If I had to give Pokemon Scarlet and Violet a clickbaity review title, it would be...

[ShadowDRGN]

"Pokemon’s Vision of the Future Is Still Rooted in the Past"
So, I've found myself reaching the point in any Pokemon game where my journey usually ends: Pokedex complete, Shiny Charm get. I've logged about 90 hours to get here, which definitely feels a little brisk compared to the 160 hours I've put into Fire Emblem: Three Houses this year (which I still have a route left to complete if I want to have truly seen everything).

I'm the type of person who gets deeply invested in a single game until I've exhausted as many completion requirements as I'm willing to work on, so I've withheld detailing my thoughts on the game until this point. I feel like the cleanup portion of games like Pokemon can really reveal to you how well its core gameplay loop and unique features actually work, because you're no longer taken by the novelty or discovery phase; you have a goal, and the system will either help you attain that goal smoothly, or make it into a hair-pulling experience.

I've certainly had my fair share of both, but we'll get to that. For now, take out your notebooks, because this will be on the test.

Part I: What Makes a Wild-like
So to start, there’s something I really, really need to get off my chest here:

Ever since 2017, it feels like the words “like Breath of the Wild” have been a specter hanging over every single discussion of open-world video games. Not even Elden Ring was safe from being called the Breath of the Wild of Dark Souls... and according to TGA, it’s also the Citizen Kane of Dark Souls.

I was already waist-deep in the Master Sauce when SV came out, so I came into it with some inflated expectations. I’m not the only one who compared it to BotW, but it was definitely fresh in my mind as “how to do an open world 101”. Many disillusioned fans have been clamoring for a game that combines Pokemon’s RPG systems with Zelda’s nuanced exploration.

Thing is, the more I played both of these games, the more I think this is a case of mistaken identity. What makes BotW’s style so distinct and successful isn’t really the “go anywhere, do anything” philosophy—it’s the fact that Zelda is primarily a game about puzzle-solving, and BotW took that format and spun it into the primary way you engage with the world.

In order to go anywhere, you first need to figure out how to traverse the obstacles between you and your goal, with the resources you have. Strong enemies cost arrows and weapons. Long climbs require stamina restoration, and harsh environments require protective buffs. Not only that, but the game gives you a wide variety of tools at the start, and challenges you to combine them in ways that allow you to use your resources cleverly to achieve things way beyond your scope.

In short, it’s the chemistry engine that makes BotW what it is. SV just doesn’t really have this—nor does it need it. The desert and icy areas here aren’t environments to interact with and plan around, rather they are skins to justify the abundance of ground and ice Pokemon you find here. Ledges and water aren't a test of resource management, but progression gates that can only be crossed (without glitching) by progressing far enough down a storyline.

Additionally, I’d say SV takes more of its cues from MMO design than anywhere else. It’s really evident in the way that the world is laid out in distinctly-leveled areas with quest line-centric goalposts, and a very rude indifference to whether a torrential downpour starts in the middle of a cutscene. These are hallmarks of a kind of game design where being able to adventure with other people means the experience can't be tailored to any individual player.

The world is always turning, and exploration is more tangential to completing the quest lines systematically laid out on your map, rather than a way to discover new content organically. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that the content you find from venturing off the beaten path isn’t going to blow your socks off.

It’s clear the majority of the focus was put into the portions of the game most people are liable to see, rather than vast swaths of side content that are waiting to be unearthed. Going forward, I’d like to see less comparison between this game and BotW, simply because I don’t think they’re going for remotely the same kind of experience.

Part II: Go Anywhere, Just Don’t Do It Out of Order
To get into what’s actually going on in this overworld, though, there’s another Cufant in the room we need to talk about: Level Scaling.

It’s really no secret that a lot of people think this game really dropped the ball on its advertised openness. Most people notice it pretty quickly, considering it doesn’t take too much venturing to the north to run into level 30’s the moment you leave the comfort of the mid-10’s and low 20’s starting areas. Even if you push through that and commit to going (counter)clockwise, you’ll end up disappointed with the end of your journey being against bosses in those same piddling early-game level ranges.

