Pokémon Scarlet And Violet Overtakes Zelda In Famitsu's Most-Wanted Games List

Way more excited for Zelda. It’s not even close. Also, way more time has been put into TotK

That's insane. These games are night and day.

I choose Pokemon Violet over than BOTW 2 as I have zero interest with zelda games.
But, Yokai Watch 4++ PS4 and Yokai Watch Academy Y PS4 are my main priority over than Pokemon games.

There's not a single announced game out there I'm looking forward to more than TotK.

It's just because the release date is coming up this Friday but only 178 days until TotK (Well....hopefully)

When I’ve known about a game for years and it’s still months off, it’s hard for me to be excited about it.

Tears of the Kingdom will undoubtedly be the better game and I’ll probably enjoy it more. That said, I’m more excited for Pokémon because it hasn’t been an enigma for so long and, of course, it’s releasing this Friday.

Right now, I'm currently more excited for Pokemon because it's almost out, but if you had asked me a week or two ago, I would have said Tears of the Kingdom, and if you ask me probably 2 weeks from now, my answer will go back to Tears of the Kingdom. Just excited to see the new stuff and read about the changes made under the hood.

@Aurumonado No they're Scarlet and Violet.

Hmmm...a sequel to one of the most incredible games ever made or another rushed Pokémon thing??? Tough.

Re4 for me not bothered about Zelda or Pokémon

I am excited for both, but Pokemon Scarlet is late this week for me.😆

I honestly haven't been this excited for a new Pokemon Gen since Gold & Silver came out. I really can't wait. I'm going on holiday early release day and honestly part of me is dissapointed to be going on holiday because I'll have to wait a week to play Scarlet & Violet.

Zelda all the way. Pokémon has been screwing up way too much for me the past few years.

Comparing these two in terms of which I'm most hyped for is like comparing a tree sprout to a cherry tree.

Zelda. No contest.

i hadnt played any Pokemon games since the OG Gameboy titles, so tried a couple on Switch. I played 'Eevee' and Legends. Unbelievably bad games. Not even good RPG's. Just pure fanboy OCD Pokemon collectathon type stuff. Graphically extremely lazy, boring. I cannot believe these games sell so well. I dont get it.

There hasn't been a game I've been more excited for in the past 3 years than TOTK.

originally TOTK but now Pokemon because the release is coming up, then back to TOTK

Makes sense. ToTK has barely shown us anything new recently

pokeman games are cult like in japan people will buy them no matter what

I want to play pretty much every game on this list with no particular priority.

Shocking that Pikmin 4 is trending 7th on the list despite barely seeing anything about the game and no concrete release date.

But is it just me or does 2023's calendar look a little empty from all game publishers?

I'll buy both, don't get me wrong. But far more excitement for ToTK, simply because that's where I have more faith in a proper end product. Both will be good, but SV will have aspects, no doubt, that they'll be lacking in and I'm sure it'll bring down parts of the game a bit. Where I fully expect ToTK to be brilliant in almost every aspect.
...and based on track records, well...

@Mauzuri

unreal how much hate I see on this site for BOTW's frankly incredible soundtrack. I just don't get it!

https://youtu.be/pDRGeVWdvOE

I guess thats probably cause most adult people dont vote on that stuff

Scarlett is not only the worst Pokemon game I've ever played, it's the only one I've quit after the 6th gym and 250 catches without a shred of interest of ever returning, in fact the idea makes me shudder. If TotK is like BotW but with a better weapon system, more enemy types, more memorable music and temples it'll be one of the greatest games ever by default.

@SpaceboyScreams how did you even play the game before release?

I feel like Pokemon violet and Scarlet are going to be one of the best Pokemon games we had in a long while (other than the legends game). From what I seen this game is looking very promising and innovative. Zelda is not my taste though so I can't say much on that.

@Mauzuri I feel like Pokemon have had some very memorable soundtracks. the soundtrack I've heard for SV have been nice imo

@SpaceboyScreams I watched some leaked gameplay and my goodness it was really rough for me.. unacceptable framerate and performance with underwhelming intro. I believe they rushed to release it.

