Pokemon Scarlet & Violet - 18th Nov 2022! **OFFICIAL INFO ONLY**

 
Just got done watching the Serebii video. I haven’t watched the others yet, but something about this doesn’t feel right to me. I can’t help but shake the fact that Pokémon has never utilized or “needed” next-gen patches until now, and even then every DS and 3DS game runs at 30 FPS when the GBA games were easily able to reach 60 FPS. More importantly, the Serebii video at least seemed almost… ah, what’s the word… it felt like Pokémon was basically telling him what to say. It didn’t feel authentic, if that makes sense. I think what really did it for me is when he said it took roughly 20 seconds for him to load between mainland Paldea and the DLC maps on the original Switch. I can tell you right now that’s not true, at least not from my experience. Is it slow? Definitely, but 20 seconds is a decent chunk of loading time and on my first-generation Switch in Handheld Mode on our family’s Internet connection, even then that loading screen quote “only” takes around 8-10 seconds from my experience.

I also feel disappointed that I haven’t seen any multiplayer footage, at least not yet. Maybe other review videos were allowed to play it, but many of the performance issues I did have, which weren’t many, were related to the Union Circle and Nintendo’s horrible online servers. I might come back here and post more if I can have my mind changed on this or if I discover something new. For now though, I’m not impressed.
 
bdt2002 said:
I also feel disappointed that I haven’t seen any multiplayer footage, at least not yet. Maybe other review videos were allowed to play it, but many of the performance issues I did have, which weren’t many, were related to the Union Circle and Nintendo’s horrible online servers. I might come back here and post more if I can have my mind changed on this or if I discover something new. For now though, I’m not impressed.
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Problems that are due to Nintendo's historically bad online net aren't going to magically be fixed by a new console anyway.
 
Gotta say, I love how well SV is running on the Switch 2.

Once I get my hands on the Switch 2 this will finally give me the incentive to replay it.

SV is, despite its technical flaws on Switch 1, one of my favorite entries in the franchise, because for all its flaws there are so many things I love about it, and a smoother experience of it on Switch 2 is going to be even better for me. I already loved the game to begin with but the enhancements on Switch 2 are going to elevate the experience even more for me.
 
https://xcancel.com/JoeMerrick/status/1930118095684640971

Literal first time I've ever seen footage of this game that makes me think "wow this actually looks kinda gas". The Day 1 Paldea true believers gonna act like this towards the rest of the fanbase

(Seriously though on my end the prospects for playing SV one day have moved from "absolutely not outside of a deep discount that'll probably never happen" to "maybe". Dare I say the first kernels of excitement for Gen 10 are materializing in my soul?)
 
I have said from very early on that SV is a 6/10 game that is an 8.5-9/10 when it works. Compared to SwSh, which I found inoffensive technically but incredibly unengaging in terms of design, story, and characters.

The Technical upgrade, even if it's mostly brute force from the stronger hardware, goes a VERY long way to improving the experience, and I hope it's easier to discuss the merits of the region and game design now that every other poster doesn't think it's comedy genius to mention the frame rate (which to be clear, was a flaw but was injected into talk about things like the Mons or the Map).
 
pika pal said:
I hope it's easier to discuss the merits of the region and game design
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I’ll mention this much, much later in my post, but I think Paldea has a lot going both in its favor and against it. There are merits… right?

That’s just it, though- what merits? Sure, the game plays noticeably better, and the update itself is free, so that’s good, but you’re still going to be paying for a $450 console plus another $10 to $70 depending on if you the consumer waited until 2025 to finally pick up a Paldean Pokémon game. The reason I’ve seen a lot of people, myself included, are disappointed with this update isn’t because of the performance but because this doesn’t seem to fix any of the games fundamental issues. You mentioned the “merits of the region”. What merits? If you’re like me and you tend to be critical towards open world games, Paldea is already going to be a big turn-off, but even by the standards of open world, nonlinear games that are on the original Switch, Scarlet & Violet are far from impressive in that particular context, to say nothing of true 9th Gen games that the Switch 2 may or may not even be able to run.

In fact, I’ll say this in Scarlet & Violet’s defense. I think the games being as empty as they felt in terms of landmarks and the design of the game world actually played to its favor. Because I can tell you right now, if there were actual landmarks and detailed environments and whatever else you can think of on the 2022 build of these games, they would have run and performed even worse than they already did on native hardware.

