# Chapter Select, [[S6E2 - Pokémon Scarlet and Violet]] Transcript This transcription was completed on March 4, 2026 with the application MacWhisper on macOS. This was done automatically, without human input during the transcription process. The transcription used the Parakeet v3 model. My hope is that by offering this transcription – however accurate it may be done by a machine learning/AI – will help you, the listener. I’d love to offer full, proper transcription some day, but that is not feasible at this time. Thank you for listening and reading. I hope you enjoy the show and that this document was helpful. Enjoy. --- I'm recording and Chris if you could go ahead and record. *00:00* Start recording. *00:02* I'm actually using both Audacity and Quick Time because I don't trust my Audacity. *00:04* So look at this guy. *00:10* Backups. *00:11* Backups on backups. *00:12* I I I have not I have not done a podcast in a hot minute. *00:13* Um Well, thank you for doing one with us. *00:17* I absolutely hate pr uh producing podcasts. *00:21* I love guesting on podcasts, so saved me. *00:24* That's the way to g that's the way to do it. *00:28* I'm over here. *00:30* I love it all. *00:34* Yeah. *00:34* I love the whole process. *00:35* You're ins absolutely insane, man. *00:36* He loves the production part of it, so it works. *00:38* I have a lot of fun with it. *00:42* Godspeed. *00:43* Is there I know when I m reached out to message you you said you weren't very active on Twitter, which in general I understand and then throw Elon on top of it. *00:45* Besides Game Perr, is there anywhere else you'd like us to maybe direct people? *00:59* You're just Game Perr? *01:03* You can still say my Twitter. *01:04* Okay, Twitter, GamePurr. *01:06* But um yeah, but that's that's pretty much it. *01:07* Other than that, I'm off the grid *01:10* It's nice to be off the grid. *01:12* Yeah. *01:15* Yeah. *01:16* Imagine being a public figure. *01:16* Ugh. *01:18* No, thank you. *01:19* I don't understand how people like are able to keep up with the discourse and keep contributing to it on like a weekly and daily basis. *01:20* Like Brazil hat. *01:28* Not not having a soul, I think, is my theory. *01:29* Selling it, selling it in its entirety. *01:32* I didn't even know who this *01:34* Andrew Tate guy was and t I saw the initial spark with the Greta here and I was like, oh, whatever. *01:36* He's an idiot *01:43* I'll move on. *01:43* I heard something about a pizza box and a big thing. *01:44* Like holy s *01:50* I I got I got um lambasted last night for not knowing who Mr. *01:52* Beast was. *01:57* It's like *01:59* I was just like f you what do you think I do every day? *02:01* I mean Mr. *02:04* Beatley, I I wouldn't uh *02:06* Hold it against anyone not knowing who Mr. *02:08* Beast is. *02:10* I I think I've only watched maybe two videos of his. *02:11* I've watched more videos where he's a guest on someone else's. *02:14* Or just to see his process as I don't know, philanthropist ghost burger maker. *02:18* I don't know. *02:24* That none of that makes sense to the burger things exist? *02:25* I think it's still a thing. *02:29* So when COVID initially hit and everything was shut down, he I *02:30* He turned a bunch of restaurants into ghost kitchens, which I guess is basically you can moonlight in a kitchen to make burgers or whatever else. *02:36* So Olive Garden will also make a cheeseburger for you, but you can only get it through *02:44* Like a DoorDash or Uber Eats or whatever. *02:49* So Mr. *02:52* Beast has a burger chain, but there's no physical building for it. *02:53* So some other kitchen is making it for you. *02:57* And that was part of how restaurants stayed in business, I guess. *03:01* I don't know if it's a regional thing, but I have uh another wing by DJ Khaled, only through Uber Eats. *03:04* Another wing. *03:09* If I want wings from DJ Khaled. *03:10* Um *03:12* Wait, call it wings? *03:14* What? *03:17* It's it's called another wing. *03:18* Another wing. *03:20* Um yeah. *03:21* Oh let me see if I can get a Mr. *03:22* Beast burger delivered to me *03:25* Right now. *03:28* They were like, oh, he's been on he's been on Time Magazine. *03:29* How do you not know him? *03:32* It's like, do I look like I read Time magazine? *03:32* Time magazine? *03:35* That was their last time I read Time magia *03:36* Cause that's very relevant in 2022 when we're all grabbing Time magazines off the newsstand. *03:39* Like yeah, I I I haven't been in like a dentist waiting room in forever, so like sorry, I haven't read Time Magazine. *03:46* What is Oh, you gotta grab a can I see a menu? *03:54* Sauces. *03:58* Success sauces. *03:59* All they have to do is like lemon pepper. *04:00* Suffering from success. *04:03* Oh my gosh. *04:07* They don't want you to win truffalo. *04:09* Un un unbelievable buffalo. *04:13* Honey, honey, hot honey. *04:15* Don't quit Nashville Hot. *04:17* Are these song references or just hip hop names? *04:19* I I believe most of them are song like like suffering from success is like the obvious one even if I don't listen to his stuff. *04:22* It's like, oh that's a DJ Khaled thing *04:28* I have the DJ Khaled Jordans, I need to get rid of those though. *04:30* Diplo. *04:34* Baby you smart blue cheese. *04:36* Holla at me, honey Dijon. *04:38* I ain't regular ranch and major cheese. *04:41* I ain't regular ranch. *04:44* Oh, I don't trust that. *04:49* Yeah, that one sounds like *04:51* So what sounds like something I wouldn't want to ingest. *04:53* I don't even know if I have ranch and quotation marks. *04:57* Order now, order now. *05:01* Let me see. *05:04* I'm gonna download DoorDash right now. *05:04* I had to delete it because I was ordering too much food. *05:07* And so I only download it in the most direction. *05:11* I don't think I've ever used it in my life, honestly. *05:13* It's good. *05:16* Don't do it. *05:16* Cause the laziness kicks in. *05:17* It adds up. *05:22* Oh my gosh. *05:23* The fees *05:24* Plus if you're decent you tip and then it's Yeah Don't track me. *05:26* It's bonkers. *05:31* Alright, I'm gonna look up D Ohow, whatever. *05:32* I'm eligible for lower delivery fees. *05:35* I don't care. *05:38* I think DJ Cowd would do a Pokemon credit song like Ed Sheeran did. *05:39* Oh my gosh. *05:42* When Ed popped up in the credits died. *05:43* What is it? *05:48* Another wing. *05:49* I didn't get it. *05:50* Alright, give me one second. *05:51* I'm gonna get my dog situated and grab another cup of coffee and then *05:52* I'll be good. *05:55* Just give me like I'm just trying to find chicken wings. *05:56* I don't see it in my area. *06:02* At least in DoorDash. *06:05* Yeah *06:07* Uh it's on Uber Eats for me, I'm not sure. *06:09* I'll download that in the name of science. *06:12* I assume this is a similar operation of like yes they hire a kitchen. *06:20* There is no physical like DT Calet is not in a kitchen. *06:25* Make it all easily. *06:28* Could you snatch it? *06:30* God. *06:33* I do imagine that. *06:34* I am I am on one onion rings. *06:36* What *06:40* I don't fancy. *06:42* Alright, let's o Uber Eats. *06:45* I only think of um that I think it was like uh I don't know if it was a TikTok or something, but *06:47* Did you ever see that video where like he's gifted like one of Bob Marley's guitars and has like this very special message attached to it? *06:53* And then he starts he just starts like wailing on it with his hand, like just the worst guitar play playing I've ever heard in my life. *07:01* I've not seen that. *07:09* But it reminds me of *07:10* I wanna say Jeff Bridges. *07:13* He broke a guitar on the set of uh The Hateful Eight, right? *07:15* Kurt Russell. *07:21* Kurt Russell broke a guitar on the set of. *07:22* That was an antique guitar. *07:24* Yeah, like an accurate. *07:26* Ts timepiece. *07:28* Yeah, like I I think the story is that um it was lended to the production, but they made a replica. *07:30* But the replica and the real one had accidentally been swapped and the take was so good that Tarantino did not stop him. *07:40* So I guess if you're Tarantino, you can probably you can write that off, I'm sure. *07:49* Oh and needless to say that museum or whatever uh will never lend a prop ever again. *07:57* But yes. *08:02* Even for studies. *08:03* Yeah. *08:05* How uh how's everything over at GamePur with Ricky? *08:07* How's it all going over there? *08:10* It's great. *08:12* I'm on vacation, so Ricky's in charge this week. *08:12* Ricky's a boss. *08:15* Yeah. *08:17* Um but things are things are alright. *08:20* Um I don't know what else to say. *08:23* I have like just not been thinking about work at all this week. *08:26* So *08:29* A a week off sounds fantastic. *08:30* So by all means you've been kicking butt. *08:32* Thank you. *08:38* Um it's been a tough year, but we got through it, so um *08:39* Sometimes I pop back to dual shockers just to see what it's like over there. *08:45* I can't. *08:49* Honestly, what I do, I go to see if they've just erased my name yet. *08:51* Like if part of me fears that they'll just remove the name and it'll be like DualShocker Staff or something as the byline. *08:56* And once that happens, I'm gonna take everything I wrote and just post it on my website. *09:02* I do. *09:09* I have everything locally backed up. *09:10* And on my site I actually have links out to Dual Shockers, but the moment they delete that I existed there is the moment I repost all of my content. *09:12* Twinfinite did that to me. *09:22* Wait, did they delete they haven't deleted you off of Dual Shockers yet, Max? *09:24* Mm-mm. *09:29* When I go there, I see. *09:30* No way, really. *09:34* Are you still there, Logan? *09:37* Like Yeah, I'm still there. *09:38* Ricky Freck. *09:40* It goes to like Dual Shocker staff or something like that. *09:42* I just nothing comes up when I search Ricky Freck. *09:46* If I type Max Roberts, uh only two episodes of Dido pop up. *09:49* So not even the byline show up. *09:58* You would have to what's a game if either of you know, what's a game Ricky reviewed? *10:02* Did he resident shockers? *10:08* Uh uh Resident Evil three, I think. *10:10* Let's see. *10:16* Resident Evil 3 review discussion. *10:18* Resident Evil 3 review. *10:20* DS staff, yeah. *10:22* Yep. *10:25* Oh, that's brutal. *10:26* That's messed up. *10:28* I'm still there though. *10:32* For whatever reason. *10:33* Yeah, I don't know how they differentiate. *10:35* Obviously Ricky contributed more than I did. *10:38* Yeah, I don't I don't understand because I've seen some other people that we worked with there back in the day saying the same thing about how I'm I'm still here. *10:42* Nostalgia the the Nickelodeon Cart Racers review still has my byline on it. *10:48* I I like that that's the first one you think of *10:53* Nostalgia is dead. *10:55* Sorry to say I did not review the third Nick Loading Car Racers. *11:00* The trilogy is dead now. *11:05* Yeah. *11:08* No one was demanding it, so it was like, well, I'm I only operate by the people's word. *11:09* Um do they not do scores? *11:14* Oh, they do do scores on their review. *11:18* Doo doo. *11:21* Doo doo. *11:22* Dido. *11:23* Dido is dead. *11:24* That's a good name for a podcast. *11:26* Drop in, drop out. *11:28* It's pretty good. *11:29* Yeah, no way dual soccer's has that on lockdown that name. *11:32* Do they technically own it *11:37* Can they do they own the trade and copyright? *11:39* I'm certain no one thought to do that. *11:42* No. *11:45* That was never the the stipulation with that podcast was that it was *11:46* I think it was me and Mike's, but we hosted it on Dual Shockers. *11:50* That was the that was the stipulation. *11:54* Yeah. *11:56* Smart. *11:56* So technically *11:57* I own it. *12:00* Take it to comicbook. *12:01* com. *12:02* Take it to comic book. *12:03* But I don't think there's any reason to. *12:05* No. *12:07* You do need to get that start using that studio over there though. *12:07* Uh tell my boss that Mr. *12:11* Paramount himself? *12:15* I've been told that we can start a *12:17* This is the new carrot that's been dangled in front of me. *12:20* I've been told I can start a gaming podcast the moment I grow our TikTok page to get 250,000 followers. *12:23* And you're at like eighteen hundred That doesn't feel like a very good *12:33* Yeah, I'm not sure. *12:43* What if you used clips from your podcast to generate TikTok followings? *12:43* Huh. *12:48* No, they want to do it the other way around. *12:50* Get a bunch of bots and uh *12:52* You could probably do that. *12:54* I I just read the other day. *12:56* Some state has banned TikTok on state phones. *12:59* Kansas Our main YouTube channel is full of bots. *13:03* Like if you look at the comic book um YouTube channel, we have 1. *13:08* 1 million subscribers. *13:15* But if you look at our videos, they get like *13:18* 1,000 views, 500 views, like all of our subscribers on the YouTube channel are bots, basically. *13:21* I don't know how *13:27* Well, maybe once once Elon figures out the Twitter bot problem, he can buy YouTube and solve that. *13:29* Fingers crossed, maybe I just gotta hope he buys everything. *13:35* That's the solution. *13:38* That's the way that's how we take down our infrastructure by having Elon Musk buy everything. *13:41* Exactly. *13:46* Tear