I'm talking as a casual gamer/Pokémon fan that really like Sword/Shield lol

This usually happens with games closer to launch on these most wanted charts.

I feel the same way, overall I may want Tears of Kingdom more, but at this moment, I'm more excited to play Pokemon and FE Engage since those are coming much sooner.

@Ace-King It leaked several days ago. I have the day one update and I'm overclocking my Switch to get better performance and it's still atrocious, not to mention offensively barren and an insult to the intelligence of any 5 year old.

This shouldn't surprise anyone and I love how so many are so quick to post their set-in-stone opinions. Pokemon and Zelda are both huge IPs but Pokemon is just bigger, especially in Japan. Also the game launches in 4 days while we still hardly have any concrete information about TotK. I love both IPs but doesn't change the facts

Why look forward to one? Pokemon is out soon so plenty of time to play it before Zelda. They're totally different games so choosing one over the other is pointless. Buy both and enjoy them for what they are.

I feel like 2023 needs to be a year that doesn't have any Pokemon and doesn't have any Fire Emblem.

Even the biggest fans of those franchises must be OK with a year off, surely? I think it's gotten a bit stupid myself.

Nintendo will have a plan, obviously, but how we are going into 2023 without Switch receiving its own Donkey Kong, 2D Mario or 2D Zelda game is utterly bonkers.

Excited for both but definitely more for Tears of the Kingdom.

Everyone has a favorite I guess, personally it's Zelda for me, but I can see the appeal of Pokemon as well.

I'm excited for Zelda, but hopefully it's the last in the BoTW style. Also wouldn't mind a new top down style game

@Ace-King They're a thief.

In contrary to U.S. popular opinion (as suggested here), I believe that much of the hype in Japan - and the reason for the popular Scarlet/Violet votes is due to the numerous, uncountable leaks that have exploded over the internet in recent weeks; if it weren't for those leaks (which Tears of the Kingdom doesn't have), Zelda maybe would have had a chance still. What do you all think?

@SpaceboyScreams , how did you overclock your Switch? Also, what's the best setting - if you've experience with this?

At the moment, Pokemon excites me more than Tears of the Kingdom. I'm a big Zelda fan, but at the same time we know nothing about the game. We don't know how big of an improvement it really is from the original, and I haven't seen much to really excite me.

@the4realpsych It's pretty simple if you're modded, I just use an app called sys-clk and an overlay menu called Tesla, then I max out the settings on CPU, GPU and memory since I only play docked and am not worried about shortened battery life. I keep switching back to normal speeds just to see how most people are going to experience this sad excuse of a game and it's depressing, the performance is so miserable but that's not even the worst part. I could rant for over an hour about how lazy everything feels.

Zelda all the way fam.

Nice to see pikmin 4 on the list!

@Yosher So, you can't see the massive Open-world that's a 1st for the biggest selling Gaming series as a significant change?

This is what being blinded by the nostalgia bot is like folks. Sad to see. You're no Pokemon fan if you think the games have to look as Good as Bayonetta 3; Pokemon is about simple and clean but Charming design and puts Gameplay > graffix. And Scarlet/Violet have achieved exactly that - but still they're in no way 'bad looking' games.

If you're not seeing it, over the bland emptiness that was Breath then you're not a Pokemon fan. Tears looks good - but We've seen so so little of it - yet another factual trump over your non-argument!

@Lilligant562 What?

I never said there wasn't enough change to it. I just don't think it's good anymore.

Let me tell you, I used to buy pokémon games blindly. Both versions. The Let's Go games were the last ones I did that with. The first five generative I loved a heck ton. Ever since the series went 3D starting with generation 6, I've enjoyed the series less and less for various reasons.

For starters, the story, imho, has not been as interesting anymore. There's been interesting moments, and some of those moments certainly kept me going, but overall I wasn't all that invested in their stories anymore.

