Late Takes: Pokemon Scarlett And Violet.

Hi, welcome to Late Takes! A series where I'm incredibly, hilariously,  fashionably late to the conversation. 

As many of you know, my newborn is going to be here in a matter of weeks, so I've been getting things ready while taking of care of my bedridden mother to be. Things have been crazy and the blog has had to take a backseat. With that out of the way, let us get started.

In February, the next generation of Pokemon was revealed, which came to a shock to me, as I predicted due to the very recent release of Legends Arceus, that they would be taking a holiday off.

Nope, I was dead wrong.

Too Much Too Soon?

Franchise fatigue is a real thing, that just about every franchise goes through. Mario, Sonic, Mega Man, Halo, you name it, that IP has had it. Pokemon absolutely has had it's fair share of it, especially during generation 3, a lot of people, myself included, were absolutely burned out after the last few years of PokeMania, so I skipped gen 3 for a time, I did the same during gen 7. There's arguments for and against annual franchises. Some points for it would be, constant relevancy, the chance to interest new consumers and the obvious financial benefits of a new game every holiday. Arguments against it would be the aforementioned franchise fatigue, creative burn out, and a big one is rushed development cycles just to meet a deadline, which means that said product suffers from a lack of polish, something Pokemon has dealt with from the very beginning.

I'm not going to lie to you. I'm pretty warn out on Pokemon at the moment. The Switch, by the end of it's life cycle, will have had a whopping five mainline Pokemon titles, which is a new record. That's absolutely insane. I loved Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, despite their flaws, but I honestly have not put much time into Legends, as I frankly have had my fill of Pokemon for the moment.

That said, I'm reasonably excited for Scarlet and Violet, something I didn't feel about Sword and Shield, at all. 

Starters:

Of course, each new generation brings us three new starters. Where does these rank for me?

Pretty damn high. I love all three of them, right now, I'm leaning towards Quaxly, but I could make a case for all three. The starters since gen 7 have been extremely consistent in terms of quality, and gen 9 might actually be the best. Of course, I'll be waiting until we see the final evolutions before I make a final decision.

Graphical Improvements:

This has certainly gotten a lot of debate. The graphics of Pokemon games cause a world of controversy, and this one has been no different. As for my take, I think it looks like a decent improvement off of Legends. It's not mind blowing by any means, but the improvements are still great to see. The much better lighting and the improved character models are something to be happy about.

Just look at the trainers:

Flat, boring. Literally an uprezzed 3DS model.

Much, much better.

Full Open World:

So, Pokemon is finally doing it. A full ass, non-linear, open world. It's an exciting thought, and given how Legends Arceus has been seen as the biggest surprise and the most well received Pokemon in the last decade, there's reason to be actually excited. Game Freak seems to have their groove back, and I'm extremely happy to see it. I'll be patiently, cautiously looking forward to hearing more.

That's all for this installment, next I'll be talking about the BOTW2 delay and Nintendo's schedule for the rest of the year.

See you then!