Finished a painting of Floragato around the time I started playing Pokemon Scarlet, which launched last month on November! I was hesitant to play this entry in the franchise at first. The pre-launch info & screens were not the most appealing to me as we approached the launch date, especially after how much I enjoyed Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Then upon launch, I saw the plentiful accounts and growing backlash toward the performance issues the games were having. I planned to wait and see when Nintendo would patch the performance issues.
I was still curious about the games, though, especially as the backlash grew. I started watching a few commentary videos on YouTube, and stumbled across one that was less one-sidedly negative than many of the videos on there at the time. This video emphasized how the gameplay itself was quite revitalizing for the Pokemon main series franchise, while not downplaying the serious and unacceptable performance issues. The commentator guessed that the developers for this game were likely overworked, and this was probably why there were so many technical issues in this iteration. He emphasized how the underlying gameplay seemed very thoughtful in terms of mechanics – the game design itself being solid, and introducing many new concepts that the mainline Pokemon franchise has needed for years.
I’m glad I stumbled across his video, because his commentary was what swayed my opinion on waiting for a performance patch. I decided to purchase Scarlet the same day! I am so glad I did, because it didn’t take me a long time playing to realize that, yes, this is the best mainline Pokemon game since probably the Black & White generation of games.
i’ll link the video below & continue this post under the cut due to length!
eldrige is a 2D artist living on the West Coast of the United States. They are a fan of anthro and Pokemon art, and love creating paintings that bring joy and delight!
Like eldrige’s art & have an idea you think fits their style? Commission eldrige here!
