Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet have not been doing well in the reviews. For a time, they were in the green rankings still in Metacritic. The games have now dipped into the yellow, with the aggregates falling in the lower 70s. Right now, Pokemon Legends: Arceus is sitting at an 83, which is not that much higher but is still better technically.
Are the numbers correct in assessing that Pokemon Legends: Arceus is clearly the best Pokemon game in this series for 2022? Let’s go through the biggest assets of that game along with the things that make Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet good to find out the true rankings. Nothing will be spoiled about the story if one is worried about that.
8 Catching Pokemon: Arceus
Forever, fans have dreamed about catching Pokemon in the wild rather than relying on random battles in the grass. Pokemon Legends: Arceus changed all this in a big way; not only doing away with random battles but catching Pokemon was simpler. Players could run up to a Pokemon, throw a Pokeball, and that was it.
Tougher Pokemon needed to be weakened, but it was still a big breakthrough, more so than previous entries that tried similar mechanics. Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet backpedaled on the catching mechanics, but at least random battles are still gone.
7 The Battles: Scarlet/Violet
Pokemon Legends: Arceus allows players to catch Pokemon easier, but Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet streamlined combat. Getting in and out of battle is faster than ever. Plus, the games added a long overdue autobattle mechanic, although not in the way most players expected.
Players can throw out their first Pokemon, let’s say Quaxly, for example, and Quaxly will randomly target wild Pokemon. It’ll earn experience for everyone on the team, albeit at lower rewards, but it is still something worth praising.
6 The Story: Arceus
Pokemon Legends: Arceus had an interesting idea for a plot involving a Pokemon Trainer from the present being pulled into the past. The developers could have set this game up as a title taking place in a bygone era, but they added that time travel later on top of it.
There’s not much of a story beyond this premise, but that is more engaging than anything going on in Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet. There are some fun moments in these games especially involving anything with Team Star, but it’s not enough. The stories have never been a large focus for these games, but Pokemon Legends: Arceus is just a tad more engaging.
5 The World: Scarlet/Violet
While the past setting of Pokemon Legends: Arceus is cool, there are drawbacks to the design. The environments are varied, but players have to warp to different sectors. It’s not a big open map, unlike Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet.
Plus, these two new games have the fun gimmicks of using the boxed Legendary Pokemon as ways to get around this region. Koraidon and Miraidon can learn new powers such as the ability to fly or climb mountains. The quest system for the giant world is also better in that it gives players more reasons to explore.
4 Pokeballs: Arceus
Catching Pokemon in Pokemon Legends: Arceus is easier, besides the ability to not have to battle. The game introduced a crafting system wherein players could craft their own Pokeballs without having to rely on buying them.
Buying Pokeballs is one of the more annoying aspects of this series as it's counteractive to the motto “Gotta Catch ‘em All!” How can players catch every Pokemon when money is so hard to come by in games like Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet? Pokemon Legends: Arceus solved this issue with the Pokeballs, and the new games backtracked on this aspect of crafting.
3 Team Star: Scarlet/Violet
There is a great mini-game introduced in Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet that acts like a tower defense game. The Team Rocket of this universe, Team Star, has compounds all over the region. Players must take them down by defeating Team Star Trainers in the field with three Pokemon autobattling before the big boss of the compound comes out.
Then things switch over to a Gym Battle of sorts, with some of the toughest fights in the games. Pokemon Legends: Arceus doesn’t have this mode or the ability to autobattle, as was already stated. Hopefully, this idea gets used again in future games in this series.
2 Technical Specs: Arceus
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is not without its graphical and technical issues. The environments do have some texture pop-ins, and the quality isn’t that far beyond a PS2 at times.
However, patches have made it look and run smoother over time on the Switch. There was also nothing about the experience that caused crashes or glitches, unlike Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet. Some of these glitches are humorous, but there is nothing funny about data getting erased. One thing is for sure, Nintendo and Game Freak need to rethink their open-world environments.
1 Verdict: Arceus
Going through every aspect of games in these versus matches can sometimes produce surprising results. Numbers do not always solve everything. However, this time the numbers don’t lie, as it is obvious from feedback and reviews that most fans and critics prefer Pokemon Legends: Arceus. It’s not just the glitches in the new games, either.
Perhaps, with time, the developers could fix these games up it up to be more presentable entries in the series. They are not on the broken scale akin to when Cyberpunk 2077 launched, but they are close.
Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet were released on November 18, 2022, and are available on Switch.