Deepest Discussion: Pokemon Scarlet and Violet ft. DevilFruit Joe

As long-time Pokémon fans, Sebastion and guest, Devilfruit Podcast, are extremely happy to spend an entire episode talking about the ins and out of today’s topic of discussion, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

In this episode, they talk about the highs, lows, and technical difficulties of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

Whether you’ve played the game already and want to hear about the experience again, or you want to know the ins and outs of this game before purchasing, tune in to hear more!

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What's up, and welcome to the Single Player Experience.

As always, I'm your host, Sebastian Malden, and today we're doing a deep

dive into Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

For a topic of this magnitude, I had to bring in a special guest.

My guest today is none other than Devil Fruit.

Joe.

Joe is the host of the Anime podcast, the Devil Fruit Podcast.

He's been playing the Pokemon Games all his life.

He's a master of these games, and he's a huge fan of Nintendo games, period.

In this episode, we're talking about all things Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, the

pros, the cons, and everything in between, because this is the deepest discussion

edition of the single player experience.

So without further ado, let's get started.

Dj, start the intro, man.

Joe, how you doing today?

I'm doing pretty good.

It's always a good time with you, Sebastian.

Always fun.

Always fun.

Glad to have you back on the show.

So, Joe, just for the people who don't know you, can you

introduce yourself to the audience?

Sure.

Yeah.

So I mean, like you said, I'm one of the three hosts of the Devil Fruit Podcast.

Um, you can find us on the devil fruit podcast.com if you want.

Uh, we also have, uh, pretty much out everywhere on Spotify and any massive

listening platform, uh, you can get a little taste of me and my three

buddies, or me and my two buddies.

Um, and, uh, beyond that, you know, I, my day job is a personal trainer

and I work in a gym and all that fun stuff, so, Hey, nerds can exercise too.

Yeah, . All right,

. Sebastion: Yeah, for sure, for sure.

So, Joe, like before we begin, I asked you like the last time we, we talked about

your top five anime of all time, what are your top five games of all time, though?

I, I should've, I should've known.

You would've not just, just been like, ah, okay.

Okay.

Um, I got a funny question for you.

Coming next though.

Games.

Mm-hmm.

games.

Okay.

Uh, I'm just gonna do my best to be as fast as I can be cuz I

know I can take my time, um, in, in no specific order right now.

I'm just gonna say the titles as I think, and then I might put them

in a later or, or in order later.

I don't know.

Um, the first one that comes to my head is Legend Zelda Mojo's Mask.

Um, after that I have a real soft spot, obviously for Super Smash Bros.

Um, But I should probably be specific.

I, I'll, I'll say ultimate.

I have, I have most of my time in Ultimate, and, and

I think it's a great game.

Um, you know, I love the original and Melees great.

Uh, but I've spent most of my time in Ultimate, um, I would be a, I'd

be a fake fan if I tried to say anything else, um, after that . Okay.

The next title that popped in my head was actually We Sports Resort.

Uh, but I don't think that's gonna make this list.

That would cause a riot probably.

But that was a fun game

though.

I would be shocked if you put a your top five though.

. I'm absolutely shocked.

I mean, do you remember that showdown sword mode?

Mm-hmm.

where you're walking down the street and you're just, ah.

Anyway,

Absolutely

shocked.

There's, there's a no.

Okay.

I'm, I'm gonna replace it.

? Yeah.

Uh, there's a game for Nintendo 64 called Ogre Battle 64.

What

a throwback.

It's a, it's a strategy game.

Uh, and it was one of the first like r PPG games that, like your decisions actually

changed, like the course of the game.

Um, and it was long too, and I like played that over a summer

and it was Oh, so ogre Battle 64.

That's the fantastic.

Um, I would also put two more, two more, two more, two more.

My nos, my real nostalgia pick would probably be Yoshi's Island.

Okay.

I think that's probably the best side scroller game I've ever played in my life.

Um, Last one.

I'm gonna say, just to throw a little variety in here, cuz I mean, like,

if I'm being really true to myself, a Nintendo game would probably

take every single spa on this list.

But I would have to think pretty hard and long about all that

I was, I was just about to mention, I was like,

this is very Nintendo heavy.

Listen, I,

I, I am what I am uh, um, I'm gonna, I'm gonna say I'm trash at this game.

Mm-hmm.

, but I loved my solo campaign and my adventure through, uh, halo three.

Oh, this is solid one.

Mm-hmm.

. Yeah.

Halo three.

And I mean, even that's a toss up between Halo three and Halo O D S T.

but I honestly probably played Halo three more just because I waited

to get O D S T like a long time.

And then when I finally got it, I, like, I didn't spend as much time on it.

Um, probably

Halo three.

Okay.

Not bad.

Not bad.

Did throw like playing as humans throw you off in O D S T versus like playing

as of Spartan in the other Halo games?

Mm.

I mean, like initially, but after like level two or whatever,

like you get used to it mm-hmm.

and you're just like, all right, this is the game.

Yeah.

Uh, and the story's just so good.

Um, I love that type of story.

Um, like Star, it's, it's like, you know, I'm, it like Star

Wars Rogue One, , halo OD S T.

Mm.

Like, there's some other, like, old War movie I'm thinking of that.

I can't think of the name right now, but that, that, uh, oh,

all quiet on the Western front.

Mm-hmm.

just like gorgeous.

And there's a book too.

Uh, honestly, the movie's like just as good as a book.

Anyway, . Anyway.

I love, sorry, tangents.

Um, that would be my top five right now.

Uh, otherwise I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll keep you here all night,

man.

I love it.

I love it.

It's a solid list.

Yeah.

I, I think Ogre Battle of 64 is the only one I haven't personally played.

If you're patient,

it's a great game.

The, the first couple levels in stuff is a little tedious playing

it the second time through.

I mean, maybe it's just fine still going by your first experience.

Um, but my second time through I was like, dang, I forgot how long this was.

Cuz it's like part of the game mechanics is.

, imagine like a top down adventure game on a tabletop.

Mm-hmm.

. And you're a little piece that's like slowly walking across the board.

And as the game progresses and you choose where you wanna level

things up, one of the things is you kind of start to move faster.

So it's like, it makes the later game feel so great because the first like

five levels, you're like, this is taking forever . But then by the end you're like,

I'm a God . Like it's, I like it, it's very effective at what it's trying to do.

Um, but the beginning is a little tedious, I will say.

But, you know, I'm a distance runner.

I all, I have been for a long time.

I, I love that type

of thing.

Oh man, I can probably get into it.

sounds very similar to what I experience all the time in civilization games.

So that sounds right at my alley as well.

See,

and I've never played a civilization game, but I've watched

my brother do it on PC a couple times.

Mm-hmm.

, and I was like, okay, d like, like those sorts of things.

Like, uh, what is it?

Age of Empires.

Mm-hmm.

, is that kind of a similar thing too, right.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Like I would, he would wa he would play that all the time.

And I remember looking at that and, and I feel about it the same way I kind of feel

about d and d , where I'm like, I look at it and I'm like, that's pretty cool.

Mm-hmm.

, that would probably suck me in.