Yung Dramps said:
(Seriously though on my end the prospects for playing SV one day have moved from "absolutely not outside of a deep discount that'll probably never happen" to "maybe". Dare I say the first kernels of excitement for Gen 10 are materializing in my soul?)
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Maybe it’s my fault for getting my hopes up that Patch 4.0.0 was going to also have some extra content (which could technically still happen tomorrow but, like, we all know that’s not happening), but if you weren’t a fan of the games before, I don’t think what we’ve been shown is going to change your mind. Paldea just doesn’t offer enough from a fundamental standpoint to justify the 2022 build running as poorly as it has.

Something else I will give Scarlet & Violet in response to some of the other criticisms I’ve heard and updated sales data for the games themselves. What Paldea was going for on paper, what these games represent compared to the Sword & Shield era, and the growing casual side of the audience being introduced to Pokémon through the merchandise and everything else… that growing player-base dwarfs the “I hate modern Pokémon” crowd by an absolutely massive margin, and Scarlet & Violet even in it’s rushed, unoptimized base form, still did enough recently to pass Sword & Shield in overall game sales. That should tell you something. In fact, this is the first time in Pokémon’s history that the second generation of a specific console (2, 5, 7, and 9) has outsold the first generation for that same platform (1, 4, 6, and 8- the GBA only had 3 and that’s it). This would not have happened if Paldea didn’t at least offer some form of appeal for both older and newer fans, even if I somewhat sarcastically joke that Paldea didn’t have any merits or good game design.

Gee, it’s a miracle what happens when Game Freak doesn’t try and work on literally nine different games in a three year span huh
 
bdt2002 said:
I’ll mention this much, much later in my post, but I think Paldea has a lot going both in its favor and against it. There are merits… right?

That’s just it, though- what merits? Sure, the game plays noticeably better, and the update itself is free, so that’s good, but you’re still going to be paying for a $450 console plus another $10 to $70 depending on if you the consumer waited until 2025 to finally pick up a Paldean Pokémon game. The reason I’ve seen a lot of people, myself included, are disappointed with this update isn’t because of the performance but because this doesn’t seem to fix any of the games fundamental issues. You mentioned the “merits of the region”. What merits? If you’re like me and you tend to be critical towards open world games, Paldea is already going to be a big turn-off, but even by the standards of open world, nonlinear games that are on the original Switch, Scarlet & Violet are far from impressive in that particular context, to say nothing of true 9th Gen games that the Switch 2 may or may not even be able to run.

In fact, I’ll say this in Scarlet & Violet’s defense. I think the games being as empty as they felt in terms of landmarks and the design of the game world actually played to its favor. Because I can tell you right now, if there were actual landmarks and detailed environments and whatever else you can think of on the 2022 build of these games, they would have run and performed even worse than they already did on native hardware.
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Aren't you fun at parties? I'll open by noting that I've seen no indication of SV going up from their initial $60 release price, so I don't know where you got the $70 figure from since all indication is this is just the free Switch 2 update running with a Switch 1 game.

And "what merits?" Okay, I think SV has the strongest primary cast (Player, Rivals, and recurring friendlies/teams), one of my favorite in-game run mon spreads, and does away with the main thing I hate in Open-Worlds like "Here's 100 Shrines and 2000 random Koroks to find if you want to call the game complete" in favor of just dotting the routes with items to pick up and just giving space to look around for Pokemon (in short, the "filler" stuff for the world is optional even for a completionist). I would happily endorse Pokemon games designed in the vein of SV over whatever the hell SwSh was for subsequent Gens on the basis of actually having a scenario written and something resembling thought or boss design (i.e. Titans and Starmobiles which aren't just switching for SE 1v1's against equal enemy Mons).

Does that answer the question or do I need to be more backhanded?
 
P
pika pal said:
Aren't you fun at parties? I'll open by noting that I've seen no indication of SV going up from their initial $60 release price, so I don't know where you got the $70 figure from since all indication is this is just the free Switch 2 update running with a Switch 1 game.

And "what merits?" Okay, I think SV has the strongest primary cast (Player, Rivals, and recurring friendlies/teams), one of my favorite in-game run mon spreads, and does away with the main thing I hate in Open-Worlds like "Here's 100 Shrines and 2000 random Koroks to find if you want to call the game complete" in favor of just dotting the routes with items to pick up and just giving space to look around for Pokemon (in short, the "filler" stuff for the world is optional even for a completionist). I would happily endorse Pokemon games designed in the vein of SV over whatever the hell SwSh was for subsequent Gens on the basis of actually having a scenario written and something resembling thought or boss design (i.e. Titans and Starmobiles which aren't just switching for SE 1v1's against equal enemy Mons).

Does that answer the question or do I need to be more backhanded?
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Probably got confused since the ZA upgrade costs 10$.
 
pika pal said:
I have said from very early on that SV is a 6/10 game that is an 8.5-9/10 when it works. Compared to SwSh, which I found inoffensive technically but incredibly unengaging in terms of design, story, and characters.

