Pokémon (Not-So) Griefing Thread - Scarlet and Violet Released with 10 Million Copies in First 3 Days in Buggy States

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game freak just didn't care about the villain so they made him do this cringey anime reaction if you win:

















also, he is a manlet lol
 
The media is trying its absolute damndest to spin it as anything but a failure, which granted it isn't, but then you look at the sales numbers between SWSH and its past brethren in Japan for 3 day sales:

1. Pokémon Black/White – 2.637.285
2. Pokémon X/Y – 2.096.050
3. Pokémon Sun/Moon – 1.905.107
4. Pokémon Black 2/White 2 – 1.618.621
5. Pokémon Diamond/Pearl – 1.586.360
6. Pokémon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire – 1.534.593
7. Pokémon Gold/Silver – 1.425.768
8. Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver – 1.408.980
9. Pokémon Sword/Shield – 1.364.544
10. Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire – 1.245.003
11. Pokémon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon – 1.199.814

This doesn't account for digital sales and the 50% higher price tag per unit, but even with those factors unaccounted for it's not selling any better than any previous Pokemon game. And there's still The Last Jedi effect to consider with people getting the game and being disappointed by what they see. I've already seen more than a few defenders wincing a bit after they experienced the messes this game is riddled with for themselves, and the burning's going to happen further once Home drops and more people learn the hard way just what exactly TPC is doing with their beloved old mons.
Wait, why the hell were Black/White such big sellers? Was it because everyone and their grandma had a DS by the time it came out?
 
Wait, why the hell were Black/White such big sellers? Was it because everyone and their grandma had a DS by the time it came out?
The most likely reason, yes. The DS was the second highest selling piece of video game hardware, only bested by the PS2. And by the time B/W came out DS ownership was at its peak.
 
There's two generations where I could be a bit more understanding if GF said they were going to cut the roster due to asset creation. BW animated all the sprites as well as introduced the highest number of new pokemon. XY converted everything to 3D models. If they had said at those points, especially with XY, that they were going to cut the roster back but instead provide brand new 3D models, fan reaction would have been a lot less negative.

Even my friends who don't play pokemon are complaining about the janky animations and jittery battle camera when they see me playing it.

I'm still early in the game but oh my god it's so piss easy. There's heals everywhere. Does this get any better or is it baby mode the entire time?
 
There's two generations where I could be a bit more understanding if GF said they were going to cut the roster due to asset creation. BW animated all the sprites as well as introduced the highest number of new pokemon. XY converted everything to 3D models. If they had said at those points, especially with XY, that they were going to cut the roster back but instead provide brand new 3D models, fan reaction would have been a lot less negative.

Even my friends who don't play pokemon are complaining about the janky animations and jittery battle camera when they see me playing it.

I'm still early in the game but oh my god it's so piss easy. There's heals everywhere. Does this get any better or is it baby mode the entire time?

That's the entire game.
 
So, while grinding for my first shiny Pokemon(currently at 174 battled) I got a shiny for a Pokémon I’ve only fought 11 of.

With a Docile Nature.

And it’s the special shiny.
You can change your pokemon's nature with mints now at the Battle Tower once you become champion. I changed my Zacian's nature to be jolly so it would be a super fast doggo
 
So how are things looking now that it’s had a week to air out? Was it ever determined if the physical version was bricking things, and what are the good and bad things mechanically?
 
I'm personally on the fence about it. The battle mechanics seem to work just fine. The new pokemon are pretty good, or at least some of them are. The essential components are there in terms of catching things and battling other trainers, but it's just missing something. A lot of something. Everything about it screams unfinished. This is very much an unfinished 3DS game hastily ported to the Switch at the last minute.

The wild areas are a huge missed opportunity. It's basically a big safari zone with random things popping in and out all the time. It doesn't really feel like a "wild" area, more like a carefully manicured park. I was expecting/hoping for more of a Breath of the Wild Area, and that is definitely not what we got. The scale of the routes feels more like something that would be appropriate for a handheld and not a console game. It's hard to do max raids with NPCs. It seems like GF designed the NPC trainers you get for those to punish you for not paying for an online service that doesn't work very well anyway.

You can't even ride your pokemon around in them, and you can only fish in specific spots. There's a lot of boring talking interrupting you. A lot. Be prepared to mash the A button to get past it.

I'm not going to say that pokemon is over because of this game, but this is a pretty lackluster release.
 
