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

[Grayback]

S/V somehow getting more of a pass with the fanbase

I think that this is almost entirely the result of how invested existing fans already are, and the things that new games do keep them invested.
New games include most of the old Pokémon that you already like.
New games let you transfer most of your old Pokémon up to the current generation.
New games (because of Home) let you preserve all of your old Pokémon.

New Pokémon games aren't a new product that has to earn its own goodwill. They're a new collection of old products that already have your goodwill—with a small sprinkling of new content on top, just enough to help justify the new purchase.

I am looking forward if the new shit is Switch 2 exclusive or not

It had better be, if Nintendo wants to sell Switch 2s. Because apparently units aren't moving like Nintendo needs them to.
I don't have any reason to buy a Switch 2 without a new Pokémon game making me do it. How many other people feel the same? Probably a lot.

 

[The Cum Beast]

I don't have any reason to buy a Switch 2 without a new Pokémon game making me do it. How many other people feel the same? Probably a lot.

All the way back in early 2019 I was thinking about buying a switch eventually if SwSh (which was just announced by then) were at least on par with something like the alola games. My main Nintendo franchise is pokemon after all......safe to say I just emulated the switch games.

 

[Squawking Macaw]

I would be curious to see what the sales demographics for these games are. If it's mostly children then the series doesn't need to progress.

Ask and you shall receive.
GEM Partners surveyed 180000 Japanese people to figure out their average age and gender ratios per the forms of entertainment they enjoy, including vidya. The results were released in July 2025 so they're still fresh (link in Japanese, translation (A) in some random forum).

Spoiler: Full list

Title	Genre	Gender Ratio (Male:Female)	Average Age
Brawl Stars	MOBA	90:10	18
Project Sekai	Rhythm Game	40:60	22
eFootball	Sports	99:1	22
VALORANT	FPS	85:15	23
Honkai: Star Rail	RPG	60:40	25
Apex Legends	Battle Royale	85:15	25
Blue Archive	RPG	90:10	25
Fortnite	Battle Royale	85:15	25
Ensemble Stars	Idol	5:95	25
Pro Baseball Spirits	Sports	95:5	25
Zenless Zone Zero	Action RPG	75:25	26
Genshin Impact	Action RPG	55:45	26
Splatoon	TPS/Action	65:35	27
Twisted Wonderland	Adventure	5:95	27
Monster Strike	RPG	90:10	28
Minecraft	Sandbox	70:30	28
The Idolmaster Series	Idol	65:35	28
IDOLiSH7	Idol	5:95	30
BanG Dream!	Rhythm Game	75:25	30
Kirby Series	Action etc.	45:55	30
Mario Series	Action etc.	70:30	32
Pokémon Series	RPG etc.	60:40	32
Fate Series	Adventure etc.	60:40	33
Love Live!	Idol	80:20	33
Uma Musume: Pretty Derby	Raising Simulation	85:15	35
The Legend of Zelda Series	Action Adventure	60:40	35
Animal Crossing Series	Simulation	25:75	35
Touken Ranbu	Raising Simulation	2:98	35
Monster Hunter Series	Action	80:20	35
Resident Evil Series	Horror	80:20	38
Yakuza (Like a Dragon) Series	Action Adventure	60:40	38
Disney Tsum Tsum	Puzzle	35:65	42
Final Fantasy Series	RPG	70:30	42
Dragon Quest Series	RPG	75:25	42

The average Japanese Pokemon player is 32 years old. Of course, this doesn't include the West and I doubt that little kids are answering surveys so naturally the playerbase may skew a little younger than this, but it still gives us a pretty good picture of average fan's age.

What this shows is that the target audience isn't being cycled, at least not as fast as GF and Nintendo were hoping. Most of the people who bought SwSh and SV day 1 are the adults who grew up with the franchise, not their kids, despite GF's very aggressive attempts to cater to a younger audience.

Edit: The survey's age range was 15-69, so as I suspected, Pokemon's actual target audience was just not included at all. The average age might be closer to 25, which would make sense given that we're seeing a wave of nostalgia around the DS games, which were released when 25-year-olds were kids.