down society. *13:47* Tear it all down. *13:48* Just have to have they're just one of the richest men in the world own it all. *13:49* Hello everybody and welcome to Chapter Select, a seasonal podcast where we bounce back and forth between a series exploring their evolution, design, and legacy. *13:55* For this season, we are covering *14:03* Pokemon, my name is Max Roberts, and I am joined, as always, by Logan Moore. *14:05* Hi Logan. *14:09* As Nathan Drake once said to his dead forgotten brother, I'm a man of treasure, so I must find my treasures. *14:10* Oh my goodness crazy. *14:19* I some I'm surprised the end of the game didn't have a prompt, you know, a three *14:22* option prompt of which was your greatest treasure, the gym battles, the team star raids, or the titans? *14:27* You know, you didn't get a pick. *14:33* This is true. *14:35* You should have been able to regale your own favorite *14:35* adventure to your mother. *14:38* Do you have a mother in this game? *14:40* I get her to remember. *14:41* She makes the sandwich at the beginning of the game that you can do. *14:42* That's true, she makes the sandwich cycle. *14:45* She's the first sandwich giver, and then that's that's it. *14:47* That's all that's the only time you see her, she gives you one sandwich that just turns out to be very *14:50* uh important. *14:55* And speaking of treasure, our greatest treasure here at Chapter Select is our members. *14:57* For just $20 a year, you can go get access to the entire back catalog of longer *15:01* episodes as well as bonus content for each season all the way back to season three. *15:06* For our Pokemon season we've been doing some team picking videos and uh battles in each of our Pokemon games. *15:11* We just recorded our Scarlet and Violet *15:17* battle yesterday actually and it's been a lot of fun. *15:20* So you can find out more by going to chapter select. *15:23* com forward slash join. *15:25* In addition to our new membership options, we do have a guest on this episode of Chapter Select to talk about all things *15:27* Scarlet and Violet with us. *15:34* It's one of our old buddies from the games writing scene, Chris Compendio, will be joining us to talk about the game. *15:35* Before we introduce them. *15:40* Uh let's run through the basic information here about Scarlet and Violet itself. *15:43* Uh this is the most recent entry in the Pokemon series. *15:47* Uh it was developed once again by Game Freak. *15:51* It released on Nintendo Switch. *15:54* It came out on November 18th, 2022. *15:56* The game director this time around was Shigeru Amori. *16:00* Same as uh sword and shield. *16:03* Yes. *16:05* Uh the producers were Akira Kanashi, uh Toyaku Toyokazu Nonaka. *16:06* Takanori Soa and Kenji Endo? *16:12* No Jinuchi Masuda as a producer this time. *16:16* It's true. *16:18* And the music *16:19* Quite extensive this time around. *16:21* Uh Junichi Masuda may not have been a producer on the game, but he sure made sure to come back and *16:23* contribute to the soundtrack in some manner. *16:29* In addition to Junichi Masuda, uh the composers behind the game included Minako Adachi, Go Ichinosei *16:31* Hiromitsu Maeba, uh Taruo Tenaguchi, uh Hitomi Sato, and Toby Fox of Undertale and Deltarune fame. *16:39* Uh this game's Metacritic score. *16:50* It's gotta be one of the lowest I would imagine. *16:54* Maybe the I think it is the lowest actually in the history of the core Pokemon series. *16:56* Um because I remember that when this game released. *17:01* It sits at a 72 out of 100 on Metacritic, and obviously a lot of that is because the way that this game launched was very dismal. *17:05* The user score is also incredibly low when it comes to *17:14* Scarlet and Violet here on Metacritic. *17:18* So this game was not well received by any means. *17:20* Definitely one of the low points in the series just going off of *17:24* aggregate scores, but again, that's not a huge shock because this game has a lot of performance issues *17:28* Beyond those performance issues, though, I think that we all believe the game has some larger problems that we're going to dive into into that, and let's bring in our guests for the episode. *17:35* Chris, hi, thank you so much for joining us to talk about Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. *17:45* How have you been? *17:52* Thank you. *17:53* Uh I have been wonderful. *17:54* It's um *17:56* It's cold, so I'm trying to keep warm, but uh luckily we have uh *17:57* Luckily we have video games. *18:05* Video games will always save us during these rough times. *18:07* They do, especially the new consoles generate so much heat, they probably keep you toasty. *18:10* Yes! *18:14* Yeah, they're basically space heaters. *18:15* They're as big as a space heater, that's for sure. *18:17* Everybody's been talking this year about how it's been a down like myself included, I've been saying the same things like oh this is a down year, there's not mu that much to play, and then still we get to the end of this year. *18:19* We're recording this at the end of *18:28* 2020 twenty two to really date this. *18:30* And there is still so much that I have not played this year that I would like to dabble with or playing. *18:33* It's just *18:38* There's too much. *18:39* I it would be it would require a full time job of playing games to keep up with everything. *18:40* I feel like even during I do have a full time job and I can't even do that. *18:44* Same. *18:48* Except I would say that the *18:49* playing part of the games gets shoved to my off hours most of the time. *18:51* So it's very exactly it's very hard. *18:54* Anytime uh Chris, you're probably in this same *18:58* Uh you probably get the same sort of thing. *19:01* Do people still come up to you and say, you know, oh, you play video games for 11 when you explain what you do? *19:03* That must be so fun! *19:09* Wow. *19:10* 'Cause that's kind of how it is for me. *19:11* I it's not I have found I know this is a very this is a tangent away from Pokemon and we'll bring it back in a second. *19:13* I have found that the *19:19* The thing I tell people the most often when I explain my job is I just broadly say, oh yeah, I write about tech. *19:21* I say tech rather than games because games then gets into like a *19:27* Kind of what I was saying there, like, oh wow, you play games all the time? *19:31* It's like, no, I don't. *19:34* Oh, you must play them on Fortnite then. *19:36* Yeah, then it like opens up the conversations like that that I hate to have, and so I'm just like *19:38* I write about tech. *19:43* That's just my very cop-out way of trying to explain what I do uh for a living. *19:44* Anyway. *19:51* Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. *19:52* Let's talk about this video game. *19:54* Uh Chris, we'll start with you. *19:55* I all of our guests we bring on the show, we just since we're bringing everybody in at different points of the Pokemon series, we've been wanting to know. *19:57* what everybody's broad histories are with Pokemon as a franchise. *20:05* Obviously I think you are a major fan because I think we talked about this before, but you have nearly a fully complete *20:09* Pokedex, I believe, at the moment. *20:17* The living decks is what you would call it. *20:19* I have one of each. *20:22* Or at least as of uh gen 8. *20:23* Or as of Arceus, I should say. *20:25* So you're working on it now with Scarlet and Violet. *20:28* Yeah, just what's your broad history with the series and then w what are your broad impressions here of Scarlet and Violet? *20:30* Yeah, uh my first Pokemon game was yellow on the Game Boy color. *20:39* And I've been kind of a an avid follower of the series with a few *20:44* uh a few lols in there. *20:50* Like I I was not a big fan of Diamond and Pearl, so I kind of um slowed down during that era. *20:52* I missed out on black and white, which I regret because I ended up really liking black and white when I *20:59* visited those. *21:04* Um and I did not like um X and Y, so Sun and Moon was kinda like my return to the series. *21:06* Uh I my partner and my then partner and I *21:15* Um, you know, I got sun, they got moon, um and that kind of revitalized my interest in the series. *21:19* Um and around Sword and Shield is when I got really obsessed with just collecting every one of these *21:26* stupid pocket monsters, so um now I'm I'm kind of deep into it. *21:33* I'm very opinionated on everything. *21:39* But you can say I'm an expert on the field. *21:42* Um how do you go about doing the living are you playing the old like Game Boy versions or are you playing just the most recent remake of like a Let's Go, say for, you know? *21:44* Yellow, red, and blue. *21:54* What are you how do you Or are you playing every game and catching every Pokemon? *21:55* I yeah, i it it was sort of an every game sort of thing and um *21:59* If you recall, I guess starting with uh gens three and four, there is a lot of interconnectivity, so you can be transferring *22:05* games uh up generation so what I was literally doing was just getting all of my GBA era Pokemon *22:15* all the way to like the Switch era because you can do that. *22:25* So it just kinda like became this this this monotonous chore *22:29* Because if you recall, a lot of these transfer methodologies involve a mini-game of some sort. *22:34* And uh you can only do it with limited numbers of Pokemon, so I was just *22:43* Going to PAL Park all the time and doing this Poketransfer like slingshot mini-game repeatedly. *22:48* Yeah. *22:54* Like putting things on in the background while I'm just like doing this chore of mine and *22:55* Um I I I don't know how I had the patience to do I guess this is before I had a job. *23:00* So um and also just being very dependent, um like I *23:06* This happened at like the tail end of me being in university. *23:12* So I had a lot of uh like a lot of classmates and peers and friends who *23:16* I depended on for trading and stuff, uh, for the versions I did not have. *23:20* So a lot of it was me hounding my college friends through Facebook Messenger and be like, hey *23:26* When can you get me this Diancey or whatever? *23:31* Like, because a lot of the mythicals are event exclusive, so *23:34* Uh I I even had to go to to Pokemon Trades, like subreddit and whatnot, and just talk to *23:40* random strangers and try to negotiate deals to get some of these things. *23:48* Like the Craigslist for Pokemon trades. *23:55* Yeah, exactly. *23:57* And th they they have so many specific rules on how on how to frame all these all these requests and listings and whatnot and it was just a lot to wrap my head around but Oh my gosh *23:58* It took a while. *24:10* Um I by the time I um I kind of abandoned it when Sword and Shield came out. *24:11* Actually, um I'm trying to remember the order of the uh timeline here, but *24:18* I think I stopped around when the Sword and Shield DLC came out and uh about a year ago once my interests, I don't remember what *24:24* rekindled it, but uh I got a little obsessive with finishing the sword and shield living deck, so um *24:34* I remember I did a PowerPoint party with my local friends, and mine was uh I mine was called Pokemon Homeward Bound. *24:42* And I just uh I *24:51* I Photoshopped the Homework Bound poster and I added the Pokemon Home logo on it because I'm hilarious. *24:53* Um I love it *24:59* But I basically told my whole this whole story that I'm telling you right now in PowerPoint form. *25:01* And people were so taken aback by this that they venmoed me so I can buy the sword and shield *25:06* DLC and complete this mission. *25:12* Which I did about a month after that. *25:14* So and then they announced Scarlet and Violet. *25:17* It's like oh god, making me do this again. *25:20* Come on. *25:23* And RCS. *25:24* Yeah, Arceus was um that that was a whole thing. *25:26* Um actually so um there's this one mythical from Sword and Shield that I did not have and I made a deal with someone who went to college with me *25:29* At the time this person did not have Arceus, they said, oh, if you if you get me all of the uh Hisuian exclusives, then I will get you this sword and shield dude. *25:39* So I I did that. *25:51* Oh my gosh. *25:53* So you traded like the what dozens of Pokemon for one, essentially? *25:54* Exactly. *25:59* Yeah. *26:00* Oh man. *26:01* And last I heard, this person just got Arceus anyway, so I did not need to do that. *26:02* But you know what? *26:05* It was it was all for the uh the love of the sport, um, the thrill of the hunt. *26:06* It's kind of it's kind of classic. *26:11* Like it it's funny that you you're you're still doing this because these are the kind of things I used to do when I was a kid, but it would be with like people in my neighborhood and stuff like that. *26:13* So there is sort of like a very *26:22* There's a through line element in the Pokemon series over the past two decades of people who have been doing things like this and to hear from you that it's still continuing just in *26:25* different ways now utilizing subreddits and things like that rather than trying to go find a kid down the street who has Pokemon Ruby and you have Pokemon Sapphire and you're trying to *26:35* trade the version exclusives between each other. *26:46* It's funny