the DLC, which made her at least get involved in mysteries in her own home.
Headmaster Clavell was so fun! He was a gentleman and so sophisticated, but when he wanted to learn more about slang from you, I was cracking up (I may have set him up a few times; bless him!) He cares deeply for his school and students. Plus, his going undercover arc to help the students of Team Star was humorous for his disguise, yes (am I the only one who liked the pompadour?,) but also shows his heart. As a teacher, I admire he took a risk on these kids others dubbed troublemakers. His Pokemon team was very good too.
The teachers were fantastic! Even though I did not go to many classes until AFTER I beat the game, lol, their personalities and incredible designs shone. The buff, but loved pink cooking class teacher and our adorable school nurse whom we encouraged to go after her teaching dreams were my favorites. I love how we can battle them in the post games too.
I’ll talk about PENNY in the Team Star section.
Finally…Arven.
OH! ARVEN! What a roller coaster this boy took me on! First encounter, him coming up to me with his long hair covering half his face, all grumbly made me not to keen on helping him. Then he knew my mysterious legend I found…Hmmm, how I am curious. THEN, he asked me to help him find these mystical plants from a strange violet book because I was good at battling…A little pushy, but again, more curious. We battled some insanely strong, colossal-sized Pocket Monsters (and of course, I had to challenge one of the hardest ones first; oh well, live and learn.) Find this cool glowing plant. We are both happy. Then he uses it to make…a sandwich?! What the bleep?! Granted, apparently, it was a good sandwich… After our second victory though, it is revealed that he needs the five rare herbs…
And my heart broke.
Heck, I think the whole internet’s heart broke!
He and his mission became my top property after that! The herb helping my legendary do more epic things to help me explore easier was a perk too. Arven grew on me as a character and I have to admit, our final battle before Area Zero was one of my toughest! He’s a good boy.
To add icing on this emotional cake, we find out his parents (dad in my game) is the professor of this reason and basically ignored him for many years since he got so engrossed by his research. He loved his son Arven, but got too involved and Arven only had his Pokemon as friends. The ending where you find out what happened to the admittedly dasing Professor Taro was tragic, but how they handled Arven’s reaction to it was eerily well-done. My heart goes out to him.
When he calls me “little buddy” and best friend and gets jealous in the DLC, it makes me feel good. I would 100% support him and my character getting together. ^_^
Now for the story! Truly, the characters are what makes this game so compelling. They are heartfelt and complex, deep, but still relatable. Choosing the order of the three paths helped me make my journey feel much more personal, but I still had a guideline, which I personally need, lol! All the missions came together in a wild conclusion and having these friends by my side made them feel more beloved and real. I haven’t cared this much about my companions in a game since probably Black and White (gen 5.) And the DLC polished every element up and gave it more flavor and substance!
DLC STORY and CHARACTERS: Now, Kitakami, the land of the first DLC, encompassed the traditional Land of the Rising Sun shrines and buildings. The small, close-knit town aesthetic felt alive. There was plenty to explore and seeing all the new Pokemon was a treat, them being high levels making them much quicker to evolve, lol! The story of Orgepon and The Lore Three was very deep and tragic for Pokemon. I like they are taking more emotional risks in their storytelling this generation, for a kids’ game especially.
And how the villain was created in these two plots…OH! My heart! :'(
Blueberry Academy has a neat design and concept. I adored that it was set in Unova. Hope for the next remake? The head tickled my funny bone at how his students knew more about the academy and its working than he did! He was a very snazzy dresser. π Having a vast open world in a massive dome was clever, four unique quads of vast terrains. The BBQ to earn points (their currency) was not only a humorous name but was a fun way to pass the time and seep rewards after the main story. Although it did take way too long to obtain the 800 points I needed to add the 24 starters to the school. But being able to have ALL THE STARTERS IN POKEMON available made my inner child thrilled!
The DLCs were very slow. This did not surprise me for it gifted more Pokemon, plots, and things to do, but it did take the fun of it away sometimes.
Our new characters introduced here, Carmine and Kikiran (Kiki) had layers and depth to them. Carmine definitely has attitude issues, her gnashing teeth anger a riot and make me back away at the same time, lol! But she did grow on me a little and was very much like Nomona with her passion, just much more edgy, ha!
Then there is Kiki…oh, what a baby lamb! Timid and endearing, seeing him start to glow from our bond of friendship and how he grew to become a mighty trainer in his own right. I could see him having a crush on me. But his spiral, his lows…ouch. Those broke me. Then seeing how he changed in Indiego Disk. I do not want to spoil anything, but I can see why everyone online wants to protect him.
