Pokemon Thread #25 - A new Tera

[LT]

That's fair and I'd agree. I liked X & Y but I know I'm in the minority there.

I was actually gonna put after Gen 6 but I didn't to try and avoid an argument

I liked X and Y too, although those were the first ones where the shine really started to wear off for me.

 

[wingsnut19]

I think it's silly that they got rid of the mechanic. Z moves were whatever but at least there were some neat animations. Dynamax was dumb and lazy while gigantamax was aesthetically similar to mega evolving but restricting the moves to a shared move pool was beyond stupid.

Terrastelizing is solid enough from a battle mechanic perspective, and aesthetically it's decent but when every pokemon shares the same "gem" look it lacks the uniqueness of mega evolution.

Mega Evolution actually took some creativity and it's a shame they didn't keep it going.

I really disliked Z moves. They were just so boring. I never got involved in that meta at all, whereas I did have some fun with dynamax/gigantamax. Tera types seems closer to Z moves to me, but honestly haven't seen much about it. Really just what was shown in the early trailers, so I'm interested to see how it actually pans out competitively. But overall it just doesn't seem to have the same appeal as Megas. Hopefully I end up being wrong.

Anyways, no more visiting this thread for me until I get a few hours in. I've only seen a few of the new Pokemon, so I'm excited to start encountering new ones in the wild. Hope you all enjoy.

 

[HanSolo]

I was actually gonna put after Gen 6 but I didn't to try and avoid an argument

I liked X and Y too, although those were the first ones where the shine really started to wear off for me.

Yeah I mean there were definitely some downsides but tbh, for me I really didn't like gen 5. The story was really solid but I hated how Unova looked on the DS and it's probably my least favorite gen in terms of new pokemon designs.

Gen 4 was solid when I first played it but on revisit it's just such a bland experience top to bottom, though the pokemon designs were mostly solid. Actually, having said that HG/SS were excellent. D/P/P were just whatever.

Gen 6 had its issues, most of all a pretty dumb story, but I enjoyed Kalos, really liked the new pokemon and the game experience was just pretty enjoyable for me.

 

[HanSolo]

Game is live on digital if anyone already has it

 

[Mikeaveli]

I remember as a kid I used to imagine what a full fledged Pokemon console game would be like. Little did I know when they finally arrived 15 years later we would get games that literally look and perform worse than the Gamecube games that were already out at the time. The game looks abysmal and it's honestly depressing. I can't even be bothered to pick this up and try it for a few hours before giving up like Sword or Sun.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

Idk man I'm past the point of expecting good graphics from this series on the Switch. To me, I don't know enough about everything that goes into game development and I can't be bothered to educate myself. But I would think there has to be a bigger reason for incomplete national dexes and low resolution graphics than sheer laziness from GameFreak. I mean yeah Breath of the Wild looked great but the game didn't have to juggle 450+ unique monsters with independent sound design work, unique animations, overworld placement, variable stat generation on capture, battle mechanics, traits and abilities, on top of everything else that's stuffed into these games.

Don't get me wrong, Sword and Shield were mediocre but not because the graphics were often times ugly.

I've taken the time to watch some non-spoiler early impressions reviews of the game in anticipation of the game, and it sounds like these games have cleaned up a lot of the problem spots from Sword and Shield and have taken some generally positive advancements in innovating the core formula including a functioning true open world, as opposed to the on rails bullshit they gave us in S/M and Sw/Sh.

And to me that's what I was hoping for after Legends Arceus. If they can deliver a relatively fresh experience that makes the playing experience engaging after years of recycling the same formula, then I really couldn't give a shit if the graphics are subpar.

Botw pushed the hardware more or less to its limits. The Witcher 3, to be a functional port of the original game looks like shit. To me, expecting high quality graphics from this device is a waste of energy, but that's just me. I got the game and I'm looking forward to jumping in and giving it a go tonight.

BOTW ran on the Wii U dude

 

[HanSolo]

BOTW ran on the Wii U dude

Yeah that's s fair point. But then again there wasn't a huge differencs in graphics between the two systems. My point is still that Pokemon has never been the best graphical games on their respective systems since the mainline games made the jump to full 3D and there has to be a reason for it beyond just laziness/incompetence on GF's part. I mean compare to games like Fire Emblem Three Houses, The Witcher 3, Rocket League, Apex Legends, Monster Hunter. Most of those games are demanding titles which run much better on other systems and had to sacrifice performance for playability on the system. But Fire Emblem is another example of a staple Nintendo exclusice series that hasn't been able to maximize their graphics since making the jump to 3D. And those games feature fewer individual characters to design and dedicate processing power to. I mean when it comes to full 3d games with highly varied game systems, it's more common than not that the Switch is going to put out ugly graphics. And as piss poor as 3 Houses' graphics could be it was still one of my favorite games on the system. So the point is I still don't give a shit if the game has subpar performance as long as I have fun playing it. The Witcher 3 is my favorite game of all time. I got it for Switch just for the novelty of playing on a handheld. In spite of pretty bad graphics and performance I still played the entire game, side quests, and DLCs.