that this is like continuing but in a new age sort of way. *26:48* I I miss the intimacy of like having like a link cable *26:52* With a buddy or something like that, but you know, I'll take shady Craigslist subreddits also. *26:56* There's still one uh very distinct memory I have of *27:02* Me and one of my buddies when we were like ten going to I think like Olive Garden and we said the whole meal we were there with our parents, we had a link cable and one of us kept restarting *27:05* The game. *27:15* Basically we would start over Ruby or Sapphire, get to the point where you get the first Pokemon, and then we would trade that Pokemon off of the other and then go restart the game. *27:16* And we did it in such a way to where we each got all three of the starters and then traded them between us so we could each play through the game with all three of the starters on our team. *27:24* And it took like an hour and a half or two hours to do that. *27:33* But like that's like a very distinct memory I have of sitting in an olive garden eating breadsticks and doing this mundane task. *27:35* to make sure we could all get Torchic and Swampert and or Mudkip and I don't know. *27:44* So when you're at Olive Garden, when you're here, you're a Pokemon trainer. *27:50* Yes, exactly. *27:55* Um, okay, so sc let's talk Scarlet and Violet a bit more specifically. *27:56* Chris, I *28:02* Broad impressions of the game, just overall, before we start talking more specifically about everything. *28:03* Obviously, we're again we're recording this in late 2022, which means the game is still in a horrible state. *28:09* when it comes to its performance and stuff like that. *28:16* So a lot of what we're saying here is probably going to be impacted by that if by the time this post the game has drastically improved and *28:19* It likely will have DLC announced by the time this is out. *28:27* That too. *28:31* We're playing it in a very vanilla state with no DLC or anything like that as well. *28:31* But yeah, what what are your broad impressions of the game, Chris, and how do you think it stacks up against *28:36* I don't know, some of the more recent injuries. *28:41* Uh, bumps me out. *28:44* That's that's kind of the uh the the *28:46* TLDR of it. *28:50* Uh I have this crazy theory that I only like the Pokemon generations that are prime numbers. *28:52* So my favorites are probably like two, three, five, seven. *29:01* Um but s but Scarlet and Violet just *29:05* It's a big come-down from Arceus, which is a game I very much enjoyed, and I get the whole thing of like these are different games, they are made by different teams at the same time, um, they have very different artistic intentions, but *29:10* Um trying to do this whole open rolls thing. *29:25* I'm not sure if it was um over ambition or stubbornness. *29:30* Um but *29:35* It feels like a game that's defined by a lot of padding and a lot of um *29:38* Uh I have a review up now on uh GamePro. *29:47* com, but basically I I said that it it all feels like it's held together by *29:51* uh by duct tape. *29:56* Yeah. *29:57* Yeah. *29:57* It's it's just not a fun world to navigate. *29:58* Because it's one of those uh you could do this in any order you want to sort of games and But you really can't I *30:02* Not really, no. *30:09* I love I love building my own logic and sequence for those kinds of games, and I felt like this game just kept presenting *30:10* uh walls for me that I I could not pass. *30:19* Or I had to like really really wring out a lot from my underlevel Pokemon just to try to break the sequence they wanted me to go through. *30:22* Yep. *30:32* Um *30:32* It feels like Game Freak is uh, you know, the wizard behind the curtain. *30:33* Like, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. *30:37* You can go wherever you want, but not really. *30:40* We're guiding you down this *30:42* Yellow pick a road of sorts. *30:45* And if you go off the path, uh you're in trouble. *30:46* But don't worry about it. *30:50* Good luck. *30:51* I'm glad to hear that you're not a huge fan of it because *30:53* Coming into this, Max knew where I stood. *30:57* I think this game is not very good either. *30:59* And I think Max is kind of in lockstep with that broadly as well. *31:01* So all three of us don't really care for the game all that much. *31:05* Coming into this conversation though, this podcast, I thought there have been some people who I've heard of who have said like, oh, this is like one of the most unique Pokemon games ever. *31:09* This is one of the this is pushing the series forward in a major way. *31:18* And I'm like, really? *31:21* I don't feel like it is. *31:22* Yeah, I don't I don't know what the only things that I think are interesting that this game does is things that have already kind of been established in previous Pokemon games. *31:25* Just like *31:34* Seeing all the Pokemon readily out that you can catch at any point in time, but that's something that was beginning to get introduced in Sword and Shield, and then they expanded on that in Arceus, and now we're here. *31:35* So like *31:46* Those things I like, just walking around walking through a meadow and being like, oh, there's a Tauros. *31:47* I I don't have that. *31:53* I'll go catch it and you can just throw a Pokeball at it and *31:53* Start up the catching sequence or their battle sequence or whatever. *31:57* Like I like that stuff. *32:00* I like seeing what you are actually going after rather than relying on some strange RNG *32:01* Luck where you're like on CeraBee. *32:09* net and you're like, there's a five percent chance if I walk through this grass it If it's at night and it's raining. *32:11* Yeah, yeah. *32:16* Like th that stuff is *32:17* It kinda drives me nuts when we've been going back to the older games because there's like these very specific areas where you have to catch certain Pokemon. *32:19* So I I do like that aspect of Scarlet and Violet. *32:26* Everything else though, like this game's format *32:29* is just horrible. *32:33* And yeah, the you are not allowed to go anywhere like the game tells you you can. *32:34* Especially because this game *32:40* Hard locks you with the uh like the leveling system. *32:41* Like every gym badge you get, it's like, oh cool, now Pokemon level 25 will listen to you, and now Pokemon level 30 will listen to you. *32:46* Like it is a very slow ramp up *32:53* And I got to a point in the mid-game where I had Pokemon that were in like the level the like mid forties and the I didn't have enough gym badges to correlate with that because I was *32:55* running around and enjoying the open world and catching Pokemon and fighting trainers. *33:05* So I was kind of playing the game in the way that I thought I was allowed to play it, which was to just go freely explore the world and train up naturally and *33:10* not go to these artificial spots on the map that it's wanting me to go to and then the game's like punishing me for that. *33:19* 'Cause I've got my Pokemon. *33:27* Oh, it's loafing around. *33:28* It's not listening to you. *33:30* It's like, well, great. *33:31* Okay. *33:32* I I ran around and explored the world and caught Pokemon. *33:32* And now you're telling me that that's a bad thing that I wasn't supposed to do. *33:35* So *33:39* There's a lot of elements of this game that are at odds with one another. *33:40* Um, and I don't think it's horrible on the whole, but it feels very *33:44* It does not feel well thought out. *33:50* And in turn, they threw out a lot of the formulaic Pokemon elements that I think have kind of kept the series. *33:52* Um like I I I talked about I've talked about this with Max, so Max would probably be more familiar with our conversations we had about this a couple years back, but like to me like two of the most formulated game series ever have always been Pokemon and Zelda. *34:00* And Zelda a couple of years tossed out its whole formula with Breath of the Wild, but it did that to great effect, and that game was really popular and resonated with a lot of people and accolades and awards and all that stuff, and people like that. *34:13* This game I feel like is trying to do the same thing where they're like, let's toss out the classic Pokemon formula. *34:25* I mean there's still gems and Elite Fours and stuff like that, but the the structure of the game and how it navigates you through the world, it's trying to completely up-end *34:30* And it doesn't work in the same way. *34:38* This game absolutely wants to be pokey Breath of the Wild, and it is *34:42* Hindered for trying to be that. *34:47* And a lot of it is an illusion too. *34:49* I mean the the metaphor that I think of is how *34:51* Yeah every town uh every town in the previous um in the previous games would have a Pokemart and maybe like uh in the more recent games like a clothing store. *34:55* Yeah. *35:05* And in this game they would separate the clothing store into like five different ones. *35:05* Like here's the sunglasses store, here's the backpack store, and just just to kind of give *35:09* the pat like just trying to pat it out to make it seem like a an expansive world with all of these towns, all of these NPCs, with all these buildings and *35:14* It's it just feels a little contrived in that sense and it's frustrating. *35:24* It's I have a hard time. *35:29* I know you haven't played it yet, Logan. *35:32* I know Chris has. *35:33* But Arceus or or Arceus, uh d in a year where they have two Pokemon games that are trying to do the open world Breath of the Wild Go Where You Want type thing *35:35* I think Arceus pulls it off way better. *35:43* And I think in part being unbound to the *35:47* we're a mainline Pokemon game, let that game be more creative and more focused in what it is. *35:51* It's all about primarily catching Pokemon and filling out that Pokedex. *35:57* And this game is go find your treasure. *36:02* on one of these three paths, but we're not gonna tell you exactly where to go, although we secretly have a golden path for you to follow. *36:05* And *36:14* When I realized that it didn't it mattered where I went as far as leveling goes, because the levels of the gyms or the the team star raids and stuff mattered. *36:15* I just looked up a guide and just followed the order that IGN recommended and did basically the the Golden Path narratively that way, like it was a traditional Pokemon game. *36:26* So I *36:38* never found myself enticed to wander around all that much. *36:39* I did in the mid-game, again, following guides, just to get the Pokemon I knew I wanted for my team. *36:42* And then once I had them, it was all set. *36:48* I was done. *36:52* And I just *36:53* beelined it to every town gym raid and uh titan as the game as game freak wanted me to do, but I guess we're too *36:54* afraid to truly just let us go wild and do whatever we want. *37:06* So it's still bound to tradition because it is a mainline game without with the illusion of being free and open. *37:10* And I *37:17* It just there's these invisible walls all over the place and it's frustrating to run into them and *37:19* It's either pick one, you know? *37:26* Either give us the traditional route or truly let us go wild. *37:28* And I I think that's kind of what hinders this game mostly on like the whole. *37:33* There's a lot of other issues when you dig in. *37:37* I think the thing that I find confusing about the format, and I'm trying to think of what the potential drawbacks about what I'm going to suggest are would be. *37:40* But why couldn't they make it in such a way with where the gyms that you go to are static with their levels? *37:48* Like for instance, w no matter what first gym you go to in the game, let's say it's going to contain Pokemon between levels fifteen and twenty. *37:56* And then the second gym you go to, regardless of what second gym you choose, it's then between *38:03* twenty and twenty-five or w whatever. *38:07* And like instead what they have it is like the gyms are if you go to the gyms up north, they're gonna have Pokemon that are level fifties or whatever and you're clearly not supposed to go there and fight. *38:09* But why shouldn't I be able to go up to those gyms and *38:19* make that the first one that I want to face in the game knows in turn like okay he hasn't gotten any gym badges yet so we'll naturally make the Pokemon that you're going to face in this gym lower levels like *38:22* Those are the kind of things I wonder why they didn't do because instead it does, like Max was saying, like there is a specific path they want you to follow with all of this. *38:33* And that and that's also true with the *38:42* The Team Star Raids as well. *38:45* I would say the Titans are maybe the only thing that I'm kind of fine with having set *38:46* um like strengths or whatever like cer certain titans being stronger than others I think I was okay with that for the most part um *38:53* But yeah, otherwise I thought it was strange that the gyms there were specific ones that you weren't that you weren't supposed to go to, even though the game was telling you that you that Why was there no level scaling as the basic Exactly. *39:02* It's surprising it wasn't dynamic. *39:14* If you truly could go anywhere and do anything, why not just have the Pokemon in the surrounding area, wild Pokemon, and the