As with all long-running franchises, there have been duds and mistakes made here and there. Some were utterly crippling, others were mild and deemed mostly acceptable. The more recent generations have had their faults become more visible over the years, but does that make or break the newest installment (or at least its Violet version)?

Pokémon Scarlet & Violet is the latest generation of Pokémon games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch hybrid handheld/console system, released globally on November 18th, 2022. This time around, the world of Pokémon takes a dive into the wide-open sandbox genre, with the new region of Paldea being completely open and explorable.

New features include Terastelization, a temporary super form in battle to make same-type attacks hit even harder and open new strategies; three main storylines to give more to do outside the typical formula of eight gyms; and the box legendary being with you from the very beginning, albeit with most of its trademark abilities needing to be unlocked over time.

I’ve given the newest generation an in-depth look to see how it stacks up to previous games. Is it deserving of the hate and scorn it garnered on release? Or is it a truly good game that is unfortunately marred by technical difficulties?

Let’s see for ourselves, shall we?

HUGE WARNING HERE: There will be spoilers for the story in this article. If you’re more interested in everything else, there will be a link to the second half at the end.

Part 1  —  Going to School

Once again, as is tradition, you take the role of a young boy/girl having moved to Paldea with your mother (side note, anyone else find it odd how you never see your father in these games?). Before long, you’re already meeting with the director of Uva Academy, who quickly gets you enrolled with the school and also introduces you to this region’s starter trio — Sprigatito, the Grass-type cat who releases a sweet scent from its body; Fuecoco, the Fire-type crocodile with a goofy disposition; and Quaxly, a Water-type duckling with a most excellent pompadour. For my playthrough, I instantly bonded with Fuecoco, and made sure to reset repeatedly just so I could get a female one.

You also meet Nemona here, who is this generation’s rival, and she’s certainly unique — she’s utterly obsessed with battling you and wanting you as her bestie so you two can battle constantly. I’ll admit, it was fairly endearing, and made her very memorable as this generation’s rival character.

In an interesting twist, soon after, you meet the box legendary for the first time, rather than all the way near the end like in previous generations. And said box legendary is really out of it, with almost all of its abilities disabled, at least for now, leaving just its ability to assume a travel form and help you get around.

From there, you make your way to the academy and come across the evil team of this generation — Team Star. As has been established with Teams Skull and Yell of Sun/Moon and Sword/Shield, instead of an ultra powerful organization of criminals, Team Star turns out to be former students of the academy that have rebelled and now wish to strike back at their former school with their aggressive recruitment and dangerous vehicles. They seem kind of comical… but something about them made me think they’re more dangerous than they seem.

After that, you get into the school proper, where you get to meet all the school staff and students, including the academy director Clavell, Professor Turo (who isn’t physically present and talks to you via video call for some reason), and many more, all willing to teach you various lessons in class about the game’s mechanics, from type match-ups to historical events to making sandwiches and more.

So far, it’s a solid introduction to the world of Pokémon. I liked the twist that instead of the legendary being only encountered and catchable near the end, you instead have it with you from the start, albeit in a much more weakened form. I also appreciate how it serves as your way of moving fast in the open world and traversing obstacles like stretches of water and huge cliffs.

Now that that’s over with, it’s time for the three main stories of the game. This gives the game substantially more content than other Pokémon titles before it, and I’m excited to give my verdict on them all.

Let’s start with the first third of the game.

Part 2  —  Victory Road

I won’t lie, while this did do a bit to shake up the usual “8 gyms then fight the Elite Four” formula, at its core it’s the same as almost every other main series game — you battle against 8 Gym leaders, encounter your rival a few times, take on the Elite Four, and end with fighting the current Champion and taking their place. It’s definitely formulaic, and at this point, it’s painfully stale.

That’s not to say it’s all bad, however. They did spice it up a little with Gym Challenges, which are short minigames you have to complete before you can face the Gym Leaders proper. Plus, Nemona regularly bumps into you during this route, and it’s rather adorable that she tries to play off her obsession with battling as just coincidentally meeting with you repeatedly.

