Pokemon Scarlet - A 'Key' Review

[Key]

I'll admit, when I started up Pokemon Scarlet initially, I hadn't gotten too far into it before I set it aside. It wasn't because I didn't want to play it more-so I had other games to play at the time so it just didn't fit the bill. However, as it turns out, I've gotten the Pokemon bug, and as perfect timing would have it, I genuinely felt like jumping back into Pokemon Scarlet. And I did. I'm certainly happy I did as well because as a lifelong Pokemon fan, this was definitely worth the entire experience (and more*).

Yes, I know that this game was and, in some cases, still is plagued by two things - limitations in both time and hardware. The hardware maybe not so much because c'mon, both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom run wonderfully on the same system so what's the deal with Pokemon Scarlet? Simply put, it was rushed. Developers have deadlines to meet and unfortunately sometimes that means putting out a game that is not the clear vision of what they set out to do. However, playing through it recently, I've genuinely not really been bothered by the broken graphics and frame rate here and there because mechanically, the game is the strongest it's ever been in the series. I'll talk more about that in a minute. It is true though that Pokemon Scarlet/Violet do not run well on the Nintendo Switch, but I genuinely believe that the devs have it in them to make this again if not better in the next installment of the series. For now though, I'm having an absolute ball with Pokemon Scarlet.

Unlike any other Pokemon game before it, besides Sword/Shield in some ways, this one puts you in a completely open world, no strings attached, and let's you be the very Pokemon trainer you want to be. Whether that means taking on gym battles, taking down Team Star, or going after the titan Pokemon, it's your choice. Seriously, the game gives you the choose to follow any of these 3 in any order that you want. All come with their own unique rewards and payoffs, but I'll tell ya as someone that did everything so far, do all 3 storylines. Each come with their own sets of different characters and often emotional parts. Yeah, emotional parts in a Pokemon game? Who knew?? Well, it's all here. And I would easily play this game over again if it meant I can experience those stories again. But I don't want to do that. Right now I'm on the journey of filling up my entire Pokedex. Which leads me into the next subsection titled "My Favorite Catches (or some of them at least)":

My Pokedex in Pokemon Scarlet is sitting at 226 out of a total of 400 so I'm a little over halfway there. I gotta admit, I didn't think they had it in them to continue to make fairly clever Pokemon with the series going this long, but they definitely have some of the strongest designs I've seen in the entire series in this game.









Along with some pretty great designs, I also have to say that as far as video game soundtracks goes, Pokemon Scarlet not only has the best one in the series by a long shot but also one of my favorite soundtracks of all time and I will definitely be listening to it as much as I can in my off time. I can't stop listening to the theme for Penny. It's got everything a Pokemon song needs and really brings out the emotion of what that part of the game felt like to experience. This is one of the top 3 Pokemon songs ever. Easily.

If you were like me and you wrote this game off initially because it didn't grab you at first or you simply couldn't do it due to the graphical and performance issues, I would absolutely implore you to redact that judgement and jump into the game. Do you remember the joy it brought you when you first booted up your Game Boy Color and played Pokemon for what felt like hours? Well I haven't felt that in any of the games until I dove into this one. It's got so much that a longtime fan of the series would love as well as making it super accessible to those that haven't tried the games yet. Like I said, just because I'm doing a review here doesn't mean my time with the game is done. I've got an entire Pokedex to complete.

It just, to me, feels like everything great about Pokemon can be found in this one game alone. And for that reason alone, it gets my full resounding recommendation and I ask all fans of gaming and Pokemon alike to give this one a shot. It's worth your time.

[DJChameleon]

Earlier in this review you mentioned limitations on time but didn't really go into great detail about that aspect. I saw you touched on the other part, hardware.

I'm picking up Violet next month I think.

[Key]

From what I gathered, the game was rushed out to meet a deadline. Seems to happen a lot in gaming however this game is still great despite the frame issues

[DJChameleon]

Oh I thought when you mentioned limitations in time you were referring to gameplay hours. I thought maybe it was shorter than your average main line game.

[Key]

Oh I thought when you mentioned limitations in time you were referring to gameplay hours. I thought maybe it was shorter than your average main line game.

Quite the opposite truly. I'm at about 50 hrs and STILL have plenty to do

[Key]

I can't get over how good this fucking song is.