Pokémon Scarlet Review-in-progress Part 2

In part 1 of our Pokémon Scarlet review-in-progress, we talked about the good aspects of the game. In part 2, however, we’ll talk about whats holding the game back from being the best Pokémon game yet. Yes, its time to talk about the negative parts of Pokémon Scarlet so far.

Pokémon Scarlet is a really good game, however, because of a few issues its not the great game it really should be.

So what’s wrong with Pokémon Scarlet?

Well, first of all, the game has a lot of framerate issues. This obvious slowdown pops up pretty often. Its not a game breaker though. Pokémon Scarlet is very playable. That said, the framerate issues shouldn’t be this bad. Brilliant Diamond, Sword, nor Acreus had issues this bad. Graphically Scarlet doesn’t look any better than Sword or Acreus. Yes, the world is bigger and there is much more going on but the graphics shouldn’t be a challenge for the Switch. Look at how games like Persona 5 Royal, Mario and Rabbids (both of them) and Immortals Fenyx Rising play on the Switch to see the system can handle games with tons of things going on. Even Super Mario Odyssey proves this.

Framerate issues are not the only issue that the game has. There are glitches throughout the experience too. We’ve seen the main character disappear briefly during gameplay, characters flash on and off screen during battle, and one time where the character was riding on a Pokémon and got stuck in a pit. The game did reset the character after a moment though. We’ve heard of people having other issues with the game too but haven’t experienced those issues yet.

There is one more issue we would like to bring up. This is a problem that all Pokémon games have had so far. When will Pokémon games have voice acting? Pokémon Scarlet has a lot of big dialogue moments. The lack of voice acting is especially jarring in this game.

Scarlet, despite its issues, is a step in the right direction for the franchise. We just hope that Game Freak, Pokémon Company and Nintendo take it forward even more with voice acting, a better framerate and less glitches next time.

Speaking of next time, in Part 3 of our Pokémon Scarlet review-in-progress, we’ll talk about the game’s online features and where the game stands for us review score wise so far. Please stay tuned to GamesReviews.com for more on Pokémon Scarlet!