ones you battle in the gyms and stuff, just scale with you. *39:17* The game knows what level you are. *39:28* The game knows how many badges you have. *39:30* Yeah, that's why. *39:32* You would think that would be doable and I'm just it's like too much work. *39:32* It's *39:38* I'm sure it's difficult on some level. *39:39* I don't know. *39:41* I've never made a game before, but it just seems the logical approach for this style of gameplay. *39:41* And that's what I'm that's why I was saying I was trying to think of like what the potential drawbacks of such a system would be, and I can't really think of any off the top of my head. *39:48* I'm not a game designer, obviously, but I don't know what *39:56* the issues would be if such a system like that was implemented where it was dynamic scaling. *40:00* And there wasn't there wasn't any *40:05* narrative implication either because each gym is isolated. *40:08* They don't really refer to the other gyms when the Elite Four visit you at each gym after you beat it. *40:12* Uh or when Nimona shows up. *40:19* I was gonna say, I think that is the only thing that is dynamic is Nimona showing up and her battles with you that she opts to have are based on the number of badges that you have rather than the gym you're actually at. *40:21* Yeah, and the and the story stuff was all dynamic in that way where you could go to any of them and whatever the second Titan you visit is going to then be where Arvin tells you he has a dog or whatever. *40:32* Like very good story stuff. *40:43* Yeah. *40:45* Yeah. *40:46* And so sometimes that led to some weird cutscene um some some weird cutscenes were like *40:46* I don't know, you fight Nimona and then after that you meet an Elite Four member with Nimona and she acts like she just didn't see like she didn't see you just now. *40:53* It's it's just so strange. *41:02* I wanted to before we get too much more into the I think we've naturally been talking about some of the more larger gameplay systems and the gyms and things like that. *41:04* Um, I wanted to ask broadly about what you guys think about the world in this game too, and I don't I don't think we'll have anything positive to say, but *41:14* I guess largely this is the other problem with this game is that it wants to be an open world game, and I have not seen such a poor open world in terms of design. *41:22* Since like 2005, this reminded me of a PS2 game where it's just broad shapes are what comprise it like or what makeup the cities. *41:34* Like I feel like *41:44* Yeah, like there are old games that are 15 years old that I feel like do a better job of crafting worlds that look *41:46* I don't want to say realistic because I'm not expecting this to look like a I wanna see a real Pokemon world or whatever, but it's so there's so little detail, especially when you get higher up and you're like gliding over the world and you're seeing *41:53* the per the surveying ground but beneath you and it's like, oh wow, there is just these are just shapes that I'm gliding over essentially. *42:06* The topography is pretty uninspiring. *42:13* Yes. *42:15* It is truly enticing. *42:16* And they have like set locations, you know, like oh here's a lake and here's a desert and stuff like that. *42:18* And when you're in the midst of them actively, it's not that bad, but when you get *42:23* some distance and you're looking down on the there's just very, very little detail within this world. *42:28* And I don't know I think what's interesting to me is *42:35* Um a lot of people write that off. *42:38* I I've seen I've seen a lot of people writing that sort of thing off as like, oh well the switch isn't that powerful, it can't do that much, blah blah blah blah. *42:41* It's like *42:48* Or have you seen like Breath of the Wild which legitimately launched with the Switch? *42:49* Like I don't know if gamesake *42:53* Yeah, I don't know if Game Freak is on like a time crunch to ru push these things out, which I am going to guess is absolutely part of it, because they do not delay core Pokemon games ever. *42:56* Uh once they get into the marketing swing for these, they're going. *43:08* It's gonna get out reg regardless. *43:13* Um so I feel like Game Freak is absolutely on a time crunch, but I *43:15* Yeah, I I I I I don't know. *43:20* I I I think all of Pokemon is sort of caving in on itself with *43:22* uh how they're uh I don't know. *43:28* Ca I don't I don't think I guess what I'm saying is I don't think these problems are just Game Freak. *43:30* Now do I think Game Freak's a great developer? *43:34* Not particularly right now. *43:36* But I think there's a lot more at play other than just *43:39* whoever's making this game and making these decisions. *43:42* Well we'll never know, you know, we can't be a fly on the wall. *43:45* We don't know. *43:47* Like there's so many so many different parties involved in just one Pokemon game 'cause it's not just Nintendo, it's the Pokemon company. *43:48* It's *43:55* Creatures, it's gameplay. *43:56* This is still like the biggest media property on the planet, isn't it? *43:57* Like bar none. *44:01* Something like that, yeah. *44:03* So there are a lot of moving *44:04* pieces and a lot of people getting their say and it's kinda like we were talking about when we did our Fast and Furious season max. *44:07* Like the longer the that series went on, it the more clear it was that there's a lot of hands in the cookie jar, all of them *44:14* Trying to vie for different things at the same time. *44:20* That's kind of feels like how Pokemon's been going the past decade or so. *44:22* There's just so many people. *44:26* There's a lot of cooks in the kitchen. *44:27* Yes. *44:29* There's a lot of people trying to do a lot of different stuff here. *44:29* I don't think Pokemon has made the transition to 3D all that well in general. *44:32* I remember X and Y, I didn't finish those games back in the day, but I remember X and Y not doing performing particularly well *44:37* And those being interesting. *44:45* I never did sun and moon and then, you know, you and I just did sword and shield. *44:47* And the it just feels like they got too big for their britches in a way. *44:51* And it's not like Pokemon doesn't have the resources, financially speaking, to concentrate and fix this, but they kinda have the *44:56* this Assassin's Creed sort of problem where s Assassin's Creed was every year and it had such fatigue and design waned and then Ubisoft took the time to take a couple years off and reinvent the series. *45:05* Now *45:19* Pokemon can they do this? *45:20* You know, they could, but they won't miss a year because they were used to this bottom line performance every November of getting a huge boost in sales. *45:22* It's Pokemon Scarlet Violet is the best-selling Pokemon game ever. *45:31* And it runs like garbage and the world is in an interesting. *45:34* Yeah, why bother? *45:38* Why bother stopping if they're gonna sell an office *45:39* It's clear this game is very clear to me that the people that are working on the franchise though do want to do different things and it they're probably just not afforded *45:44* The time. *45:54* Time is probably the big resource that the studio does not have because they are trying to up in the formula and they're trying to do new things and *45:55* There are interesting nuggets of ideas within this game, but they just have not been fleshed out and it feels so rushed. *46:04* They have separate teams within Game Freak, but I feel like all the teams are *46:12* Pressed for time. *46:17* It's not, you know, they I think they outsourced to a degree Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. *46:18* I have to I'll have to look into that. *46:23* Yeah. *46:25* Yeah. *46:28* Whichever *46:29* Whichever studio made Pokemon Home did BDSP and they did it in Unity, I think, which is why Home Incration was just absolutely messed up for that game. *46:29* It's just so evident that they either need more time or you need to rein the design in more focused because the last two games have been fairly *46:39* large in scope I would say and not executed super well on said scope. *46:51* Mm-hmm. *46:56* It's it's so strange what um what *46:57* what they've improved on and what they just kind of ignored. *47:01* Like for example, navigating around the world, it's so much easier to l to pick up an item and you just get a little pop-up instead of like getting the whole text box and having to hit A repeatedly. *47:04* But then battles are just slow as hell. *47:15* Oh my god. *47:19* They're painfully slow. *47:20* It's like why *47:21* Why can we do all of this? *47:23* I feel like the animations for the attacks and stuff are getting worse, which is so weird. *47:24* And the I don't know how much of the Terra battle stuff you guys did, but oh my gosh. *47:29* Terra transformations. *47:35* The animation alone for that is like ten seconds. *47:37* I we we had the same complaint with Sword and Shield, I believe, when it came to came to the Gigantamax stuff. *47:41* Yeah. *47:47* Yeah. *47:48* It's so slow. *47:49* It sh takes forever. *47:50* This is just just me mashing A is is like And it doesn't do anything to speed it up. *47:54* It's just like *48:00* It's just getting some sort of frustration out so you mash buttons the whole time. *48:02* And Rxias was so snappy. *48:07* So quick to get in and out of fights. *48:10* I just absolutely yeah. *48:12* The animations did not waste my time. *48:14* Yeah. *48:16* I can just jump into a battle immediately. *48:17* I don't need the pageantry of a wild whatever appeared and I know what this animal is. *48:20* Let me find it. *48:27* I I wanted to ask you guys about, um, since this is a new generation as well, we get new Pokemon in this game. *48:29* Chris can probably speak to this the best. *48:36* But what did you think about the decks this time around and the new Pokemon and the new of all forms and the I guess we can go w what's it called? *48:39* The the the *48:47* Crystallization thing. *48:48* What's it called? *48:49* Terastolize Terra Terastolize. *48:50* That's the new form thing. *48:53* I I let's just talk about the Pokemon for a second, because I have some strong opinions on this *48:55* decks and some of the new Pokemon that they've added. *49:02* I don't think it's horrible top to bottom, but it's so I don't know. *49:04* I don't have any strong feelings about a lot of this Pokedex. *49:09* Do you feel the same way, Chris? *49:13* I think they're fine. *49:15* I think there are um I think there are some fun ideas like the whole like the whole Palmo evolution line of *49:16* whenever it evolves it's just it like standing up with better posture each time. *49:25* Yeah. *49:30* Um or having like tandem mouse and they just um *49:31* I don't know, they breed in the Pokeball so you just exactly some creative ideas and not in like a you have to turn your 3DS upside down kind of way. *49:34* Like I think they're actually genuinely creative. *49:46* Um and I think the designs are are just fine. *49:48* Like I know that's been a point of contention with every new generation going back to, I don't know, generation two, maybe. *49:52* Um I think they're totally fine. *50:00* My personal issue is that because I nicknamed every single Pokemon, I have no clue what any of them are called. *50:02* Same. *50:08* So I only know them from my ridiculous, like illogical nicknames. *50:09* I don't even nickname them. *50:14* I j I just can't keep it straight anymore. *50:15* There's a thousand of them. *50:17* There's too many *50:19* I like some of the variants. *50:20* I think uh Claude Sire is is a friend. *50:21* Uh I would like a Claude Sire plush to hug and hold all the time. *50:25* Um I think some of those um *50:30* Not regional variants but like the the wiglets and the uh what's the tentacle one the one that just has legs *50:33* Yeah, the tentacle I again I don't know. *50:41* Toadscrul. *50:43* Yeah, Toadscrill I think is what it is. *50:44* That those things are creeps. *50:46* I want them away from me, but I think they're they're fascinating ideas, so *50:48* I guess like points for originality. *50:53* Um I like how we've just gotten away from generation one nostalgia and whatnot. *50:55* I don't think much about the Paradox or whatever you call them, the the um past and future versions of the Pokemon at the end. *51:02* It's just like, cool, you made Delibird into metal. *51:10* Whoop-de-doo. *51:16* Um like I'm not I'm not sure. *51:17* And then they give 'em cool names on top of that. *51:20* It's like Iron Tail, Thornmaster. *51:23* Stuff like that. *51:27* Um I I don't care much for that. *51:29* And and and I I deliberately try to have a party only consist of new Pokemon because I just really want to immerse myself and really take advantage of all the new stuff. *51:32* as tempting it is to just have like a level 80 Garchomp and just stomp on everyone. *51:43* Um I had to kind of resist that. *51:49* Um so and I found myself because of *51:52* The way everything all the badges, whether they're the traditional gym badges or the Team Star stuff and the Titans, they're they're all scattered and they're all of a different type. *51:57* I found myself switching between party Pokemon more than I usually do in these games. *52:08* So I have like a main party of six