Near the middle of the Pokemon Violet game, Miradon the riding Pokemon has the entire group of heroes hesitant to enter a giant crater, which is obscured by a thick bank of clouds hiding what is down below.

Arven, the professor’s son, is the first to climb onto Miradon saying it’s OK to be afraid of heights while Nemona says there is no need to be afraid if they go together. Penny jumps on nonchalantly with a sarcastic comment. Just before Miradon jumps off the platform, Arven grabs the hand of the player character, and the group dives into the cloud-covered crater ready to move on with the mission.

This is an example of some of the dramatic moments in Pokemon Violet, which was released on Nov. 18 with a companion game called Pokemon Scarlet, which provides slightly different cut scenes, but is basically the same game. This is the first open-world Pokemon game set with modern Pokemon-style progression.

One of the big things about this game is the three adventures that follow your three friends: Nemona on Victory Road, Arven on Path of Legends, and Penny on Starfall Street.

On Victory Road, players go around the region of Paldea battling the gyms in any order players choose. However, before the battles begin, players must solve a Gym Puzzle. Each gym has a unique puzzle that is a traditional element in Pokemon games that add an extra challenge. Some make more sense than others but they are really fun like the Iono Gym Puzzle, which it is a “Where’s Waldo”-type of minigame it doesn’t make so much sense but it is really fun.

The gym leaders in this game have more personality than in prior games like the Iono character being an entertainment streamer as a profession, Tulip is a beauty model, and Katy is a bakery chef. They also mention this when you battle them or during a gym puzzle. For example, Iono says challengers have to be good enough for her to want to “collab with you” and Tulip mentions wanting to use your character’s Pokemon to try some of her beauty products.

Path of Legends is about these Titan Pokemon that your character and Arven follow to collect herbs called Herba Mystica. Each Titan can be considered a boss of their area. They aren’t too difficult unless players are under the rating level for each area. Each Titan has two phases and to get to some of them you have to follow some of them around for a while. For example, in one of them, players have to avoid obstacles coming down a mountain to get to the Titan.

Lastly, on Starfall Street, a character named Cassiopeia will “Hack into your Rotom phone” and request you to take down the group of delinquents known as Team Star. Players have to go to five bases all around the region of Paldea and use the new battle mechanic Let’s Go mode.
You have to defeat 30 of the teams in Let’s Go mode. Players can only use the first three Pokemon in their party within 10 minutes. After players defeat the 30 Pokemon, they will go up against the Team Star leader of the base they are invading. Each team leader specializes in a specific Pokemon type and each leader has a special Revavroom that they ride on with each having different types to match their own team.

Lets Go mode allows Pokemon to battle other Pokemon in rapid succession without the player being involved. This helps speed up the gameplay. It was introduced in this region to enhance the open-world experience. The reason this mechanic is so important to these games is that you need Pokemon materials to make technical machines to teach your Pokemon new moves. This feature makes it so a minor battle would just be a simple thing that happens under 20 seconds and players earn the same rewards. However, if you notice your Pokemon isn’t attacking a wild Pokemon, players should get closer because it could be a rare Shiny Pokemon. Shiny Pokemon are Pokemon with a different color scheme than usual these Pokemon are really rare, giving the player bragging rights.

The Let’s Go mode is also how players can evolve some of their Pokemon. One of the big examples would have to be the evolution of Pawmo. The way you do is you have to send out your Pokemon in Let’s Go mode and walk around with it for 1,000 steps and then level it up once to get it to evolve. One of the tricks that I found useful to get it done quicker was to hop on top of one of the numerous Pokemon centers in the region and have your Pokemon sent out. This will make it so that it will run in a circle underneath you from the bottom of the Pokemon center after a minute or two all you got to do is level it then it will evolve.

The Let’s Go mode evolutions aren’t the only peculiar way to evolve some of the new Pokemon in this region. One of the most notable would have to be Gimmighoul, to evolve this Pokemon you have to get 999 gimmighoul coins. This is the material it drops when you catch it or defeat it in battle. The reason this is a difficult one to do is because Gimmighoul doesn’t spawn out in the wild you have to go to lost ruins or watch towers to find them, but there are only so many that you can find that way to get the rest of the coins you need to find Gimmighoul just chilling in different areas on Pokemon centers, signs, or just on rocks out in the open. Once you get all 999 Gimmighoul coins and level up your Gimmighoul It will evolve into Gholdengo. Another evolution that is different than the typical leveling up would have to be the new Primeape evolution. To evolve Primeape you need to get it to level 35 to tech it rage fist, now you need to use rage fist 20 times and then level up your Primeape to get Annihilape. The last pokmeon evolution I thought was neet has to due with the wild pokemon spawns in the game, and that would be Bisharps evolution. To evolve Bisharp you are going to want to find a group of Pawniard that are gathered around a Bisharp. That Bisharp is conisder the leader of the pack and defeating not just one of those Bisharps but 3 of them with your own Bisharp,and then levilng up your Bisharp will allow it to evolve into Kingambit.