My favorites among the Gym Leaders are Larry, the Normal Leader who’s just a regular guy in a soul-sucking office job, which makes him surprisingly endearing, alongside the battle taking place inside a restaurant; and Grusha, the Ice Leader whose prominent snowboarding career ended when he took a serious injury making it impossible for him to continue, which makes for prime tearjerking fuel and has major reality subtext. I was also a fan of Ryme, the Ghost Leader, who provides a neat spin on her chosen type by combining it with being a cool old lady who also raps for a living.

Then, once all the Gyms are complete, it’s off to challenge the Elite Four, as is tradition. I was pleasantly impressed by the interview that Rika gives before you get to battle her and the other members proper, and though my Skeledirge faltered under the Ground-types a fair bit, the rest of my team (consisting of Tinkaton, Corviknight, Garganacl, and two others) managed to persevere against the onslaught. It was also a treat to see not only Larry return — using Flying-types to catch you off-guard — but one of the school teachers, Hassel, returns and also provides a good challenge with his Dragon team.

And finally comes a face-off with the Champion herself, Geeta. While I like her character well enough, the actual fight… left a lot to be desired. Her team includes a Kingambit (whose Ability makes it gradually more powerful as its teammates get fainted) being sent out very early, instead of the very end, and her ace, a Glimmora (who would be great to lay out Toxic Spikes to hamper her opponent throughout the battle), gets sent out as her final choice once everyone else has fallen. It was unfortunate to have someone called the Champion turn out to be only mildly challenging, especially with how powerful Skeledirge can be when spamming Torch Song.

And then after, you are crowned the Champion of Paldea. There is one last moment of hilarity here — Nemona comes by and asks if you’re the champion, and you can say yes or no. Choosing no ends up making her ask again, more insistently, and you can KEEP saying no, revealing she has entire dialogues for multiple times you say no. If, eventually, you say yes, then she’ll ask you to be “rivals for life” with you… and you can say no repeatedly, making her very irritated again. It’s surprisingly comical.

Overall, while I was disappointed by the end of this route, it did have some highlights, like Nemona, Larry, and Grusha standing out. Nemona in particular was a major step up from Hop of Sword/Shield, with her insistence on being your battling bestie making her have much more impact.

Now that that’s done, let’s get on with the second main story path — the Path of Legends!

Part 3 —  Path of Legends

I found myself liking this route far more than the other two, in all honesty. Primarily for the interactions with the spotlight character and his signature Pokémon. In this route, you pair up with Arven, son of Professor Turo who’s standoffish and abrasive at first, mainly in regards to Miraidon. However, he ends up showing some major depth under that first impression when it comes to his ace.

The goal here is to seek out Titan Pokémon — Pokémon who are incredibly bigger and stronger than their normal-sized brethren — defeat them, then retrieve the Herba Mystica they’re guarding. The Herba Mystica don’t have a clear purpose at first, but after defeating the first Titan, it’s revealed what Arven really wants to use them for — his Mabosstiff had been critically injured during a scuffle with a feral creature in Area Zero, to the point he can’t even speak when out of his ball! Arven wants to use the Herba Mystica to hopefully heal his beloved canine companion, desperate to avoid losing something near and dear to his heart.

This route felt a lot more emotional than Victory Road. The goal felt far more heartfelt, and I was genuinely sad to see Mabosstiff all weak and clinging to life. That sadness turned to happiness as he slowly grew more and more healthy again with every Herba Mystica sandwich given to him. There was also hilarity with Miraidon regularly requesting a sandwich from me, which I happily gave, and it ended up restoring more of its disabled abilities to get around.

And finally, this route concludes with Mabosstiff restored to full health, and then Arven challenging you to a final face off. His team consists of Pokémon that can be surprisingly challenging to deal with, with movesets that can cover multiple Types and his team’s AI makes you really work to take him down. It’s basically a final exam boss on the level of the Elite Four, but much more difficult and contained to just one match.

This was a route that I enjoyed heavily, and it made me think of the Dynamax phenomenon from Sword/Shield. Fighting giant-sized enemies is always fun, especially when paired with a story that tugs at the heartstrings.

Now, onto the third main story — Starfall Street!

