Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

[Prowler]

Got the game recently.

I ahd seen some people complain about glitches and such but I don't think I've seen any. A bit of a framerate slowdown at times sure, but that's common on the Switch tbh.

The game seems fine. I'm still early in it. Haven't challenged my 1st gym yet. Still trying to get used to the 3D aspect of it.

[Turo602]

Hope you got Violet instead of sh*tty Scarlet.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Turo602

Hope you got Violet instead of sh*tty Scarlet.

Literally what is the difference?

[Turo602]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

Literally what is the difference?

Only the dopest Professor in all of Pokemon.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Turo602

Only the dopest Professor in all of Pokemon.

Oh, that sexy cavewoman type professor everyone's been talking about.

[Sumac]

I think, Gordon Freechad is cooler than a cavewoman.

Spoiler:

Also, he fits more, given the story.

[ssjup81]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

Oh, that sexy cavewoman type professor everyone's been talking about.

I chose Violet over Scarlet, but I don't remember why. Probably some Pokemon or whatever.

That aside, with the Pokemon games, for me anyway, it depends on the story and gameplay. I played the first gen games (Red/Blue/Green...Yellow to an extent, but that was based a little bit closer to the anime) and they were fun. Your character trying to become the best trainer to complete the Professor's Pokedex and coming across an evil organization that exploited, or possibly killed Pokemon (Slowpoke tail anyone?) for money and whatever and your thwarting their plans. You defeated them, took out the boss which caused the organization to disband, you fight against the Elite 4, the end. Gen 2, three years later, you have a new trainer from a new region (based on the Kansai region of Japan from my memory and I liked it a lot), Red from the Red/Green/Blue games kinda vanished and the Rocket Gang were back trying to find their boss. You could play in the Kanto region and the newer region and that’s the Gold/Silver games. At the end, you do fight against Sakaki/Giovanni again and defeat him and the Rocket Gang is officially disbanded. You then have that bonus fight on Mt. Silver against Red, which was kind of epic, since he’d vanished or whatever. Gold/Silver was a fun sequel.

After that, I was lukewarm with the games. I couldn't get into Gen 3 (Ruby/Sapphire) or Gen 4 (Diamond/Pearl). The remakes of Gold/Silver (Heart Gold/Soul Silver) brought me back in. I still say Sakaki killed himself at the end...but hey, it's just a theory. That got us into Gen 5 with Black/Black 2/White/White 2. Those games brought me back into the series because of the story and the protagonist(s) of the games being older. I pre-ordered Black (in Japan), and enjoyed it a lot and then pre-ordered Black 2, which was a direct sequel to it.

Next Gen, X/Y....meh. That was...not very memorable and I was pulled out again interest wise. I finished it, but...eh.

Next Gen, didn't get since I lost my 3DS when going back to Japan...but I don't think it would've held my interest. Sword/Shield either, getting down to it.

Still wish I could remember what made me pre-order Violet. lol

Out of the Gens I've played, though, Gen 2 and 5 are my favorites. Going back, I liked that you could go back and play the Kanto region stuff. Using the Shinkansen to go back and forth between the regions was awesome and it's even more fun while playing the games and using the Shinkansen while RIDING on the Shinkansen. lol

As mentioned, the gaming mechanics are usually pretty similar...might have a new gimmick here or there, but for me personally, if I don't find the story interesting or if the antagonists don't have some kind of interesting motivations as to why they are acting the way they are, I can't fully get into the games. I think that was my issue with Pokemon X. I think the evil organization wanted people to dress cool or some nonsense.

[Prowler]

A lot of people have been saying that the game feels entirely different on the Switch 2. As in, it runs very smoothly and isn't glitchy anymore.

[Prowler]

The sales figures for all mainline Pokémon games as of today:



Scarlet/Violet and Sword/Shield being in the top below Red and Blue and above Gold and Silver is rather surprising.

I guess the Switch sales numbers also explain that in part, but then again everyone back then had a Game Boy and the DS nearly came close to PS2 numbers yet Black and White games also fall behind them...

