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Pokemon Violet Review (Nintendo Switch OLED)

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For our Pokemon Violet Review, Adventure awaits in the Paldea region, a sprawling land of vast open spaces dotted with lakes, towering peaks, wastelands, and perilous mountain ranges. Go freely back and forth between three grand stories as you follow your own path. Beat the eight Gyms spread across the region – in any order – to prove your strength and aim for the Champion Rank!

Pokemon Violet Review Pros:

  • Decent graphics.
  • 6.7GB download size.
  • Game settings – text speed, skip move learning, send to boxes automatically, autosave, skip cutscenes, rumble, and help functions.
  • Controller settings – Invert axis.
  • Classic Pokemon gameplay.
  • Third-person action adventure.
  • Character creator – name, avatar, hairstyle, and coloring.
  • Choice of three starter Pokemon.
  • Tutorials are doled out as you play.
  • You can throw your Pokemon and they will follow you, auto-battle other wild Pokemon, and collect any materials.
  • Gather materials from Pokemon and the world to craft TMs (new attacks/abilities).
  • Throw your Pokeball to initiate fights, this allows you to get at high-up or hidden Pokemon.
  • All new Pokedex where each caught Pokemon is a book with the Pokedex shown as a bookshelf.
  • Pole Battle options – Union circle, Tera Raid battle, surprise trade, link battle, battle stadium, and mystery gift.
  • Online Co-op to take on raids and just explore together.
  • You can ride certain Pokemon (story spoiler).
  • Fights with characters in the game are triggered by your interactions with them this time around.
  • Transfer Pokemon from your boxes to your Party lineup within the menu.
  • Save when you want.
  • Open world.
  • Fast travel points can be found and activated from the map.
  • Place your own map markers.
  • Terastalize is the new evolution turning your Pokemon into a huge crystallized version of the self with powerful attacks.
  • Turn-based combat.
  • Pokemon earn exp and level up to increase stats then at a certain level they evolve and become a new stronger version of the self.
  • Pokedex is where you store all information on caught Pokemon.
  • Poke centers are now open shops with quicker healing stations, Co-op circles, shop, and a TM terminal for crafting.
  • Rotom phone keeps all your inventory, maps, and Pokedex parts in one place and it also helps you float from great heights.
  • Ask at Poke centers for what to do next if lost.
  • Notifications are more abundant and common telling you about auto battle results, any area info, or if school lessons are available.
  • League reps will issue challenges (optional) in areas for unique rewards.
  • Same easy-to-learn controls.
  • Pokemon and their Pokedex entry have a number assigned to them to make them easier to complete.
  • You see the Pokemon roaming around.
  • No matter who actually fights in a battle, all party members get EXP, it’s just the Fighters get more.
  • A mini-map in the corner helps but if you set a destination a handy arrow pops up to show you the way.
  • When fighting a Pokemon, you can either kill it or capture it to use it and fill in your Pokedex.
  • Fighting and not capturing a Pokemon you don’t have will partially fill in their Pokedex entry.
  • Click on a Pokedex entry to get all their stats and features but also where they tend to hang out.
  • Offline and online modes are supported.
  • Wild Tera pokemon roam the world and can be captured after breaking through their transformation.
  • Bes of light will shoot up to show Tera Pokemon and raids.
  • Raids can be done offline and solo as three Ai trainers will join you.
  • The raids allow you to catch the boss Pokemon and you get a lot of rewards.
  • Lock on to wild pokemon to help throw balls and also get a glimpse of their level.
  • Cheer in raids to heal or make friends stronger.
  • Gym battles are back except this time you play an almost mini-game scenario to get the offer of fighting the gym leader. These can be things like hide and seek and find the guy moments.
  • Buy and eat food to temporarily change stats.
  • The Pokémon news segment online allows you to refresh the land and add any temporary or timed raids for exclusive or rare rewards and Pokémon.

Pokemon Violet Review Cons:

  • The performance is horrendous from slowdown to pop-in, pop-up, stuttering animations, and missing textures.
  • No touchscreen support.
  • It’s a slow start as previous players of the series are forced to once again relive the same opening to the game all over again.
  • No option to turn off move/attack/ability animations.
  • You need the Nintendo Switch Online service for anything online except code redemption and any free gifts.
  • So easy to just fall into fights.
  • Food shops will just be a screen with items on it and it feels empty.
  • The fight times are a lot longer and unskippable.
  • The pop-up of Pokemon is terrible.

Related Post: Tad The Lost Explorer Review (PlayStation 4)

Pokemon Violet:

Official website.

Developer: Game Freak

Publisher: Nintendo

Store Links –

Nintendo

  • 7/10
    Graphics - 7/10
  • 7/10
    Sound - 7/10
  • 6/10
    Accessibility - 6/10
  • 8/10
    Length - 8/10
  • 7/10
    Fun Factor - 7/10
7/10

Summary

Pokemon has been the gold label for quality ever since its first outing but something has gone wrong here. What should have been a celebration of the series and a huge step forward with its open-world approach has turned into a disappointment of glitches, bad performance, and jank. You cannot go two minutes without seeing something broken whether it be you disappearing or Pokemon just popping in on top of you, Pokemon Violet has a lot of issues and it’s frustrating as the idea and actual gameplay is brilliant. They made a game that allowed me to play and do what I want, I could do the Gym leaders in any order, explore and find fast travel points, stumble across mass Explosions of the Pokemon activity or just fight random trainers. The trainers that would instantly fight with you in the past are now triggered by you interacting with them giving you a choice. TMS which are the discs used to change a Pokemon attack or ability is far more common and much more the focus, you can find them in the world or craft them with materials garnered from Pokemon fights. They clearly want you to customize your Pokemon and take your party to the next level. As you roam the world you can have your Pokemon follow you and doing so will allow him to auto-battle other Pokemon and pick up any materials lying around. The World is vast and I never felt like it was locked away until I progressed on the story, playing connected to the Internet only allowed me to see other players in real-time running around but to try and salvage a playa le state I stayed offline as much as possible. Raids again are being pushed into the forefront with many of them appearing and they can be done solo with Ai or online with randoms or friends, connect to the news portal to refresh and find more raids. I just really liked and hated the game in equal measure. The constant issues meant I would be saving every few minutes as I never knew when or what I might lose. When the game is semi-behaving it’s one of the best Pokemon experiences but any hint of a bug, glitch, or performance hit and it all just falls apart. At the moment it’s not in an enjoyable state so I would hold off and wait on a patch or two—such a shame.

Jim Smale

Gaming since the Atari 2600, I enjoy the weirdness in games counting Densha De Go and RC De Go as my favourite titles of all time. I prefer gaming of old where buying games from a shop was a thing, Being social in person was a thing. Join me as I attempt to adapt to this new digital age!