Part 4 —  Starfall Street

This path focuses on this generation’s Team Rocket analogue, as discussed previously. Team Star are a group of rebellious students who are causing problems for the academy, and a mysterious caller tasks you with infiltrating their bases around Paldea, and demolishing their ranks to persuade them to stand down. Along the way, you regularly bump into a guy named “Clive” who looks very familiar… and constantly denies it if you repeatedly say he looks like someone else.

This was also a very enjoyable route, because it shook things up with Team Star, similar to Team Skull of Sun/Moon being a bunch of hooligan kids and Team Yell of Sword/Shield being a rowdy fanclub of Marnie’s. In this case, Team Star, as previously mentioned, are a team of rambunctious, rebellious students with a reputation for bullying and pressuring other students into joining them. For this route, you are tasked by a mysterious caller known only as “Cassiopeia” by dismantling Team Star’s operations, by fighting all five of their squads around Paldea and convincing them to stand down.

Don’t go thinking it’s just a standard “fighting all the grunts” routine like before, though, because Team Star have different tactics. You have to find their bases around Paldea, then get the squad bosses’ attention by quick-battling all the grunts’ Pokémon in under a few minutes. It’s definitely intense and fast-paced, really selling the feeling of blitzing the enemy’s strongholds and forcing their boss to show themselves after their forces are decimated. However, there’s still some strategy involved here, as certain types of Pokémon can get wrecked depending on which squad you’re going after, so bear that in mind.

Once you finally convince the squad leaders to reveal themselves, they come out to fight you themselves… and boy do they impress. Instead of just a plain one-on-one battle, they face you while riding a massive monster of a truck, pulled by a supercharged Revavroom. Fittingly, the Revavroom that lugs the vehicle around is single-typed matching the squad leader. For example, instead of being Poison/Steel, the one Mela has is pure Fire. They also get a unique “Torque” move based on said typing to try and smash you with (e.g., Combat Torque for Fighting), and this Revavroom is always sent out last as the final Pokémon of that squad leader’s team.

This story route was surprisingly heartfelt, as it touched on a very relatable subject — namely, rampant bullying and abuse between students that the faculty either turned a blind eye to or punished the victims of. Team Star were formed to combat the bullies, and ended up dropping out when a scandal broke out. Team Star still stuck together in the year and a half since then, purely out of the friendship that was strong between them…

And then there’s the big reveal at the end. Two of them, actually. “Clive” turns out to be Director Clavell, having put on a (very paper-thin) disguise to try and learn more about Team Star and try to help them without giving himself away. He ends up battling you, while claiming to be Cassiopeia in the flesh.

Of course that’s a lie, because the REAL identity of Cassiopeia is… Penny. You know, that demure, unassuming girl with the Eevee backpack you bump into a few times? That’s the one. She ends up battling you as well, so she can announce that Team Star can be officially disbanded now that their forces have laid down their arms so to speak.

Penny is unique for having her team consist of nothing but “Eeveelutions”, that is, six of the various types of evolved forms Eevee can evolve into. It certainly had some charm to see her team be full of those kinds of Pokémon, especially her Sylveon.

With Penny eventually defeated, Clavell cuts in and says that instead of disbanding Team Star, they should be made to make up for what they have done… by repurposing their bases as training centers for students to learn Team Star’s tactics. It’s surprisingly lenient, and it definitely felt nice that Clavell manages to make a “punishment” sound more like a reward.

This route felt high octane from start to finish, and it was an enjoyable ride. Now comes the final part of the story — entering the Great Crater of Paldea and venturing into Area Zero.

Part 5  —  Area Zero (Massive Spoiler Warning)

It should come as no surprise that this part of the story is the most spoilerrific, so you’ll want to skip past this part if you want to stay unspoiled.

After going on three journeys with Nemona, Arven, and Penny, there’s one final story path to complete. Naturally, it’s centered on the giant crater that nobody’s officially allowed to enter, and where Professor Turo, Arven’s father, was last seen. It is here that you will uncover the true nature of Area Zero, and hopefully uncover the fate of Arven’s missing parent.

