Here's Your First Look At Pokémon Scarlet And Violet On Switch 2

We need a trailer, not screenshot. Do better TPC

So, still a lifeless world with textures from the 90s?

Looks no different from any other lifeless 3d pokemon game. By now they should have a map like Xenoblade X imo.

About what you'd expect, you would hope that Game Freak are working on something for the next mainline game. They will save any major improvements for that. And even for that they will want a big install base.

Still not good, but at least it will run smoothly and look sharp. Well, I hope so!

@Olliemar28 If anything, it might even make things worse, except for the improved framerate.

Must hurt for the pokemon to walk through those spikes.

This still looks awful! People were saying 'oh it's just the Switch being underpowered' but this still looks mighty embarrassing

Maybe, MAYBE I'll get one of the games if it actually runs well now, even if it's graphically still not up to par.

Probably not though, the pokémon brand has damaged my trust in them too many times by now.

The GameCube graphics look even more GameCubier!

What an amazing feat of technology!

It just occured to me: Between the attempt to breathe a bit more life into Gen 9, Z-A being around the corner, and Champions looking to lift some of the logistical burden from the mainline games, I wonder if Gen 10 is still a bit further away than we think?

I know people love to rag on TPC and Game Freak for their missteps (some deserved, some overblown...), but I'm not getting a sense that they're phoning things in just because Sc/Vi were so successful.

Bigger spawn radius means easier shiny hunting. I'll take it

It actually does look sharper and looks like there is more pokemon on screen, maybe they improved the draw distance? I wonder if the choppy frame rate on pokemon in the distance will be improved too, because that often looks laughable on a regular Switch. Looking forward to being able to go to places like the lake and the frames stay stable

Compared to what they look like on OG Switch, they're pretty good.

Were people expecting anything other than ScaVi running at a higher resolution and framerate? You wanted a free remaster or something?

Aside from the abysmal performance and the bad texture tiling on rocky surfaces, I actually like a lot of Scarlet/Violet's visuals. If they manage to completely fix the former, I might call it the best-looking entry from Game Freak in the last decade.

Can't polish a turd.

I'd much rather they cut their losses and gave Legends Arceus a boost, or hell, even Sword/Shield, which I'd rather replay over the tediously joyless Scarlet/Violet.

WOW.......it still looks like s**t 😅

Will the game get 60 fps on Switch 2 ?

I wish they'd just burn these games and pretend they never happened but something tells me the next entries will be even worse now that these have finally outsold Sw/Sh and they know they can get away with it again.

Maybe one day we'll have pokemon with fur.

Still looks rough in my opinion. They have no incentive to actually do an overhaul as long they know these games will keep selling by the boatload.

Still looks rough but I never expected it to look better, just a better frame rate. If they can hit 60fps it’d be a major upgrade but even hitting a constant 30 would be a big improvement.

@Zuljaras
Except it wasn't soulless crap, it was infact what many fans dreamed about a Pokemon gamne being when we were younger...

@SpaceboyScreams I’m hoping that these games have sparked a change in how TPC approaches the mainline games going forwards. After Nintendo’s apology for the state of the games I imagine they’re the most frustrated by the debacle especially considering that many people believe Pokémon is a purely Nintendo owned IP. Not good for their reputation at all.

STILL waiting for Nintendo to release a proper video on how to do a save data system transfer when it comes to people who have 1 account/profile. I’d like to know how to when it comes to our Pokémon save data.

@Keyblade-Dan beat me to it lol

So.. the game that gets a resolution and framerate update looks like it's exactly getting a resolution and framerate update.

Well.. that was unexpected! /s

The screenshots look like there is actual anti-aliassing now, also the draw distance is greatly improved. Honestly it's better than I expected it to be. If it also runs smoothly (which you can't tell from screens) I am absolutely going to be replaying both games. Since I already finished them.

Sounds like your hopes may have been too high. Honestly, if the game gets a stable frame rate and slightly improved textures, that’s still a huge improvement in my book. The stuttering frame rate is my main complaint with, in my opinion, a fine enough pokemon game. I enjoyed it plenty.

I'm interested in replaying these games with the resolution and performance boosts. There's no denying that Pokémon fans found enough to love about these games to enjoy them, despite their poor state on the original Nintendo Switch. I still don't think this is going to fix the biggest issues within the game though. Tera Raids may actually be even more unplayable than they already are, lol.

Definitely not in a rush to replay them though. I'd rather replay the Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda series improvements first!