and like a reserve party of six and to swap them out depending on what situation I'm in. *52:14* And I I think in terms of keeping me on my toes with type matchups, um, this game certainly did that more than previous ones. *52:22* once did. *52:30* So, you know, hot take. *52:31* I think the Pokemon designs are okay. *52:33* Max, what did you think about the new Pokemon this time around? *52:35* I know a lot of the Pokemon that you've been experiencing have been new because you've not played all of these games, but uh *52:38* But what have you what do you think about the new additions this time around, some of the new forms, all that good stuff? *52:45* Uh I tried for the first time *52:51* in the games that we've played so far, because we've played some games before this one, uh, I tried to have a team of Pokemon that were new to me. *52:56* I'm uh *53:04* a traditionalist and I guess just a a boring old man when it comes to Pokemon up to this point where I get Pokemon I know and I'm comfortable with. *53:05* So if you know it's the form or something that I know from my past, I just pick that. *53:13* So this time I tried to get new stuff. *53:17* Uh primarily like I got the Tinkaton and the Bellabolt and I guess everyone gets the motorcycle dragon. *53:19* So I got the draft, new draft form, I got the Mega Man looking sword ghost. *53:26* So that was fun. *53:33* Once I caught the team that I picked from the get go, I didn't really pursue anything else. *53:35* But most of the Pokemon I saw running around on the world I had either seen before or they were *53:42* I would say boring, there's like a donkey everywhere that I see a lot of. *53:48* Teacups. *53:53* There's a mule. *53:57* Yeah, the Clydesdale thing or Mudsdale or whatever it is. *53:59* There were a lot of those. *54:03* Yeah, that was a Sun and Moon originally. *54:04* I grinded out a lot of teacups to get my ghost sword boy. *54:06* So there was that. *54:10* That was fine. *54:13* I think the most interesting *54:14* new looking Pokemon were the Paradox ones. *54:16* Just at least in Violet, they're shiny metallic featuristic Pokemon. *54:21* Uh I can't speak to what the designs in Scarlet. *54:25* I really didn't look *54:28* Chris and I said we didn't care for those. *54:29* I I think they're fine looking. *54:34* I like robot whatever. *54:35* They're fun. *54:37* So *54:38* But yeah, I think it's okay. *54:39* I was surprised at the amount of 400 kind of was I guess 400's a fine number. *54:41* Like I'm not *54:47* I didn't have a whole, you know, Dexit stance, I guess, when Sword and Shield came out. *54:49* Between this game, Arceus, Let's Go, Sword and Shield, and then Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl, like they've got *54:55* I have to imagine most of the 1,000 Pokemon in the full national decks are available across all of these games. *55:02* So there's less of an incentive to put *55:09* you know, eight hundred Pokemon into a single game or anything like that. *55:12* I feel like eight hundred's a bit unruly too. *55:16* You know? *55:18* Yeah. *55:19* Different types running around. *55:19* How many were in Sword and Shield? *55:21* I know it was *55:23* I want to say it was like five to six hundred, but I could be wrong on that front. *55:24* This can uh this can be solved. *55:28* I have the technology. *55:31* I'm on Saraby. *55:32* net anyway already. *55:34* Uh *55:35* But will it give me just a straight up number? *55:37* No. *55:40* Oh, bummer. *55:40* I I will say like that there's never been a time in Storm Shield or even in Scarlet Violet where I'm like, oh, I'm I'm so sad that I can't *55:41* play as this Pokemon right now. *55:49* Like I'm just kind of vibing with whatever they got for me. *55:50* It was 400 and Galar. *55:53* That being said, it is disappointing if I you know having done this whole living next project. *55:56* and go on Pokemon Home and most of them have like, you know, the the no sign next to it. *56:01* Like I they're just they're just stuck there forever. *56:06* I can't do anything with them. *56:08* So we'll see what happens when they add support for this game to home *56:10* But yeah, I'm I would love to see it when we can actually bring them all into one game, whatever that game may be, because there are people *56:14* like Chris or other folks who have had Pokemon from the Game Boy Advance era that have actually carried them along for the past fifteen twenty years. *56:25* And they're just stuck in this digital bank that you pay, I don't know, five dollars a year for or something that you can't even tap into. *56:36* And so *56:46* That that is something I would like to see fixed. *56:48* But this Pokedex itself, fine. *56:50* I saw it a lot of Pokemon only had kind of the two evolution *56:53* problem. *56:56* They didn't go into a third evolution. *56:57* I was a bit bummed by that. *56:59* A lot of lot of single just non-evolution Pokemon in this Pokedex as well. *57:00* Which was fine. *57:05* Like I ended up getting a Dondozo this time 'cause I thought that Pokemon was *57:06* Cool and at first I was like, oh, I don't like that this doesn't evolve, and then more I use it, I was like, okay, actually this is fine. *57:11* I think I have haven't really spoken too much at length about it, but I I think *57:18* My one issue with the Pokedex this time around is that it feels very indexed into certain types. *57:23* It's sword and shield all over again, just different types. *57:29* Yeah. *57:32* I mean this has been a problem, I think, in the past couple of generations. *57:32* But like with sword and shield, I want to say there was a lot of over reliance on like poison in that Pokedex, from what I remember. *57:37* This time around. *57:45* Yeah, this time around *57:46* Uh like Ghost is strangely very prominent with a lot of these new Pokemon. *57:48* Uh Ghost was a big one. *57:55* Um and there was really not any decent, I want to say like electric types. *57:58* There was no real new water types, which I found interesting. *58:03* Like wholly new water types. *58:06* Obviously there's a lot of water types within the game, but *58:07* completely new water types off the top of my head there's like Dondozo, the dolphin, yeah, the Wug Trio, and then the starter *58:10* Yeah, the starter duck, and that's about it, all I can think of. *58:20* So like they were very but then they add I I don't know, like I said, a ton of ghost types and even new forms. *58:24* Like the annihilate is *58:30* It's cool. *58:32* I like that Primeape gets a new vault form, but why is it a go from a crazy boxing monkey to a ghost with crazy hair? *58:33* It's like uh okay. *58:41* Like sure it looks really awesome, but why is it part ghost type? *58:43* I like those are the kind of things I really don't understand. *58:46* And I I feel like my r the reasoning in my head behind why this is be started to become so prominent is because *58:48* When they create new Pokemon in these DEX is now, it feels like they are working backwards from the perspective of which kind of type matchups have we not done a lot of? *58:57* Well, we haven't really done firegrass or we haven't done *59:06* I don't know. *59:09* Bird. *59:14* Yeah, like what are what are things we haven't really combined with one another? *59:14* And they put *59:18* those types together and then they go and make a Pokemon based off of that typing combination, which I guess is fine, but it feels like the Pokemon are less influenced by just *59:19* Hey, I came up with this design for this pocket monster. *59:30* I think we should put it in the game. *59:34* And it's more like, well, here's what I here's my assignment was to create a *59:35* uh fire grass type and I came up with this jalapeno du dual headed uh I don't know bipedal dinosaur looking plant thing. *59:41* It's like okay sure we'll put that in the game. *59:52* Um and I I don't I don't even hate that Pokemon. *59:55* I forget what it's called, but like it's Skull Villain or something like that. *59:57* Yeah, yeah. *01:00:00* I I feel like they are working back *01:00:01* Backwards now rather than just trying to put the design of the Pokemon first and then figure out, okay, well what type would this be? *01:00:03* What abilities would this have? *01:00:09* And they're instead coming up with all the stats and the typing and the ability and then they're *01:00:11* uh creating the designs based off of that, which again is not a s a recipe for designing horrible Pokemon, but it just becomes very clear that with *01:00:17* This dex in particular, that this dex is filled with so many type combos that we've never seen before. *01:00:27* And it just feels like that's kind of the sole thing they're interested in doing at this point is *01:00:33* mashing up various Pokemon types that we have not seen in the past and trying to just knock out the full list of *01:00:38* type clashes that and and that and that's about it. *01:00:46* And but what happens when they've done all of those? *01:00:50* Like then will they start getting more inventive again when it comes to like gin *01:00:52* eleven, like I I I don't know. *01:00:58* Like these are the New evolutions, new types, uh like there's even the one uh the one of the other new fish, I don't know if we mentioned the one that's got the spiky things on its back, the *01:01:00* purple uh it's purple and gray and it's very fast. *01:01:11* It looks like a bear. *01:01:14* Yeah, yeah. *01:01:18* That that thing is a water type. *01:01:18* It's like, okay, cool. *01:01:20* And then it's all of a sudden psychic. *01:01:21* type as well. *01:01:23* It's like, okay, sure, I guess. *01:01:23* Like I'm pretty sure it's part psychic as well. *01:01:25* So it just again feels like they're *01:01:28* Throw in water types we've not done. *01:01:31* Well we don't have many water psychic types. *01:01:33* Let's do that. *01:01:35* Well what does that look like? *01:01:36* I don't know. *01:01:37* It would make a barracuda and we'll maybe get it psychic type, sure. *01:01:37* So yeah, I I don't know. *01:01:40* That would be my main criticism. *01:01:41* Overall, I don't think it's terrible. *01:01:43* I do have to say I need to put this on the record, and Max knows I've said this. *01:01:45* And maybe we can all speak up with what our own personal favorites are. *01:01:49* I think the starters in this game are largely fine. *01:01:53* I do think the gyrating bird is one of the worst starters in the history of Pokemon. *01:01:57* I loathe *01:02:03* That thing. *01:02:05* It is Leave my duck alone. *01:02:05* It is truly, truly horrible. *01:02:08* I think the best *01:02:11* Is the cat, the magician cat is really cool. *01:02:13* Uh I really enjoyed using that. *01:02:16* On my team, I decided I really wanted both the cat and the gator, and so I had a friend trade me a cat *01:02:18* from his own game so that I could use both on my team. *01:02:26* So I used both in my own playthrough. *01:02:29* And uh I think the I think the magician cat is my favorite. *01:02:31* Um, but I also really like Skell Ridge or whatever, but I don't understand why it's ghost type. *01:02:36* It doesn't really there's nothing in its kit that really screams ghost other than *01:02:41* when it evolves, it's like, oh would you like to learn Shadow Ball? *01:02:45* It's like, okay, sure, I guess. *01:02:48* Uh and that's about it. *01:02:50* So um I think the starters overall are pretty weak, but I do like Meow Scarada or whatever it's called. *01:02:52* I think the starting designs are really good. *01:03:00* The the apple dragon, duck with a hat, a cat with flowers, all s great. *01:03:03* But the final evolutions, I think, are pretty bad all around. *01:03:10* I think that's consistent throughout p all of Pokemon though, to be honest to some degree. *01:03:14* Like most of the a beginning starters *01:03:18* Tend to look pretty solid. *01:03:21* I can't think of too many games where I've been like overly thrilled with what the final evolution is. *01:03:23* Like I suppose. *01:03:30* I mean, Gen one as iconic through and through. *01:03:32* You can't really dunk on that. *01:03:35* Uh what is *01:03:37* Golden Silver. *01:03:39* Like even like I would say like back to Gen 2, like I like Cyndaquil, but Typh Log Typhlosion's horrible looking. *01:03:40* What? *01:03:45* He's a big gator. *01:03:46* No, it's like uh uh typhlosion's especially the fire cyndequil thing. *01:03:48* I always get this one. *01:03:54* For alligator is the gator. *01:03:56* I don't think I don't think Meganium's very good. *01:03:57* Um *01:04:00* Bailey, we don't need to go through all nine gens by any means, but like I I don't think the final forms of most starters end up being that amazing. *01:04:01* Like, I don't know. *01:04:09* Like skeptile, it's just like, oh, it grew a tail and it still *01:04:11* looks the same I guess is Trico. *01:04:15* I'm starting to yeah, I'm starting to like um have a hazy memory of the even like Gen 5, Gen 6 Final Star Revolutions like um *01:04:17* Like what was the fire one in in in gen 6 and X and Y? *01:04:28* That was like the um It's not that stick, right? *01:04:33* No, um was that the fox? *01:04:37* Yes, Fennecins. *01:04:41* Fennickin. *01:04:42* Black and white. *01:04:43* Black and white was uh uh the pig. *01:04:44* Yeah, yeah. *01:04:46* Teppig. *01:04:47* Right, see I