I shouldn't touch that.

. Like, I, I, I understand like, like it's an addict knowing my behavior and I'm just

like, I shouldn't, uh, unwrap that box.

Yeah.

Stay away from that.

I definitely recommend staying away because like, it, it sucked

me in and has not letting me go.

I think I'm like three years of playing this exact same game and I'm like, sure.

I, I should probably get tired of it sooner or later,

but it hasn't happened yet.

, dude, just like

smash, you know, like it's really just the same thing.

Yeah.

Over it.

It's like I just, I'm not tired of it, man.

you got every

time's just a little different.

Yeah.

Uh, it's, it's just enough difference to keep you like engaged and I, I

feel like that's all that matters.

Yeah.

So, so Joe, I gotta ask you one last question before we

get to the topic of the show.

Okay.

you've played Super Smash Brothers quite a bit, so I know you're

familiar with the character of Kirby.

Now.

I love Kirby.

Now, if Kirby absorbed you, what powers would it get?

That's, that's a creative question.

Mm-hmm.

, uh, My , my, my gut, my like, first thing that popped into my head was

like, it would actually be the first Kirby transformation to just like,

have a detriment . Like, it would, it would like, like Kirby would

suck me up and he would get glasses.

Mm-hmm.

and then the screen would become blurry.

Like, like that would be, that would be, that would be, in all honesty,

probably what Kirby would get.

Uh, that Yeah.

No, I'm just gonna stick with that.

That's what, that's what Kir, that's what Kirby would get for

an ability, would be a handicapped to everybody sitting on the couch.

How may, but, but your athletic though, so he'd

probably get enhanced strength.

You just couldn't see shit.

Right.

But,

uh, uh, maybe.

Sure.

like, maybe he could, maybe he could like, have an extra jump

cuz he could jump a little higher.

Mm-hmm.

or something.

Mm-hmm.

, I don't know.

Or, or, or maybe, or maybe his punches become like, Or, or, or no.

Cause I'm not necessarily strong.

I could take punches.

So maybe he like, he gets like 3% less knock back on all of the attacks against

him, but the scream becomes blurry.

That would be more accurate.

Okay.

That would be more accurate.

He would, he would, he would survive longer, but everything would be different.

, Sebastion: he could probably, he could

Maybe run, maybe his ground speed.

Mm-hmm.

goes up just a tiny bit, like maybe now he's like equal to Fox or something maybe.

Yeah.

I don't know.

That's a great question, . Boy, that's phenomenal.

All right.

All right.

So Joe, let's get to the topic of the show.

I hit you up, I captured a pigeon in the street basically.

I attached on that pigeon's leg and just a carrier note.

And I sent it into the void and I said, pigeon, I need

you to go send a note to Joe.

And on that note it said, Joe, I need you to play Pokemon Scarlet or Violet

so we can have a deep discussion on it.

Yes.

and you sent back that same pigeon.

I don't know how you recaptured this critter, but you sent back this same

like pigeon and you said, I'm down.

Yeah, pretty much . So, I mean, it is pretty much, pretty much what happened.

It was like, Hey, I must step ahead of you.

I already got Scarlet.

Let's go.

. . I think it was actually the day I purchased it.

Might have a no cuz I, well shoot, I don't know.

I don't remember quite, I got it.

Day one at Target.

I don't, I It was soon.

It was, it was quick.

It was, it was, it was a beautiful time.

Okay, so you got it day one and you went with Scarlet.

I happened to go with Violet, so we kind of have a little bit of com like

comparison there to make out of it.

But I want to ask you like, what's your history with Pokemon

overall, like the Pokemon Games?

Um, like where, what was my first exposure and things like that?

Yeah, like how long have you been playing the Pokemon games?

Sure.

So like, okay, so I'm, I'm not as old as this is gonna make me sound.

I , I have older siblings and they obviously, I was allowed to play

some of their games, some of their games, um, as I was growing up.

And, and one of them was, we had a green game boy color and, and a see

through Purple Game Boy Advance.

And we, I was, I played Pokemon Yellow.

and Pokemon Crystal and Pokemon Silver.

Um, and I just played all of those just like on repeat.

But I nev, I don't think I ever actually beat a single one, but

I just, I just like entered the world and played, uh, for years.

I just did

that.

So, so you never like got the motivation to actually like, see

the journey all the way through.

You just kept like battling these like Pokemon over and over again.

I'm sure I like tried, uh, . . I, I'm sure I tried, but I, I was very much,

and I still kind of am like I, I have my team and I get attached to my team.

Mm.

as it develops.

You know, somebody might le have to leave the roster or something.

If it's like going up against a fire gym and I have like a, like too many

grass types or something like that.

Like I might have to make a tough choice . But if I'm deep in the game, no,

like I get attached like it's an issue.

Mm-hmm.

, like, , like, uh, and, and, uh, but as I get further and further into the game

and like my people are like, you know, 60 or, or like maybe a little bit above or

something like that, and then I have to go and I have to train up somebody else to

come up onto my team that I already don't like as much as the people on my team.

Like, nah.

So I would just like beat my head against a wall if I ran into a gym

trainer or a gym leader, uh, and that I like wasn't beating mm-hmm.

and I would just, I would just run it.

I would run it back, run it back, run it back until I like bulldozed

my way through eventually.

Um, and I think also part of it was like I was playing these games.

Kind of like, as I was learning to read . So, uh, so like, I didn't know, like I,

there was a lot of times I remember like, I would get lost in the games mm-hmm.

, and I'd be like, I'd be like, I'd have to like get my brother.

My brother would be annoyed and he'd be like, I don't want to show you.

Like, just go forward.

And I'd be like, where is that ? Uh, so I like, I, I didn't know, like

the, I, I think I like, kind of knew the Elite Four existed and

stuff, but I like didn't mm-hmm.

. Um, and I would just, so I would just play it and then every now and then

I'd like have to start over because somebody like messed with the cartridge

and we had to like do that , um, you know, um, but, uh, yeah, that was, that.

And the, the same way with Zelda, um, Zelda Animal Crossing and

Pokemon, like, taught me to read.

Like, that's frankly.

Mm-hmm.

, like, frankly, animal Crossing a little bit later.

But Animal Crossing was one of those games that was like, so text heavy.

Mm-hmm.

and they speak gibberish, , uh, you know, just like Zelda, I

mean, like Zelda, if you can't read it, you can't play the game.

Uh, and so that was like, yeah, I like, yeah, that was, that, that's my story

with Pokemon is where I got started.

Um, and then I think my, like my cousin let me borrow his,

uh, Sapphire and then he let me borrow his Emerald once or twice.

Mm-hmm.

. And I remember liking the music and stuff and I thought

the updated graphics was cool.

Um, and I grew a soft spot for like Mud Kip and, and you know, all that.

Um, but then I took a big break.

I didn't play another game until Pokemon White, cuz I thought Zham looked sick.

Mm-hmm.

, um, . Andy was on the Ds and I was like, okay, I have one of these.

Um, and then I never got a three Ds, so I had another whole big skip.

Um, and then the next game I played was, uh, scar, or no, the

next game I played was sword.