@Questionable Ceviche brought up a lot of good points in general but allow me go into deeper details in regards to the negatives....
The wild areas are a huge missed opportunity. It's basically a big safari zone with random things popping in and out all the time. It doesn't really feel like a "wild" area, more like a carefully manicured park. I was expecting/hoping for more of a Breath of the Wild Area, and that is definitely not what we got.
Expecting a BOTW-style open area from GF after the release of LGPE is being a bit optimistic especially considering that the B-Team, the ones usually responsible for making remakes and sequels, was working on Sword/Shield while their A-Team was working on Little Town Hero.
The scale of the routes feels more like something that would be appropriate for a handheld and not a console game.
Oh definitely, a lot of the routes still follow the "long corridor with no little hidey-holes" design that's been present in the series since SM. It's also affecting towns (if we exclude USUM's Ultra Megalopolis) now, just look at Spikemuth.
It's hard to do max raids with NPCs. It seems like GF designed the NPC trainers you get for those to punish you for not paying for an online service that doesn't work very well anyway.
Agreed, although the Eternatus method I mentioned earlier on is a good way to cheese Max Raids as long as your NPC partners don't spam passive moves (with Life Dew being the ONLY exception to this, that's saved me on a couple of raids).
You can't even ride your pokemon around in them...
This is one of he things that mildly annoyed me as well. While I'm not annoyed with the fact that I can ride MY Pokemon in it I'm annoyed that they got rid of idea behind Ride Pokemon when they could've used the feature as a means of closing off certain parts of the Wild Area, we still have that to a certain extent thanks to the bike upgrade you get in the late game.
...and you can only fish in specific spots. There's a lot of boring talking interrupting you. A lot. Be prepared to mash the A button to get past it.
I blame this on GF still having a "handheld" mindset in terms of development despite the Switch being more powerful than the 3DS and in terms of making it easier on casual players, IIRC Fishing Spots started out in Sun and Moon.
I'm not going to say that pokemon is over because of this game, but this is a pretty lackluster release.
It really is. Don't forget that Gen VII's lacklusterness made people annoyed with the mainline games while LGPE's casual air, Dex cut, and embracement of Go mechanics and connectivity really got people into a frothing rage. And this is all before GF announced Sword and Shield's own Dex Cut too!
 
So how are things looking now that it’s had a week to air out? Was it ever determined if the physical version was bricking things, and what are the good and bad things mechanically?
I think it's confirmed as it's going to get on the bricking bugs. It seems to be infrequent but has affected some people. It seems to affect both physical and digital copies. It has been ruled out that it was just hacked switches.

I doubt there will be more confirmation beyond that. Game Freak will never acknowledge it and if they do patch the problem I doubt they will say so in patch notes. Nintendo wouldn't even acknowledge the joycon drifting and that was wide spread. It took a class action lawsuit to even get them to start repairing them.

I don't expect a news site to pickup the story either because it doesn't benefit them financially and a game like pokeman ticks too many boxes for woke journalism for them to say anything negative about the game.

Edit: I think the only thing I could offer up as advice to try to avoid it is to avoid suspending the software by using the home button. It may be safer to save the game and go back to the game's home screen before closing the software and to avoid leaving the software running in the background while the switch is sleeping.
 
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Yeah, I agree with a lot of what you said. I’m playing through the game at a drip feed rate at the moment, as I can only play after work and I’m usually too tired to play very long, but something feels... off about it that I can’t put my finger on.

On the positive side, I’m impressed by how they’ve captured the atmosphere of the English countryside while still making it feel like Pokemon. The variety of ‘mons you can catch early on is great too. I haven’t even reached the first gym and I already have a team I’m happy with.

On the negative side, the handholding is actually worse than it was in Ultra Moon. It feels like I get pulled into a cutscene/NPC talk every time I take a step. The exp share is also even more broken than X and Y. I don’t mind the exp share as I find grinding a bore, but it should be optional, and it shouldn’t make things too easy - I want to feel like I’m putting at least some effort into building my team. Here, it feels like I’m just sleepwalking through the training process.

Graphically I haven’t encountered many problems, but I don’t like the way characters glide to a halt after coming out of a walk rather than ending on a step. The game also looks... muddier than Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee. It’s not as nice to look at.

I’m sure I’ll find other stuff to like as the game gets going, but I’ve put my playthrough of Omega Ruby on hold for this, and I’m slightly regretting doing that now.
 
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