Anyway gens 8 and 9 look suspiciously close to gen I but as you go down the list you then notice Yellow at a whooping 14M copies old which really skyrockets Gen I's numbers.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by Prowler

The sales figures for all mainline Pokémon games as of today:

https://i.redd.it/d7l2v42j1v4g1.png

Scarlet/Violet and Sword/Shield being in the top below Red and Blue and above Gold and Silver is rather surprising.

I guess the Switch sales numbers also explain that in part, but then again everyone back then had a Game Boy and the DS nearly came close to PS2 numbers yet Black and White games also fall behind them...

Anyway gens 8 and 9 look suspiciously close to gen I but as you go down the list you then notice Yellow at a whooping 14M copies old which really skyrockets Gen I's numbers.

In the case of the G1/G2 numbers, do they include the 3DS re-releases?

[sdp]

I'm surprised how well S/V sold, normally the second entry in a same console sells less but I guess Sw/Sh also came out early in the Switch's life and before the pandemic that drove sales to insane levels. It doesn't deserve to beat the original games in sales.

Gen 3 being almost the last mainline game goes to show that it was one of the besst gens, when the game was nearly dead, only true fans.

Originally Posted by neatoman

In the case of the G1/G2 numbers, do they include the 3DS re-releases?

No, they don't reveal digital sales I believe that list is from wikipedia which only states the numbers they release officially. And the Gen1 games didn't get more sales when they launched digitally,neither did the re-releases of say the Mario and Zelda series, etc on Virtual Console.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by neatoman

In the case of the G1/G2 numbers, do they include the 3DS re-releases?

Virtual console? No idea... but those came out in 2017 already, so I can't imagine them making that much of a difference. Plus it was near the end of the system's lifetime and while popular, it was never a huge phenomenon like the Game Boy or the original DS was. It also didn't sell more units than the GBA did. So I can't imagine the re-releases of Gen I-II games on the 3DS Virtual Console being more than a drop in the ocean in the total numbers.

Black and White sales numbers are a little sad. They're arguably the best Pokémon games but I know they were rather divisive among fans back when they came out. Nowadays Pokémon fans would kill to have games a good as the Gen V ones.

[CyberCubed]

Platinum, Emerald and Crystal being the lowest selling games make sense. They were the "third versions" of their gens, and even back then people didn't like the idea of re-buying a whole game again for a few additions. But it's a shame because Platinum and Emerald are excellent games, much better than the original D/P and Ruby/Sapphire. Crystal was fun too.

Nowadays with DLC expansions you don't need to do "third versions" anymore. In retrospect it's amazing how Gamefreak/Nintendo got away with getting people to buy the same exact game 2-3 times over and over just for the different pokemon in each. It really was a brilliant way to drive up sales.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Platinum, Emerald and Crystal being the lowest selling games make sense. They were the "third versions" of their gens, and even back then people didn't like the idea of re-buying a whole game again for a few additions. But it's a shame because Platinum and Emerald are excellent games, much better than the original D/P and Ruby/Sapphire. Crystal was fun too.

Nowadays with DLC expansions you don't need to do "third versions" anymore. In retrospect it's amazing how Gamefreak/Nintendo got away with getting people to buy the same exact game 2-3 times over and over just for the different pokemon in each. It really was a brilliant way to drive up sales.

Yeah honestly the fact there still are Pokémon who can only evolve through trade in 2025 even though trading Pokémon is easier than ever these days, is pretty stupid.

It took me playing BDSP 3 years ago to finally get Alakazam, Machamp and Golem I never took my Game Boy to school as a kid neither did I have a link cable so I never got to experience the final evolutions of those 3 until a few years ago.

I've seen people claim they buy both versions always because they like owning both. I've only done that with Black and White, tbh. Instead of replaying Black 1 all over again I just decided to buy White 1 instead.

In 2025, there being 2 slightly different versions of both mainline games of the same generation is quite frankly absurd. Yet Nintendo/Gamefreak get away with it lol

[CyberCubed]

Also looking at that chart I'm surprised all the "remakes" didn't do better. FR/LG, HGSS and Omega Ruby/Sapphire all sold relatively well but given they were the remakes of Kanto, Johto and Hoenn you'd think they would have sold better than they did. FR/LG especially given it came out way back in 2004 when Kanto nostalgia would be at its first highest point in the Gen 3 era.

