We were recently invited by the Pokémon Company and Nintendo to come to TPC’s UK headquarters in London to present a version of the Pokémon scarlet and violet over which a red right passes. That’s less than a month before launch – and we knew the version we played wasn’t the final version – so what does it all look like as we’re fast approaching the eleventh hour?
Let’s start by removing the bad news: in the version we played, the performance is not very good. We were really disappointed with how the game runs in docked mode and weren’t able to test its mobile capabilities. There were definitely a lot of us an act Just like in the game, but we want to cover this highly questionable topic right away.
The game seems to run at 720p when you’re out in the outside world, with little to no smoothing as far as we can tell, and the 30fps maximum frame rate isn’t consistently hit when you’re moving around the world reasonably well. road. Objects and characters that are only a few meters away from the player’s in-game operation, in crowded scenarios, at a lower rate, a technique many games use to avoid dropping and crashing frames. Poor performance elsewhere, but in this case not enough to keep frame rate consistent the main.
You may remember the last trailer that showed a challenge in the gym where the player had to float on Sunflora, with the Pokemon acting on a frenzy even right behind the player; This refers to a lot of the busiest scenes we’ve come across. Even worse, this was true with the Sunflower that we had encountered in battle during the same challenge. Our Pokemon’s framerate was consistent with the rest of the world, but Sunflower was lazy jumping at half the speed, maybe lower, and when we tried to change one Pokemon to another, it took an oddly long time, as if the game should. Free up RAM to make room for the next Pokémon model. Hmm…
Tissues in most open areas can also be highly stained. In the main city of Mesagoza (which is not part of the open world and requires a separate loading screen), walls, floors, and chairs practically merge into what we can unfortunately only call Mess. The game is not enough in open and crowded areas, however it still fails to maintain a decent frame rate. Honestly, we were burned by what we saw.
What makes it worse is that the interiors – like shops, gyms, etc. Not only does it have a more faithful texture Everywhere, but also seems to run at a significantly higher resolution with a solid frame rate. We met mentor/competitor character Nimona at the gym and her model looked just as amazing, as did the player character. Felt like we got a sneak peek at what the developers have done need The game looked like that, but something – whether it was funding, the engine, or funding to develop a new engine – was holding things back.
But regardless of the performance, there is still a lot to appreciate from what we played. A host of Quality of Life features have been introduced to simplify gameplay and making things I feel better. Boss battles no longer use the Line of Sight system, requiring you to interact with said boss in order to return the Level 4 Hopip back to the Stone Age. There might be a slight change, and while the nostalgia bug in our brains tells us that the old system was better because it could run on the Game Boy, we can’t deny that it’s long overdue. right Now. All styles are completely gender-neutral, so the haircut and shoes you fantasized about in Sword and Shield that belong arbitrarily to the other’s body type are no longer beyond your reach. Attractive.
Captured Pokémon now have this delightful animation when their Pokédex entry is complete: swipe their custom info book and pin it to the appropriate number rack. Catching a Pokemon is more like an event, you know? Pokemon that are nearby when another engages in a battle of survival where they’ve been for the duration, just kind of standing there. It’s a little strange to see, but mechanically it means that getting into a Pokémon block by mistake can be disastrous if you’re not prepared, because you’re forced to take them out sequentially or do your best for you. . Pokémon are (largely) monsters, after all, you should at least feel scared of.
We weren’t quite sure what to do when the new Tera Raids were first introduced, assuming it would only be Dynamax Raids with more than a crystal swan souvenir from Burton-on-the-Water’s grandmother-vibration. Although the basic concept is the same, the implementation is much better. The real-time combat system keeps tension high and prevents an indecisive opponent from boring the rest of his team to tears. The atmosphere is excellent too, with Terastallized Pokémon reflected on all sides of the room as if they were trapped inside a huge Fox Glacier Mint.
Multiplayer is also something we were excited to try. There isn’t a long list of available activities that you can engage in with your friends outside of battles and trading, but the complete lack of restrictions on where you can go means that you are only free to live your adventure as you see fit. And your friends can do the same at their own pace. It’s nice to be able to hang out with friends.
There is a lot of passion invested in the game, which makes it even more frustrating because the performance is consistently below par. Little decorations can be found all over the place, like onlookers cheering as you cycle from the gym leader to his other Pokémon, or your character shielding herself from the rain with her arm as you race across the landscape. Small details like this are what can take a game from “good” to “cool”, but we can’t ignore how frustrating its performance and appearance can be in many of its environments…because it’s everywhere.
we truly We hope that the final version of the game will solve many of the technical shortcomings that we have encountered, as the basic concepts that the game offers are very interesting. As we get closer to release, we don’t know if things will shape up in time. Stay tuned for our full review when it’s posted in time — and hopefully we’ll have a reason to sing a different tune.
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