With Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Game Freak dipped its toes into what an open world Pokemon game could be. While Pokemon Legends: Arceus was not a fully open-world game, it did feature wide-open zones for players to explore, laying the groundwork for what would follow with Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's massive, open-world Paldea region. But where Pokemon Legends: Arceus felt like a breath of fresh air for the long-running franchise, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet represent a sizable misstep.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet do away with the established main series Pokemon formula of linear progression in favor of embracing a completely open world. Following some tutorial quests at the start, players are let loose in the Paldea region to pursue the three main story quests. One quest is the typical Pokemon journey of defeating gym leaders and challenging the Elite Four, another is about taking on super-sized Titan Pokemon, and the third has players fighting the antagonistic Team Star group.

Longtime Pokemon players will realize that these storylines are recycled from previous games in the series, though the difference here is that players can tackle them in any order they wish. While Pokemon Scarlet and Violet have an optimal route that can be followed, players could technically fight the gym leaders completely out of order or outright ignore the Team Star conflict if they so desire. The lack of level scaling makes this implementation a bit clumsy, but the freedom is still appreciated.

pokemon scarlet and violet nemona

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's three quest lines may be familiar to Pokemon fans from a structural standpoint, but they are definitely more engaging thanks to some heartfelt writing and likable characters. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's writing isn't going to win awards any time soon, but Game Freak clearly made an effort to make the plot more interesting than it has been in most Pokemon games, so fans will likely appreciate that as well.

Unfortunately, as Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players explore the open world and complete objectives in the three quest lines, the game's biggest issues will become readily apparent. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet suffer from frequent performance issues that drag down their frame rate and cause a variety of graphical oddities. Our time with the games only saw one game-breaking bug, with most of the glitches purely visual in nature, but the games clearly suffer from a lack of polish.

The bigger problem is Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's lifeless open world. The Paldea region is essentially a vast wasteland that players go through simply to get to the next town to complete the next objective. There isn't much in the way of side quests or interesting areas to explore. Game Freak filled the open world with constantly-spawning items and Pokemon and called it a day. It's a shame because there is so much potential with an open-world Pokemon game, and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet simply fall short of realizing that potential.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Video Shows Views From The Highest Regions of Paldea

Exploring the Paldea region in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet can become annoying due to the performance problems, running into absurdly tiny Pokemon, and how the terrain can sometimes be unwieldy. Early in the games, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players get their box art legendaries as their mounts. Defeating the Titan Pokemon grants access to a special item that gives the mount legendary more abilities, in turn speeding up exploration and making it more bearable, but that underscores the problems with the game's open world. In other open-world games, exploring the open world is part of the fun, but in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, the open world is simply an obstacle to getting to the more engaging content.

Some hardcore Pokemon fans will be able to look past the lackluster open world and find enjoyment in completing their Pokedex, and there is genuine fun to be had there. It is still incredibly exciting to discover all the new Pokemon in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. As usual, there are some awful designs like Flamigo (it's literally a flamingo with one letter taken out of its name) and Gholdengo (anthropomorphic string cheese wearing a belt), but there are some great new Pokemon designs here, too. Some old-school Pokemon also get new evolutions in Scarlet and Violet, which is always fun to see, like Primeape's new Annihilape evolution and Girafarig's Farigiraf.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet have a mix of bad and good Pokemon designs, but there are some that are downright lazy. Wiglett and its evolved form Wugtrio are basically re-skins of Diglett and Dugtrio. The same goes for Toedscool and Toedscruel, who are dead-ringers for Tentacool and Tentacruel. There are other examples, but needless to say, there are many who are likely to be let down whenever they come across these unimaginative rehashes.

A Flying Tera Type Pikachu in Scarlet & Violet

Battling in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is the same as it ever was, but with the new Terastallizing gimmick thrown into the mix. Terastallizing in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is the Generation 9 equivalent of Mega Evolutions and Gigantamaxing. It gives one Pokemon a huge advantage in battle, though instead of giving the Pokemon a new form or having them grow in size, Terastallizing significantly boosts the power of a specific type. For example, a Fire-type Pokemon's attacks could get a major buff after Terastallizing, but the gimmick has a more interesting function as well.

Terastallizing allows Pokemon to temporarily change their types. While Pikachu is typically an Electric-type Pokemon, one can be caught that has the Flying Tera type, which means it can temporarily become a Flying-type Pikachu. Type-changing using Terastallizing can throw a big curveball in a routine battle, and it certainly adds an interesting wrinkle to the proceedings gameplay-wise.

That being said, Terastallizing lacks the "wow" factor that Gigantamaxing and Mega Evolutions brought to the table. Instead of giving the Pokemon impressive new forms, Terastallizing coats them in a shiny armor and puts an elaborate sculpture on their head. If swapping types also shook up the Pokemon's appearance in a more meaningful way, Terastallizing would have been a bit more interesting, but as it stands, it's a passable gimmick that makes battles more entertaining without feeling completely necessary to the proceedings.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Co-op Multiplayer

One tremendous new addition in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is the implementation of co-op. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet co-op allow four friends to explore the same Pokemon world together. It's handy for collecting version-exclusive Pokemon and competing in raids, but otherwise everyone's progression is independent of one another. There needed to be more co-op specific activities, but what's here is still a great deal of fun with friends.

Playing with friends, coming up with battle strategies, and catching Pokemon are the most entertaining activities in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Unfortunately, the bland open world and technical problems weigh down what could have otherwise been another exceptional main series Pokemon game experience. The bones are here to build something special, so hopefully future Pokemon games do the concept of an open-world Pokemon game justice.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are out now, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. Game Rant tested both versions of the game for this review.

pokemon scarlet and violet games
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

Pokemon Scarlet & Pokemon Violet are the main entries in the series for Generation IX. They introduced over 100 new Pokemon and brought players to the Paldea region.