The hype and excitement are always there when a game from the Pokémon franchise is announced, and Pokemon Scarlet and Purple are no exception. What do the critics think of the 9G and the new format open world of this last opus?
Correct notes, but nothing more
At the moment, that is to say the first day of the release of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, the new game of GameFreak is noted 77 out of 100 on the specialized site Metacritic. If the rating of 77 is more than correct, it is still one of the lowest ratings for a Pokémon game.
For comparison, here are the ratings of the latest Pokémon titles on Metacritic:
- Pokémon Sword and Shield : 80 / 100
- Pokemon Sun and Moon: 87 / 100
- Pokemon X and Y : 87 / 100
- Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire : 82 / 100
- Pokemon Black and White : 87 / 100
In Pokemon games of the last decade, it’s the rating of Pokémon Sparkling Diamond and Sparkling Pearl which comes closest to the last opus, with 78 / 100, thus making Pokémon Scarlet and Violet GameFreak’s game worst rated of the decade!
It’s worth noting, however, that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet haven’t received any scores from players yet, since it’s only just released.
Major performance issues
The majority of critics have in any case agreed on the negative points of Scarlet and Violet. If people appreciated the open world aspect and the 9G as a whole, it is rather in the technical side that the shoe pinches. Indeed, this opus suffers huge performance issues.
GameFreak clearly failed to produce a beautiful and functional game on the Nintendo Switch, the or other titles like Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Zelda Breath of the Wild have managed to develop more beautiful open worlds, and above all better optimized, on the same console.