Nintendo POKEMON 045496598211 Pokémon Scarlet - US Version

Look, I get it, the game has bugs. But I just finished the entire game, unlike most of the people writing bad reviews, and this is hands down the best Pokemon game they've put out in a LONG time. I've been a fan of these games since the original Ruby and Sapphire, and if I'm being honest I've been really tired of all the gimmicks they keep introducing with every main series title like mega evolutions, gigantamaxing, and this time terastallizing. But it's just something I've come to accept as a fan and is mostly not too offensive, and becomes normal after the first like 2 hours of gameplay. The glitches and bugs people are currently using as ammo to review bomb this game are varied from person to person it seems but here was my personal experience. Firstly I played almost exclusively in handheld mode my entire playthrough, I'm not sure if that makes a difference in performance but thought I should mention it. The game has occasional shadows flashing between sunlight and shade when you're under a mountain or hill. The camera sometimes slightly clips through the ground so the bottom 1cm of your display can see under the world. I had trainers I beat do a quick 720 spin in place after I beat them. And once when I was connected to online and starting a raid I got stuck in a loading screen and had to close the game and restart it. Finally there were a few moments when my framerate slowed down for a minute or two, but usually didn't persist that long. Now the main caveat to all of those bugs, is that they occurred few and far between. Honestly I hardly noticed them most of the time, so maybe I got lucky and my copy was somehow more stable than others? To be clear I am not trying to apologize for Gamefreak by saying these bugs aren't worth mentioning because they are, and the complaint is valid, this game wasn't ready to be released just yet. However to say that something so small disqualifies an otherwise really impressive game is such an overcorrection it hurts. Like I mentioned, I have been a fan of the franchise for a very very long time. I was expecting to hate this game, but was just buying it to give it a fair chance. I didn't like Legends Archeus, I didn't like the Diamond and Pearl remakes, I didn't like Sword and Shield that much tbh. But having just completed the entire story of this game, I was genuinely amazed how much I liked this game. And even going into this game with admittedly negative bias working against it's odds, it still managed to win me over and completely flip my expectations on their head. Why? The story had ACTUAL EFFORT put into it, which any fan will tell you this franchise has needed DESPIRATELY for a long time. The characters were surprisingly well developed and you have a real plot and a real relationship with them as you progress. The open world is much more interesting and diverse than it was in Sword and Shield and Arceus. This open world actually makes me want to explore it more and see what I can find in every nook and cranny for items or more species of Pokemon I haven't run into yet. There are great quality of life changes like being able to retroactively remind your Pokemon of past moves at all times without restriction and on the fly. The economy is massively improved by giving you two currencies to earn and use interchangeably. As well as a host of new things to spend your money on instead of just 999x Full Restores, revives, and every kind of Pokeball once again. Honestly there are too many things I like about this game to type them all out here but suffice it to say in my opinion it's a joke to be writing this game off because of what are a handful of mostly minor graphical glitches. Glitches mind you that can and probably will be patched out at some point. I greatly appreciate the effort that was put into this game by Gamefreak because I recognize that this is legitimately the best work they've done on the main series in long time! And I hate that the people who worked hard on this game seeing this tidal wave of hate because the bugs didn't get ironed out and it tripped at the finish line. Aside from shipping early and giving a few bugs with their game I hope Gamefreak is proud of this title because they deserve to be. And if you're seriously out here writing hate reviews without having finished the game you're acting in bad faith, and didn't even bother giving the game a fair shot to begin with. I hope more than anything either the bugs get fixed soon or more people persist and see what this game really has to offer because right now it's heartbreaking seeing Gamefreak's work being put down for such a minor issue. TLDR: Yeah the game has bugs, but they're few and far between and very minor graphical glitches. The overall experience, gameplay, story, quality of life changes make this the best Pokemon title in years. If not for bugs this would be a 10/10 would play again.