Topic: Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet

I completed the intro section, the game tells me "well there are 5 things to do over here, 6 over here and 19 over there", how on earth should I know where to go next? It seems extremly confusing. Maybe I missed something but theres no explaining for it either as part of the game.

@Hayter Um, non of us have the game.

@Kermit1Pineapple Um, I do since it arrived today. I was just giving an opinion.

@Kermit1Pineapple OH GOD THEY'RE A TIME TRAVELLER EVERYBODY RUN!

Speaking of which, is anyone here pulling the Australian time zones trick tomorrow in order to play the game early? I'm picking up a physical copy myself so I won't be able to but I've seen a lot of Pokemon Youtubers/streamers do time zone shenanigans (as you'd expect).

@Fizza WAIT WHAT!!! Shoot I need to stay off the web tomorrow!

@Hayter Okay. It's an open world game so go whatever way you want. It's open for a reason.

@Hayter let’s please avoid posting info about the game until the formal release.

If you must, then use spoiler tags.

I must use spoiler tags for saying "hi I am confused and I dont like it"

wow.

@Hayter Spoiler or not, you're still playing the game before anyone else here mate.

Okay not to get into spoilers but it seems the DLC might be giant and almost like a 3rd version of the game.

We could even see a 3rd version depending on if GameFreak thinks it's too big for DLC.

As of now the games aren't even out and we have an idea of how big the DLC/3rd version is.

@Fizza didnt mean to flip anyone off, I am sorry, might grow on me still its just a first impressions rage report haha

Heres some positive feedback for those who are interested in hearing an opinion, its spoiler free but out of respect, I am putting tags of course.

Pleasantly surprised by the review scores. With the general 'everyone hates Pokemon games' narrative the internet tries to convince you of, plus all the technical problems raised in previews and the late embargo lift, I thought we were heading towards an iceberg, but it looks like it is hovering between a respectable 7 and 8. Gonna need to actually properly read the reviews though to see where we are at, just wanted to share some initial pleasant surprise.

If Amazon doesn't lie to me I might be able to share some very early impressions on performance by tonight.
Not sure I trust Nintendolife with that aspect of their reviews.

Nintendo Life's video review on the performance is a little bizarre. The writer for the site effectively forgives the performance, whereas Alex in his own mini review at the end says it is basically unforgiveable and borders on completely ruining the experience.

If that is true, I am kinda amazed the game is reviewing as well as it is.

My takeaway from the reviews is that SV feels like the Mario Sunshine of Pokemon games: they've got real, genuine issues that are pretty hard to ignore....but are so good at what they do right that it all just fades into the background. I'm a big fan of jank in explorative games (Sunshine is my 2nd favourite 3D Mario for crying out loud!) so these reviews, despite clearly being a bit more negative than say Sw/Sh or PLA, have gotten me so much more excited for these games to come out. Going to hopefully be starting Scarlet tomorrow after school with my trusty Fuecoco by my side, I still can't believe Gen 9 is actually here dude.

Meh. It’s Pokemon, they have been churning out half baked games for decades and the fans still buy it.

Issues with the game's performance have dampened my enthusiasm quite a bit.

But then, people have whined and moaned about Legends Arceus, and I thought it was fine. Sure, it's far from great visually, but otherwise perfectly playable, and its issues certainly not enough of a problem to impact my enjoyment of the game.

@Pizzamorg Different people have different tolerance levels on performance issues and that tolerance may shift in the light of more powerful hardware. Like how a large proportion of Push Square consider less than 60fps to be unacceptable for games on PS5.

Sub 60 fps for modern hardware is unacceptable. With the Switch, however, we are forced to cut some slack as the hardware is ancient and sacrifices always need to be made. We may not like it, but it is the reality.

However, there is a line between pretending 30 fps is acceptable for action games and games literally running sub 10 fps, with pop in that happens within a matter of yards in front of you and almost non-existent textures.

I'll just have to play this for myself and see. The game is turn based during its action, so the framerate here matters less. I probs will just keep it in handheld though.

@Pizzamorg I feel like Pokemon games are always scored higher than they should be. Reviews are often very generous despite the games lacking 20 years behind in anything really.