To me, until Nintendo puts out hardware that is comparable to at least the PS4 and XB1 in terms of power, and then GameFreak still puts out a shitty graphics mainline game with performance issues, then it will bother me.

 

[HanSolo]

As for this game, yeah there's definitely some performance issues. Not as bad as they looked in the trailers but there's some choppy movement issues here and there. But the fully integrated overworld battling is pretty seamless and the cutscenes (battle and story) run well. And while I haven't gotten into any real meat of the story, I can already tell there's going to be a variety in how the story unfolds with plenty to do which I like.

I did spoil myself on a few mechanics I haven't encountered yet but there's one thing I really hope they patch and improve soon and it involves shiny encounters:

Spoiler

Shinies appear shiny in the overworld which is good because you don't have to check shiny in the battle scene anymore. Good improvement carry over from Let's Go and Arceus. However unlike Arceus, there is no noise or visual indicator that a shiny has appeared. And where GF is commendable by presenting pokemon in the overworld by their relative size, that also means on handheld it can be very easy to zoom past a small shiny pokemon and not even know it. For example, rookidee and pawmi are tiny as hell and I often bump into them without ever seeing them. I could have already encountered one of them shiny and would have never known it. Apparently doing the let's go battle feature, your pokemon won't attack a shiny but you're not always going to have a pokemon out doing that.

Other than that I've been enjoying the game so far.

Update through 3 gym badges

Spoiler

I say that because the three main story loops award badges so I really have more like 7 now. Anyway hodgepodge of thoughts:

-In spite of my shiny concerns I got a shiny mudbray on my first day with the game so that was cool. No audio or visual cue still annoys me. The thing just walked right up to me and it was obvious it's not usually yellow.

-I haven't tested with other players much but raids seem way faster this time around for virtually identical rewards, so I like that.

-also it's a small thing but surprise trades are insanely fast. Like even at release of SW/SH you'd have to wait for the game to process the trade for a good bit. It's almost instant in S/V

-I don't know if this was confirmed prerelease but there's no dedicated matchmaking for co-op play with randoms, still need a link code. Disappointing but unsurprising.

-it's kinda nice that the game doesn't really gate mass outbreaks past a certain progression checkpoint. If I remember right, they appear as soon as you leave the academy. People who want to shiny hunt can take advantage of that.

-let's go battling is a little clunky with the targeting but otherwise it's an oddly satisfying way to grind experience (and shiny check a mass outbreak)

-I know Koraidon is a traversal gimmick but he may go down as one of my favorite legendaries since Giratina.

-Level scaling is a pretty big caveat to "explore at your own pace and however you want" open world gameplay. You technically can go everywhere but the middle of the map and wherever your title legendary can get you to, but since the game doesn't scale pokemon and trainers with your level, you're still gated off from content in many areas by your current level. And there's no real sense for where you're supposed to go next. The second gym leader I beat was significantly stronger than the third because I did them out of order. Then with the Titans, I pulled up on one of them and got absolutely wiped because I was too low level and the game wouldn't let me flee. There was no way to check a suggested level or what level the titan was at.

-There are definitely some significant performance issues in the game. I really can't deny it. I've had some truly goofy ass glitches and a few moments of intense FPS slowdown, but some out there are complaining that the game is unplayable. That's an exaggeration the technical issues are there but they're not frequent enough to render the game unplayable.

-Overall the open world is a slight improvement over Arceus in some respects and a step down in others. Nowhere ever feels truly empty but some areas do feel a little half baked from a world design perspective. It's not a perfect open world, but I way prefer Paldea exploration to Galar.

-The cities are the best looking they've ever been in pokemon and the NPCs while not top class make the cities feel more populated and alive than in SW/SH but without city based side adventures that keep you around in a city for a little while, they still feel like nothing more than scenic checkpoints. Stop in, fight the gym leader, stop at a shop if you need something and move on. Outside of the gym "tests" there's nothing that really gives a city in Paldea a purpose. At least not that I've seen so far. And it sucks to admit but part of the trade off for full open world seems to be that the only buildings you can actually enter are the Academy and Gyms. You don't necessarily need more than that in a Pokemon game but it's a nice touch when you can enter a building even if they offer little more than some NPCs with one line of dialogue.

