So complaints aside, I agree with the notion there is an enjoyable game underneath it all with Scarlet and Violet. But my personal problem is I have NO idea where to go next in this open world. When you can technically go anywhere and everywhere, but there's no level scaling, HOW do I know where to correctly go next so I don't end up at a level 40 gym with my level 20 team?


But speaking of teams, here's mine currently. I've avoided a lot of spoilers regarding story and Pokemon, and there's one member of my team I want to make a mention about:

Spoiler

They ACTUALLY made a dolphin Pokemon! I did NOT see anything about it before randomly finding it while running by water. Immediately added it to the team and replaced the Buizel I had as a placeholder. So now my team is:


Crocalor - Lv. 27
Oinkologne - Lv. 23
Spidops - Lv. 23
Clodsire - Lv. 23
Wattrel - Lv. 23
Finizen - Lv. 23


I'd say of these Oinkologne is the one I will be replacing with something once I find something to replace it with. I loved Lechonk but was honestly disappointed with this evolution. Spidops is also a potential replacing Pokemon, but for now unless I find a more interesting bug or something that can fill its role, it stays.

 

And this is where you can only put so much blame on Game Freak. Consumers keep consuming. Granted, a lot of sales are parents/kids who don't know or care, but these sales have to be backed by existing Pokemon fans as well. Nobody's saying you can't like the gameplay, because for the most part, the Pokemon experience is always there. But that means most won't care about the shoddy execution of everything else. I think it's fair to say the older generations maintained some sense of quality while pushing the envelope. Look how ambitious Gold and Silver were and how many concepts it added. How and why certain products are made has changed. These games aren't about providing the best experience possible. They're steppingstones to push merch like cards and toys.

 

Hey not sure where you are, but this is the guide I'm using. Working well so far

Spoiler

Bug gym(14-15)
Rock titan(16)
Grass gym(16-17)
Flying titan(19)
Dark star boss(21)
Electric gym(23-24)
Fire star boss(26-27)
Steel titan(28)
Water gym(29-30)
Poison starboss(32-33)
Normal gym(35-36)
Ghost gym(41-42)
Ground titan(44)
Psychic gym(44-45)
Ice gym (47-48)
Fairy starboss(50-51)
Dragon titan(55)
Fighting starboss(55-56)
Starboss(60-61)

Also in terms of Finizen, it has a unique evolution method that otherwise you won't know unless you look it up.

Spoiler

level 38 and level it up once during an active co-op session. So you have to use the union circle at a Pokemon Center, have someone come over and then level it up after level 38.

Also, so there is no confusion, Finizen's evolution is actually identical, its true evolution is seen during battle after switching out once.

Ok but keep in mind Gold and Silver are only the way they were because they were reusing assets, they were intending it to be the last game and that Iwata was the one to even get the game to run properly with 2 regions in it.

Not to mention the data amount and development differences of what it takes to make a game back then and how to make one now.

Besides GF was always slow and behind current gaming standards, where it took them until generation 6 to make a 3D game.

 

Also... while graphical glitches can be annoying, gold and silver were actually effing broken. Like most of the pokeballs didn't work right/at all.

 

My point was about ambition, what was added to the games, and pushing out something impressive compared to before. I only mentioned Gold and Silver, but subsequent generations also felt like they had more passion and effort to them, in certain areas, not necessarily as a whole. Maybe they didn't keep topping themselves with each entry, but it's not nostalgia glasses that cause fans to revisit the older games more often than the new ones. I'm not an expert on every Pokemon game, but I don't know how many of the recent games will hold up in the future when many of the trends and baffling decisions are hurting them.

 

Ok thing that annoys me is the gym tests. So pointless and dumb. Played three gyms. One i rolled a giant olive. Next i ran around town finding sunflower pokemon, and in the last one find the guy in security footage hide and seek. That took 3 seconds each time. At least i had battles between.

 

I searched online to create a guide and ended up spoiling who the finale battle was in the Team Star quest line.

 

Random: Pokémon Scarlet And Violet Glitch Lets You Skip School (And The Story)

Doing this completely locks gyms and badges. As well as breaking the day-night cycle.

 

Some of these are pretty funny.