While some of the ground/cliff textures are the weak point I think the shot of levincia city at night looks pretty cool and shows how Pokemon's simple style can look great when come together. Art > Specs

The author sounds like someone who'd have attacked Pokemon Red/Blue for being a black & white gameboy game instead of on N64 lol.

need to see video of the game that actually runs well before i believe..

@Pillowpants What 90s game looked remotely like this??

From what I can tell in the screenshots, this will look like what I had imagined a Pokémon game could be on a PC in the early 2000s. And… I kinda like it actually? Sure it’s very simple geometry and of course I’d like to see a nice, pretty BOTW style aesthetic down the line, but honestly I’m fine with these visuals. I may finally play these games at some point.

Did anyone clock that all the other free upgradessaid "optimized framerates" but the Pokemon games said "improved framerates" 👀 I wonder what the difference there is?

I still am going to pass. I still haven't felt any magic from Pokemon since I played blue.

the improved resolution might actually be a bad thing here tbh because now you can better see just how garbage a lot of the assets look in this game

@CStallion Doom.

@Pillowpants lol

I stand by the theory that this was originally meant to be a Switch 2 launch title.
But the Switch 2 was delayed and Game Freak decided to just release it as it was than get hurt by loss of profits.

Outside of performance issues that would've been masked by the Switch 2's power (not a merit, but it is very Game Freak), the very essence of the multiplayer aspect in this game: MAKES NO SENSE WITHOUT GAME CHAT (screenshare).

Seriously, you had to open a third party chat to talk to each other on an adventure that no one ever experiences together unless they were STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER. What's the point of adventuring together - if you never saw what the other was doing? The entire concept of Game Chat (screenshare) was made for this game - and honestly would've advertised it significantly better than any titles that they showed off in their Directs.

@Suketoudara the rest of them are 60FPS games whereas Pokemon S/V was 30FPS. I suspect they've raised SVs frame rate cap to 60FPS which is why they used different language.

Here we go guys, this is what the free "upgrades" will look like: the same game.

With that said, I can immediately tell that Pokemon density as well as draw distance has been exponentially improved, which is the most important part of the Gen 9 experience. It will be like night and day to experience tons of Pokemon all over with a stable frame rate, at least on land. . . .

If the games can maintain a stable 30FPS, I'll be legitimately impressed.

Truly next gen..

What was everybody expecting? The look of the game itself was never going to change. The point of this update is to take what’s already there and increase the resolution and (more importantly) fix the performance issues. This was never meant to be a total conversion of the game. I will say releasing two screenshots is a joke because what we really need is a trailer to show that it performs better. At least it’s a free update so as long as you still own the game you can check it out for yourself once you get the Switch 2.

These screenshots don't convey much, apart from resolution bump with the textures and more Pokemon being on screen at once. I'm more curious about the improved framerate in action, if pop-in is still a problem or not, and whether the Switch 2 even fixes any of the visual glitches that can occur when playing the game for extended amounts of time. It's definitely going to be one of the first Switch 1 games I'll try out on the Switch 2, that's for sure.

NL to be honest, the game looks fine anyone that picky about graphics and says the game looks not good doesn’t deserve to be playing video games

It's an updated optimization, not an upgrade. As expected. It was okay as a timepass Pokemon game but you'd want a lot more than that from the series!

@8bitKirby I agree tbf

Glad I held out and never played this, if I am going to play it now it will at least be the slightly less janky version. But I never played Sword/Shield either and there’s no hint at those getting Switch 2 improvements. As a gen 1 fan I think I’m finally just out on mainline Pokemon games.

You still may not like the visuals, but kudos to Nintendo for allowing them to bring this game to the Playstation 3.

I found the game to be really fun despite the graphical problems. If the game runs smoother with the upgrade, I'll gladly pull it out and finish up the DLC.

lowkey y’all we should wait for actual video footage instead of just judging off a screenshot. yknow. ACTUAL GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE. OF THE GAME. SO WE CAN SEE HOW IT PERFORMS IN ACTION.

then again its nintendolife so idk what i’m expecting </3

To each their own, but these games just didn’t work for me enjoyment wise. They just felt soulless and bland.

On paper, opened ended free exploration sounds good, but the execution just wasn’t great. The main requirement for that type of game is having a world worth exploring.

I had much more fun with Sword and Shield even though at the time I had a large list of complaints there too. My personal desire would be to see the next games be more like Sword and Shield but add a hard mode, increase route length/complexity, and add puzzles back.