Also the Ruby/Sapphire remakes outselling both FR/LG AND HGSS is a real shock. HGSS was like a dream game remaking the Johto games, yet the Hoenn remakes did better.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Also looking at that chart I'm surprised all the "remakes" didn't do better. FR/LG, HGSS and Omega Ruby/Sapphire all sold relatively well but given they were the remakes of Kanto, Johto and Hoenn you'd think they would have sold better than they did. FR/LG especially given it came out way back in 2004 when Kanto nostalgia would be at its first highest point in the Gen 3 era.

Also the Ruby/Sapphire remakes outselling both FR/LG AND HGSS is a real shock. HGSS was like a dream game remaking the Johto games, yet the Hoenn remakes did better.

It is quite surprising BDSP and even ORAS outsold HGSS. I always read Pokémon fans praising the HGSS games as being peak Pokémon. Personally, I think they're fine but not better than ORAS. Thing is, Johto lives off nostalgia pretty much. It's a flawed region with a rather underwhelming Pokédex. And the best Johto mons can only be obtained late in the game when you're in Kanto already... which makes zero sense. And Johto itself is not much of a full fledged region but more like Kanto extended.

People also say Kanto and Gen I live off nostalgia and that RBY have very flawed mechanics such as psychics being OP... and they're not wrong. But at least Gen I does not have the unbalanced level curve the Gen II games do.

ORAS are the perfect Pokémon remakes for me. They also have a huge Pokédex. Fun fact: ORAS are the reason we never got a Pokémon Z a decade ago or so. ORAS took the developers a long time to finish and quite frankly, it shows. So much content in that game.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by Prowler

It is quite surprising BDSP and even ORAS outsold HGSS. I always read Pokémon fans praising the HGSS games as being peak Pokémon. Personally, I think they're fine but not better than ORAS. Thing is, Johto lives off nostalgia pretty much. It's a flawed region with a rather underwhelming Pokédex. And the best Johto mons can only be obtained late in the game when you're in Kanto already... which makes zero sense. And Johto itself is not much of a full fledged region but more like Kanto extended.

People also say Kanto and Gen I live off nostalgia and that RBY have very flawed mechanics such as psychics being OP... and they're not wrong. But at least Gen I does not have the unbalanced level curve the Gen II games do.

ORAS are the perfect Pokémon remakes for me. They also have a huge Pokédex. Fun fact: ORAS are the reason we never got a Pokémon Z a decade ago or so. ORAS took the developers a long time to finish and quite frankly, it shows. So much content in that game.

Both the Johto games and the anime kind of suffered from the "sophmore slump" where they relied too much on Kanto and didn't have their own identity. I like most of the Johto pokemon themselves though, but the games were fine, and the anime portion is known to get bogged down with a lot of repetitive filler eps for the first time, it's why people felt Ash's story was going nowhere at the time. Granted all the sagas later do have similar issues, but the writers manage to include more development for the cast and companions and better battles, even if the formula stayed the same.

Also the initial pokemon fad largely died down around 2001/early 2002, when we were in the middle of the Johto era. At least in the U.S., I don't know how it was in Europe.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Both the Johto games and the anime kind of suffered from the "sophmore slump" where they relied too much on Kanto and didn't have their own identity. I like most of the Johto pokemon themselves though, but the games were fine, and the anime portion is known to get bogged down with a lot of repetitive filler eps for the first time, it's why people felt Ash's story was going nowhere at the time. Granted all the sagas later do have similar issues, but the writers manage to include more development for the cast and companions and better battles, even if the formula stayed the same.

Also the initial pokemon fad largely died down around 2001/early 2002, when we were in the middle of the Johto era. At least in the U.S., I don't know how it was in Europe.

It was pretty much the same here. Like I said before, by the end of 6th grade, Pokémon's initial fad was over among my generation. I didn't notice it at first due to summer vacation, but once 7th grade began no one was talking about Pokémon anymore. Yu-Gi-Oh was quite popular in the 2nd half of 6th grade but it was short lived. In 7th grade, Beyblade was popular for a while and then in 8th grade, Magic the Gathering became popular.