 

[Catgirl Tyranid]

I had more to say about other parts of SV's design, but apparently I hit the character limit.

While I really do appreciate the effort post, I want to point out that I was hoping for Game Freak to make Pokemon "pretty" or aesthetically pleasing, not render intricate fire animations and scale texture on my Charizard.

I just want it to look good, however they achieve that goal.

 

[Two Dollars]

Pokemon is 30.

I can't believe Fire Red is being released, fucking incredible. I'll make a comeback if Soul Silver is also released.

Mario 3D All Stars and its consequences have been a disaster for Nintendo rereleases.

 

[chimpSculpture]

The average Japanese Pokemon player is 32 years old.

This survey is very informative, but Japan is probably the worst country to survey anything related to age demographics to be fair, next to South Korea. 0-14 years olds only take up something like 11.4% of the entire countries' population in 2025. It was 36.9% in 1935.

That 11.4% is only going to get smaller, and smaller, and smaller.

Title	Genre	Gender Ratio (Male:Female)	Average Age
Genshin Impact	Action RPG	55:45	26

Genshin Impact has almost a 50/50 gender ratio what the?? There are just as many 26 year old male and female pedos wtf?????

 

[Tri-Tachyon'sClown]

I had more to say about other parts of SV's design, but apparently I hit the character limit.

Please do, your post was very insightful and adds yet another reason that game was even more shit than SwSh (oh, you already did, whoops). The Chesterton' Fence part perfectly describes a lot of modern media that is based on something older, new age "artists" seem to completely ignore or even disagree with why something exists but refuse to understand why it exists in the first place.
I never heard of that adage but I may start using it more often.

 

[Grayback]

I want to point out that I was hoping for Game Freak to make Pokemon "pretty" or aesthetically pleasing, not render intricate fire animations and scale texture on my Charizard.

I just want it to look good, however they achieve that goal.

That's fair.
I didn't necessarily mean for everything in that post to be addressed to you, like some overwhelming "um ackshually have you considered all of this" kind of post.
I wanted to respond to what you were saying, but also to use the response as a jumping-off point to talk about related ideas on balancing graphics and art style, but I put both things together because I didn't want to double-post (yet ended up having to anyway).

Please do

All I had left, I put into this post:

I want to criticize SV's presentation.

I'm tapped-out now.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

So if I’m late with this, I’m sorry.

There was a recent Marilee keychain announced, and people noticed something…let’s say, interesting, about the design.

View attachment 8592807

Do you see it? And if you did, what does that say about you?

*ahem*

https://x.com/mecchajp/status/2027020952295395808

Not saying a thing.

 

[chimpSculpture]

/vp/ is sperging out because the Japanese Pokémon Twitter account put out promotional material that included "Gotta Catch 'Em All", as if this is proof that the next generation is going to have the complete pokédex return.

Fantasists!

 

[Son of Big Boss]

@Grayback
You wrote a fucking poem even though it's useless because both games look like ass and are terrible.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

So if I’m late with this, I’m sorry.

There was a recent Marilee keychain announced, and people noticed something…let’s say, interesting, about the design.

View attachment 8592807

Do you see it? And if you did, what does that say about you?

*ahem*
View attachment 8623638

https://x.com/mecchajp/status/2027020952295395808

Not saying a thing.

Now all it needs is a pair of legs and this new waifu will be complete!

 

[Squawking Macaw]

This survey is very informative, but Japan is probably the worst country to survey anything related to age demographics to be fair, next to South Korea. 0-14 years olds only take up something like 11.4% of the entire countries' population in 2025. It was 36.9% in 1935.

That 11.4% is only going to get smaller, and smaller, and smaller.


Genshin Impact has almost a 50/50 gender ratio what the?? There are just as many 26 year old male and female pedos wtf?????

I forgot about Japan's demographic woes, you're right. If we were to do this survey in America it'd definitely skew younger, but I still think the result would be around 25, most long-running franchises age with their fans whether they want to or not.