Cool, now show the game running at a smooth and consistent frame rate.

You guys would get more traction if you used X.

it sure looks like a switch game

I'd rather have Pokemon set in a tighter, smaller world with more detail than a large world but bland and barren. Game Freak clearly doesn't have the resources or time for massive 3d open worlds and I don't think they will budge on either of those limitors.

Wow it went from 5 FPS to 1 FPS!

Now can they fix the game to not be the worst in the series? I know pokemon has been going downhill for two decades now but these games were pitiful.

I don’t know if I’ll ever touch it again, even with the “improvements”. Never in my life have I not finished a Pokemon game until Scarlet & Violet came out. I’ve been playing since Red and Blue and it saddens me to say that this will be the first Pokemon game I will not finish. It felt bland, soulless, and unfinished. I’m good.

It's a free res/performance upgrade, not a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. Not sure what people were expecting. 🙄

I actually really loved this generation, but not the performance, so here's hoping this runs at a smooth 60fps.

I often see a lot of hate for these games but I actually liked them and my youngest Niece did too. I enjoyed exploring the Paldea region, the new Pokemon, riding around on Koraidon and unlocking the different abilities for them by defeating the Titan Pokemon and getting the Herb Mystica, battling the members of Team Star, the Gym leaders and the challenges and I liked the characters like Nemona, Penny, Arven, Carmine and Geeta and Nemona is one of my fav human Pokemon characters to date. I also liked the DLC with the story of the Ogerpon and the Teal Mask.

I have never hated any Pokemon games though and as long as there are cute Pokemon and it looks fun I will buy them. 😄 I mean there are some I like more than others but I have always found things I have enjoyed in every Pokemon game I have played and out of the Pokemon games on Nintendo Switch I would say New Pokemon Snap has been my favourite and I loved the first one on Nintendo 64 and played it a lot when I was young and I waited 22 years for a sequel and it was the wait but I hope we don't have to wait that long again for a third game. I am also hoping for a PokePark 3 for Nintendo Switch 2 or Poke Park 1 and 2 remastered. Those were the cutest Pokemon games imo.

@majinx07 yep - I'd love to transfer my Splatoon 2 data to switch 2 and some of the Pokemon games since they all don't use cloud - in the past when I got a new Switch 1 I'd just do a full system transfer, but with how some Switch games aren't compatible with Switch 2, I don't know if I'd want to do a full transfer. Actually stressing on this.

It sounds like Nintendo should assign some Monolith staff to supervise the next Pokemon game.

Wow. Instead of 10 meter draw distance (grass/pokemon), we now get 20 meter draw distance on the Switch 2.

Must have been a huge undertaking by Game freak to update that one line of code.

@TheBigK This. The spawn radius was a bit of an annoying limitation and slowed down my shiny hunting a bit, this is still an improvement.

oh and btw i bet a good chunk of y’all complaining abt framerates n’ stuff mashed A through the whole story tbh

about what I expected from a free upgrade, higher res, less pop-in, & better & stable 30fps.

Stylization beats graphics any day. This upgrade shows that the lacking visuals of Scarlet and Violet really have little to do with the power of the Switch and are instead the result of Game Freak's lack of artistic direction in these games.

Scarlet and Violet were the first Pokémon games in a while I skipped, and I'm really hoping the next generation of games will rectify this issue.

I like they increased how many Mons can spawn at once for NS2, but atm I'm a bit disliking that they increased spawn radius for NS2 as well, because if they not adding Overworld Shiny Sound, like PL:A has and PL:Z-A will have, with this update then some people may miss some extra Shinies that will now spawn out at further distance especially the Shinies that barely changes as Shiny!

Pokemon games will never look good if they want a random assortment of 15+ high fidelity monster models on the screen at any given time, and the biggest bottleneck may be loading those textures (hence the world itself having ugly ones).

Pokémon used to mean something. Now it’s a soulless cash grab. Been this way since Generation VII.

Do better, GameFreak. Nintendo, crack the whip if you need to. You’re part owner. Tell them to stop making a Pokémon game and start making a Nintendo game.

I was honestly just hoping for a better framerate. That the world will still feel a bit lifeless has been "in my opinion" too much of an ask. Off course i want a world that is full of life, but for now i wish i had a better resolution with a much better framerate. So that if i run across the fields, the windmills in the distance will turn at a normale pace instead of a pixelated version.

@Ralizah i would be happy with a ultra stable 30 fps.