-I don't know if I'm dumb and doing something wrong but I couldn't get egg breeding to work without making a sandwich that boosts egg power. What I read online is that it helps speed the process up but without the egg power boost my pokemon and ditto just weren't producing eggs. It was frustrating. Otherwise producing eggs with picnics is a smart concept that does away with a stationary day care center. Assuming it functions properly, you should be able to start breeding from wherever, whenever.

-the new pokemon designs I've seen so far are generally solid but I have to say as flawed as the last three gens were, I think I liked the designs better.

-obviously I'm not close to late game yet but it's a little exhausting that most NPC trainers only have 1 or 2 pokemon and gym leaders only have 3. Which is ironic considering they seemed to change that to break up the tedium for the players who want to blaze to late game competitive breeding/team building. And within that, making trainer battles optional helps foster true open roam play but it makes the areas of the game seem unimpeded by any challenge. Not that trainer battles were ever truly challenging but at least it felt like your progression through the world was built off the back of victories in those battles. I don't know I think maybe they should have made a set of trainer battles optional and some as a condition for world advancement in certain areas. Maybe that still exists in the mid to late game. I certainly haven't explored all of Paldea yet but maybe in the context of a pokemon mainline adventure there's such a thing as too much freedom.

-The story so far, while not particularly deep seems to be an improvement over the same formula with a lazily adjusted script. Same with the character dialogue. Sometimes it's a little silly and brainless, as is typical with Pokemon but occasionally it's halfway compelling or downright touching so I'd mark that as an improvement so far.

Definitely not the improvement I think many were hoping for but it's a big step forward from SW/SH. Just maybe not a big enough one. May be my last Pokemon game til the next Gen nintendo console. If they even make any more after this. One thing is for sure. This game will have a lot more longevity with me than SW/SH did. I got so burned out and frustrated with that game I didn't even finish the DLC I paid for and still have no itch to try to get my value on that.

 

[Gecklund]

I’m liking the game so far. I’m about 2 deep in each story mission. You can tell there’s depth that I haven’t gotten to yet but whether that depth is the usual gimmicks or not remains to be seen. Story is obviously geared towards a younger audience but I mean the entire game is. I avoided spoilers for the most part apart from basically what Pokémon officially put out and starters final evolutions. There feels to be a lot more new Pokémon compared to Sw/Sh which is fun. Game has some obvious flaws on the technical side but oh well that doesn’t bug me too much.

 

[Taro Tsujimoto]

Honestly, TPC needs to quit it with the yearly releases. It's clear the quality is suffering because of that.

 

[Habsfan18]

I’m only about a half hour into Scarlet, and they certainly weren’t kidding about the technical issues..These are like, PS1 level graphical glitches. I’m talking about being beside a wall in a room and panning the camera to the right only to be met with a completely black screen until you pan back to the left. Things just disappearing and reappearing..as a few examples. And 15-20fps might be generous..

I’m not sure if it’s that Game Freak just simply doesn’t have the capabilities to create a modern game for a modern console in 2022, if the game was just rushed to market when it clearly wasn’t ready/complete..or both..

I’ll try not to let it ruin my experience too much, but I will say that the reviews and early impressions were not exaggerating at all when it comes to performance. If anything, some may have underplayed it..

 

[JWK]

Like others have said, the game looks terrible but the gameplay is pretty fun. I'll take it, I guess?

 

[robertmac43]

Like others have said, the game looks terrible but the gameplay is pretty fun. I'll take it, I guess?

Yeah i think that's the end of it. I would love better graphics but iits not happening. I'll take the fun game play and leave it at that.

 

[Habsfan18]

Yeah i think that's the end of it. I would love better graphics but iits not happening. I'll take the fun game play and leave it at that.

Yes, gameplay over graphics any day, but these aren’t just simple poor graphics we’re talking about. These are glaring technical issues that hinder the performance of the game. The game never should have been released in this state, although it’s obvious why it was. It’s an absolute cash cow.

And to be clear, this is NOT on Nintendo and the Switch. This is 100% on Game Freak. Beautiful games can and have run beautifully on Switch. Game Freak just seems incapable.

There are PS3 games that came out in 2008/2009 that both look and run better than Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. That’s inexcusable, IMO.

 

[robertmac43]

Yes, gameplay over graphics any day, but these aren’t just simple poor graphics we’re talking about. These are glaring technical issues that hinder the performance of the game. The game never should have been released in this state, although it’s obvious why it was. It’s an absolute cash cow.