Personally, I just looked up a guide and followed the recommended order, but I also feel like I shouldn’t have had to do that, if I wanted to avoid going stumbling between east and west Paldea to find fights that were my match. There is definitely a problem here, but there are a number of solutions to it that all come with trade-offs:

1. Just Do It. This is the straightforward solution that I think most people I’ve talked to have been asking for. While I’m sure that implementing it is easier said than done, considering lots of other RPG’s do this, and even some fan-made Pokemon games, it’s not a massively unreasonable request.

Story wise, there are ways to justify this. Gym Leaders using different teams depending on the skill level of challengers has been shown in anime and manga adaptations, and the post-game Gym Inspections outright confirm that what you fight in Victory Road are not these GL’s final teams. It just makes sense for GL’s to do this, regardless of who you challenge first or last.

However, I do think that the disadvantage of this system is that it ends up making the experience a little bland. While levels aren’t the be-all-end-all, they’re usually a pretty big factor in how challenging the average player finds their experience. If every boss you can face is of the same level until you beat another one, it can leave people wanting to punch above their pay grade feeling a little snubbed.

2. The Easy Route. So, you know how I mentioned that one of the hallmarks of MMO design is that areas are very strictly leveled? The thing about those games is that they very clearly communicate to the player what the recommended level range is for exploring a certain area, or taking on a certain boss.

So, why not just do that for SV, instead of having a complex system of level scaling? As it stands, the game is kinda piss-poor at giving you any more than a vague hint about how difficult a boss is, and doesn’t tell you at all for which areas you can safely tackle. If these were more clearly communicated, such as by listing level ranges on the map, difficulty ranks, or colors that changed as you neared—and then surpassed—the level of a given area, then there would be no confusion, and the intended path would be a lot more easy to intuit.

Sure, some people would be unhappy that it’s still effectively as linear as older Pokemon games, but it’s easier to accept this decision when it gives you clear information to work off of.

3. Fusion, Ha! A compromise between these two would be to combine suggestion 1 and suggestion 2 to create a system where every boss has a set minimum level, but if they are “skipped” they become stronger to match you once you eventually challenge them.

A good example of how this could work would be the Team Star Bosses. Eri is the strongest, owing to her role as the group’s combat instructor, and in this system she would still be the highest-level Star Boss. If she were to be defeated before Mela—say, if the player decided to start out west and move clockwise around Paldea—by the time they get to Mela, she will have trained up to provide you with a climactic final fight against the last Team Star Base.

I think this is personally how I would’ve liked the levels to be handled. It allows daredevils to go straight for the mid-to-high level content, without also trivializing the content they’ve skipped once they go back to complete it.

Regardless, I think that’s enough talk on the subject. I want to move on to analyzing the story in the next few posts, and given how there are three whole-ass paths with their own characters to cover, we’re gonna be chunking this up a bunch from here-on.

(Part 1 of 5)

[ShadowDRGN]

From here in be spoilers, so don't read if you haven't at least cleared all three paths.

Part III: Welcome to the Pokemon League, We All Hate It Here
Though this is the path that most conforms to the Pokemon story formula, I think after the last few games, I was most excited to see the Gym romp return. SwSh, despite its faults, had excellent worldbuilding in regards to its Gyms. The stadiums, the athlete status of the GLs, the sponsors—all of it created a compelling world where someone becoming Pokemon Champion actually means something beyond the personal achievement.

So, my initial impression of the Gyms in SV were marked by pretty high expectations, and personally I think despite changing the framing away from sporting events, this League is equally as immersive and compelling as SwSh’s. I fully believe that this League is meant to facilitate testing Trainers along their Treasure Hunt, and even though it’s a less public affair, GF knew how to take ideas from SwSh to deliver its own kind of spectacle.

The presentation of these battles are fantastic. The personalities on display are all wonderfully written, from a gremlin child streamer to just Larry, and despite the difficulty being a mixed bag, I think most of these teams are both really solid and feature memorable aces thanks to creative use of Terastallization.

The music, as well, really heightens these experiences. On its own, the tracks have a jazzy vibe with a very short, repetitive loop. When the different variations are layered-in during battle combined with the Gym Leader cutting in to react to the state of the fight, though, it becomes easily one of my favorite tracks. The build-up to the chanting variation, as well as the fanfare when you finally take down the GL’s ace are both... *chefs kiss* every time.

