3.5/5 ★ – izacreynolds's review of Pokémon Violet.

Littered with graphical glitches, frame rate slow downs, poor draw distances and questionable overall performance, but despite all that I did enjoy this game. It does a lot really well but also has a lot of confusing cons. It takes the best stuff from Pokemon Sowrd and Shield and the best stuff from Pokemon Legends Arceus and merges them well. However, there are some short comings. For example, Shiny Pokemon no longer have a visual or audio que in the over world, which is a HUGE issue. The mini map is a lovely addition, however the main map is a pain. With only 3 zoom in modes and one of them being way too far zoomed out. Tera Raid battles felt like an after thought, they're painfully messy and overall just confusing due to everyone's connection speed being all over the place at times. The Pokemon Box has a a couple milliseconds of load in between boxes which is absurd! Despite all the negative, one positive I never thought I'd experience in a modern day Pokemon game is the story. The story and execution of characters within the stories is actually really great and by climax of the game I was all in! New additions such as Terrastilising Pokemon and Paradox Pokemon are hit and miss. Terastilising is an interesting gimmick but it's a very ugly one, it's not aesthetically pleasing by any means. Paradox Pokemon are cool, however they are given names like "Iron Jugulus" and "Scream Tail" when they should just be "Future Hydreigon" and "Past Jigglypuff". Don't even get me started on Wiglett and Toedscool, they're existance as serperate Pokemon just annoys me. Auto-Battle is a nice idea but it's really not as simple or as automatic as it sounds. Pokemon don't automatically fight Pokemon they come across if they walk beside you. You have to command them, and then they'll attack Pokemon near the one they've just attacked. Traversal of the environment is nice when you have all the abilities, it's fluid and fun but not nearly as fluid and natural as Pokemon Legends Arceus. Not to mention, speeding round the world is impossible if you're constantly worried about Shinies that you're driving past. It's the best main series Pokemon game since maybe Omega Ruby and Alpha Saphire. I'm glad it has sold a crap ton of copies and also received bad reviews at the same time so that Nintendo, The Pokemon Company and Game Freak can all see that people love the game but are unhappy with the quality at the end of the day. I really hope any DLC that is planned is free. For something of this quality to release in 2022 of a billion dollar franchise and then sell 10 million copies in free days, there needs to be compensation and affirmation that they know they released something that was not finished.