 

The game is a lot of fun and I'd even say it is the best Pokemon has ever been if it wasn't fall all the numerous issues plaguing the release. Regardless, the problems facing this game frankly shows to me that Pokemon cannot sustain itself on its currently trajectory and needs to change. This is how I believe things should change:

1. Pokemon needs to go back to a four-year generational cycle (minimum) Before Generation 6, there used to be four years between each generation before it was reduced to three. this is because Pokemon generates the highest amount of merchandise revenue at the start of each new generation and so they minimize their losses by making the generational cycle three years. However, they was implemented at possibly the worst time ever (the jump to 3D) and far as game development goes and the games have continued to suffer from being rushed to fit the three-year-cycle since then. Speaking of which...

2. Game Freak needs to hire competent programmers Since the very start the guys over at Game Freak a severe lack of programming skill. The original games were massive glitch fests while Gold and Silver infamously had special Pokeballs that didn't work and needed Satoru Iwata's help with file compression. Sun and Moon are infamous for the absolute mess its code is with multiple character models of the same character being loaded into different locations and the faces using textures resulting in the infamous blank stare of the player character due to textures and player customization being incompatible. And of course, Scarlet and Violet, enough said. If they want maintain Pokemon as their cash cow, Game Freak needs to swallow the notion of being a "small studio" and expand their programming team.

3. Tsunekazu Ishihara needs to go Pokemon Company CEO has shown a severe lack of business foresight on several occasions. I've already mentioned replacing the four-year-generational cycle with a three-year one, just as the games jumped to 3D meaning if anything they would need even more development time. Back in in 2017, Ishihara was convinced that the Switch would become a colossal failure and was fully preparing for Pokemon to go 100% mobile. As a result, the Pokemon Company was caught completely off guard and unprepared when the Switch instead became a roaring success and thus had to scramble into HD development. Frankly, I think Ishihara's been a detriment to the games.

On a personal note, is it just me or do the NPCs look really ugly in this game? The actual named characters look fine, its the generic NPCs that look very ugly, butch, androgynous, and just generally unappealing. Doesn't help that like 60% of them are students which isn't appealing at all. This is really annoying because Pokemon has had great generic NPC designs in the past, so much so that the Alola Tourist and Kalos Hex Maniac have become playable characters in Pokemon Masters.

Finally, need fanart of Lokix riding Cyclizar.

 

I'll say I agree, but at the same time like the variety in body shapes for the same NPCs or trainer classes. A lot of buff women, heavy set men and the like.

I think besides Student, I've only seen classes for Waitress, Chef, Custiodian, Backpacker, Hiker, Devlivery-Man, Black Belt, Model/Beauty, Musician and Dragon Tamer.

 

Cliffnotes: Minimal difference between storage options, maybe a bit less time spent in full hangs/stutters when they happen.

The worst part is, I still really want to play this game, which just proves the enduring appeal of the core gameplay loop and premise of Pokémon even after all these years. Hurry up and patch it so I can do so in good conscience, GF.

 

And bring back ALL Pokémon and the previous battle gimmicks, OR give us the new version of Stadium that has them all in there!

 

May I remind you, original stadium didn't even have all the pokemon.

Neither did Colosseum or XD

 

Transfer Pak says otherwise

 

Man, I WISH I’d see some of those fun glitches. I don’t think I’ve seen any glitches at all yet.  

 

No.. I assure you, the original pokemon stadium did not have all the pokemon in it.

Just because you don't know your pokemon history doesn't change the actual history.

 

They're never going to add over 1,000 fully animated 3D Pokemon to an open world 3D Pokemon game IMO. It's just not going to happen, and given the state this game has shipped in even while constraining the roster, that's probably for the best. I'm cool with that, and I'm fine with no national dex. Those are non-issues to me personally, YMMV.

Just give me a game that's performant and optimized and stable to some reasonable industry standard that is commensurate with the resources they clearly have, and I'll happily give them my money. It's a low, low bar not being met here and shouldn't be a lot to ask.

 

You're leaving out some context here...

The first Pokemon Stadium, which was only released in Japan, only featured 40 Pokemon.

For the rest of the world, the first Pokemon Stadium (known as Pokemon Stadium 2 in Japan) featured all 151 Pokemon.

 

If someone is going to request absurd shit... then they should at least have the context of what they are requesting.

If they didn't know that Pokemon Stadium 1 never came out to the rest of the world... well that's their own ignorance and maybe they should learn a thing or two.

Or could have maybe looked it up and go "Oh my bad"