Underneath the surface of all this whimsical adventure, though, you really get the sense that being a Gym Leader is tough work. For the first time since BW2, every member of this cast has an occupation outside of their role as Gym Leader, and the year-round inspections you perform in the late game reveal a sort of... lingering sense of disgruntlement with the Top Champion, Geeta.

I find this super intriguing, personally. Especially when you get to the Elite 4, and you find that all of your opponents have more or less been strong-armed into administering the final test for new Trainers. You feel like you’re being grilled for a job interview by Rika, and then drawn straight into a world of messy office politics when you come out on the other side. It’s great, I just wish that Geeta herself had a more smartly-put together team.

Of course, the honor of my favorite battle in the game belongs to the other Champion fight, shortly after. I’ll be honest and say that my first impression of Nemona was a bit negative. She came off as the friendly rival (which I don’t necessarily dislike) with the personality dial wedged at 12. I fully expected to be led by the hand through my entire League run, but I really warmed up to her by the middle of my journey.

It’s funny, because it’s not like she substantially changes in that time. She’s already become a Champion, and now she wants to see you become a Champion. I think what endeared me to her is that all of her passion for battling is completely genuine, and her goal is really just to find a friend who can match her hyperfixation with Pokemon. I felt like I was laughing with her when she mentioned unsubtly following me around to cheer me on, rather than at her, and that’s a good sign for me.

Overall, I think this was one of the best Leagues in the series in terms of characters, and pretty solid in terms of battles. I always had fun any time I rolled up to a Gym, and it felt like comfort food compared to the more unique experiences of the other two stories.

Part IV: Herbway, Eat Fresh
This was honestly the path I was most interested in during the trailers. Fights against big dudes is an area that GF has historically kinda struggled with, considering that the challenge of Legendary Fights is less about defeating them and more making sure they stay within the zone that maximizes their catch rate without killing them. Even so, I enjoyed Totem Pokemon in SuMo a lot, and after coming off PLA I was pretty positive about GF’s ability to deliver satisfying boss fights.

What I got was... unfortunately not that. These fights were all massive letdowns, honestly. I did 4 of the Titans with Pokemon on-par with the one Arven brings to the team, and the last with Pokemon substantially under that mark. I don’t know to what degree either phase of the Titan fight alters the Pokemon’s stats, but it really doesn’t seem like enough to prevent a Pokemon with a good SE move from just shredding them.

There are very obvious problems here, and I’m not sure why Game Freak decided to make them this way. Especially when the Raid Mechanics already exist to facilitate this kind of fight, and GF wasn’t shy about using them at the end of SwSh to represent a similar kind of battle with Hop helping you face down Eternatus.

Maybe the problem is that the intended order guides have them all wrong, and you’re supposed to fight these ones way earlier? That doesn’t really track given that they’re found in areas with wild Pokemon of similar strength, but taking them on 10, even 15 levels under par might just do the trick.

Regardless, even if I didn’t enjoy the battles, the story delivers more than enough to make me look forward to these fights. Arven starts off as a very hard-to-read character—he’s kind of a jerk to you and Nemona, but he is also happy to accept your help. The first Titan you take down almost makes him seem like he’s using these Herbs for malicious purposes, so I do think this ambiguity is intentional.

But man, once you hear the full story. As someone who has lost dogs before, it was hard to keep a dry eye watching him desperately trying to nurse Mabostiff back to health. I got captured easily by the emotions Arven was feeling—remorse giving into joy as his beloved Pokemon slowly returned to him (it’s actually kinda hard to write this part ;_;).

This path also really excels in showing off the personality of your partner Raidon, too. I love the air of both mystery and catlike playfulness that surrounds the box legendaries during these moments, and unlocking new ways to traverse the world was always a treat.

Can we all agree that sandwich boy needs a hug and therapy?

Part V: The Phantom Thieves of Karts
I still wasn’t really sure what I was expecting from this path, even right up until release. I did enjoy Team Skull and Team Yell, so this seemed like more of that, but the way that you fought against their grunts in hordes and the Starmobiles always threw my expectations off a little.