Perrin, the photographer, definitely has one of the coolest, slick stylings in the entire game. I adore her whole persona and the Blood Moon Ursaluna mini-arc we went on. Seeing the person who takes the Pokedex pictures was a neat insider I am glad they threw in. Plus, her Hisuian Growlithe is a precious little bean and I am so glad we got one to keep…although I was upset when I tried to breed one, it was a regular Growlithe. Same with the Alolan Vulpix. *sighs* Anyway, I was not the best at the taking pictures, but the rest was fun.
Then the epilogue where my DLC friends and main character friends come together in a zany less than two-hour adventure! HA! What a crazy time! LOL!
$60 for two DLCs is pricey, but I do think the stories were beyond excellent.
GRAPHICS/ANGLES: 9 out of 15:
Ha, ha! What a catch-22 this section is going to be! *Sweatdrop*
Character designs? Excellent! The tiny details that made the towns feel livable? Done well (a little TOO much at times, making it overwhelming, lol.) The set-up of the map? Once I figured out how to use it, fairly well done. They did have to use a new open-world system and make a much bigger region in theory. Even going back after the post-game, I found a decent amount of sections I missed.
But. the. LAG AND GLITCHES!
Dear Ponyta roasting marshmallows, this was bad! And my game had all the updates (a year later) by the time I played fully. The fact it was worse before mine or hadn’t changed hardly with all the patches is truly not right since gamers want a playable game for their money. However, Pokemon isn’t the only or worst offender. This is an issue all over and it is sad.
Some of the lags were numerous: Pokemon running into things, fusing with rock walls, randomly jumping in front of my screen in the middle of a battle (the Deerling line loved doing this to be in the Indigo Disk DLC, lol,) and my favorite; the literally two days my picnic table and all my sandwich making ingredients and tools were INVISIBLE no matter what I did! I found it funny since I tried to make a sandwich and when I did my best guessing on where to place them, the very animated crashing sounds cracked me up! LOL!
But the lag was awful and sometimes (this affected my raids pretty bad sometimes,) my transportation would not register my buttons, causing me to slip (it was the worst in the DLC.) Or if my Pokemon misses a shake and then I get confused on my next move it my hopefully new friend pops out! ARG!
Now, I get why this happened; an open world means much more content, which I am grateful for. And I understand that is going to make the Switch literally chug hard (twice it scared me, lol!) But the fact after a YEAR it was still doing this. And it is not just to me, but everyone seems, that is not good and takes the enjoyment out of your wonderful characters, world, and story and the hard work of all apart of it.
SPECIAL FEATURES: 12/15:
RIDABLE LEGENDARIES- Upfront; I was just staring at my Miradon, and was like “What’s with the bike wheels on its belly? It’s so weird.” But once I got a closure inspection, he looked cool. Yet, it was still strange to meet my legendary at the very start. Then, when I found out he was basically the best HM ever, I was convinced! Over time, I really bonded with him (desperate to get hearts from him during bath time, but alas, it did not occur. Silly future bike…) He has such a fun personality and his obsession with sandwiches cracked me up along with how he would break out of his ball to annoy Arven and lick Penny. I also adored how he had an arc to complete at the end of the narrative too. My heart! He is the greatest transportation and friend ever. And I wish I would have named him Jet Butt. LOL!
TERA TYPES- This generation’s gimmick was strange, yes, but more useful than maxing in generation eight and not as lame as Z-Moves in generation 7. Finding a Pokemon with a unique tera type was engaging and being able to change your partners’ with tera shards and amazing soup. Plus, I like gemstones. LOL!
A fun thing I noticed is the blast that came from the tera orbs when they were activated. When the other characters hold them, the intense power bursting forth from it is a struggle for them for the first few seconds, even the slightest of trainers. However, from the start, I just grabbed the orb, raised it to the sky with flare and confidence, and had no recoil or control issues at all. It shows how epic I am. π Did anyone else notice this or am I just nuts, lol?
NO MORE WILD ENCOUNTERS- Do I miss the days of holding my breath when my walking animation halted, my screen rotated in black with the familiar encounter melody to reveal I had run into a Pokemon, only to be disappointed about 65% of the time? Oddly…yes. Now that it’s gone, some of the mystery of what I will discover is missing. I DO like seeing the amazing designs of the Pokemon and them roaming around and acting like real creatures. And getting to pick your captured (ha) target is more efficient, I admit, but there was something about grass. I might have rose-colored glasses. Maybe they could have tall patches of grass in generation 10 where we can’t see, but keep most of the map open still.