And to be clear, this is NOT on Nintendo and the Switch. This is 100% on Game Freak. Beautiful games can and have run beautifully on Switch. Game Freak just seems incapable.

There are PS3 games that came out in 2008/2009 that both look and run better than Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. That’s inexcusable, IMO.

Yeah that's true. I guess we don't want to give Gamefreak a free pass on this either.

 

[JWK]

It's such a GameFreak thing where they allow you to do gym battles in any order you want, but not have level scaling. Maybe by Gen 13, we might have that!

 

[robertmac43]

It's such a GameFreak thing where they allow you to do gym battles in any order you want, but not have level scaling. Maybe by Gen 13, we might have that!

Someday everything will come together for the players....just not today unfortunately.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

It's such a GameFreak thing where they allow you to do gym battles in any order you want, but not have level scaling. Maybe by Gen 13, we might have that!

Why do you want level scaling? It's usually a result of poor game design

 

[Gecklund]

The final area in this is really cool but man it works so bad.

 

[LT]

Why do you want level scaling? It's usually a result of poor game design

I mean, how hard would it have been for them to just make 8 (or N) parties for each gym leader, scaled in power/level by how many badges the trainer already has?

It’s just another lazy oversight that should have no place in a game with this level of popularity.

 

[tiburon12]

Sw/Sh really bothered me because I felt ripped off, and really stepped back from my interest in playing new pkmn games. But i caved and bought BD when I was down with covid and it generated the same feelings of being ripped off. Skipped Arceus because of it.

Now seeing this travesty roll out, glad i didn't cave again and buy it. I probably will if it gets fixed and goes on sale, but otherwise I might skip these. I'm playing Thunder Yellow right now to scratch my pkmn itch and it's working haha

But I would think there has to be a bigger reason for incomplete national dexes and low resolution graphics than sheer laziness from GameFreak. I mean yeah Breath of the Wild looked great but the game didn't have to juggle 450+ unique monsters with independent sound design work, unique animations, overworld placement, variable stat generation on capture, battle mechanics, traits and abilities, on top of everything else that's stuffed into these games.

I'll never find it, but I remember reading an article when Sw/Sh came out where a developer talked about how difficult it was data-wise to include all the mons with their unique animations, moves, etc, especially when the company (i dont recall which) decided to go with smaller cartridges to save money. I'm sure it was the same thing this time around, and we know that Nintendo and GF had issues with the pandemic (all of Japan did).

 

[Gecklund]

Sw/Sh really bothered me because I felt ripped off, and really stepped back from my interest in playing new pkmn games. But i caved and bought BD when I was down with covid and it generated the same feelings of being ripped off. Skipped Arceus because of it.

Now seeing this travesty roll out, glad i didn't cave again and buy it. I probably will if it gets fixed and goes on sale, but otherwise I might skip these. I'm playing Thunder Yellow right now to scratch my pkmn itch and it's working haha


I'll never find it, but I remember reading an article when Sw/Sh came out where a developer talked about how difficult it was data-wise to include all the mons with their unique animations, moves, etc, especially when the company (i dont recall which) decided to go with smaller cartridges to save money. I'm sure it was the same thing this time around, and we know that Nintendo and GF had issues with the pandemic (all of Japan did).

Genuinely this is the best game that’s been released. When the issues get fixed, this game becomes a must buy,

 

[tiburon12]

Genuinely this is the best game that’s been released. When the issues get fixed, this game becomes a must buy,

Ok cool, i'll keep an eye out for when it's been patched/updated. thanks

 

[Gecklund]

Ok cool, i'll keep an eye out for when it's been patched/updated. thanks

The issues are also massively overstated. I’m really not a patient person but it really didn’t big me at all. It was really just your guy walks instead of runs at times. Anything else is people going out searching for bugs.

 

[wingsnut19]

The issues are also massively overstated. I’m really not a patient person but it really didn’t big me at all. It was really just your guy walks instead of runs at times. Anything else is people going out searching for bugs.

It really isn't, especially while docked. The game has terrible pop in to the point that you're encountering Pokemon that aren't even on your screen, the game slows down the longer you play so everything starts to stutter, most obvious being with Pokeball throws and capture animations. The camera frequently glitches through the ground and I've had 3 separate game crashes in the middle of battles. There is just no arguing against the fact that these games have ridiculous performance issues. Despite that, I've actually enjoyed the game. The Pokemon are great, the story is actually decently compelling and gets better in the post game, the exploration is great and there actually is a degree of ambition here that it didn't seem that Gamefreak was capable of. It's just really hard to get over how rough it is.