And Sword.

Disappointed me, it was way too easy.

It, like, I, I, I like, did not enjoy my play through of Sword.

And I can say that now because I now have Scarlet mm-hmm.

. . Okay.

And that's just all I'm gonna say now.

That's, that's, that's all I'm gonna say there.

But like, you know, sword was cool and it was awesome seeing like, the

update of visuals, cuz you know, I had a 64 and I played Pokemon

Stadium and Pokemon Stadium two.

Mm-hmm and, and all my life I was like, why is there not

a 3D Pokemon game?

Pokemon

game with this?

Like, you clearly have the capability of doing this.

You have a whole game.

Based around just battling, you're more than halfway there, just like

, Sebastion: you know, just,

Huh?

Like,

you know, it, it blew my mind.

And, and, and then there was like Pokemon Coliseum and Pokemon Gala darkness, and

I remember hearing about them, but I also remember hearing, like even when they came

out that they were like kind of whack.

Mm-hmm.

. And, and I was like, well, I'm just not gonna touch that.

Uh, and finally it took, you know, 20 some years . Uh, but we're here and we're now.

So Joe, like your history with Pokemon is like surprisingly, almost

mirrors mine like almost to the T because I played Pokemon like red, blue and

yellow back in the day, like Absolutely.

Oh cool.

Yeah, mowed through those.

I played Pokemon like crystal silver and gold back in the day as well.

Oh shoot.

Yeah.

Played all those, I played Emerald, uh, you know, I played Emerald.

I think that was that version.

And then I skipped all the DS versions.

Like I did not have, I did not have a Ds or a three Ds and I was just

like, I'm not gonna buy this, this one handheld for this one device.

Sealed coincidentally was my first time back into Pokemon as well.

And like yourself, I was extremely disappointed because

I was just like, y'all learned nothing in the last 20 years.

Like, I took a break from you for about 10 years and dude, if anything it was worse.

It, it did feel that way.

It, it did.

You know what it felt like is like, like the story.

Mm.

It was bad.

It was insane, dude.

It was bad.

It was insane.

I was streaming with Jacob once and we were losing our minds

about just like hop at the end.

Mm-hmm.

. And the number of times this man said, darkest day in one

sentence was just amazing.

It was almost so like, it's, it's like I have a very, very, very,

very, very fond memory of it, because it is so incredibly terrible now.

But like, it's insane.

And it's like the, like the, the, the bad guy's whole thing is like, we gotta,

we gotta restore power to the world.

And then there's this scene at the top of this tower where somebody

else walks up and is like, but that's not for thousands of years.

We don't need to worry about it now.

Like, like we could maybe figure something out later.

Mm-hmm.

like, it's gonna be okay.

My guy.

And he ju and then the big bad guy turns around and is just

like, basically, I don't care.

, like, we're doing exactly this now.

And it's like, dude, Just give me Giovanni and make it like a mob boss.

We're fine.

Like, we don't need to, or, or like, or like what they

did with Scarlet and Violet.

It doesn't have to be world shattering.

No, like, It.

Yeah.

And we're going to, we're gonna dive into Scarlin Violet later, but like,

yes, sword and Shield it almost felt like it was almost the equivalent of

going back to a ex-girlfriend after like so many years and you find out

that she's the exact same person.

You, she was like, when y'all broke up and it, it like, it was the exact same thing.

And I looked at Pokemon and I was just like, okay, this might be what

Pokemon is for the rest of my life.

And then lo and behold, Scarlet Violet came out and while I got

a lot of faults, and we'll go into those later, like it sure.

It finally felt like we were actually getting a step forward for Pokemon.

And I was like, yeah, yeah.

This is the game we've been looking forward to since like you said, like

the 3D Pokemon games of our childhood.

Like yeah, Pokemon Coliseum and Pokemon Snap.

It was like they figured out sure how to just take that and just put it in a

switch game and just let us run wild.

And I was just like, okay, this is what we were looking for.

. Joe: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, I'm right there with you.

That was a, a crazy analogy with like the ex-girlfriend thing, but

that's , you know, like surprisingly accurate for someone in shield.

I think that was, that was amazing.

I

loved listening to that , yo.

For sure, for sure.

Because it is, it is almost like going back to it.

Yeah.

It has some

shiny new pictures.

Mm-hmm.

and you thought, huh, and you kinda like, forgot all the rough things.

Oh yeah, for sure.

For sure.

And then, and then you boot it up and you, you, you say hey, and then

you're like, oh, I remember now.

Should've done this.

Yeah.

I was like, I remember why we broke up now.

Yeah.

Oh

shoot.

That's why.

Right.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah.

you get it.

So let's dive into Pokemon Scarlet and Violet though, specifically.

So first off, we're gonna talk like just general impressions and then,

then we'll give a spoiler zone warning

But my first question for you though is what'd you think about the game overall?

Just like my general takeaway, like Yeah.

Surface of it before you don't like it.

Do I do whatever?

I'm basically, I would say it's great.

Mm-hmm.

. Okay.

Okay.

Uh, like, I wouldn't say like, oh my God, I'm gonna like rip my

headphones off and jump through the screen because I love it so much.

But like, it's.

. Yeah, I'll say that.

I'll say that for sure.

Uh, in, in a holistic sense, you know, if we are going into some

of the details and things mm-hmm.

, it's a game where, like if we were looking at stacks, like if this game was

an R P G character and it had like, you know, some games are balanced mm-hmm.

, some games will hit everything.

This game is like, kind of like a glass cannon, like it's really high on some

stats and like really low on other stats.

Mm-hmm.

. And so, you know, you just gotta, it's, I think this game people,

whether or not they enjoy it, will be dictated on what value they personally

put on certain aspects of a game.

I like that.

Um, I like that.

Yeah.

That would be my, that would be my What about you though?

I mean,

I am, I'm right there with you.

Like, I, I think this is good.

I don't think it's great, but I think this is like good, uh, like

I am in that seven outta 10 kind of zone right now to where Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like I think I would

numerically mm-hmm.

I'm probably like seven B five.

Okay.

I like that.

Maybe,

but like eight, if I said eight out loud, I would like start

questioning myself a little bit.

Yeah.

You'd almost feel like you're giving it too much credit at that point.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm like, I might be tempted to call it an eight.

Mm-hmm.

. But then I have like a weird hesitation

I, I understand.

I understand.

And we're gonna dive into some of those faults, like in a little bit.

But like, I think this game is so flawed.

It is so bad in so, so many ways.

, it is like, it is janky, like a waffle house.

Like it is straight up, like it is straight up, like diabolical

in some ways how bad this game is.

And then other ways like.

. And on the other side of the fence, like I don't give a shit because this is like

the most fun I've ever, I've put, have had in Pokemon probably in the last 20 years.

And that's literally

exact same sentiment, dude.

I'm like, yeah.

I was like, it's glitchy as I'll get out.

Mm-hmm.

, but something about it, I'm like, you know what?

It's charming because the game, the game is good enough to where

the faults somehow become charming.

Oh yeah, for sure.

Like if it was, if it had its faults that it had and the gameplay was

bad, it would be like in the garbage.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

But it somehow captured some charm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Let's just be real about it.