AUTOBATTLES/EXPLORING- I admittedly did not use this concept as much as I should have, lol, but it was very neat and useful. Having your first Pokemon to run around to battle, grab items, and train while I still travel was useful, especially in the DLC Blueberry Academy to earn points. It did help quickly clear out area of Pokemon while still getting EX for my lower-leveled Pokemon. And the fact my partner refused to attack shinies made looking for them very useful. Although I still only found one I noticed, HA!
CRAFTING TMS- With the wild encounters came this added component of Pokemon leaving behind parts of them like claws, fur, slime, seeds, so forth. Sounds a little morbid to me depending, but I guess it makes it more realistic. There was just something for every Pokemon line so that section of my bag was stuffed and the list long. I think there should have maybe been one item to represent all Pokemon in a certain egg group, which is still plenty. Again, another interactive element, but this one I felt needed to be toned down.
But, we needed it for TMS, which was cool. The stations were at every Pokemon center and once you collected a TM (there were SO MANY ITEMS in this game! I was easily the richest I’ve ever been,) you could take a copy with the right materials and amount of LP (which you got from the tara raid crystals and winning battles.)
SANDWICHES/FOOD- This was a fun activity. Collecting the recipes was easy, just talking to the sandwich shop owners who were in almost every town. The hardest thing was just the program working and lagging, lol! I did find it odd there was SO MANY FOOD options in the game itself. Granted, it was creative and they were useful for game mechanics. But do you know how many times dropping the heavy top bread slice from the height they make you fall off and messed up my ingredient placement, lol?! But I always got the highest stars, so who knows?
PICNICS/BREEDING- Watching my Pokemon run around like goofy goobers (especially my starter…oh my gosh! The flamboyant run, lol,) seeing their hearts for me when their friendship for me increases, giving them a bath, and throwing a ball for them. It was pretty interactive, which I liked, although this is where the lag was the worst here! GAH!
Now, breeding was SO MUCH EASIER HERE! It did take me a while to find a Ditto, but once I did, I made a sandwich with an egg power boost, leave Ditto and their date alone, and then waited for 2-5 minutes for several eggs! It was so handy. I never had luck at Daycares before.
INSTANT MOVE RETEACHING- Again, another convenient feature to have at my fingertips instead of stressing if I made the right choice and rushing to fix it with Move Tutors/Delelters if I made a mistake.
INSTANT BOXES- Also, things are so much easier! Not that the PC was as hard as move reteaching, yet it was nicer it was in the palm of my hand. We have the tech for it now, so it makes sense. Used this feature a lot. It lagged a lot though.
CLASSES- Another feature unless it wasn’t required I did not use until post-game just to complete it. Like stated earlier, I did like the designs and characterization of all the staff and the lessons would have been helpful if I went to them at the start of my playthrough like I was supposed to, lol!
UNION CIRCLES- Nice way to meet other players for trades and doing raids. Setting your own link codes was a cool touch too.
The Item Printer at Blueberry Academy’s Club Room was one of the very last things I did, but it was a fun way to use all my extra Pokemon materials and gave me a purpose to keep doing BBQ while looking for shinies (although no luck, lol!)
I did like the addition of the timer in RAIDS. It made them harder, but I did like how they did not drag this way like in Sword and Shield. It was slow, but the mechanics were more enjoyable overall.
Wonder Trading is back and still radical!
MY BIGGEST GRIP IS I KNOW HAVE TO PAY $4 A MONTH FOR ALL THE INTERNET FEATURES! I already have to pay for two DLCS and the core game. Like they don’t get enough money… -_-;;
GYM LEADERS/ELITE FOURS: 8/10:
The gym leaders had cool aesthetics and most of them having jobs in the creative fields was a nice component (baker, chef, artist, yoga instructor…) Iono being an Internet star was a riot, but a modern connection, and my favorite was Ryme, the ghost-type rapper. π Her style, her beats, her double-battle teams, were all so rad. They were memorable, but not sure most of them will be labeled as icon status in my mind.
Their trainer challenges were childish mostly, lol, but I have been used to these since Sun and Moon had trials. Rolling an olive? Doing yoga poses? Snowboarding? Finding Sunflora and having my game freeze…It was playfully humorous and annoying. I missed battling trainers beforehand, but at least some of the gym leaders had them. But, I can see kids enjoying these mini-type games.
