Pokémon Violet - US Version

Let me preface this by saying that I love Pokemon games and have played at least one of every set of games that they have ever released including Pokemon Legends: Arceus. With that said, I cannot believe that Pokemon would push out something this sloppy, buggy, and unfinished. The idea of an open-world Pokemon game is not impossible and was already achieved with Pokemon Legends: Arceus--which I thought was a phenomenal game. This game fell drastically short of that mark. The gameplay progression is very different compared to other Pokemon games where the story is non-linear. The player has three objectives that they have to complete where you take on different "boss" trainers or giant Titan Pokemon. It can be a little confusing where to go next but the game is able to push you in the right direction with relative ease. The story itself is very charming and has a lot of great characters and humorous dialogue. The difficulty is just about right for a Pokemon veteran like myself. Even I was challenged by some of the bosses near the end of the game which is what I would hope for. As for the mechanics, as I mentioned before, the game is set in an open-world environment where the player traverses through different environments. This was actually really fun to just go out and explore whatever wherever whenever I could. I loved scooping up all of the items on the ground and catching endless Pokemon. The mobility is fairly easy as well with Miraidon to ride on and traverse the area. As you progress through the different Titan bosses, you gain more mobility with your Miraidon like the ability to ride on water, glide through the air, and climb cliffs. But herein lies the first issue: so many of the mobility with Miraidon is awkward and clunky. If you try and climb something from the wrong angle, you can slide all the way down. Trying to grasp certain cliffs or faces can be really tricky and often times, I'll just fall completely off. And if you don't have the ability to climb, it is difficult to know what you are actually able to ride on versus fall off of. There are also many confined spaces that it is difficult to traverse with Miraidon in. This brings me to my next point about Pokemon interactions: often times, I'll accidentally drive over a pokemon and engage it in battle. I'll run from it with no issues EXCEPT that because of where the battle placed me, I'll immediately engage with another pokemon battle. I've experienced this where the battles chain up to four times. This can also happen if you are doing something in the menu (where you can't be interacted with) but once you close your menu, you will immediately engage in a battle with a Pokemon that was standing on top of you. That aside, it is fun to be able to just see Pokemon walking around, watching your battles, and just being in the environment with you. I think that what I like best about this game, though, are all of the new Pokemon. I didn't care for Gen 7 pokemon, but I really like all of the new ones this time around. The new Paldean forms and evolutions are great. And the concepts like Wiglett and Toedscool which are throwbacks to the originals but as completely separate Pokemon are a wonderful addition. Terrastilizing ins a new mechanic for the game where you can power up a Pokemon to Terrastilize. This will also give it one type that it has assigned to it (it's Tera Type). This can be any type at all and you can actually change your Tera Type later in the game. This is a neat mechanic but I know that it won't exist after Scarlet and Violet (much like Gigantamaxing), so I don't dwell on it too much. But I cannot overlook the endless bugs with this game. I want to be immersed into a Pokemon game and love it but every five minutes, I'm reminded of something that wasn't quite finished and hampers my experience. As mentioned before, Pokemon will ambush you if you close your menu. Other times, if the battle is in a city, the people will just literally walk right through the pokemon in the battle. I also had an issue with the music during the Elite Four and the Champion where it was looping through the first 10 seconds of the music over and over and over again. I literally had to turn off the sound because it was driving me mad. HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN??? There was also one time where I was battling a wild Tera Pokemon and I poisoned it. I ended up fainting the Pokemon without ever being able to capture it. I've also engaged Pokemon and my avatar ends up IN-BETWEEN my pokemon and the opposing Pokemon. It's a miracle I wasn't injured. And then there are endless problems with rendering, frame rates, and other really silly UI problems. The game is not unplayable. But it is far below Pokemon's standards. I believe that in this instance, Pokemon focused on quality (making the most huge map that ever existed) instead of quality.