The Technical upgrade, even if it's mostly brute force from the stronger hardware, goes a VERY long way to improving the experience, and I hope it's easier to discuss the merits of the region and game design now that every other poster doesn't think it's comedy genius to mention the frame rate (which to be clear, was a flaw but was injected into talk about things like the Mons or the Map).
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I've seen a handful of comments asking for SWSH to get a 60 fps patch and I don't really get them because it's not a game that would actually benefit that much. It would be an improvement, but only of the most incremental variety: The fact of the matter is that, at least pre-DLC, SWSH isn't doing the sort of game design that needs a higher framerate to thrive. For the most part it's a pretty safe turn-based JRPG where unlike in SV you aren't navigating a 3D sandbox with an ever-expanding pool of traversal options (theoretically the Wild Area would fulfill this role but the Wild Area sucks so lol). Aside from being a pretty dismal look in its own right SV's buggered performance was literally the worst game it could happen to because you're flying around and climbing mountainsides and shit. No action RPG mechanics, but that's still far more movement focus than the vast majority of what came before it!

Now, a patch for Legends Arceus? THAT would be real juicy
 
pika pal said:
Aren't you fun at parties? I'll open by noting that I've seen no indication of SV going up from their initial $60 release price, so I don't know where you got the $70 figure from since all indication is this is just the free Switch 2 update running with a Switch 1 game.

And "what merits?" Okay, I think SV has the strongest primary cast (Player, Rivals, and recurring friendlies/teams), one of my favorite in-game run mon spreads, and does away with the main thing I hate in Open-Worlds like "Here's 100 Shrines and 2000 random Koroks to find if you want to call the game complete" in favor of just dotting the routes with items to pick up and just giving space to look around for Pokemon (in short, the "filler" stuff for the world is optional even for a completionist). I would happily endorse Pokemon games designed in the vein of SV over whatever the hell SwSh was for subsequent Gens on the basis of actually having a scenario written and something resembling thought or boss design (i.e. Titans and Starmobiles which aren't just switching for SE 1v1's against equal enemy Mons).

Does that answer the question or do I need to be more backhanded?
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I’m going to apologize if my original post about this came across as rude or insensitive. I’m also going to say that I agree that a lot of what Scarlet & Violet brought to the table was great in theory and should be easier to enjoy in its full execution when the game performance isn’t weighing down people’s enjoyment of the overall package they paid for on the new hardware. I’ve always considered myself a part of the “Pokémon should never have gone open world” club, but I absolutely agree that this was a better deal and a better experience for me as a player than Sword & Shield ever were, at least for the sake of in-game and online.

Do I think the $10 upgrade for most of these games (some like Kirby & The Forgotten Land are actually $20 but at least that has some new content) is stupid? That I do. Am I somewhat disappointed in Update 4.0.0? Yes, but again, that’s largely my fault for getting my own hopes up about new content. My opinions on those things have not changed, but I enjoyed reading your reply and I actually really like it when posts like yours help me reconsider things from a more positive and generally less… I guess you could say less selfish perspective, depending on the topic. I’ll end this reply post by saying that the early 2020s were a very inconsistent and generally pretty stressful time for me overall, and a lot of what happened in 2021 and to a lesser extent 2022 may have influenced my opinions on these games pretty negatively.
 
ScraftyIsTheBest said:
Gotta say, I love how well SV is running on the Switch 2.

Once I get my hands on the Switch 2 this will finally give me the incentive to replay it.

SV is, despite its technical flaws on Switch 1, one of my favorite entries in the franchise, because for all its flaws there are so many things I love about it, and a smoother experience of it on Switch 2 is going to be even better for me. I already loved the game to begin with but the enhancements on Switch 2 are going to elevate the experience even more for me.
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I may have misunderstood, but due to Pokemon not being part of the cloud, don’t we have to start new saves on Switch 2? And I think Animal Crossing too?
 
Coronis said:
I may have misunderstood, but due to Pokemon not being part of the cloud, don’t we have to start new saves on Switch 2? And I think Animal Crossing too?
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I believe you can but need to do the account transfer thing as if you were to move from a Switch to another Switch.
 