The Elite Four personalities were charming. Rika was so cool, edgy, and bright. Larry (ha, everyone’s Messiah of this generation for his ‘normal’ tired businessman adult, lol! Bless him)…I would LOVE to learn more about this simple, but extremely powerful somehow trainer. Our art professor being the tender, emotional dragon Elite Four member made the battle more meaningful. The only thing is they had a literal child as their steel expert! We have had children, but they were at least tweens (10-12.) This girl could not have been older than five. Although she was adorable and the hardest one for me personally for battle since I did not have any super effective to steel moves.
Now, the Blueberry Academy Elite Four for the League Club…OH MY Arkoos! These guys were way tougher than the Paldia Elites and knew how to strategize and cover all their weaknesses. Especially Crispin, the spicy and adorable passionate fire trainer. Apparently, he was the weakest of the group! I struggled with him hardcore! And Drayton, although a breezy, lazy, suave character, put up a good dragon fight too and had the most difficult challenge of how I had to only use terrain-caught Pokemon and not my main team. I wonder about his slight mean streak and rapport with Carmine though. His outfit was rad too. Lacey was kawaii and I loved how she was kind, but wasn’t afraid to tell people off in her adorable way when they were too silly or lazy, lol! Amarys had a fitting steel persona and her hair…whew! But I am lucky she gave my legendary the power to truly fly.
GENERATION NINE POKEMON: 13/15:
Overall, this generation had decent Pokemon.
The starters were fairly good. I went with Quaxly because of his suave confidence and cute hair/hat. Quaquaval, his final form, was decent. I liked the fact he moved and danced a lot since he was inspired by that, but he wasn’t the strongest sadly.
Fidough and Dachsbun were perfections! Their names, their designs, their overheating abilities since they are made of bread…and so cute! Loved mine to pieces!
Pawmot, this gen’s Pika-clone, had the unique features of being one that evolves and has a duel-typing. It took me forever to figure out its final evaluation for it is a dousy of a process. It is cute though.
That is one thing I was not fond of: how hard it was to evolve some of these creatures: Kinggambit, Pawmot, Tandemaus, Brambleghast, Rabsca, Palafin, Annihiape, Archaludon, and of course, Gholdengo (the 1,000 Pokemon; holy crap.) They weren’t impossible and luckily, some I was able to find easier in raids or at the Blueberry Academy DLC, but I think Game Freak needs to chill on the oddity evaluation. People want to complete the dex, but without the Internet, how is everyone supposed to know?
The designs for me vary to either too small with weird eyes or really well-rounded. Not much in-between. I am thrilled we finally have a dolphin Pokemon and it is precious! The Spanish influence was integrated well: an olive tree, spicy peppers, a ghost dog who just wants friends (the dogs in this generation break your heart,) our first fire and grass ‘mon, sushi, a flamingo, a crazy fairy makes its massive metal hammer after a beloved metal bird (ouch,) a dung beetle, a tumbleweed, an alive motor… Some unique choices. I am glad we got Fairgiraf too!
The Paradox Pokemon was a neat concept. I admit the Scarlet past Pokemon are cooler looking than my Violet all made of iron (AKA robots) future ones. But it makes me wonder what happened to our modern Pokeon and if the future metal ones are ‘alive.’ Iron Valiant is my favorite though (and hard to find.)
I think the legendaries are done well, especially the box art (I already explained my love for my Violet future lizard!) The DLC ones, Orgepon and Terapagos were little darlings and did their jobs excellently in the stories. The Loyal Three’s designs were not my favorite honestly, but I did like the background for them. Then a peach-shaped legend with Princess Kaguya inspiration that makes mochi that possess others, although strange looking, made a comical and fun DLC storyline. Plus, their battle-themed music gets stuck in my head! Finding the rusted stakes for the four sealed legendaries was for sure a challenge I needed the Internet to help me with, and man! They were hard to catch. I did like their inspiration, especially Chien-Pao…a sabertooth with long fangs made of orient silver daggers?! HECK YEAH!
I also got a shiny! Took a while and it was hard to tell, but we found it! ^_^
TOWNS/AREA CITIES/ROUTES: 8/10:
The open world made everything seem far apart and of course, there was much to explore, more than any other game. It got confusing at times, especially at the beginning when I had to learn to use the joystick to explore all the open angles. Trying to climb up the snowy mountains…oh my gracious! *Facepalm* The bugs and glitches again really affected this sadly too.