it's all it's I I'm starting to I'm losing it. *01:04:48* I'm just trying to think about it, but um I will defend dancing duck. *01:04:53* I think that I think that things should be voguing. *01:04:57* I would love to see that *01:05:00* Um so I I've I chose the one I thought was the least hideous. *01:05:01* It's kind of how that one ended up. *01:05:08* It's you have to admit that that thing's hideous when it gets to its final form. *01:05:10* I like the gross looking. *01:05:14* It looks like a big duck. *01:05:16* Did y'all look up the designs of the Final Evolutions before you played this game? *01:05:17* I did. *01:05:22* Or did you let yourself be surprised? *01:05:23* I did. *01:05:25* I looked it up, I had to. *01:05:26* Mm-hmm. *01:05:28* Because I I do like the I did miss the feeling of walking around being like, what the hell is that? *01:05:28* I have to get that. *01:05:35* And this game *01:05:36* Dave for just by nature of having them in the in the overworld, uh definitely did that for me. *01:05:38* So *01:05:45* I wanna I wanna take the conversation. *01:05:46* We've talked about a lot of gameplay things and open world things and kind of the structure of Scarlet and Violet at this point. *01:05:48* I did wanna I mean there's not a lot to touch on, but *01:05:53* We should probably talk about the story and the characters to some degree and just how we felt like this one stacked up compared to a lot of the others. *01:05:57* I *01:06:05* Did not again, did not like it. *01:06:07* I don't like the Having three different routes is fine, I guess. *01:06:10* Like that idea on its own, I'm not a huge *01:06:14* I don't have a huge problem with because that's kind of how all these Pokemon games are structured in the first place. *01:06:17* There's them through line, become the champion, and then there's always another evil team and then *01:06:20* Yeah, new team, a villainous group, and then I guess the Titan thing was really the only holy new thing that they threw in this time around *01:06:26* Um, which kind of set the stage, which I would say that tied into eventually, you know, there's usually like a small professor arc too where the professor is involved in some way and hey *01:06:34* Which I I guess that I guess the Titan stuff ends up fall flowing into the legendary arc, which is the uh the other third major arc of most Pokemon games. *01:06:44* So w in that sense, a lot of what's here is not unusual. *01:06:54* I guess I I I don't know. *01:06:59* I don't I don't like the idea of this being a school and go find your treasurer and it like the way that they package it. *01:07:02* We don't want to teach you. *01:07:08* Yeah. *01:07:09* It's like welcome to this welcome to this massive school. *01:07:10* Please go run off on your own. *01:07:13* Goodbye. *01:07:14* I like when it pops up and says new classes are available. *01:07:15* Go back. *01:07:18* I can't do that. *01:07:19* No. *01:07:20* Yeah. *01:07:22* Exactly. *01:07:22* The Pokemon schools were always the worst part of or maybe not the worst part, but they w they always put schools in the other games and he'd go in there and like read the chalkboard. *01:07:23* It's like did you know that fire beats grass? *01:07:31* It's like okay, thank you, school *01:07:34* Yeah, so yeah, I I the framing around the school was something that I didn't like at all. *01:07:36* Um and then the characters as well *01:07:41* I don't know. *01:07:45* I'll pass it to one of you guys. *01:07:46* Do any of you had any strong feelings about any of the characters or their arcs or i it was hard to really um *01:07:48* have a grasp on any of them because of the nature of I I mean the we at least the way I played it, I just kept switching between storylines. *01:07:56* So it felt like their progression was at a snail's pace. *01:08:03* Um and I didn't really get any sense of who they were or what they want until maybe the back halves of all of their *01:08:08* of all their stories. *01:08:16* Um like Arvin with with his poor old dog and *01:08:18* You know, the the team star the team star stuff was truly bad. *01:08:24* I get it. *01:08:28* I I get what they were doing, but then they had like the like this very con this very *01:08:29* slapdash way of trying to get us to sympathize with them with the same sepia filtered uh flashbacks that *01:08:34* that the champions in Breath of the Wild had. *01:08:44* Yeah. *01:08:47* I felt like they're trying to recreate that. *01:08:47* And because I had no context and uh and then not to mention the lack of voice acting, I think. *01:08:50* Um *01:08:57* hurt their characterization a little bit. *01:08:58* Um but it just did not have the same effect. *01:09:00* And it's like, okay, you're all game boyed. *01:09:03* I get it. *01:09:06* I feel bad for you. *01:09:07* But um the the team star *01:09:08* uh plotline in particular had some really silly plot twists and then like taking back the plot twists for another plot twist and stuff like that and *01:09:11* reusing a lot of tropes, like the whole headmaster being like disguising himself as a kid, uh was was had it very mu the uh how do you do fellow kids had the um like they only did that with Sudden Moon when the professor is a *01:09:23* professional wrestler in the background and it's like very obvious, like even the dialogue prompt is like, is that you? *01:09:37* And they're like, oh no, no *01:09:44* I would never. *01:09:47* So it just it felt yeah. *01:09:47* A lot of it was kind of a retread. *01:09:49* Um I I do like some of the ideas, like the whole idea of just raiding a base, I think, is cool. *01:09:51* But that got so boring like every single time. *01:09:59* Like, hey, what if you just killed 30 Pokemon and then entire- it's like, can we *01:10:02* And it's so I would have rather fought like 10 Team Star members like sequentially rather than just aimlessly run around and be like attack, attack, attack. *01:10:06* Like that was so Yeah, that was so mindless. *01:10:16* And they gave you 10 minutes to do those and most of the time it took you 90 seconds to to finish them. *01:10:20* So strange. *01:10:27* Yeah, bizarre. *01:10:29* But it was all worth it because I thought the uh the music in the uh the boss battle was was kind of a baller, so Yes, the Team Star boss fights were were dope. *01:10:31* I uh I liked Arvin's plot in particular mostly. *01:10:40* I thought Arvin was gonna be the *01:10:46* the kind of villain you were gonna be really personally antagonist, I suppose, instead of Team Star on the whole. *01:10:50* And then it turns out he just wants to help his old sad doggy. *01:10:58* with uh with some magic herbs, which is nice. *01:11:02* And then, you know, that ties into the legendary motorcycle dragon. *01:11:06* Which then ties into the professor. *01:11:11* So I actually thought Arvin has kind of the best story flow of it all. *01:11:13* Uh I think voice acting. *01:11:18* Arvin's very much the core. *01:11:20* Yeah. *01:11:21* Yeah. *01:11:22* I think the voice acting would have helped a lot. *01:11:22* I've *01:11:24* I think it's funny when you are going down into the core, which takes far too long to like walk to the bottom. *01:11:24* All of your friends are like talking about how they know you and bragging about your origin stories. *01:11:30* It's like guys, I I s I went to school and we all left. *01:11:35* So I think Penny's arc as well is is fine. *01:11:39* It's better than Namona, who someone our friend told us is basically Goku. *01:11:43* Which totally enhanced my Nomona appreciation as well. *01:11:50* I was like, it's just Goku. *01:11:53* They're always happy and they're always fighting. *01:11:55* So I I enjoyed those three. *01:11:57* I think the Elite Four is pretty *01:12:00* Meh, except for Larry? *01:12:03* Larry coming back and be like, dang it, I gotta do this again. *01:12:06* I've been hired to be an elite *01:12:10* four member and a gym. *01:12:11* Rise and grind. *01:12:13* Larry's Larry is by far the best gym leader. *01:12:15* He's the best character in the whole game, I guess. *01:12:18* Larry's great. *01:12:20* Yeah, life one of the best in the series, I would argue *01:12:21* You know, he he's the most relatable character by far. *01:12:24* I most of the gym leaders I I appreciated that they were I think some of the most distinct *01:12:28* gym leaders. *01:12:36* Some of them are the most cringe gym leaders of all time. *01:12:37* They try to give them all like very distinct, like modern *01:12:41* uh personas, I guess, like I'm a s I'm a str I'm a streamer, I'm a hip hop ghost trainer. *01:12:45* Like get up on stage and we'll *01:12:51* Uh and we'll rap and then we'll fight. *01:12:53* Oh my gosh. *01:12:55* Rhyme is the worst. *01:12:56* I couldn't stand rhyme. *01:12:58* Uh they each have very different uh like modern *01:13:00* Yeah, kind of personas or as uh character aspects that you would expect from people in the real world to some degree. *01:13:05* Larry's the depressed dude at a dead-end job and *01:13:12* Who was the dude who made you auction for ingredients or something? *01:13:16* I am a chef and an oc uh and addicted to auctions. *01:13:21* Yeah. *01:13:25* Here, win this auction for me and spend my money. *01:13:28* We didn't talk about it with the gyms either, but man, the tests that you had to do were always *01:13:31* mind-numbingly dull. *01:13:37* Push this giant seed around this olive or whatever in the put in the basket. *01:13:39* Yeah, I mean they range completely. *01:13:44* Like some of them would be *01:13:46* Really strange outlandish things like that that leaned into gameplay mechanics and then you've gotten like Max kinda said like, hey if you give this guy his wallet back, that'll count as your gym task. *01:13:47* Like da-da-da-da-da-da and then you're off *01:13:56* It's like what this it was so and then uh there's the other one I think of, I think it was the psychic one where it's like let's do our ESP exercises and you just have to press a corresponding button. *01:13:59* That's like a Pokemon Stadium minigame straight up *01:14:10* God, what is uh like like there's so there's so man there's some that it was just so strange. *01:14:13* Like I couldn't get any *01:14:19* That was always the worst part of the game to me is just going into the gyms because I didn't know what it was going to ask me to do. *01:14:20* And sometimes it was something as simple like I the one thing I do like about the *01:14:26* rap battle one is that it was just as simple as fight people. *01:14:31* And I was like, okay, cool. *01:14:35* Yeah, let's do it. *01:14:36* And then the M the MC who's hosting it is like the final person is me. *01:14:37* Now you gotta fight me. *01:14:41* And it's like okay, yeah, let's okay, sure. *01:14:42* Like, so that one was just so straightforward and it's setup and its execution that I appreciated it, and then others were truly horrible because they were just not engaging in the slightest. *01:14:44* Yeah. *01:14:56* So the funniest one to me was the was the sledding or skiing one where you have to go downhill and it's like, this is the hardest course ever. *01:14:56* Like only the gym leader can do this. *01:15:04* And it's like *01:15:06* Yes. *01:15:07* 15 seconds. *01:15:08* Like going through checkpoints. *01:15:09* And it's so choppy too, because it's trying to give you speed, but the game can't handle it. *01:15:12* It's running at twenty frames. *01:15:18* It's just bad. *01:15:19* I did want to jump in and talk about um I don't know if you were done kind of talking about the straight stuff, but I did want to take it back to Arvin briefly and kind of his arc because *01:15:20* I think he d has the best single arc in the game. *01:15:31* I think Penny's is weak and is terrible and I don't like that they call her Big Boss because every time they did I was like Metal Gear Solid. *01:15:34* They're like Big Boss, you're here and we're like, no, stop calling her that. *01:15:42* With Arvin in particular, though, I think the thing that sucks the most about his arc is that they set it up pretty carefully over the course of the game that he's kind of been hurt and he's got he's got a tragic upbringing. *01:15:45* that is amplified by this the fact that he has a tragically injured dog that he's trying to heal up. *01:15:58* And I I was expecting there to be some sort of *01:16:04* culmination with his story arc once he got down into area area zero and the culmination of that arc was his mom is dead and he's been replaced by a robo professor *01:16:07* Dead parents are actually long deceased. *01:16:17* Yeah, and then you get back to the headmaster's office afterward and he's like, Oh I'm sorry your mom's dead arm and he's like, it's okay. *01:16:21* It's just kind of cool. *01:16:27* It's *01:16:28* It's just kind of closure for stuff I was already expecting. *01:16:29* It's like, wow, this is dark. *01:16:32* There is really no resolution to any of this. *01:16:33* He's jumping over the part where he was *01:16:37* like had love for an AI robot as it descend it traveled through time. *01:16:39* Yeah, that too. *01:16:44* It's like, no, don't go, I love you. *01:16:45* Yeah, so his art is just *01:16:48* I don't it's very dark for a Pokemon game and it's your parents are dead. *01:16:52* Yeah, especially because like I said, they set it up in such a way that you