That all changed the instant I actually took down one of these bases, though. Up until this point, I'd heard a few bops, mainly Arven, Nemona, and the Gym battle themes, but I wasn’t super vibing with the field and town themes so far. I love Toby Fox, but especially now that we know what he's worked on, I do think there is some disparity between the highest highs in this OST and the mids to lows.

That said, I cannot describe to you how much of an adrenaline rush it was to hear this shit for the first time. This shit fucks harder than a banger ought to have any right to. I love how it sounds like a bunch of kids literally made it in their garage. I love how the synth lines sound downright heroic—I initially assumed it was because I was putting a stop to them, but boy was I wrong.

What I love about Starfall Street more than the fights, is that it’s ultimately a story about a found family. Every flashback, I was honestly surprised by how relatable I found these characters, and how even if they had their differences, they supported one-another and uplifted their hobbies and talents. You really feel like these are people who have only had each-other, which is why they’re loyal enough to not give up on their boss even as they try to break up the team.

Another standout in this is Clave—I mean, Clive. As a Persona fan, I would describe him as peak Hierophant energy. I love how even if he does it in an utterly ridiculous way, he’s willing to reach out and try to engage with Team Star as peers, rather than as an authority figure intent on punishing them. Despite being the “evil” team for this gen, there are no bad guys here.

One thing I will criticize about this story is that a lot of it is told, rather than shown. This applies firstly to Team Star themselves, who are set-up as having become bullies themselves, but outside of harassing Penny, you never have to deal with them outside of their bases again. If they had brought back the bandit ambushes from PLA and applied it to Star Grunts, I think it would’ve helped make them more of a nuisance.

The second way that this happens is with the school. We learn that a couple years ago, the school had a massive bullying problem until Team Star chased them into dropping out. This is a really neat idea, but because they’re very explicit about all of the current faculty having been brought on after the incident, you never really get to feel like this place had a darker past. Even the flashbacks don’t show the bullying directly, merely gesturing at it.

I think they needed to commit more to the school still having scars from the incident. Have some of the teachers be members of the old guard who are covering things up and maintaining Team Star’s guilt. Let it really be known that the stakes of Team Star not being exonerated aren’t just them continuing to not be at school, it’s legal consequences. Do a Persona 5 (just, y’know, E-rated).

That said, at the end of it all the reunion/introduction that Team Star does for Penny got me as much as Arven's story. These are all compelling characters, their story just needed more fleshing out on top of that strong foundation.

(Part 2 of 5)

[ShadowDRGN]

Okay now we're getting into A Way Home spoilers, so really do not read through if you haven't seen the credits.

Part VI: Turolovania
Oh? Did you think we were done? Not even remotely, kiddo.

I will admit, I kinda had the story spoiled for me both by binging the soundtrack, and watching other people play through the game. I’m not hugely sensitive towards spoilers, as I feel execution is far more important than simply knowing what happens.

Even so, I couldn’t help but find myself taken in by how much mystery and build up surrounded Area Zero. Reading the Occulture Magazines in the lobby, hearing characters speak about how all roads lead into the crater, taking history classes where Raifort described the expeditions that created the mythos around it, I desperately wanted to dive into it and see the truth for my own eyes.

Area Zero is, in essence, the conclusion to The Path of Titans. Though Penny and Nemona join you after their respective stories, they’re really only along for the ride. This is a little disappointing, as I would’ve loved for Team Star to crash into the crater with a Starmobile to help you out of a bind, or for Geeta to show up in order to take care of a truly dangerous threat along your way.

That gripe aside, just wow. The aesthetic of this place is insane, and I could immediately tell that this was a Toby-led track. Dissonance and harmony—beauty and peril. Every moment I was exploring this with the party felt like something out of a lost 3D Earthbound game, and encountering all these strange new Paradox Pokemon had me on the edge of my seat.