The six distinct terrains made the environment immersive. The towns were engaging, but again, with having to spin the camera for all the angles made it hard to enjoy everything as easily as I wanted. And some of the buildings not being functional although they were decorated as the ones we could go in were confusing.
I definitely hated the main town where Uva school was. It was WAY TOO BIG and it literally gave me a headache! I couldn’t find the locale to change my hair for 40 minutes when I first started. In fact, it flustered me so much that I put the game down for a year! It is just overwhelming at the start.
Once I was able to pin my desired location on the map, it made things easier.
VILLIANS: 9/10:
So, we have our group that is a Team, Team Star. What an interesting concept, having the the villains be students who were bullied, banded together to become friends, them trying to defend themselves. I did wish we knew a tad more details about the way they tried to get ‘revenge’ on their bullies since we saw plenty of flashbacks with this group.
Your heart went out to these five misfits once the pieces of their true puzzle revealed itself. As a teacher and someone who was bullied, I felt for them in my core, empathizing. Having that connection for fans is wonderful.
Having mission objectives through a mysterious figure on the phone made me feel like a spy and although the twist wasn’t that surprising, the fact our generation’s team were not villains was endearing. At least they were charming (especially their outfits) unlike Sword and Shield’s Team Yell. The battles being auto-battles were fun and the leaders overall were a decent challenge. I am glad their endings were what I wanted for them and we saw it. π
Penny grew on me as a character. One, having an Eevee trainer has been a want and need for the franchise for a bit and she executed well. Her backpack was adorable too. She was a relatable nerd, especially her comments in the post-game and DLCs! Not wanting to do work, obsessed with games, wanting to watch anime and read manga! She really made the friendship quad feel complete, her banter with Arven and Nomona was sweet and funny.
Now, I suppose the real ‘villain’ would be, ironically, was our region’s professor. We never meet them in person and they do not give us our legendary this time, a first. But they trust us with our main legendary. I did like Professor Taro’s chiseled design, but his passion for his work basically destroyed his relationship with Arven and so much more in his life. I do not want to spoil the big reveal and to be honest, I suppose he or anyone in the game is fully evil, which is refreshing. Life is gray. Knowledge is powerful, but at what cost? And Arven….poor lamb! This was quite a twist and I did like it.
BATTLING: 9/10:
The leveling was fairly good and since you could choose your own path, if you went to a section that was too high for you…well, you lived and learned, lol! That was a breath of fresh air, even if you’re running and thinking “Ah crap! Bad day!” at the time! You are somewhat helped with your bike legendary’s skills, making some areas inaccessible or extremely difficult to get to.
Your main characters were balanced and I did have a few challenging NPC battles, especially in the DLC. Blueberry Academy’s students are no joke! They would easily cream most of Paldia. I had one battle that took me twenty minutes because darned Comfey and Chansey kept healing each other and even though I was higher level, they both were tanks! But it was nice to have some real challenges I had to earn, but thank gosh not rip my hair out too often. And with plenty of Pokemon choices in this region, you can spice up the matches.
Again, the lag, slow speed, and bugs made this trait of the games harder than it should have been. And the angles on where some of my Pokemon or the wild ones were made things weird. Sometimes I couldn’t see!
OVERALL RATING: 82%
MY TEAM:
*YES! I did name all of my team after characters from my “The Hunter and The Bringer” series and my character was named after our main lady, Valda, lol! ^o^
*And I did get my two DLC legendaries and my beloved Miraidon to level 100 too, but first time having a full team of 100! WOOT! Getting blocks and candy in raids really helped leveling up. π
TOTAL STATS AND FUN-TIME:
*This is by FAR the longest I have spent on a game. I refused to look at my time until I finished all I wanted to do. The second longest Pokemon game run-time I have ever had was my original Pokemon Ruby back when I was in high school on my Gameboy EX…those were the days. I told you I was invested in this game! LOL!
MY BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENT:
I DID IT! I DID IT! HOLY MILKTANK, I DID IT!!! π I never completed a Pokedex before. I am happy and proud of all my work on it, and grateful for those who helped me with trades and exclusives.
This is my first time getting the shiny charm too. Not sure how much I will use it, but it feels great to have it! =D
Other Generation 9 Pokemon I Like:
- Charcadent, Armarouge, Ceruledge,
- Masbosstiff,
- Finizen,
- Annihilape,
- Kingambit,
- Scream Tail,
- Iron Moth,
- Chien-Pao,
- Chi-Yu,
- Roaring Moon,
- Iron Valiant,
- Dipplin,
- Orgerpon,
- Terapagos