People know, uh, people know about like some of the issues that people

had with the game coming in with it.

Like, this game runs badly, it runs badly.

It like the frames per second is absolutely terrible.

And it has, it has this problems with glitches.

And I'm right there with you if this game.

if this game performed just perfectly or at least like decently, this would

be the best Pokemon game of all time.

And I don't even think it would be close.

Like sure.

I I don't, I don't think this, I don't even think it'd be close at that point.

There, there would be

a debate.

Yeah.

I think it could be in like the running, if there was a

tournament bracket or something.

Mm-hmm.

and I could be, I could be swayed.

Yeah.

I, you

know, here's the thing though.

It's like I'm right there with you, but the, the freedom, the, the exploration.

Yes.

The fact that like the, the fact that this is a step forward towards the dream

that you and I have been envisioning for this franchise for like 20 years and Yes.

And even though it doesn't run well, like they, they nailed

all the other aspects of it.

And I'm like, yeah, that, that's the reason why I think I'd probably

put it closer to, if not the top, in the top two probably.

Yeah.

But.

. Um, but I'm looking at Pokemon like, uh, violet specifically for me, and I'm

thinking to myself, like, I haven't had this much fun just playing a game of

Pokemon in forever, probably since I was like eight years old and I'm 31 right now.

Same.

Same.

No.

Yeah.

Uh, I, yeah, I didn't even have this much fun with white, uh, or

black or whichever one I played.

I don't know.

Mm-hmm.

. Um, and, uh, yeah, I, I, I have not had this much fun with the

Pokemon game in a long time.

And like yeah.

The glitches and things, they're, they're all visual and maybe it's just like,

you know, us growing up with 64 games and all those crazy glitches mm-hmm.

but it's like you.

I could get past it.

I move the camera and it goes away, or, or like I go to the

next scene and it goes away.

If anything, it just makes me chuckle because they look silly in

the moment, , and it's, it's great.

Like you've seen, everybody's seen the clips now at this point.

Mm-hmm.

of like a poke ball opening up and it's like inside a human almost

and coming out in a funny way.

And it's like, this is just funny.

Or you see an MPC walking by and like their Pokemon is inside

them and it looks like they have Pokemon feet in the human body.

, like, it is, it's, it's, it's weird glitches that are just like, when you

see them, it's not like, oh, I hate this.

It's like, what the heck is happening?

Yeah.

It's like, it's like it makes you laugh.

And, and, and that is a very fortunate thing, I think as far as the things

that do bring it down, as far as enjoyment for me is like, If or

when, the couple times where the game just legitimately like chugged Mm.

Yeah.

Through something.

Mm-hmm.

. And like, like there's some like frame drop, its for sure.

But like, there was like maybe three times during my play through

where like, it was, I thought the game was like gonna crash almost.

Like I, I was like, I was like, oh shoot.

I was like, is this, is it gonna happen today?

? Uh, but, but it never did it, it caught up.

It was good.

Um, but, uh, but yeah, dude, it's, it's just that visual.

Violet crashed on me three times.

Like Three times did.

Yeah.

It crashed on me.

And this is still non spools people, but like it crashed on me right

after a gym battle it, and I had to redo that gym battle all over again.

It crashed on me.

Okay.

Right after a Titan fight, and I had to redo that titan fight all over again.

And then it crashed on me as soon as I selected my like starter.

And I battled the rival for the first time and like it crashed on

me and I had to redo that, like the whole setup all over again.

So those were like three times it crashed on me.

And I just like, well, like I'll just, I'll, I'll go back to the,

either the beginning or go back to where the last point it saved.

Okay.

Now, so have you heard people talk about, like, I've heard some whispers

and whatnot, that people think that the scarlet version of the game is

more buggy than, or No, the violet version is more buggy than scarlet.

Have you heard anybody talk about that?

Yeah, I, I've

heard some people say that, you know, Scarlet ran

a little better than Violet.

I don't necessarily know if that's like from firsthand experience, if that's

true, but I will say like, like comparing bugs, like if you and I just talked about

some of the bugs that we've had, I didn't have that bug that you talked about.

Were like the Pokemon, like the ball was looped.

Like it came from inside the person.

I didn't have that book.

I had the Oh really?

You

never had like some funky

visual stuff?

I, I had some funky visual stuff, but like, mine was like, the, the

legendary Pokemon that I was riding just completely disappeared at times.

So it looked like I was just straddling air.

That happened

once.

I think that happened to me once.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yes.

And it's just like, it's like, well, and it just makes you

giggle . It is, it's humorous.

I'm looking for things that make

a giggle.

It is humorous.

So, you know, like, Let's go into s spoilers, you know, because right now we

just gave our, our kind of surface level.

But let's dive deeper into Pokemon here.

Let me ask you, like, did you, first of all, did you complete the Pokedex?

No.

Are you

going to maybe, uh, I've never, I, I did put more of an effort to this game

to like catch as I was going regardless of if I really wanted the Pokemon or not.

Same here.

Um, and I don't know if that's evident or if I don't, I don't know if that's

something to be said about the, the lure of like the 3D open world aspect.

I think maybe a little bit, cuz I was like, oh, I see

something I've never seen before.

Let me run over there and like try and nav it.

Mm-hmm.

maybe.

Um, but after I finished the game, I looked at my pokedex and I was

like, oh, I have a long way to go.

Yeah.

So, I don't know.

I, I thought, you know, if you would've asked me halfway through my play through,

I would've said, yeah, that's what I'm

doing.

Mm-hmm.

. But now I'm like, probably not.

, probably not.

You

know, I, some people are that people, uh, I don't feel a deep desire to do that.

Mm-hmm.

, I beat the game.

I did the, after I did the whole thing.

Mm-hmm.

, uh, yeah, I'm probably not.

Did you, are you?

Where

are

you?

Oh, hell no.

I am, uh, no, no.

God, no.

Hold on.

We're just the same on this.

We are the absolutely the same.

I'm not, no.

Like I, I, I'm like, you like about the third or fourth gym leader, I was

thinking to myself like, I can do this.

Like I can probably right with this Pol adex and then like about that eighth gym

leader and like two or three, I think I had like one Titan remaining and I

was just like, I'm not gonna do this.

I don't even feel entitled to do this.

Like there's some Pokemon that I just generally don't care if

I ever see again in my life.

And dude, yeah, there's some of them that were like that.

And then if I saw a Pokemon from like the generation one

era, it was instantly captured.

I'm like, I had to have it.

Oh well.

Yeah,

yeah.

But like it's all, it's all preference and stuff.

And also

they're just better.

So Yeah, for sure.

For sure.

Gen one is obviously better than all the other gins, but like yeah.

So, so if I saw like a Pikachu or even a magic harp, I was just

like, you can come on you you can, you can sit next to me . Exactly.

Exactly.

Like I saw a grath and lost my shit.

Like, I was like, Hey,

I would literally save.

Oh, like I saw one of him and lost my shit and I was like,

yes, I remember you, the little guy.

You're, you're coming on my team.