Graphically, I do think they actually don't look that good. But that's not just because of the graphics themselves, also the way everything is animated. I don't want to see my pokémon do a little hop in their idle animation as their way of "attacking". Not in a 3D space. Pokémon Stadium games did this so much better and they were made many, many years prior. I would rather the pokémon remain 2D sprites at that point, those still images tended to have more personality in them than many animations in the 3D games. And I haven't even begun about the pop in at close range absolutely taking away from the immersion in the newer games. I'll admit I haven't checked it Scarlet and Violet have this, but the past few generations have hurt my view of pokémon enough that I just don't even have the interest anymore to even care.

@Lilligant562 (Had to separate my message into two parts because I reached the character limit apparently.)

Then we have the forced gimmicks. I don't like stuff like mega evolutions, Z moves, Dynamax, and any such thing. A big reason I loved pokémon, was because it felt like you were actually getting along and taming all these natural, wild creatures. With these kinds of gimmicks, the pokémon feel more like tools of war that you force to change form only so you can triumph over the opponents. It doesn't feel nearly as natural as normal evolution. And before you say it: I know you don't have to USE them. But you're still forced to fight AGAINST them.

One thing I can say the games have generally done really well though is the music. Regardless of game, the music in pokémon tends to be hype as all heck.

Also I have to admit, I played Arceus, which I found decently fun and I completed, but ultimately not fun enough to fully pull me back into the series.

And if you think I don't care about games that don't look as good a Zelda BotW or Bayonetta 3; let me tell you, games like Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, Pokémon Black and White, Celeste, Super Mario 64, Yoshi's Woolly World and Final Fantasy IX all belong to my list of favorite video games of all time, and they all certainly don't even come close to the graphical levels of Zelda or Bayo.

What they all DO have in common though, is that their animations are great, their gameplay feels genuinely fun, they have no forced gimmicks (and even if they do, they're incredibly minor or at least feel very natural). Games are more than just graphics, and if the graphics were the only problem the Pokémon games had for me, then I'd still be playing them very eagerly. But that's simply not the case.

Also mind you, this series is the highest grossing series of all time, if not close to it, so it should be able to do better. Delay the games for a year, and they WILL be better. If anything, it's fans like you who keep settling for average standards that keep the series at a much lower quality than the Pokémon series rightfully deserves. I would love if the games got more time in the oven so they could be the best they can be. But that's simply not the case.

You know which games CAN say this? That's right, Zelda games. Time and time again, Zelda games are delayed so they can keep polishing them. And that's why I love the Zelda games. They're not bound to yearly releases, and Nintendo (almost) always ensures that Zelda games are at the top of their game. Whether that translates to the games being fun for everyone is debatable- I can agree that Breath of the Wild felt a bit barren on occasion, and certain things like the weapon breaking system felt annoying a lot- but overall, that game still had much, much more care put into it than the Pokémon games and felt much more enjoyably, because the Pokémon games keep forcing deadlines upon themselves, and the games have to release on that date no matter what. And I find that really sad.

I would rather wait five years for a marvelous new entry in the series than play the next hot garbage they spew out every year.

@Yosher ?

Well, your opinions are the prediciatable responses from any of those 'naysaying agenda' YTer influencers have.

Hmmp, using allcaps on random words too; presumably to ''emphasise'' your amazing ''points'' I take it isn't it? Lol.

How can anyone in their right mind of sense compare the juddery, jarring mess that were the old Colosseum games to this??

The 3D models in Scarlet/Violet are proprietary - and that's simply a fact. The eyes, and facial animations all have been re-worked based on intel from some of Monolith-soft's team projects if you were paying any actual attention than just mindlessly feeding off what Agenda-bent YTers were reeling off like the next hot press tabloid eagar to make clicks.

The other points of ''Gamefreak being infinitely rich'' and ''8+ year timescale to make ''th3 b3st g4me'' are very tedious and flat. No, Pokemon isn't going to be using the Unreal 5 engine even if you gave them 20 years. It's just not how Pokémon are supposed to be, envisioned by the creators themselves.

