I play handheld mode almost exclusively
Pokémon Scarlet/Violet sold over 10m units WW in their first 3 days, including 4.05m from Japan
Sort of tracks with the video. Though the reviewer didn't notice a change they did say the experience was better for handheld players over TV.
- Pronouns
- he/him
I reinstalled Shield and spent a few minutes walking through every town in SV and SwSh and that actually improved my impression of both for different reasons.
The SwSh towns feel much more personal to me. The paths and camera angles are fixed so everything looks much nicer.
Being able to enter buildings, seeing peoples homes/rooms, walking around in the clothing stores etc made the towns feel alive.
The Pokémon Center is a safe haven. It looks very comfy and welcoming and some NPCs hang out and drink coffee/tea.
I remember missing moving the camera in the normal routes after spending some time in the Wild Area but I don't think I felt like this about towns.
Freezington was a step in the right direction though and Jubilife Village in PLA might be my favorite town so far.
Walking slowly through the SV towns made me appreciate the diversity in designs.
Every town had different types of buildings and they were clearly designed with the environment in mind.
The size of them is fitting for the open world design and you can explore everything from every direction.
While playing the game I couldn't enjoy most of these aspects though.
There are almost no buildings you can enter, clothing stores etc are menus you can access by "walking through" doors.
The Pokémon Centers/stations are fine outside the towns (the working conditions look horrible) but they feel out of place inside.
With the exception of gym challenges and battles nothing happens and the places feel dead. After some towns I rushed through the rest of them since there's nothing worth exploring anyway.
In my opinion GF went one step back with the towns but they also made a side step to a different path that will allow them to make much better towns in the future.
The buildings you can enter in SwSh is funny to look fondly back on since I remember these games being clowned on endlessly for the copy pasted rooms everywhere. Like I remember an alley where all the rooms were identical.
I think both implementation are bad, but like Simar says at least the SV towns set a good foundation for the future.
I think both implementation are bad, but like Simar says at least the SV towns set a good foundation for the future.