Like right now, I don't care what fire Pokemon I had, I was just like,

you, you're getting push to the shine.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You're getting your chance to shine, buddy.

Exactly, exactly.

Because like Grath never got a chance to shine in the OG Pokemon games

with me because like I always had a Charmander or something to that nature.

Sure, sure.

I, you know, there, there was no need for two of y'all, so like,

you were, you were almost like the bootleg version of Charmander.

So in this game though, like there's no charm mander, so

you got your chance to shine.

Yeah,

yeah.

Although I've saw somewhere, I saw somebody have a Char char.

Yeah, like they did a, I think there's like a way to get

him in the game, but it's,

they did a raid.

Um, they added like a, was a raid to where like you, you had to do it is

a time raid and they put him in the game and you can capture him and then

you can get like a charmander or a tra million through like basically

breeding, so to speak, but Oh, okay.

Yeah.

But, but they're not naturally game.

It was like a special event, like sort of thing.

Oh, okay.

Well, yeah, I'm not, I'm not going back and doing that,

so I don't That's that's fine.

That's fine.

So, you know, we talked about No charmer.

let's talk about like the starters in the game.

Which did you choose?

I chose, I'm Team Fo Coco.

Fo Coco What?

Fu Coco.

You cannot hear a name like Fu Coco.

Mm-hmm.

. And not just like Smile . That's just, that's just such a happy name.

It was a baller name.

Little.

A little, little pepper crocodile, like that's, that's great.

I had high hopes what you would turn into

I, you know, I, I was thinking Foy Coco and I, then I

was also thinking of the, the cat, like the grass cat and Sgo Tito.

Yeah, sgo Tito.

And then unfortunately, I don't know what happened.

I don't know if it was just a lack of, of forgetting who I am in life or if I

was just having a, you know, just having just a blank moment to where I just

felt like trying something different.

I tried quacky, the, the, the duck.

Yeah.

Por por,

the bootleg Donald Duck.

I tried him.

Yo, really though.

And for better or for worse, like, I, I like

quacky, like the, the starter.

I did not like his evolutions.

Like he got uglier and uglier as he kind of like grew up.

. Joe: I fully agree with that.

I think all of the first evolution, like the baby versions mm-hmm.

of all the starters are some of the best starters in, in a long time.

Oh yeah, for sure.

I think, um, but then they all kind of got worse as they evolved.

Mm-hmm.

And they all just got like, outside of, outside of the fire wine, they

just, Pokemon is running a weird habit of just making everybody humanoid.

Yeah, for sure.

And it's like, it's like the charm of it is keeping 'em like special

cool animals, like things I think

I, I'm right there with you cuz Char are blasto and Venus orb we're

still, still like basically animals.

They were, they were like beasts.

They were just giant versions and more badass versions of those beasts.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like, like, um, quacky grew up to be a salsa dancer.

Like that's basically what he was just legitimately

mm-hmm.

just, yeah.

Yeah.

And, and like, you know, that's neat.

But it's like, is that a Pokemon

? Sebastion: No.

And it almost felt more Digi mon esque, cuz Digi Mon always Oh yeah.

Always had felt like humanoid ish kind of mean to me.

They've

had so many Digi mon esque designs, this one and the previous

generation with Sword and Shield too.

Mm-hmm.

. Um, they're just becoming more and more Digon esque.

I mean, dude, the one, the, what is it?

Char Cadet.

Mm-hmm.

. If that is not a Digon, I don't know what is.

Yeah.

It's got a cute little form, and then it evolves up to basically look exactly

the same, but it's bigger, a little bit more humid and it's got more armor.

Mm-hmm.

like, like that just is Digi.

I got . You, you even, you even have to get a special item.

Mm-hmm.

to, to evol.

You have to armor.

There's a thing in Digimon, it's armor.

Digi al.

Mm-hmm.

. You literally armored Didi ball this guy into his final form for, for the, uh, for

at least the defense heavy version of him.

There's, I know there's an intact version too.

I, and like, it's cool.

I did it and I enjoyed it.

I had fun.

But, but yeah, man, it's, it's, it's Digon and I love Digon.

Mm-hmm.

, I'm right there with you.

But yeah, this felt different.

Like Pokemon's supposed to be Pokemon Digon, ISS supposed to be digon.

And even like the legendary, the legendary Pokemon that you play with and ride, onto

this game felt Digi monish to me dude,

Yeah, you, you've, you've seen, you've seen the DMA movie, right?

Mm-hmm.

, there's a.

Were, they're riding on the dog Deman at the second half

of the movie across the plains.

And they, I think they got the song going on.

They're like, Hey, didge, deman,

champions of the digital world.

Hey DeJuan, they're, yeah.

And they're riding on his back trying to go meet up with everybody else cause he

got separated like somehow and they're meeting up at a house or something.

And, uh, like that, as far as I'm concerned, directly

inspired what this game is.

, , like, you know, . I didn't, I I didn't have that thought until right now,

but now that's solid in my brain.

Mm-hmm.

, Sebastion: I, I'm right there with you.

I'm right there with you.

So did you, like Foy Coco, throughout the whole thing?

I

did.

And I, my, my gut reaction to the second evolution was, what the hell.

. Uh, but then it grew on me.

Cause I was like, okay, he kind of has like a lutalo vibe.

And Luta, colos got a soft spot in my heart.

Um, and, uh, and I was like, okay, maybe like the third evolution is

gonna like 180 and like, go like crazy.

Mm-hmm.

, uh, and they, they did, but not enough.

But it wa yeah.

Like, or, or it wasn't in the way that I wanted.

Like, it, it didn't scratch, like, like it's like you ask somebody

to scratch your back mm-hmm.

, and, and, and you're like, oh, you know, a little higher, a little higher.

And they, they go higher.

But now their scratching pattern is different.

So it's not the same.

Like, you know what I mean?

Mm-hmm.

like, so, so it's like, it's like, you did what I wanted but you didn't do it.

Right.

. Yeah.

And, and you, I just feel a little unsatisfied.

I'm thankful and I'm happy about it, but, uh, I'm, I'm just a little,

I little was left to be desired.

I think it was neat co conceptually.

Mm-hmm.

having like the ghost flame thing on his nose and like a separate

little being with him, but then as soon as he stood up and sang into a

microphone to like send a flame mm-hmm.

, I was like, that was something I never wanted to see one.

And, and it's a sick attack and it's very useful, but I was just

like, ah, it had to grow on me.

It had to grow on me a lot.

Um, to the point where I, I actually had to take, take him on my team cuz I just

didn't, I didn't like him very much, but even though at the very end I like

very much needed a fire type and I just couldn't bring myself to put him back.

Joe, are you saying that you took your starter off your main sixth?

Like he wasn't like the elite four with you?

He was,

he was n he was not there for my Elite four.

Oh, wow.

Because like, I, I, it felt almost sacrilegious for me to take my, my

starter off my team at that point.

Oh, believe me, dude, I, I, like, I stayed up in my bed at night thinking

about this, like, it was a hard decision.

Like, like I told you, like with my experience with Pokemon and all the way

through, like when I was a kid, I, I was the kid who would beat my head against the

wall because I had my team, and my team was my team and, and, and I, I don't care.