Anyways; it's a lost cause trying to level any reason at you - as you've obviously got ''the New games r Trash'' stamped into your mind now.

And all your points will just focus on the technical aspects of the game.

Yet unfortunately for you - that is a very stoich and totally inaccurate viewpoint, simply by watching videos & clips even of the beta versions of the games.

What I can say is this - you have this news: now, you can type and rant and rage as much as you want but the fact is this event of this articles happened - and you are triggered into your 1st response because of it.

But, it's done. Real people, real fans who will actually own and/or have tested these games as part of the selected (unpaid) group have spoken - plus many more that haven't of course touched the New games.

It's there in front of you - the Japanese audience for one is always going to be the main core influencers - and they have spoken.

Scarlet & Violet are simply More anticipated than Zelda's sequel.

Black & White were Good, but how can you not like an Open-World over those - it makes absolutely 0 sense on all accounts. You know it but again, it's apologising for nostalgia.

Black/White are not the Best - ORAS is my best Pokemon game of all time but I'm not going to kid myself and sit here typing a lot about the newer games like Scarlet/Violet just in the end to say ''Pokemon now is hot garbage'' and think I'm anywhere near smart?? Scarlet & Violet are as an experience by far way above B/W + ORAS and overall only 2nd to ORAS for me.

You're given Legendaries (I know the story because I've started my play on it) on a nice beach setting you immediately gel & bond with and [spoilers] you are entrusted to them (as lost entities) by the Professors - on top of your Starters. And then you eventually get to soar high and mightily over the whole land with them?! Not to mention - Biking and seamless travelling over a lush World full of well crafted Mon?

Yea, compare that to a soulless tacked-on jarring motorcycle you get in Breath1 after you have to painfully grind through 120 identikit shr!nes. Ahem.

Also coming round to the other point - you're obviously plumping for Tears as your most anticipated - based on what exactly? All 20 seconds of totally abstract clips and not even gameplay We've seen of Tears so far??

My point exactly. It's just a hate wagon on newer Pokémon games that doesn't make any sense.

@Lilligant562 Honestly I felt kind of heartbroken the moment I felt necessary to cancel my pre order of pokémon sword and shield as it was the first time I wouldn't get the new games, but nothing leading up to their release really made me eager to get them and certain news reports and the footage released close to release even disappointed me so much i just lost all hype for them. One of my top favorite series felt absolutely ruined. And that's the same for Scarlet and Violet right now too. I'm sure people still enjoy it, and I'm happy for you that you enjoy it.

But please, don't attack me for it. Don't attack me for my disappointment in these games. Don't attack me for preferring games like Zelda which get pushed back consistently to ensure their quality so they're not rushed out the door like the pokémon games appear to be. If you enjoy the pokémon games still despite that, you do you. That's just not me though.

Mind you, I still love the pokémon series. The memories I have of the older games will always be some of my fondest. I just wish they would actually delay the newer games sometime like nintendo does with Zelda, so that these new pokémon games could actually shine like they rightfully deserve to shine. That is all. I'm not riding any hate bandwagon. I'm merely a fan from the first hour disappointed in the direction of the newer games.

And please. If you can't handle my disappointment in these games, then just move on. Me not enjoying them should not hinder your own enjoyment of the games. I wish you all the best with them! But don't bother or attack me over it anymore. We all have our preferences. Accept that.

You know, instead of removing entire messages like that, maybe you guys should consider contacting the person to change whatever the H is wrong with their post. Besides why is my post the only one to be removed, Lilligant was flaming more than I was.

Measuring with two standards here. Keep that up and see how long I'll stick around here at that rate.

@Yosher I'm busy enjoying the Game.

Please, take care to check your emotions in the future.

''Lilligant was flaming more than I was.'' ~ please, even after your post got removed. Please stop embarrassing yourself.