think there will be a *01:16:57* I guess the payoff with his arc is that his dog gets healed and then he can fight you again and that's about it. *01:17:02* And that it's the only good thing that happens to him the whole game. *01:17:06* Other than that, it's just *01:17:10* I had horrible upbringing, I was borderline abused, my mom is now dead and has been replaced by a robot. *01:17:11* We had to send the robot with her consciousness back in time. *01:17:18* It's like what? *01:17:22* And then people are just like, sorry about that, Arvin. *01:17:24* Sounds like a bummer. *01:17:27* And he's like, yep. *01:17:28* Alright, back to school, everyone. *01:17:28* Yeah, pretty much. *01:17:30* Did you know you could go fight all the gems again? *01:17:31* Let's set up a tournament. *01:17:33* So Arvin, I yeah, like he's he's the only one with a compelling arc and it doesn't even it doesn't even end in such a way that felt severely good cut. *01:17:35* It felt very half-baked like most of the things in this game. *01:17:46* Yeah, and I c I could go on a huge tangent about the Team Star stuff too. *01:17:50* I think it's pretty terrible. *01:17:54* I'll just say that in short. *01:17:56* Probably the one. *01:17:57* I think the thing they do with the hands and they make the stars high. *01:17:58* Yeah. *01:18:03* That's pretty sick. *01:18:03* I'll give him that. *01:18:04* But the whole bullying stuff, it reminded I don't know what is up with Japanese developers lately and trying to lean into bullying storylines, but it was the same thing with uh Lost Judgment *01:18:06* as well a couple of years ago, they're like, let's tell a story about bullying and the troubles of behind person bullying. *01:18:16* Yeah, Persona 5 to some degree was sort of like that, except that was more *01:18:23* abuse and evil stuff rather than just being bullied, but yes, something that is uh Japanese game devs had have had a tough time. *01:18:28* Russia Yeah, they're try they're trying to really lean into these bullying angles lately. *01:18:37* I think one thing I want to mention, I think we just kind of mentioned it, or you did a moment ago, Chris, was the music in the game. *01:18:42* I honestly did not like this that much. *01:18:49* No. *01:18:53* I did not care for it. *01:18:54* I thought Sword and Shield was better. *01:18:55* I have so many notes. *01:18:57* No, you really do. *01:18:58* I I did not really care for the just there was no standout track. *01:19:00* I think the thing that is I think the fact that the whole game was a seamless open world took *01:19:04* some of this away from me because in the past what has stood out to me about the Pokemon games is like there's a theme for the caves, there's a theme for the ice area, there's a theme for the forest, there's a theme for each city. *01:19:11* And like, I know the music still changes in such a way, but it was so *01:19:20* It was harder to notice those transitions with the music because the whole open world was just seamless and I was sprinting around it at all times. *01:19:25* And so it was it felt very *01:19:34* I I I I I kinda need those hard cuts between the areas to appreciate the soundtrack a little bit more, in my opinion. *01:19:37* Um, and so it didn't really stand out to me for that reason. *01:19:45* Maybe if they just did subtle piano music like Breath of the Wild, then it would have resonated with me. *01:19:49* Right. *01:19:55* Pull a page out of Sonic Frontiers and just rip off the *01:19:55* Hey man, Sonic Frontiers is a hardcore metal soundtrack for every boss fight. *01:19:59* Uh yeah, that me that soundtrack didn't do much for me this time around, even though it had *01:20:05* Toby Fox on board. *01:20:09* Oh my gosh. *01:20:11* I think um I I did like the whole dynamic aspect of the open world music. *01:20:12* I think a lot of the *01:20:18* Like I I mentioned that I really like the Team Star boss song, but that's like kind of an exception to um my whole opinion on the soundtrack. *01:20:20* I think *01:20:29* It was hard to really place the using the music as an example, the the theme and the feeling of this whole region in the game. *01:20:30* Like *01:20:40* When you when you think about the Sword and Shield gym battles and how they would be like crowd cheering as a part of the song at the end, like that fell very much in tune with the sports culture. *01:20:41* And for some reason the Scarlet and Violet Gym theme, like when they terastalize, they do the same thing with the crowd chanting. *01:20:52* And it's like, but that makes less sense in this context. *01:20:58* Um, like what is what is the deal with Paldea besides the fact that they are uh uh arguably more obsessed with sandwiches than Pokemon? *01:21:01* You know Actually what is what is up with all the sandwich stuff in this game? *01:21:09* Why is it's like a sandwich-based economy? *01:21:15* Like the sandwich gives powers to legendary Pokemon *01:21:18* It beefs your stats. *01:21:23* I don't know much about you know the the real life region like you have like you know Spain and Portugal or whatever that they base Paul Dia on, but *01:21:25* It was it was an easy parallel with um Galar and I guess Ing with the uh with Great Britain and the sports culture there, but I w here I was like, okay *01:21:34* Sandwiches Okay, we're getting ingredients and herbs. *01:21:45* Sure. *01:21:50* Eating that JPEG sandwich. *01:21:51* Oh my gosh, what's that? *01:21:53* I hope they never change that. *01:21:55* I hope that's never. *01:21:56* They've already been trying to. *01:21:58* No, I hope that's never changed. *01:21:59* Those animations need to stay, because those are actually good. *01:22:01* It's the rest of the game that needs work. *01:22:04* Oh, I am I'm frankly surprised, Logan. *01:22:07* I thought we were gonna be united on how absolute fire the battle music in this game is *01:22:11* There is I have 13 songs I downloaded before we recorded. *01:22:21* I wish I could talk about them and include them all *01:22:25* But oh my gosh, I think every battle theme in this game is incredible. *01:22:28* The Terra raid battle music, that's Toby Fox. *01:22:35* I was like, no wonder this is so catchy. *01:22:38* It's Toby Fox. *01:22:40* I there were only like two areas I wrote down that I thought were actually good. *01:22:41* I think East Province number three and north province number two had some pretty great music. *01:22:45* And I only wrote one town. *01:22:52* And those those names mean nothing, right? *01:22:54* East Province number 3. *01:22:56* Where is this? *01:22:58* Yeah. *01:22:58* It means absolutely nothing. *01:22:58* But then uh how do we Lavincia the electric gym on the coast. *01:23:00* I thought that had some pretty good music, but *01:23:05* What you've got um the Nomona theme, you've got the the champion themes, the battle themes. *01:23:09* I think all of those hit really great and just are catchy and stick with you. *01:23:16* And then you have *01:23:21* The penny theme, where you finally are revealed that she is secretly big boss. *01:23:24* Whoa. *01:23:29* That music? *01:23:30* Oh my gosh. *01:23:32* They didn't need to go this hard in Pokemon, but they went that hard in Pokemon. *01:23:33* It's great. *01:23:37* And then I think Area Zero, like when you're descending and it's all piano and *01:23:38* That I thought was pretty much solid, I thought. *01:23:42* Yeah. *01:23:46* So that's all good. *01:23:47* I but I think the battle music is in this game, especially with the quantity of it, because there's you know, there's trainers, elite fours, there's *01:23:48* There's the gyms, there's the Terra, like there's so many different battle themes. *01:23:56* And I think they all hit. *01:23:59* I it's bonkers. *01:24:01* Uh I'm Yeah, again the music that's featured is not included. *01:24:02* Like I said, it was more just a situation where it s didn't stand out to me as *01:24:06* much as in the context of playing the game. *01:24:10* Yeah, yeah. *01:24:13* Exactly. *01:24:14* Yeah. *01:24:14* Like there the And I agree that a lot of the battle themes remain good. *01:24:15* That's *01:24:19* Not surprising. *01:24:20* It's Pokemon. *01:24:21* Those are the themes that stood out to me the most because they were tied to specific moments, whether it be the penny fight or the Team Star fight or *01:24:22* the champion fight that you mentioned. *01:24:29* Um those are all great I thought as well. *01:24:31* But yeah, it was more it was more the music around just when you're running around the world and stuff like that. *01:24:34* Like yeah I can't tell you *01:24:39* East Area 2's theme off the top of my head or whatever, but I can recall the *01:24:42* cave music from sword and shield immediately because it's so distinct in my mind. *01:24:49* Um and I've only played that game once and I didn't play that much, but I can still remember it because that music is so *01:24:55* integral to those moments of the game that I can think of them immediately. *01:25:02* Whereas this it's just kind of like I'm running around all over the place and uh yeah. *01:25:06* So. *01:25:10* I guess the one other thing I want to talk about before about before we kind of wrap up here, and this is something we mentioned a bit, would just be the post-game. *01:25:10* Uh how do you guys feel like the post-game stacks up this time around? *01:25:18* Max and I *01:25:21* Probably can't speak to this with too much depth. *01:25:23* Max, I know you kind of just stopped playing as soon as the as soon as you finish rolling credits. *01:25:25* I same sort of thing for me, honestly. *01:25:30* I dabbled around for a little bit longer, but I did not *01:25:32* really dive into the post game a lot. *01:25:35* Chris, how did you feel like it stacked up this? *01:25:36* any of these recent games I think. *01:25:44* Yeah. *01:25:46* Um it f it always feels like they're saving it for the third version or for the DLC and so like I think that's yeah, that's exactly what I feel like is they're they they tucked away the stuff for the DLC that they're gonna roll out over the next year and then that'll be Exactly *01:25:46* Yeah. *01:25:59* Like I I love the Sword and Shield DLC, but I cannot recall what I did after I rolled Credits in Sword and Shield. *01:25:59* But like like have you found any of those stakes that are just driven into the ground? *01:26:08* Yeah, only two or three of them. *01:26:13* I don't know what they do or what they're tied to at all. *01:26:14* Uh there isn't I I can't find any any lore or dialogue on this, so I'm just again I have to like depend on on online guides, I guess, because it it just feels *01:26:17* It feels very last seconds thrown in there or they just forgot to f again half faked. *01:26:29* Like they just forgot to complete that aspect of um *01:26:35* Yeah, it's weird that they throw they throw those things in there and you interact with them and it's just like, it disappeared. *01:26:39* And it's like, well what does that what does that even mean? *01:26:43* What am I supposed to do with that information? *01:26:46* Yeah, I know they have something to do with like some new legendaries that you can catch in the post-game, which I I don't really have much knowledge on at this point *01:26:50* Um and I don't feel very compelled to fight the gym leaders again. *01:26:59* To me the postgame just reminded me of Sword and Shield without the narrative hook of cause in Sword and Shield you have to go to each gym and fight a Gigantamax. *01:27:03* Pokemon and then uh and then you fight uh Shield Burt and Sword Boy or whatever the big wig Rich foe. *01:27:13* So there was like a narrative push *01:27:21* At least in that postgame. *01:27:24* This postgame is uh go go check on the gyms for me, please, and uh fight your fellow students. *01:27:25* Help me set up a tournament. *01:27:31* Yeah. *01:27:32* So I feel like it's even more aimless. *01:27:33* So I'm a child. *01:27:36* Why is that my job? *01:27:37* I'm a student. *01:27:40* Please teach me biology rather than telling me to set up a nationwide pokey tournament. *01:27:41* Don't forget to go to class. *01:27:49* Uh the the last thing I wanted to end on, and this is something that we should have probably brought up at the very top of the episode, but I did want to go around *01:27:51* and ask what everybody's core teams were that they used throughout the majority of the game. *01:27:59* This is something we've been doing on most of these episodes, I believe. *01:28:04* Um and I'm just *01:28:06* curious uh Chris you I know you said you had kind of two different teams that you you used. *01:28:08* What was your main group this time around? *01:28:14* I was on my champion team. *01:28:16* Yeah, like the ones that I actually won with. *01:28:18* Let's see. *01:28:20* I I I did the dancing duck. *01:28:21* You did the dancing duck. *01:28:24* Yeah, yeah, I did. *01:28:26* Uh Claude Sire. *01:28:27* Very reliable boy of mine. *01:28:30* Uh Lokix? *01:28:32* The uh the bug who can also um I had a fighting type um *01:28:34* terror ty uh fighting terror type low kicks that was very useful to me. *01:28:41* Tinkaton, who I understand looking at like the competitive subreddits is actually not that great, but I still really like Tinkaton. *01:28:47* Um Annihilate I really enjoyed. *01:28:55* And I had uh I had a Sko villain because I was