I do really genuinely think that Turo and Sada might just cinch the top spot for Pokemon final bosses. They dove headfirst into pulp science fiction and stuck the landing, in my opinion. I was both unnerved and mesmerized throughout the entire encounter with AI Turo, breaking away from the trope of the misanthropic AI, yet still shackled to the will of their creator. The way that they loomed over me in battle, dropping Master Ball after Master Ball of futuristic Pokemon hit just as hard as the manic reprise of the Tera Raid battle theme, one of the best tracks both in Pokemon and Toby’s portfolio, I think.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to fully soak in the grandness of this finale when there’s so much going on, and only so much time to read subtitles. The mass of cutscenes packed into these last 2 hours, combined with the dialogue that happens when you’re walking deeper into Area Zero, really strains against the lack of voice acting present to help players catch everything happening in the story.

If someone could, y’know, fandub all this stuff and release it as a mod, that’d be fantastic.

Part VII: I Graduated, and All I Got Was This Hat
So while all of the above is going on, you always have the option to return to the academy and participate in classes. Admittedly, I missed this feature until finishing about my 3rd Gym, and noticed the “you can now take new classes” icon in the corner of my screen.

Setting aside the atrocious loading screens before and after every single class, I actually really liked my time at the academy. One of my biggest complaints about Pokemon has always been the wealth of hidden mechanics that have never been acknowledged, leading to Seribii and Bulbapedia to become crutches of information for the Pokemon community. As surreal as it was for a character in a Pokemon game to openly talk about Shiny Odds, STAB, and the exact percentages that go into Stat Stages, I think it was a great—if somewhat simplified—way to introduce younger or first-time players to these deeper mechanics.

As for the characters imparting this knowledge onto you... they’re all fantastic. I love how diverse the teaching styles of each of your professors are, and how their quirks play off each-other, like Tyme being the one to keep other teachers (and even Clavell) in-line, or Dendra and Miriam having a close relationship thanks to the former being the most likely to get injured among the faculty. It made finally getting to spar against them in the post-game all the more rewarding.

Though not as deep as Persona or Three Houses, being able to speak to your teachers after class and gain further insights was appreciated. I really came to love all of these characters, but I just wish that this content wasn’t so hard to discover without specifically searching it out.

I think really the only complaint I have about the school is the dress code. Being restricted to 4 outfits the entire game, and not really having any feminine options really hampers a lot of the style choices you can make. This hurts especially bad when there are just so many characters that break gender norms among the cast, yet you can’t really do the same yourself.

(Part 3 of 5)

[ShadowDRGN]

Part VIII: Diamonds in the Rough
Sooo, this is the part where we talk about performance. Fun.

It’s really no secret that at launch these games were rough. Even now, consistent framerates outside of indoor areas are still pretty well out of the question, there are constant issues with Pokemon clipping or models freaking out. Personally, I’ve even encountered bugs that make the controls stop working in a way that’s nearly softlocked me several times.

Starting these games while sick caused me a lot of headaches—quite literally, as I was getting motion sickness from playing the game for more than an hour at a time. With the performance patch and getting over that bug, I’ve been able to avoid nausea since then, but especially when I was playing Breath of the Wild and other games with few issues the day before launch, that’s a really big mark against the state this game was released in.

I don’t necessarily blame Game Freak for this. This is the first (and hopefully, only) time that two mainline Pokemon games have released within the same year, and it really shows. Potential pressure from other parts of TPC—who we now know was planning on retiring Ash as the Journeys anime wraps up early this year—definitely point to deadlines that could not be budged on, even though it was clear the game needed more time in the oven.

It’s a shame because if I think they did give it more time, it would’ve come out as one of the best Pokemon games in the series. I really don’t think the game is unplayably bad for me, but it bordered on it several times because of the above issues, and if I was more sensitive to flashing lights I don’t think I would’ve been able to make it through those early pre-patch sessions without dropping the game for my own health.

Part IX: This UI SUX
Sadly, even if all of those issues were cleaned up, there are still problems plaguing this game that stem from intentional game designs.

I’ve been vocal about my dislike of Pokemon UI in the past (mostly on the Discord), and that’s because I firmly believe that while Pokemon’s battle system doesn’t need overhauling, the way that information is presented to the player really, really does. We’re on an HD console, now. We have so much space that could be utilized to display information, but Scarlet and Violet feels like it’s still being designed as though that space is at a premium.