I'll just get stronger and I'll get through it.

But he just, I wasn't as attached to him.

Well, I'll tell you what it was, is I, I really wanted hair across on my team.

Oh, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

and, and the allure, the allure of my tried true boy was, uh, was too strong.

Um, and, and I used this game to try to allow myself to break out

of my old molds a little bit.

Okay.

Okay.

Let me ask you then, like, let's, let's dive into that.

Do you remember who was on your team for your elite?

For a run?

Uh, for,

for for Scarlet?

Yeah.

Um, yes.

I mean, shoot, I could boot it up right now.

Let's just see, uh,

let me tell you, mom, while you're, bo yours

up in, in checking it out.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I had, Kua Quavo, which is like the final version of, of Kackley.

Like, I had him, he was my water fighting type.

I had Dragonite the Dragon flying, um, Pokemon because he was the OG and he was

like, and the original game Lance always used to like come at me with Dragonite.

I kind of wanted to pay homage to that.

Then I had Guo as like another, I don't know why I went to water types, but I,

Guo was a OG and I just had to have him.

And then, stupid of me to do this, but another dragon I had

on my team was, um, guard chop.

He was the purple dragon his ground and dragon type.

And then I had Rrk nine, and then I had little Ra and RA was holding

it down for my, my electric type.

And those were like my six

dude.

I remember.

Um, Near the end of the game, I saw, I found a, a Rache that was, uh, it,

it had a tour internationalized type of like ground or something like that.

And I, I was tempted to blame on my team

Cause I was like, I was like, that's crazy.

Um, okay.

All right.

Anyway, my team, I, oh, I might have switched up a little bit between

the Elite four and like the after.

Yeah.

Cause like the after game presents like the Final Boss in

this game is absolutely crazy.

It's the most anime thing I've ever seen in Pokemon.

Yeah.

Like the games not, not, I had

to think about that Cuz Sword and Shield was also

pretty, pretty anime like mm-hmm.

. I was like, yeah, this is an anime.

I mean, sword and Shield was press A to go to the next part of this cut scene.

Mm-hmm.

, like, it was like a, like, uh, it is, I hated it.

Um, anyway, . Um, but yeah, no, it was pretty anime.

Yeah.

Cause it was

crazy though.

Two.

Yeah, for sure.

You're fighting, like you're fighting a basic, a Android who, who wanted to go to

the future, who's like, was the embodiment of another guy who like, uh, hi.

Like a professor who decided to hell with this.

I want a creator advice to bring Pokemon from the future over here.

Right.

And then he died in an accident and the Android decided to just

continue living as him, basically.

Oh, that's

crazy.

That's different than Scarlet.

Oh, is it?

I mean, the, the base of it.

Mm-hmm.

, same thing is similar, but in Scarlet, um, it's, it's the, the female professor.

Right.

And.

She is the mother of your like friend who you fight the titans with The

guy trying to help out his dog.

Yeah.

It's, it's the exact same thing.

Just male female version then.

Oh, okay.

All right.

Okay, then nevermind, nevermind, nevermind.

Um, but, uh, but yeah.

Uh, and then, and then the Android gets to, gets to go off

and live the adventure, I guess.

Yeah.

And then you have to fight the Android in the end, like the super Android basically.

And the Android's Pokemon, like, yeah.

I, I, I did hear from like other people that the Pokemon that you fight are

different in Scarlet versus Violet.

I have heard that as well.

Mm-hmm.

. Um, but like I know that there's, cuz obviously there's certain game

specific Pokemon that you can only get in some of them and things like that.

Was that final balls

fight hard for you?

I did it twice.

Okay.

That's that's fair.

That's fair.

I think, I think I did it three times and yeah, it took me three times

to figure out like a couple of the Pokemon's weaknesses because Yeah.

Yeah.

We were fairly matched, I think like, I think all of his Pokemon

were like 67, like level 67, and mine were around level 67 as well.

So like, it was just a weakness thing.

He kept, he had a Pokemon, a Dragon Android that would basically hit

me with earthquake all the time.

And I was just like, I would just get murdered by earthquake because most of

my poke, yeah, most of my Pokemon were like flying or uh, or like electric fire.

All of them were weak almost, except for one.

Sure.

So, so my team, at least that I ended with mm-hmm.

. Was , I named them ice climbers.

Uh, essentially . This was also the first game where I actually

like, gave nicknames to Oh, really?

To, to, to, to some of my people, some of my Pokemon, I shouldn't call them people.

I, this is how I get attached . Um, they're Pokemon, they're not people.

Mm-hmm.

. Um, but I named them ice climbers and I caught them very, very early.

This is the, um, their first form is called, tandem mouse,

the, the two little white mice.

. Um, and, and then when they evolve, they become mouse hold.

And there's two more mice that come often.

Sometimes, I guess sometimes there's only one more mice that

shows up, or one more mouse.

Uh, and then there's three, but mine has four.

So the ice climber's name no longer makes sense, but that's okay.

I never saw this Pokemon by the way, like ever saw this Pokemon in

my, my whole play through of the game.

Basically.

This is like a mouse version of Dige, so to speak, where it has digt has like two

heads, or like one head and three heads.

I

understand.

Uhhuh kind of.

Yeah.

No, like it's legitimately like two separate bodies.

Oh, just holding hands, basically.

, yeah.

Just holding hands and then, and then randomly, like all, every

Pokemon has a little cut scene when they evolve and stuff.

Mm-hmm.

right.

And one of my first major glitches was, I was so excited to see what this guy

evolved into, and all of a sudden I just looked in my menu and he was different.

And there were two more.

And I was like, what?

What I, he evolved and I like didn't, I didn't get to see the cut scene.

Oh.

I felt, dude, I felt so cheated.

But then like weeks went by and Jacob told me, he was like, no, no, no, no.

That's just like the way that Pokemon works.

Like it's just when it has enough like love or whatever it like more of

the mice just like show up and become a part of their family basically.

What?

That's so

crazy.

Like, essentially, like that's more or less like what it is.

Uh, and I was like, that's nuts.

And he is like, but yours has four.

And I was like, yeah.

And he's like, oh, I haven't seen any that didn't, they were all just three.

And I was like, Ooh, I'm special.

Uh, but anyway, you gave him too

much love.

I gave him too.

Listen, I, I call him people, man.

Mm-hmm.

, um, we're attached.

Um, but that little dude stayed on my team pretty much the entire game.

He, he was great.

As soon as he learned, um, play Rough and Super Fang, it was game over.

Like he was, uh, like unstoppable, forced, especially to like start

every, that battle with it was

mm-hmm.

So good.

Um, so lemme ask you, is this like the ratta of, of Violet,

basically vi like Violet and Scarlet, you know, the normal rat

type basically.

, I know what you're saying.

Um, no.

Because there was like a rat dude

I think.

Is there a rat, a ratta equivalent in

actually, I mean you might be right cuz he learns like super fang and

like hyper fang and that, that's what made me think of it because

like, yeah, that's the only other Pokemon I remember with like basically, but

like that move set so, so much better.

like had to be cuz rat is like,

you know, like so much better.