just missing *01:28:58* both grass and fire and it's like what do you know they have one that's just both of those so there you go pretty eclectic team I think. *01:29:03* Again all new Pokemon because that's how I that's how I roll with these games. *01:29:11* So *01:29:16* Max, I know I know your team because we thought what was your team. *01:29:16* My team was uh also the dancing duck, uh Qua Quakville, I don't know. *01:29:21* Tinkaton as well, was new the fairy steel typing pair there was interesting. *01:29:25* more leaning into Logan's point of well this is an interesting tight pairing. *01:29:31* Let's uh let's put these two together. *01:29:35* Uh I will say Tinkatun's hammer is too big because *01:29:37* uh it holds it on the right hand side and it blocks the view of the entire battle with the camera. *01:29:41* I kind of love uh dude try having uh Dondozo *01:29:47* Like I didn't see how that works with the camera. *01:29:51* It just would vanish every time a fight would start for me and I would have to like rotate the camera out and get like a top-down view just so it would pop into frame and I could see it. *01:29:54* Yeah. *01:30:05* Then I had a uh Bellabolt, Electric Frog thing, the Sir Surrege, the Fire Ghost Mega Man sort Pokemon. *01:30:06* I finally got an Appleton, 'cause it's much easier to get in this game than it is in Sword and Shield, disappointed by how small Appleton is. *01:30:17* Uh I thought Appleton would be a huge apple dragon, and it is a tiny apple dragon. *01:30:25* And then uh Faragraph, Faragraph, Far Ferrograph, whatever the new draft evolution that made Logan so, so angry. *01:30:31* Yeah, that thing sucks. *01:30:41* Uh my team was I like I said I had two starters, so I had Skellor Ridge and Meow Scarada or whatever it's called. *01:30:43* I also had a belly bolt like Max. *01:30:50* I also had a Tinkaton like both of you did. *01:30:52* I had um a Dondozo, like I mentioned, the giant whale catfish thing. *01:30:55* And then I went I always have to get the pseudo-legendary because I'm very uninteresting. *01:31:02* So I got the Baxcalibur or Godzilla thing. *01:31:06* Because it looks literally like Godzilla and it behaves like Godzilla. *01:31:11* So that was that one was absolutely in my wheelhouse, although I will say I hated the *01:31:16* dragon ice combo that makes it so weak. *01:31:21* Like ice has so fragile. *01:31:26* Ice has so many weaknesses, like ground, fighting, fire like that thing has so many weaknesses. *01:31:28* because it is an ice type. *01:31:35* Um so yeah, that that th that felt like a again kind of similar to Meowskrata, like a glass cannon that I was trying to use and had to tactfully send out and know when to *01:31:37* know when to use it, know when to keep it in my party. *01:31:47* But Tinkaton was the common I feel like that's one of the most common poke new Pokemon that everybody's getting. *01:31:50* I feel like it's one of the only new fairy types. *01:31:55* And then I just *01:31:57* It's one of the better designs with the whole Pokedex too. *01:31:59* I feel I think so. *01:32:02* So cool. *01:32:04* I I think that's we've we've largely talked about everything unless there's anything else you guys want to bring up here at the end. *01:32:04* But uh otherwise let's talk about this game's legacy, which is obviously *01:32:09* We're recording this a month out from when it's released. *01:32:13* Again, there's no DLC, there's no redemption tour that this game has gotten to go on yet, thanks to future patches or anything like that. *01:32:16* So for me *01:32:25* This game's legacy is that it's probably the most broken Pokemon game ever and really did a lot to damage the series and kind of its reputation, but also none of that mattered. *01:32:26* Um we didn't talk too much throughout this discussion about the performance problems with the game or just how port ran on Switch, which *01:32:38* has been well established by everybody, so I don't feel like it's something we need to talk about a ton, but also I can't separate the fact that this game not only were there a lot of problems gameplay-wise and systemically with the the with the game, but *01:32:47* Yeah, it it's horrible from a performance standpoint, even though they pushed out a couple patches since release. *01:33:01* Um that's in Cyberpunk 2077 have I seen such a uh outpouring of *01:33:07* Falling through the middle of the world, uh I don't know, there's all kinds of weird stuff. *01:33:17* Attack on Titan character models, or they just turn giants, yeah. *01:33:21* I remember seeing one if you just have two controllers connected to the switch, uh, you can push forward on both of them and you'll go twice as fast. *01:33:28* Just your walking speed. *01:33:36* Just double it immediately. *01:33:37* Great. *01:33:39* Yeah, Chris, how I guess how do you feel about the game's legacy at this *01:33:40* point in time again, six weeks after launch. *01:33:45* Yes, very hard to tell. *01:33:48* I mean, I will say the weird thing is that *01:33:49* Scarlet and Violet made me weirdly nostalgic for Sword and Shield, which I never thought I would say. *01:33:53* I mean, w with with Dexit and people complaining about all the animations aren't that great and there's pop-up everywhere. *01:33:59* I mean that game looks *01:34:06* Gorgeous compared to this one. *01:34:07* Um, I mean, even though it was such a linear game, like there is kind of this diorama feel of the environments there and the fact that Scar and Violet has to do the see that bounty you can go there. *01:34:10* Um and everything just looks very muddled when you get near it. *01:34:21* It's just you know, the the the magic is gone. *01:34:24* And so with that, um I'm pretty sure that two generations now that Scarlet and Violet will be considered classics. *01:34:28* Yeah. *01:34:37* Like depending on just how much they beef it with the next couple generations, you know, assuming they don't get their stuff together. *01:34:38* Um *01:34:46* So I I will continue to play this just because I am very chore-oriented when it comes to Pokemon games of *01:34:47* you know, collecting and breeding and and training and all that stuff and all your IVs and EVs stuff. *01:34:57* Um but *01:35:05* In terms of legacy, I don't think it's really gonna matter because this game flew off the shelves anyway, so who are we to say *01:35:07* Max, what about yourself? *01:35:17* I think a Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is like a flawed execution of a of grand ideas, right? *01:35:19* It's *01:35:25* open world, multipath, all these things. *01:35:26* It's it but it has this sparse world that does little to entice you as the player to seek your treasure. *01:35:29* with uh you know technical performance and and padded game design actively fighting you and slowing you down throughout the entire game really *01:35:35* Uh the challenge is minimal in a campaign that doesn't grow alongside you. *01:35:44* It all feels uh to quote uh Namona fruitless, not fruitful, fruitless. *01:35:49* Yet there's an undeniable allure still of seeing Pokemon out actually in the open world. *01:35:55* I think that novelty hasn't worn off on me yet, at least. *01:36:01* Considering I guess we've had Let's Go, Sword and Shield, and now Scarlet and Violet and Pokemon Go as well, kind of merging that with the real world. *01:36:05* So there's still that allure. *01:36:13* That is engaging to some degree. *01:36:15* But in a year with two open world Pokemon games, it's a shame that the teams uh couldn't work together to make one true treasure for us all to enjoy. *01:36:17* So that's what I think about the game. *01:36:27* They need to pool their resources for the next couple, apparently. *01:36:30* Which would be a good idea. *01:36:33* Like I don't know why they don't *01:36:34* do that in the first place, but I guess the answer would be money because why sell one game that'll sell ten to fifteen million copies when you could sell *01:36:36* Three of them. *01:36:46* Yeah. *01:36:47* The fact that they they that they outsourced the Diamond Pearl remakes is just um *01:36:49* putting this whole operation to question if you ask me. *01:36:56* Like I Yeah. *01:36:59* What is happening? *01:37:00* I don't know. *01:37:02* What are they doing with the money they're making, I guess, is what I wanna know. *01:37:02* Like usually ti usually money m brought in like that would allow *01:37:06* the resources do improve, like even if they were on time crunches, like you would it'd stand a reason that's the thing. *01:37:10* There does it go Yeah. *01:37:15* windows of time were smaller that i it just feels like they're really again we have no idea what is going on behind the scenes over there, but it just feels like it's such a such they're they're *01:37:23* They're flying by the sea of their pants, essentially. *01:37:34* Like I yeah, I don't know. *01:37:36* They have 169 employees as of twenty twenty two if if Wikipedia is to be believed. *01:37:38* Um *01:37:43* I remember they have this odd this this odd. *01:37:44* That's great. *01:37:47* I feel like it should be like 500. *01:37:47* Yeah. *01:37:49* 169? *01:37:50* Like Yeah. *01:37:51* Yeah. *01:37:52* It's very strange. *01:37:53* Nothing. *01:37:54* Um they had this whole I think it was like in the late 3DS era where they were trying to also do original games. *01:37:55* Like remember Tembo the Bad Elephant? *01:38:01* Yes, I do remember that. *01:38:04* Yeah. *01:38:05* Pocket Jockey. *01:38:06* Gigo record, Little Town Hero. *01:38:07* Mm-hmm. *01:38:10* Do you remember that one too? *01:38:11* Town and Tower Hill. *01:38:12* I believe so, yeah. *01:38:14* Yeah. *01:38:16* Um, so I don't know how stressed out they are there and I don't know what else to say because I don't want to say anything that is *01:38:17* Probably blatantly false or um or misleading, but it's something's going on over there. *01:38:25* That's for sure. *01:38:31* I will say despite being such dis despite being one of the biggest franchises on the planet *01:38:32* Pokemon feels pretty faceless to me and it always kinda has outside of like Junichi Masuda. *01:38:39* Like he is the he's the only person *01:38:44* Goeichinosei? *01:38:46* Yeah, like there there are a couple key figures tied to Pokemon, but they're the same figures that have been tied to Pokemon for the past 20 to 25 years. *01:38:47* Like there is not *01:38:55* Like I think of other Nintendo teams, and I know Pokemon's not specifically a Nintendo team, but you know, with Mario, you got the *01:38:57* You've got the I can't remember the I know the new guy Yeah, I know the new guy who's like they've put out in front and they've been like, hey, this is the Mario guy. *01:39:05* This is the guy who s does the snaps on the directs and he he made Odyssey and hey, here's Anuma, he runs Zelda and like *01:39:13* I know these are only single figures, but Nintendo like pushes these people to the front a little bit more. *01:39:20* Pokemon is very faceless in a lot of ways. *01:39:25* And when they do put a face to the brand, it's usually like *01:39:29* Hi, I'm Joe Corporate CEO of Pokemon, and I'm here today to talk to you about Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. *01:39:32* Like it just feels very *01:39:40* Yeah, it feels very corporate in a lot of ways. *01:39:42* Um not everyone can have a sacurai or the Splatoon guy with the lab coat and sunglasses. *01:39:45* Yeah, yeah. *01:39:51* They they're like the umbrella corporation of video game developers in some ways. *01:39:52* Oh my gosh. *01:39:57* To combine both of our 2023 seasons together into one metaphor or simile. *01:39:58* Something like that. *01:40:04* And I think that does it for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. *01:40:05* Thank you so much for listening. *01:40:08* If you'd like to check out our previous seasons, you can go to chapterselect. *01:40:09* com or follow the show at chapterselect. *01:40:13* A thank you to our members who support us directly. *01:40:15* You can learn more by going to chapterselect. *01:40:17* com forward slash join. *01:40:20* You can follow Logan on Twitter at Moreman12 and his writing over at comicbook. *01:40:21* com. *01:40:25* You can follow myself on Twitter at Max Roberts143 and my writing over at maxfrequency. *01:40:26* net. *01:40:30* You can follow Chris on Twitter at dang it, what is compen *01:40:31* Uh Compenderizer. *01:40:36* Compenderizer. *01:40:37* They are the managing editor over at GamePur, so go check out their work there. *01:40:39* Uh link to *01:40:45* The Scarlet and Violet review that Chris wrote is in the show notes. *01:40:46* So check all that out. *01:40:49* And until next time, adios. *01:40:51* Chapter Select is a max frequency production. *01:41:00* Chapter Select is supported by you. *01:41:03* You can gain access to longer episodes and bonus content by going to chapterselect. *01:41:06* com forward slash join. *01:41:11* This episode was research, produced, and edited by me, Max Roberts. *01:41:13* Season six is hosted by Logan Moore and myself *01:41:17* Season six is all about Pokemon. *01:41:21* For more on the season, go to chapterselect. *01:41:23* com forward slash season six. *01:41:25* You can follow the show at Chapter Select and check out previous seasons at chapterselect. *01:41:27* com *01:41:33*