Pokmeon Scarlet and Violet introduced a new mechanic called Terrastalization, which will change your Pokemon typing to its Terra Type. Terra types include all 18 typings in Pokemon. The way that terrestrialization works is during battle you will have the option to terrastalize one of your Pokemon which will change the Pokemon’s usual typing to its terra type.

So lets take Pikachu for example thier normal typing is just electric but when you terrastalize it can change, so typically Pikachu is weak to ground type attacks but if you have a terra type of flying on your Pikachu then they will become immune to ground type attacks faking out your opponent. With this mechanic the competative scence will change a lot making each player consider more than just their moves and Iv’s but what their terra typing could be, and with the move Terra blast you will alwasys have a same type attck bonus move because it will change the moves typing with your terra typing.

With the new games means new Pokemon designs but some of these are especially unique. Pokemon has made its fair amount of regional forms like Ninetales, when Ninetales is in the Kanto region it is your typical fire type one but In Alola Nintales becomes an Ice type instead with a bit of a design redo. However, in Scalet and Violet, they introduced a new type of species known as convergent species where two animals, but in this case it is Pokemon. Now for those who don’t know convergent species are when two different species evolve to have the same adaptations without being related and this can be shown in some of the new Pokemon. The biggest example of these would have to be Wigglet and Wugtrio these species are very close to the Digglet and Dugtrio line but aren’t related at all they only show the same addeptations.

This game is a completely open-world adventure allowing players to go wherever they want in whatever order you want. This game is so big and vast that there is much to explore and discover. Players can take on any Gym, Titan, or Team Star base in whatever order; however, the scaling of these games is quite horrendous, sometimes causing players to end up in areas where they are so under-leveled that they don’t have a chance. Also, the game could be too easy if players go to an over-leveled area first and somehow manage to catch the Pokemon there and use them to breeze through the game.

Unfortunately, the Scarlet and Violet games have been plagued by glitches, and problems since the games’ releases, including problems with the scaling of the area’s Gyms, Titans, and Team Star bases. Some of the other notable glitches and problems would have to start at your ride Pokemon Miradon or Koraidon. Players can easily jump over big mountains without having the rock climbing ability by jumping up the mountain backward. For example, if the back wheel of the Pokemon hits the ledge, the game registers it as a platform allowing players to jump, again.

The overworld itself is full of glitches. Players can easily move their cameras around during battles and see the “out of bounds” area, which is not meant to be seen by viewers. Players can also fall out of bounds and see underneath the map. Pokemon can spawn outside the map which makes dealing with Shiny Pokemon a pain, especially because players u can just skip over shiny Pokemon without there being any indication that they’re there. The only way you could see the Shiny Pokemon is through their color scheme with some of them not even that different from the original.

The level scaling of the games is so bad players could end up in areas where they are too under-leveled to do anything and if they beat gyms that they are meant to do later, the gyms that were supposed to be done first will be a breeze.

The glitches of these games have led to so many complaints that Nintendo made a public statement apologizing for the game’s performance, stating that they want everyone’s experiences with the games to be the best that they can be and are trying to greatly improve the game’s quality. They only made an announcement about the glitches not about the level scaling or anything of that matter.

For the most part, online communication works really well, allowing friends in the same world up to four people to play in a game. Players can all play the game at the same time and experience adventures all at the same time in the same world no matter if they have the Scarlet or Violet games. Players can attempt Gyms, Team Star Bases, or even the Titans with their friends in the same world.

Tera Raid battles on the other hand are quite annoying to try to join. You could wait five minutes trying to get into a Terra Raid Battle that sometimes you can’t join. The worst problem about that is that the five to seven Tera Raids are extremely difficult without other people’s help. So for communication as a whole, it works relatively well when you play with your friends but when it comes to joining Terrastar raids that can be a bit of an issue.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet have been such great games to experience through all of their bugs and issues. The story that these games have for each route was immaculate and extremely memorable. It has one of the best stories Pokemon has ever told in their games. I would highly recommend this game for anyone who likes games with great storylines, and people who like open-world adventures. As a long long-time Pokemon fan, I had a truly great experience.