Like eradicate can have some crazy moves.

And I do remember having eradicate on my team at one point, uh, grow,

like playing up, uh, when growing up in one of my playthroughs.

Um, but, but I, yeah, no mouse hold so much better cuz that,

that just because of that one play rough dude, that fairy type move.

Mm-hmm.

, goated G Absolutely amazing.

A any, any dragon type coming up?

what, what's the rest of your team like?

Rest of my team following up after that, this guy,

um, I think came onto my team after the Elite four, but I didn't, oh yeah.

Through the Elite four.

I had the New Rock, dude, the salt.

Uh, guy, uh mm-hmm.

, Gargan, Garganto, you know what I'm talking about?

Mm-hmm.

, the, the, the giant dude and he's like a salt Pokemon and all of his

names have N A C L because that's the chemical symbol for salt.

Yeah.

I didn't, I didn't realize that.

That's, that's

funny.

Um, it's, it's great.

I, I was, I was streaming and somebody in my chat pointed that out and I

immediately, cuz I was talking so much shit on this Pokemon mm-hmm.

, I was like, look at this Super Mario mushroom level up looking thing.

Uh, and then they're like, dude, it's n a c l, like salt.

And I was like, completely opinion changed.

I was like, this guy is on my, and he was on my team through like the entire

time through the Elite four, but I switched him out for, uh, I, I put

in the work in the end game to train from level one, basically all the way

up or like level eight or whatever.

I caught him at.

I got a Tyran guitar on my team.

Oh, that's badass.

And my guy,

my guy put in war guy.

I tell you what, I love that guy.

. That

guy is so good that that's the ground Pokemon

towards the end of the game.

That was just using earthquake basically.

And destroying my team at the end.

Boss, by the

way.

Yeah.

G guess what give a moose set is I got hyper beam, I got iron defense,

I got stone edge and earthquake.

Yeah, you're set.

Oh, he, he was, he was goated.

Uh, after him, uh, I replaced my Myke Durge.

Mm-hmm.

. The, the final evolution Foy Coco, with a Toco.

I remember having a Toco on my team at one point when I was like playing

through Sapphire or, or Emerald or whichever one my cousin let me borrow.

My final team, I think I have like three, I used to have a Bliss.

Mm-hmm.

, dude that incredibly high.

Hp and then she knew, uh, iron Defense two or no, she, I had her nose sing.

So I'd put the person to sleep and then I would do defense curl and I

would just create, oh, no monster.

Oh no dude.

It was such a hard decision to take her off my team, but I

replaced her with a Gar chomp.

Oh, that's

a Good move.

Good

move.

And a gar chomp I wasn't expecting, but I don't know why I didn't try

going up to the top of the edge of the crater until like, near the end of

the game, but I just like didn't try.

But then once I did, I was like, oh, there's Gar Chop up here.

Mm-hmm.

. I was like, oh, well lemme catch one of these.

Um, and and he put in some work too.

He knows Dig.

And then I, I gave him Dragon Claw Crunch and he knows slash but the

Dragon Claw and dig, dude, uh, he, you

are Shin Me, you're, you're Guard help and by guard Trump have

the exact same move set, like to the T

Let's go.

We're just kindred spirits, man.

We're two sides of one coin.

Oh, for sure.

Um, , I should have grown up in Texas, I guess.

I don't know.

Oh yeah, for sure.

Uh, um, and then after him, I, I got a dragonite on my team.

Let's go , let's go.

And, and Dragonite put in work.

Mm-hmm.

, you know, just the flying ability alone was so goaded and, uh, I, he

knew, he knows, uh, I caught, I caught him as a dragon drag tv, dragon Air.

Oh, dragon Air.

Mm-hmm.

. I caught him as a dragon Air and he knew, uh, Thunderbolt.

Oh, that's already Goated.

Yeah.

Uh, cuz I, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that's like not in the move.

I think he learns, he learns it, I think at 55.

And by that time, by that time, he turns into Dragon Night though, right?

Mm-hmm.

So, so, so he, he knew Thunderbolt.

So, so I had the Dragonite with Dragon Dance, Thunderbolt Aqua Tail,

and, uh, and Dragon Claw and oh, he obliterated, he obliterated my guys stats.

Man, if you were looking at this chart right now, oof, ooh, it's, it's coated.

Um, and then rounding out the bottom of my team, this was a spot that kind

of had a little bit of a rotating door.

I couldn't decide who I was really going with, but I kept coming

back to my boy hair across mm-hmm.

and, and he's just kicking butt with he knows Throat chop, which

is like surprisingly handy because a lot of Pokemon in this game

have like vocal type moves mm-hmm.

. And so you, you start out, out the gate with that and then like, , A

lot of times it's just whatever move they chose is doesn't happen.

Mm-hmm.

, because it, it, it, it cuts that off.

Uh, and then he knows Sword Dance and Mega Horn, uh, and that, that,

that super strong bug type move came in handy in the end too.

Um, but, uh, that was, that, that is my final team.

That's dope.

So let me ask you what did you think about the three branching stories?

Because this game had the, the Titans that you fight, the gyms, the gym slash

the Elite four and the team Star bases.

I liked it out the gate, honestly.

Mm-hmm.

. Um, I was skeptical, uh, before I tried one of each at least.

Um, cuz I was like, oh, what is this gonna be?

Uh, and uh, and it was, it was great.

I had fun with all of 'em.

Um, it took me one or two GOs throughs of the team star bases where my dudes

are walking around and just like, yeah.

Throwing them out.

Mm-hmm.

. Um, but I learned to like that it was fun just in a different way.

Um, . It was fun to just like sit back and watch my Pokemon just demolish . Mm-hmm.

, um, . But you know, it kind of gave me like a superiority complex,

like , like it was just like, yes.

Mm-hmm.

burn.

Uh,

but like you were raid a village, so to speak, basically.

Yeah.

No, it kind of felt like that.

Like, uh, we were entering their gates and just like defeating the hoards.

no one survived.

Uh, you know, very much felt like Anakin.

Mm-hmm.

, um, with the young wings.

. I was thinking more so the sand people, but Yeah.

But uh, you know, going into the can

that is so dark.

Why did my buy go to the youngling?

Your went to, yours went to the sand people.

At least

the same.

I mean, it's really not much different.

There were young sand people there too.

Yeah, that's true.

Uh, anyway.

Um, know I liked it.

I liked it.

I, I like aspects of it.

I really like the team star other than the, some of the backs stories kind

of felt a little long winded there.

But I liked like you said, rating basely each one of the bases and

that the bases were different types.

Yeah.

I really enjoyed that aspect.

What I did not like though, and probably one of my most hated parts

of this game, other than the game's overall performance, is the gyms.

And the reason why I hated those gyms is because each gym made you

do the most bullshittery thing I've ever seen in a Pokemon game.

And that's basically make you do like mini game to prove that you are

worthy of like, fighting that count.

Right.

and none of those mini games felt fun to me.

one of 'em, I think this was like maybe the bug lady who was like, Hey,

I want you to go out in the middle of town and basically like roll

a ball into like the square zone.