There’s no real smoking gun to point to, here, and I don’t want to turn this already 5k review into another 2k of ranting about all the ways this interface disrespects my time. I’ve played entries of loads of different RPG’s, and Pokemon is the only one that seems adamant to retain the same UI despite it becoming increasingly more bloated and unresponsive.

This rears its ugliest head in Tera Raids, which are genuinely some of the most unpleasant online experiences I’ve had since Goldeneye on the Nintendo Wii. These battles are a fever dream where menus routinely break, forcing you to watch as a massive backlog of actions are resolved before you can act again in a game mode where every second counts.

The best I can really say on how to fix this is that GF’s insistence on conveying all battle information through dialogue boxes is a practice that needs to go. Showdown’s had a much more snappy and streamlined system of pop-ups and icons for years, and while I do think Pokemon itself needs to present itself in a way that’s more friendly than Smogon’s purely utilitarian UI, they can retain that approachability while still modernizing. Just look at PLA.

Ah, shit.

Part X: Living Up to the Legends
I’ve been feeling for a while that it’s kind of impossible to talk about any of SV’s problems, without also mentioning that PLA already fixed them. Like seriously.

UI bloat? PLA fixed that by using icons for stat changes, having Pokemon attack and take damage during what text box scroll was leftover from the streamlining. It’s snappy, it’s slick, it does the Persona 5 thing where each button is tied to a single action.

Having to constantly bring up the pause menu to change around your party order? PLA fixed that by allowing you to shuffle through your party while you walked around with the d-pad.

Speaking of the d-pad, constantly forgetting which direction on the d-pad opens what menu? PLA fixed that by displaying your options on the screen, instead of just a single minimap and never using that screenspace for any other important information in this multi-hour, pick-up-and-play RPG.

Pokemon constantly pestering you to evolve, regardless of whether you want them to? PLA fixed that by having you manually opt to evolve Pokemon once they hit their requirements.

Photographing Pokemon with the camera app making you go absolutely insane? PLA fixed that by just making the bastards stand. The fuck. Still.

I could go on and on, but I will stop myself here. PLA wasn’t perfect, but it included so many beneficial changes that made traversing the world and interacting with your Pokemon quick, seamless and fun. It’s just such a massive shame that SV discarded all of that, and for no other reason than seemingly because there wasn’t enough time for Game Freak to see how positively a lot of these QoL improvements and mechanics were received.

It’s just frustrating to have to say that, while SV is sometimes the most fun I’ve had in a Pokemon game in decades, and it’s backed by a genuinely solid cast and story, I don’t think it’s a better game than PLA. It doesn’t have the incredible highs of fighting Team Star or delving into Area Zero, and it’s certainly missing a lot of features I now realize I was taking for granted, but it is far and away more consistently well-designed, polished and enjoyable due to shit like this dragging down the SV experience hard.

Part XI: The Way Forward
So, what next for Pokemon?

I honestly don’t know. I do feel like we will have DLC, probably will be announced on Pokemon Day. Hopefully. I don’t want another mainline game for a while, not after this.

I wanted to start off with praise because I knew that it would be hard to get back into that headspace once I got into my issues with the game. Hopefully, reading through this massive novella, you understand that I really did warm up to this game, and I wouldn’t have completed it to this degree if I didn’t find something super compelling at the core of it.

But I also want to bring your attention to the fact that this is Game Freak’s fourth time working with this console. Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee were supposed to get GF accustomed to working on HD consoles, which for a lot of other Japanese devs working on handheld has been noted as a massive undertaking. I don’t like LGPE too much, but I understand and support it as a stepping stone to making development on future games go smoothly.

The problem is, it feels like Game Freak has been struggling with the Switch ever since, and it’s hard to really give them a pass for turning in something this rough this late into their tenure on the system. Look at the difference between Fire Emblem: Three Houses—an admittedly very muddy-looking game even accounting for its more grounded artstyle—and Fire Emblem Engage, coming out in pretty much 1 month exactly. It’s night and day, and I wish we could get that level of improvement between Pokemon games.

