‘Pokemon Scarlet & Violet’ Previews Express Concerns About Performance

While the game is receiving some interesting revamps, the Switch apparently has trouble running it.

While the game is receiving some interesting revamps, the Switch apparently has trouble running it.

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, the newest mainline entries into the Pokemon video game franchise, are set to release on the Nintendo Switch in less than a month. Ahead of the release, several prominent game journalism outlets got a chance to try the game out.

Overall, the first impressions were positive, with writers praising the game for changing and evolving the established Pokemon formula in new and interesting ways. The world feels much more open and explorable compared to the more linear previous games, and quality of life features like optional trainer battles make the experience much smoother.

However, several outlets expressed consistent concerns about the game’s performance. Eurogamer in particular noted that the game runs at a very choppy framerate, with noticeable slowdown occurring while navigating menus.

“Menus are slow and noticeably laggy, and animations are hugely choppy, with NPCs moving like flicker book drawings even at very close distance, and town buildings loading in as you walk through their streets,” writes Eurogamer’s Chris Tapsell. “Again, we are pre-launch here and things can of course change, but I’ve played a few Pokémon game previews now, and Scarlet and Violet are without doubt the roughest feeling of those.”

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet will release on November 18, 2022, exclusively on the Nintendo Switch.

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