I was not ''attacking'' you in any offensive form or manner. Please do not fabricate - my post is there for all to see.

Just calm down and learn to level arguments in a more civil manner next time. I even warned you in my last post - and look what happened. If you really cannot well, then you can't be a member here? Think about that.

Now, enjoy playing what you wish.

Let's see if Tears lives up to it's lofty expectations and makes up for the disappointment and lack of main dungeons of Breath.

@Lilligant562 Calling me a nostalgia bot isn't attacking me now? Not to mention the way you putting words between quotation marks to make me seem like an idiot for having, in your opinion, stupid argument points.

Calling my post a non argument- when that post you were referring to there wasn't even supposed to be an argument when I was simply stating that pokémon in recent years has disappointed me- was also uncalled for.

But that's what you did, and so I went on to explain my reasonings, which you simply tossed aside. You tossed my opinions aside, called me a nostalgia bot, called my opinions predictable naysayer agenda, and for what? Me no longer enjoying your beloved series and preferring a series I believe to be treated better, and wishing the pokémon series would get similar kind of love and attention?

You're the one who started this whole thing by not respecting my opinion, mind you. I'm not embarrassing myself if all I'm doing is stating why I have my opinions.

I didn't call you a Zelda hater either for not liking Breath of the Wild, or for not getting hyped over Tears of the Kingdom. That's because I respect your opinion over not enjoying it. I even gave you points that I agreed with that BotW did poorly. Yet you continue to focus on my so called hate for pokémon. Despite me saying I've tried most of the recent pokémon games, and finding them disappointing, and that being why I'm more excited for Zelda.

If you think that's embarrassing myself, then sure, I'm embarrassing myself. I don't care. Just kindly get back to your pokémon games, and let me enjoy the games I enjoy, without resorting to calling me a nostalgia bot or whatever.

By the way, if I really was a nostalgia bot, then that doesn't even explain why I love Breath of the Wild so much in the first place, as that game is also vastly different from other Zelda games. And you say I don't make sense.

@SpaceboyScreams , this sounds cool - but, I'm skeptical about modding / jailbreaking my OLED Switch. Are there any drawbacks to doing so?

@Yosher Okay - I will set any back and forth in this argument aside for now. I've read you points, I will just say this.

You know, I have been playing the game during most of my posts - and so my words have actual practical basis. While I understand in your last post, you're coming to a constructively critical reasoning - and yes you did not call me a 'Zelda hater' that is true - I find it a bit remarkable you are still posting as if you have played even half the game, which you have not. All your thoughts are still based off the recent 3D games' errors and shortcomings, and are so strictly speculative (negatively so) towards this title. You haven't played it through, I can tell because yes of course there are flaws - but I know actual Pokémon fans can't actually dislike Scarlet Violet for what they offer as a whole using the general consensus of YT for others playing and the comments below.

Anyway - I want both series to do well, my favorite game of all time is Ocarina (and that's no easy decision given I've been gaming for over 20 years.)

I feel these 2 series have gone quite opposite ways over the past 5 years - for me Pokémon has become more 'realistic' and tangible than ever before to a very immersive level - but of course, it does lack visual and technical polish, especially with quite a few move animations and leaving out many store interiors is not acceptable. But Zelda, for me has done the thing I did not want; dropping content and the special, mystical gameplay that made supposed ''inferior'' Zelda games like even Skyward Sword so cherished to me.

Instead: Breath sacrificed it's ''Zelda-ry self'' to become technically Perfect. All the game screams to me is: ''Look what the Switch can really do''.

Yes, but I ask back: ''but where is my Zelda game?''

I don't re-call Zelda being collecting endless seeds, eggs and all my 'rewards' shattering making all my efforts seem , no being actually pointless''.

This is why despite Pokémon's idiosyncrasies - I always defend it.

You'll always get 8 Gyms, it's Towns; and yes - the ones this time *are much more thought out, lively and actually pose a semblance of a challenge over Sword & Shield.