Unfortunately, I think I’m gonna wait on getting the next games right away, unless it’s clear from the trailers and reviews that they have committed to a more sensible release schedule. I think maybe reducing the scope might be necessary. Maybe a revisit to Stadium and Battle Revolution/style comp sims, this time headed under Game Freak? That might be a nice break between this and whatever big plans they have next.

That’s gonna be everything, I think. If you read all the way through this, thank you for listening to me get out all these thoughts that were bottled up in my head. Merry Christmas y’all!

(Part 4 and 5 of 5)

[Doppleganger]

Originally Posted by ShadowDRGN

To get into what’s actually going on in this overworld, though, there’s another Cufant in the room we need to talk about: Level Scaling.

It’s really no secret that a lot of people think this game really dropped the ball on its advertised openness. Most people notice it pretty quickly, considering it doesn’t take too much venturing to the north to run into level 30’s the moment you leave the comfort of the mid-10’s and low 20’s starting areas. Even if you push through that and commit to going (counter)clockwise, you’ll end up disappointed with the end of your journey being against bosses in those same piddling early-game level ranges.

Personally, I just looked up a guide and followed the recommended order, but I also feel like I shouldn’t have had to do that, if I wanted to avoid going stumbling between east and west Paldea to find fights that were my match. There is definitely a problem here, but there are a number of solutions to it that all come with trade-offs:

I don't really know what people were expecting with this. Scaling enemies is stupid because it bends logic that fully grown lions, tigers, and bears would be hanging around just outside towns where the trainers themselves are lower level. Non-scaling enemies at lest keeps the anchor of believability in the ground, even if the challenge isn't all that. And why wouldn't it be that more rural areas would have stronger Pokemon, with more developed cities have less strong ones?

IMV, the best level scaling should be similar to the real world, and similar to how things were in the RBY-GS games. Pokemon near towns are weaker and get stronger the further you are into the wilderness, and the more rural the town (like Mahogany), the stronger the Pokemon in the area.

In the real world, the most dangerous thing outside most cities is going to be a feral dog. But if one lives in the Everglades or the Sierra Nevadas, that could switch to an alligator or a black bear/cougar.

But if scaling is to be included, it should be based on evolutionary level. Since overworld encounters are not "random" anymore and are player-initiated, it doesn't take a bonafide genius to figure out that challenging a Salamence floating in the overworld is a bad idea. A fully evolved, adult Pokemon should be high level, so one would be smart to avoid it and use the dex to weigh danger.

Originally Posted by ShadowDRGN

Sadly, even if all of those issues were cleaned up, there are still problems plaguing this game that stem from intentional game designs.

I’ve been vocal about my dislike of Pokemon UI in the past (mostly on the Discord), and that’s because I firmly believe that while Pokemon’s battle system doesn’t need overhauling, the way that information is presented to the player really, really does. We’re on an HD console, now. We have so much space that could be utilized to display information, but Scarlet and Violet feels like it’s still being designed as though that space is at a premium.

There’s no real smoking gun to point to, here, and I don’t want to turn this already 5k review into another 2k of ranting about all the ways this interface disrespects my time. I’ve played entries of loads of different RPG’s, and Pokemon is the only one that seems adamant to retain the same UI despite it becoming increasingly more bloated and unresponsive.

This rears its ugliest head in Tera Raids, which are genuinely some of the most unpleasant online experiences I’ve had since Goldeneye on the Nintendo Wii. These battles are a fever dream where menus routinely break, forcing you to watch as a massive backlog of actions are resolved before you can act again in a game mode where every second counts.

The best I can really say on how to fix this is that GF’s insistence on conveying all battle information through dialogue boxes is a practice that needs to go. Showdown’s had a much more snappy and streamlined system of pop-ups and icons for years, and while I do think Pokemon itself needs to present itself in a way that’s more friendly than Smogon’s purely utilitarian UI, they can retain that approachability while still modernizing. Just look at PLA.

Ah, shit.

There is a smoking gun and that's the 3 year development cycle. Pokemon games are not necessarily like Illumination films (made as cheaply as possible to max out dollars) but the time limit really eats into what GF can do in one generation. PLA didn't help either, although it served as a template for where the games can evolve past the handheld environment.

But you and I both know Ishihara is a greedy bastard and he won't let the 3 year plan die.