Scarlet and Violet are the most recent additions to the Pokemon franchise. With many new additions and even a new game format, it stands out among the rest. The story finds you in the Paldea region, with new starters and a new game format. Instead of the typical linear storyline, these games allow you to explore throughout the map, even at the beginning. There is a drawback with this, as you need to upgrade your sandwich-loving lizard bike, Koraidon (Scarlet) or Miraidon (Violet) by feeding them sandwiches with specific herbs.

Now, I personally enjoy this game a lot. Everything is very open-world with lots of exploration. However, the game was released as a buggy mess, and is still glitchy to this day. Some outbreaks in the game will spawn in places you cannot enter or do not spawn anything at all. Don’t even mention all the issues with the terrain. I’ve had Pokemon spawn in the walls, clipped out of bounds, and even the textures act wonky on some surfaces.

When a developer releases a game, it should never be released in this state. The largest franchise should be prioritizing quality games instead of pushing one out every two years! This game is such a mess when compared to the previous generation, with far more glitches. Speaking of glitches, guess how many bugtesters were on the team? There were about four. If a company is going to work on a game almost completely out of their comfort zone, bug testing should be a priority.

The amount of issues this game has is very disappointing, and as a huge fan of the franchise, I’m worried that this is the beginning of the downfall of the games. But of course, die-hard fans of the series will purchase whatever game they put out, no matter the how good it is. The thing is that people expect quality from a huge company, and many think it was not delivered with this release.

Sure, every Pokemon game, or even any game in general, has its bugs. However, Red, Blue, and Yellow had the excuse of hardware eliminations, and almost every other game has little to no glitches that are easily accesible. If you play Scarlet and Violet, I bet you will encounter a glitch within an hour of booting up the game.

In the end, Scarlet and Violet has a great story with fun gameplay, but the way it was released is incredibly disappointing, as consumers should expect more from the largest franchise in the world. There are no excuses for this, as the hardware used is fairly stable, and the company should have a huge budget. Yet testing was severely overlooked, which resulted in the game being a buggy mess. Scarlet and Violet are good examples of an amazing story with great graphics, only to be ruined by the company's own greed. If you enjoy the series I'd suggest trying it, but if you're just getting into it, buy any other Pokemon game.