Pokémon games progress at a sluggish pace. This might be annoying for fans hoping for the freshest and best, but it does make tracking how the games evolve over time simpler. Consider the series’ current obsession with providing gamers with an open universe. It began modestly, with Pokémon Sword and Shield providing a wild region for users to freely explore in 2019. Legends: Arceus, a spinoff that separated its planet into enormous regions rich with fauna and mysteries, debuted earlier this year. Violet and Scarlet are the first genuinely open-world games in the franchise’s history. They are the most expansive and diverse Pokémon games to date.
That size, however, comes at a cost, as the Nintendo Switch often struggles to keep up with the games. Even though this milestone for the series seems hampered at times, the excitement of exploration is never lost.
The games take set in the new Paldea area, which has a combination of Spanish and Portuguese characteristics and revolves around a local school for aspiring Pokémon trainers. It’s essentially the magical school cliche adapted for Pokémon – and it works quite well. You take on the role of a new transfer student, and after a few weeks of courses (which you happily don’t have to attend), you’re assigned an independent project with the subject “treasure hunt.” In actuality, you’re basically given free rein in the world to do anything you want.
This design makes more narrative sense than previous Pokémon games (sending youngsters out on a massive adventure with little to no preparation appears cruel in hindsight), but it also lets the game be much less restrictive. Violet and Scarlet feature three distinct story threads, each with its own set of tasks, and although you must complete them all to complete the game, you may do it in practically any sequence you choose.