Coronis said:
I may have misunderstood, but due to Pokemon not being part of the cloud, don’t we have to start new saves on Switch 2? And I think Animal Crossing too?
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Worldie said:
I believe you can but need to do the account transfer thing as if you were to move from a Switch to another Switch.
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Correct, the system transfer does, in fact, transfer any saves like this without issues. Even Animal Crossing, which doesn't need to use the transfer tool application for it.

source: me


Also the 60 FPS is honestly very jarring and somehow makes the pop in that happens way more obvious
 
agreed that 60fps is very jarring. I've also done some ranked battles and I feel like my turn plays out faster than my opponents', and my battle ends quick enough as to where i actually have to wait for my rank to update, as opposed to the message saying "you may need to wait for your rank results to be updated" taking long enough to load that it's already updated. which is actually slightly annoying! everything else about the framerates has been pretty good but i can't help but wonder if it may be optimal to play on switch 1 if you ever need to timer stall on ladder... not that i would be that sweaty. unless i run into smeargle muk.
 
Now that the patch is out and I have a Switch 2, I'll very likely start Violet once I'm done with my Minish Cap playthrough. ADHD and executive dysfunction have for once worked in my favor since the game has been untouched on my shelf basically since lauch. It's even still in its saran wrap. I only get to experience the good version of the game and never have to touch the barely functional one.

bdt2002 said:
More importantly, the Serebii video at least seemed almost… ah, what’s the word… it felt like Pokémon was basically telling him what to say. It didn’t feel authentic, if that makes sense.
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ngl he's always come off as kind of a corporate shill so that tracks.
 
Karxrida said:
Now that the patch is out and I have a Switch 2, I'll very likely start Violet once I'm done with my Minish Cap playthrough. ADHD and executive dysfunction have for once worked in my favor since the game has been untouched on my shelf basically since lauch. It's even still in its saran wrap. I only get to experience the good version of the game and never have to touch the barely functional one.
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There was a time when I thought I would never say this, but if I had to pick between The Minish Cap and Pokémon Violet, even if I never played Violet I would pick The Minish Cap every day in a heartbeat. The thing is, my 2017-18 model Switch is still in decent condition save for the lack of a kickstand I never used anyway, and save for that one God-forsaken town with the on and off sandstorm, I barely had any issues playing that game. In single player, anyway. Let’s just say that the poorly optimized SV engine didn’t pair well with our already spotty Internet connection and Nintendo’s just as spotty online servers for multiplayer.

In all seriousness, I like to compare playing Scarlet & Violet on the original Switch hardware to playing the Alola games on an older model 3DS. Aside from the math and the numbers lining up, the performance is honestly pretty comparable. By the time Sun & Moon came out the “New 3DS” line of handhelds had already released so I would imagine a lot of people just decided to play through Alola on that instead. Just for fun, I once tried booting up my own copy of Sun on my old 3DS I got in 2012, and suffice to say I haven’t tried it since, especially now that I have my “current” New 2DS XL I got and have been using since the pandemic. I may or may not have accidentally broke my New 3DS XL from 2015 beforehand lmao
 
Pokémon Scarlet & Violet's Ranked Battle Regulation J has been officially announced. This Regulation Ruleset will run from September 1st 2025 through to January 4th 2026 and allows for you to use up to 2 Restricted Pokémon on a team including Mythical Pokémon for the first time
While Ranked Battle will be Regulation J, live VGC tournaments will use Regulation H until November 2025
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https://sv-news.pokemon.co.jp/en/page/382.html

SWSH did something similar towards the end of its life, but I think it's neat when they let Mythics out to play like this.

They should use it for VGC 2026 just to see if they begrudgingly do international events to actually get some of the mythics who have either not had new events to give them out in years or did get them but only in like japan
 
Mad Ram said:
And this time they have Arceus in the mix, so you can actually have a Mythical that can stand up statwise to the Restricteds. Also Darkrai. It's a good thing Dark Void sucks now, cause if not it would just destroy everything.
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There's also Hoopa-U. It's probably not good enough, but it's still a 680 BST Mon.

I can see Magearna being another good Mythical because of Soul Heart giving a SpA boost whenever any Pokemon faints instead of just when it KOs a Pokemon.

Mad Ram said:
And this time they have Arceus in the mix, so you can actually have a Mythical that can stand up statwise to the Restricteds. Also Darkrai. It's a good thing Dark Void sucks now, cause if not it would just destroy everything.
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Wait... Dark Void on a Pokemon with 125 Speed AND a Prankster Immunity?! Oh... Oh no. I don't think you get the Gravity of the situation.

50 Accuracy sucks, but it's going to be a lot more accurate than that. Gravity giving every move 5/3 Accuracy brings Dark Void upto 83.3 Accuracy and Gravity + Hypnosis is already a combo that sees some use. (Honestly, I don't know how much or how good it is. I just know it's enough for Wolfy VGC to be able to recognize when a team he was facing was going to use.) We're finally going to see why Dark Void needed the Accuracy nerf in addition to Smeargle being unable to learn it any more.
 
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