You'll always get your Pokemon of course - new and interesting ones always out there but now with the sweeping and immersive locations to back them, ''15fps Windmill blades'' notwithstanding.

Not in the way least - the top notch music (people, even sceptics of the series like you) are raving about some of the already deemed Classic themes in Scarlet/Violet.

So, now onto Tears. I like what I see, I like the dark, offset mood and some of the Unique weapons finally show Aonuma is trying to bring back that special Mystical Zelda feel - but as I sad, We've seen so so little.

There's still a lot for Tears to offer: I don't want another repritive collectathon to nothing of a game, I want a memorable, more linear yet structured tale and adventure with numerous unique Bosses at bare minimum. Let's see.

@Lilligant562 Let me just start this post off by saying, thank you for being more respectful now. I appreciate that. 🙏

Now, you're right in saying that I haven't played it. But I have played almost every game in the series up to this point, aside from Sword and Shield like I said, and the last few generations have just disappointed me.

Why I'm so skeptical about Scarlet and Violet then, despite having not played them, is not entirely because of these previous generations disappointing me, though it does play a part. This is because to me, from what I have seen (in both trailers and footage released by players after its release), it looks like most if not all the things that disappointed me in the last few generations have returned in Scarlet and Violet, so that simply makes me incredibly weary of these new games.

One thing that I always found important in games is visual presentation. I don't really care if games look like they have Game Boy graphics like pokémon Red and Blue, or shiny HD graphics like Zelda Breath of the Wild. I simply want a game that looks like it has consistency, with interesting graphics and animations.

It's no secret that the 3D Pokémon games have cut corners a lot when it comes to these things. But it's okay if they do that, they're just not doing it in the right ways in my opinion. The 3D models of the pokémon just making a little hop in their idle animation to perform a Double Kick for example is not okay in my book. Charizard performing a Flamethrower and the flame coming from midair and not from its mouth is not okay. It takes me out of the immersion.

This is why I prefer the animations in Pokémon Stadium: each and every attack there had animations to fit what the attack was going for. And the developers there took the time to have beams like Flamethrower come from spots that made sense; Charizard always shot it from its mouth, Blastoise shot a Hydro Pump from its two cannons, etcetera. I feel like this should be a relatively simple thing to do in coding as it's simply assigning a point on the model where these effects should be coming from, but they haven't done that in these recent generations, and it bothers me. Honestly I wish it didn't bother me, but it does.

@Lilligant562 But this is also a reason why I love Breath of the Wild. The game was animated beautifully. There were some graphical hiccups here and there, but overall the good far outweighed the bad. I know the game isn't your traditional Zelda, and that it's not for everyone. But for me, it was great going around this grand adventure in a big immersive landscape, it never got boring to me for even a second. I got annoyed when weapons would break, yes, but I never got bored and rarely did I get taken out of the immersion. That's what's important to me.

As for Pokémon, honestly I don't really care what direction it takes. Open world like it's never really done before, or the old classic formula of a set path to collect the badges and challenge the elite four. I simply want that immersion back. I could even live with the forced gimmicks if they fixed everything up properly.

I'm sure the music is great again, though. That is one thing that had been consistently great in this series, Pokémon music is great and I love listening to it even outside of the games. The Pokémon designs are also always cool to see. New or is Pokémon, aside from a handful of bad ones, their designs are generally great and I love them and has been a part of why I've been a big Pokémon fan, and also part of what makes me sad that the newer games are in the state that they are that keeps me from enjoying them.

I understand everyone is different, though. I'm genuinely happy for you and everyone else who can enjoy these new Pokémon games! I hope you'll have a grand time with these new installments! I hope one day they'll fix the series up enough for me to be able to enjoy them again too, so I can enjoy Zelda and Pokémon side by side again. But that time is simply not now, not from what I've seen. Please know though that I'm not a Pokémon hater, as I simply want the Pokémon games to be the best they can be. I hope you can understand and respect that.

Also apologies if I insulted you any, I never mean any disrespect or anything!