×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more
You are welcome to look at the talkback but please consider that this article is over 1 year old before posting.

Forum - View topic
GAME: Pokémon Scarlet and Violet DLC: The Teal Mask Game Review




Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
FireChick
Subscriber



Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Posts: 2497
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Sep 21, 2023 12:35 pm Reply with quote
It really says a lot that Nintendo admitted to spending an entire year cleaning up bugs and glitches on Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom even after the game itself was completed, yet can't be bothered to do the same for Pokemon.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Yune Amagiri



Joined: 28 Jul 2016
Posts: 1102
Location: France
PostPosted: Thu Sep 21, 2023 1:01 pm Reply with quote
Ogerpon is so cute that it's making my Switch faint ( crash ). I had enough fun but to call it a good DLC but i agree that it's even worse on the performance side.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 5244
PostPosted: Thu Sep 21, 2023 2:26 pm Reply with quote
FireChick wrote:
It really says a lot that Nintendo admitted to spending an entire year cleaning up bugs and glitches on Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom even after the game itself was completed, yet can't be bothered to do the same for Pokemon.
Because Game Freak makes Pokemon and not Nintendo.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
BluesPro



Joined: 09 May 2023
Posts: 99
PostPosted: Thu Sep 21, 2023 6:00 pm Reply with quote
They spend nearly a year on a much smaller scale DLC, and still can't make a town where you can go into more than one building in it.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Regalli



Joined: 26 Apr 2022
Posts: 113
PostPosted: Thu Sep 21, 2023 8:02 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
As a Pokémon game, it does almost everything right to update the material and bring it to a new generation, only held back by the fact that it is probably the worst-performing Pokémon game ever since the original Game Boy titles.


Is it wrong that my first reaction to this was "that does a disservice to the original Game Boy titles"? Sure, they're notoriously glitchy. But given the complexity of what they were doing, the limited space in which to do it, and the fact that so few of those glitches actually CRASH the game, you have to give them credit.

By comparison, Scarlet and Violet are just... HIDEOUSLY poorly-optimized. And I give Gamefreak some sympathy given there was almost certainly hideous crunch behind the games, but the end result is still really bad.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4660
PostPosted: Fri Sep 22, 2023 9:41 am Reply with quote
Cardcaptor Takato wrote:
FireChick wrote:
It really says a lot that Nintendo admitted to spending an entire year cleaning up bugs and glitches on Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom even after the game itself was completed, yet can't be bothered to do the same for Pokemon.
Because Game Freak makes Pokemon and not Nintendo.


It's an easy mistake to make with Pokemon only showing up on Nintendo systems, but yeah, Game Freak makes these games for the Pokemon Company, and not Nintendo. Not too long ago, Game Freak basically said the release schedule is a problem, but Pokemon Company doesn't have a lot of incentive to give them more time because the games sell extremely well no matter the technical quality.

I doubt if they will allow for additional time for the game releases, but what could help is if they took a page from Call of Duty. Activision keeps a yearly release schedule for that series by having three studios working on their own games and then releasing them in rotation.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Aura Ichadora



Joined: 25 Apr 2008
Posts: 2305
Location: In front of my computer
PostPosted: Fri Sep 22, 2023 12:26 pm Reply with quote
Yeah... I agree with the performance issues. While I didn't experience any game-crashing issues, thankfully, the amount of times I was sitting there playing wondering if it was the game that was lagging/acting up or if I had drift with my Hori controller was quite high. I love the Crystal Pool area, but I don't dare go into the water. Or the water anywhere on the map. The lag is SO much worst on the water areas, in some ways kinda worse than Casseroya Lake. And that's a real shame. But also, areas like Mossui Town have bad lag. It's on par with Levincia. I can kinda excuse Levincia's lag due to its expanse, but like... Mossui is tiny. There is no reason for it to lag as much as it does. GameFreak really needs to get these performance issues fixed, and especially before they release The Indigo Disc. Lordy, I fear how laggy the different biomes are going to be...

But outside of that, I did enjoy the DLC story and how it set up for Part 2 and beyond. Carmine and Kieran are amusing characters, but the set-up with Kieran has me the most excited. I also really love the amount of returned Pokemon, and how much fun it's going to be to shiny hunt for them all. I already did a couple of hunts for Carbink and Spinarak/Ariados and I was very happy with how those hunts went down. The stories behind Ogrepon and the Loyal Three was a delight, and I enjoyed seeing the posts on Reddit debating about which ball was best for Ogrepon (many folks going with the Friend Ball, but admittedly I went with the Nest Ball; the colors still worked, but also I only had one Friend Ball and wanted to save it for the next 7* raid, as I've been putting all of those mons in the Apriballs). I also thought it was interesting learning that Blueberry Academy spoiler[was part of the Unova region, versus being part of Kalos. I know it's only going to continue fueling the whole "Gen 5 remakes incoming!" crowd, although that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just a surprise because I would've thought we'd have some connection to Kalos due to the real life connections between France and Spain, is all.]

Also, Perrin's storyline? Love it. Love the callbacks to PLA, especially with the music. I was legit feeling my heart pound hearing those familiar beats. I can only hope we'll see her again, whether in the main crux of DLC Part 2 or in the continuation of the Area Zero sections following the events at Blueberry Academy. Perhaps we might even have a direct descendant of Irida joining her? I know the theory is that Perrin is a mix of both Adaman and Irida, and I still see it, but I think it'd be cool to have someone that is more like Irida in terms of design. Like, a character that looks more obvious to Irida's looks, but also with clothing reflected of the Pearl Clan designs. It was actually really cool to see the Diamond Clan designs on Perrin's clothes, just adding more to the references to PLA.

Overall, love the DLC, but lordy, the performance issues NEED to be fixed. I don't expect perfection, but like... I shouldn't be afraid of going in the water in these games. Traversing water is a natural part of the Pokemon games. It shouldn't be such a slog.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Romuska
Subscriber



Joined: 02 Mar 2004
Posts: 814
PostPosted: Sat Sep 23, 2023 7:45 pm Reply with quote
For the last year I've theorized that Nintendo made Game Freak release the game months early because Tears of the Kingdom was delayed to 2023. It would make sense given that the 2023 anime didn't premiere until April and we're only just now seeing an anime adaptation of the game. It definitely plays like a game that was released earlier than it was supposed to.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 4830
PostPosted: Sun Sep 24, 2023 3:03 pm Reply with quote
I don't play Pokemon myself, but a streamer I follow went through Scarlet/Violet, and I distinctly remember a clip of a bird in the still-near distance flapping its wings at a literal 3 or 4 frames per second. Arguably the biggest gaming franchise on the planet, and they shovel out absolute garbage like that. Incredible.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group