Some of the survey's results were pretty surprising, I wasn't expecting Mario players to be 70% male, or for the average Final Fantasy fan to be 42 years old. Genshit having an almost even split while other gachas like Blue Archive have a 90/10 gender ratio is odd.

Fantasists!

Drown me in a thousand rainbows for even typing out such a thought but...
- That's a pretty big "gotta catch 'em all"
- It's the 30th anniversary
- It's the 10th generation
There might be a Smash Ultimate "everyone is here" moment. Or maybe I'm overdosing on copium. We'll see tomorrow.

 

[General Emílio Médici]

The announcement is that the next pokémon game will run at 60 fps, but being a small indie studio GameFreak will need to charge 80 dollars for it to make it happen.

 

[LoogerLike]

I got a gameboy color recently for shits and giggles and my friend convinced me to pick up a Red cartridge so we could complete each other's Pokedexes, and then when this fucker drives 500 miles to hang out he forgot it! I even bought Stadium to get the extra starters, Eevees, Himonniggas, and fossils. Now I'll have to sit on my nuts or go find some troon in town to finish my Dex. FUCK MY LIFE, DEWD!

View attachment 8113742

An update on this story: I met up with my friend, he brought his copy of Blue, and we traded our trade-evolution mons. Next I say "hey let's use Stadium to trade the rest so we can just move all of them in bulk and save some time." I did not know that trading Pokemon makes your save unstable and Stadium may or may not wipe your save. And my friend's save got wiped. He lost it all dude.

My save remains unmolested, and still short all of the Pokemon Blue mons. And I feel immensely bad for my friend losing his save. BUT I MOSTLY FEEL BAD FOR ME NOT COMPLETING MY DEX, FUCK MY LIFE DUDE!

Joking of course, he wasn't too upset about it, but I still feel really bad about it.

 

[filthypenguin]

An update on this story: I met up with my friend, he brought his copy of Blue, and we traded our trade-evolution mons. Next I say "hey let's use Stadium to trade the rest so we can just move all of them in bulk and save some time." I did not know that trading Pokemon makes your save unstable and Stadium may or may not wipe your save. And my friend's save got wiped. He lost it all dude.
View attachment 8624524
My save remains unmolested, and still short all of the Pokemon Blue mons. And I feel immensely bad for my friend losing his save. BUT I MOSTLY FEEL BAD FOR ME NOT COMPLETING MY DEX, FUCK MY LIFE DUDE!
View attachment 8624531
Joking of course, he wasn't too upset about it, but I still feel really bad about it.

You could still finish the dex on cart with the cinnabar island glitch.

 

[LoogerLike]

You could still finish the dex on cart with the cinnabar island glitch.

I know, but other than the Mew glitch I thought it would be fun to do it legitimately.

 

[Lesseps]

I played the latest build of Polished Crystal, however, and I jizzed in my pants.

Have you completed the game? Past the Red fight and bonus fights?

Polished Crystal is the one of the most enjoyable Pokemon experiences I've had. I haven't been a fan of the regional forms of original pokemon, but the way this hack weaves them into the region with new routes and as a way of adding variety to battle scenarios has had me warm up to them. The BloodMoon Ursaluna sprite needs some work though.

The modern movesets, abilities, and wealth of battle items create fast pace battles. The boss fights are tense and not a given victory on your first fight.

I'm looking forward to what the hack does with the Orange Islands. Those tropical locations look amazing on a Gameboy. The forest and Lugia shrine on Shamouti was a happy bit of fan service.

 

[Spaceman Spud]

The best possible announcement would be a declaration that Gamefreak has been shut down, its employees banned from both the video game and software development industries, and a competent studio with actual fun ideas is making pokemon games in the future.

 

[Retarded Weeb]

or for the average Final Fantasy fan to be 42 years old.

Unfortunate, but not really surprising. Final Fantasy has been floundering for the past 16 years with no mega-hits and all their mobile games and spin-offs being nostalgia memberries that only have clear appeal if you're already a huge fan, so it makes sense that zoomies aren't much into the series since they would need to already be hardcore enough to go back and play 20+ year old games to actually get into it.