This part of Paldea stood out from the rest. The topmost level being brightly lit, and the bottom being dark and illuminated by crystals, made it all the more unearthly. The music helps sell the feeling that you’ve entered a place that is far removed from what you’ve grown used to in Paldea, sounding incredibly otherworldly.

Oh, did I forget to mention the Paradox Pokémon? That’s right — what happened in Area Zero somehow dragged Pokémon from a completely different time period and into the present. In this case, they’re all robotic facsimiles of Pokémon hailing from the future. Interestingly, only one of them, Iron Treads (the future counterpart of Donphan) is part Steel-type, the rest don’t have that type despite all being robotic. They’re also fairly smaller than their predecessors, following the trend of technology becoming more powerful and compact over time. These are my favorite Pokémon, as I’m an avid robot lover, and it’s nice to see more mechanical and futuristic creatures to catch.

Some startling revelations also ensue in this route — namely, Professor Turo is actually dead, and has been for quite some time. In his place is an AI with a synthetic body using his likeness, and acutely aware that its creator is long gone, yet desiring to fix the problems that the real Turo left behind. Arven is understandably shocked when he discovers this, and it only gets worse when it comes to light that in the depths of Area Zero is a time machine that’s responsible for all the Paradox Pokémon running rampant. Even moreso when it’s also revealed that if you try to shut down the time machine, the Turo AI will be overridden by its defensive protocols and be forced to fight you… a fact that is scary and heartbreaking all at once, especially for poor, poor Arven. I wanted to give the poor guy a hug during it.

And of course, you HAVE to battle AI Turo to do what must be done. It gets much scarier as the AI’s body jerks and glitches from being overridden and starts battling you, while sporting a grin full of malice. I was certainly spooked, even though I knew it was coming. What made it far worse was the dialogue box for AI Turo gets overridden to read as Professor Turo, as if the long-dead professor has risen to possess his synthetic duplicate to stop you.

AI Turo’s fight ends up having two phases, with the first consisting of a team full of future Paradox Pokémon. And then, in the second phase… that’s when the nightmare fuel goes to eleven. All Pokéballs that aren’t the Professor’s are suddenly locked, preventing you from using any of your team members. And during this, AI Turo’s body is partially consumed by Terastel crystals, and its dialogue box is replaced with a new identity — the Paradise Protection Protocol. How does it fight you, you ask? By sending out its own Miraidon — revealed to be the same creature that crippled the one you have and traumatized it into fleeing.

It looks like the end, doesn’t it? I know my heart was pounding, as it felt like the savage Miraidon was set to flat out murder innocent kids now that nothing stands in its way. But a ray of hope comes forth — you can still bring out your own Miraidon. Who, after having bonded with you for so long, manages to muster up enough courage and strength to assume its battle mode!

I know I was starting to sweat as I scrambled to have my Miraidon (who I named Dynamo later) withstand the onslaught of its tormentor. The risk of failure was high, especially since both combatants had the same typing (Electric/Dragon) so they couldn’t exploit weaknesses. And yet, in the end, my effort was rewarded, as Dynamo managed to prevail.

But the time machine is still active. And the only way to disable it is to have AI Turo go to the future, so it will shut down once it no longer detects the AI’s presence. Once again, even more sadness, especially for Arven, as he’s already lost his dad once… now he has to lose him again, but this time, right before his eyes. And he can’t do anything about it.

With the time machine in Area Zero brought offline, the threat to Paldea is eliminated. Yet, despite that, it feels somewhat hollow. Now Arven officially has lost his parent forever, and unless AI Turo somehow manages to return, Arven will remain an orphan. Feel free to get some tissues.

And that is the end of Pokémon Violet. I will say, this was quite climactic, and the visuals, especially in the depths of Area Zero and the second phase against AI Turo, were phenomenal. It was also quite a shocker to be forced to bring out my Miraidon, who, at this point, had absolutely no combat capability, but managed to unlock its strength and save the day. This comes with the bonus of Miraidon now being able to switch into battle mode and join your team like a regular Pokémon.

It’s a satisfying conclusion for sure, and I eagerly await what the DLC expansions will bring.

This is the end of the first part of my review. To see the second half, where I cover the gameplay, graphics, pros, cons, and give my final verdict, CLICK HERE.