And I'm like, why am I doing this?

Like, what?

can't I just fight like three of your flunkies and get on with my life?

Yeah.

Right?

Mm-hmm.

. Oh yeah, no, I see what you're saying.

I, I enjoyed it because I at least was ex I was expecting it.

Um, like I, I played Pokemon White mm-hmm.

, and, and that was, I think gen three is when they like started

introducing a little bit more of.

The mini games challenging, like, uh, or like, they kind of made the

gyms kind of mazes, kind of mm-hmm.

at like elementary.

Um, and then I, you know, took a break, came back Pokemon Wyatt.

I was like, what is this?

And like the maze going up to the gym leader and stuff was up to a whole

new level and it was a whole thing.

Um, and I, I would take these sort of mini games of things over

that, like any day, honestly.

Um, and, and it was, I, I enjoyed the creativity of some of them.

Um, and I also liked the bug one though because I remember stumbling upon like

the basically soccer court mm-hmm.

with the giant bean or the olive.

Um, and I remember being like, cuz I saw that before I went to the gym.

Oh really?

And I was like stumbled upon it and I was like, dude, this is so cool.

, they just like implanted random things for us to discover so that

then if I bring a buddy in tomorrow, can play against each other.

We can like, just like play soccer, like, and there's no like a score

counter or anything, but like mm-hmm.

we know . Mm-hmm.

and like, and I, I just remember having like this, the, like that

was my first experience with it.

So then when the gym came through, it was like, this is what you're doing.

I was like, oh, well, yeah, I guess that soccer field makes more sense now.

But, um, yeah, that one was a little whack, but that was also probably

the worst one out of all of them.

I don't know, man.

There was one where you had to get like the recipe ingredients for

like, um, where like you had to figure out what was the, basically

the perfect, um, the perfect order.

Oh, where

you're running around the town.

Yeah.

And you're trying to like pick up on who's talking and what.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That one was pretty rough.

That one took me a little while.

Then

there was a, the one where you had to like, like roll down hill,

basically use your Pokemon and kind of like roll down hill and so to speak.

Oh, the snow.

Yeah, the snow, yeah.

Yeah.

You had to snow snowboard down the hill.

And which would've been fun if this game performance wasn't

like janky to begin with.

So like yeah, that was one of the points where my game was legitimately

stuttering and like I was, oh shoot.

I thought it was just gonna break on me because like I was

rolling down the heel and the game already runs at 15 FPSs basically.

So like it does, it's not that

bad sometimes.

Sometimes it

is , it runs like old serpent IHOP, so to speak,

where it's just very slow.

Very slow and very methodical.

And that's one of the games where I, like I saw the frame race just

drop and it just took a, it started like chugging and your nose dive.

Yeah.

And I was rolling down the hill and.

and I was just like, it was hard to react really fast because like by the

time the game caught up to some of the, my movement inputs, I was already on

the, like, the other, like it would overcompensate and I was on the other

side of like, where I was intending to go.

So it was rough.

Nice.

It was rough.

I, I still managed to get that one done and like, I think the first

try, but I didn't, I didn't enjoy any of the mini games, so to speak.

I was just sure I was like, I was ready to just get on with a boss battle.

Like, yeah, let me get there or at least let me fight some

flunkies and then get there.

You know, it probably would've been less fun for me

if I was just doing it alone.

I, at least through a lot of the beginning of the game, I was streaming it mm-hmm.

and so that anytime something unique happens on stream, it's just

like, oh, let's play into this.

So that probably warped my sense of some of those things.

Maybe a little bit.

Um, that's fun.

. Yeah.

I did this all by myself.

That's asterisk.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That is an asterisk I should put on that note then too.

Yeah.

So, final couple questions about Pokemon.

do you have any gripes with the game overall or anything you'd like

to see improved in, like in Gent?

Yeah.

The beginning, it took way too long to get started.

Oh,

amen.

To that.

It was like literally five or six hours before I actually like,

felt like I was playing the game.

Mm-hmm.

, uh, the tutorial and just the story start was

way too long.

Oh, for sure.

for sure.

And, and it just didn't have to be like, you could have done it so much quicker.

Now, I,

I think, uh, like Pokemon is taking a step forward with this

like generation, but I think one of the criticisms they could take from this

game, from a lot of people's input would be like, there needs to be an option

where you could just skip the tutorial.

Especially like there should be.

, A lot of games ask you right off the jump where they say like, Hey, have

you played a Pokemon game before?

Or like, Hey, have you played one of our previous games before?

Yes.

If yes, skip tutorial.

And then this should be one of those games to where like, okay.

Uh, besides maybe whatever the theme is gonna be, whether it

be like terror, uh, what is it like, um, crystallizing or Terror?

Terror.

Crystalling.

Tarras.

Tarra colonizing.

Yeah.

What, what whatever the was Tarra.

Yeah.

Like, and Sword of Shield.

I think it was like, you know, turning the Pokemon gigantic

was the theme in that one.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The,

the gigantic max.

Yeah, there, uh, there's two versions.

I, it's, don't, don't ask me, man.

I didn't like

it.

I didn't either.

So whatever the version is, like skip, like the tutorials should skip

all the way until you have to do your first battle with that theme, and then

it can introduce that theme to you.

And then the rest of it, it'll be like, Hey, like you've

played a Pokemon game before.

Skip the rest of that tutorial.

Let's here's the open world.

Have fun.

Because like, like you said, six hours is egregious to be just

locked into, into a tutorial.

Oh, it was insane.

Yeah.

It's bad.

I did, I did a whole streaming session.

Mm-hmm.

and j uh, like finish the tutorial and I was like, I guys we're gonna stop today.

I didn't realize this was like, I , this sucks.

I'm sorry.

I have a whole video on my YouTube channel now.

That's like a five or six hour session that's like Yeah.

It's all tutorial.

Yes.

And, and it blew my mind.

Yeah, it blew my mind.

It is absolutely terrible.

It is absolutely terrible.

So any other gripes or criticisms about this one?

Um, the existence of Flamingo.

Just the Pokemon in general.

? Yeah.

What in Flamingo do you Dude,

that's a flamingo.

. It's a flamingo with its neck and a knot.

Mm-hmm.

, like, that's just an animal.

Like, and I know there's criticisms through all Pokemon generations

of this, but like, I saw that on screen and I read its name and for

the first night of my living on this earth knowing that it existed, I

thought its name was just Flamingo.

Oh, I did too.

Like, I didn't, I didn't realize that it had a missing letter.

. Mm-hmm.

. Right.

And I just, I was like, that's.

Actually insane.

They just put a flamingo in the game.

Uh, yeah.

Yeah.

I, it should not be a thing and should not be as strong as it is.

Tab boot . That's, that's, that's, it's just, if you wanna make

me more upset about a shitty design, make it a strong Pokemon

Like that's, that's, that's just infuriating.

Uh, yeah.

That would be another big gripe there.

Um, you know,

what's one that got mean now that you mentioned like, specific Pokemon?

The Pokemon that are very small, like the ones that are like very tiny.

I hate those because like, I think they're items sometimes.

Yeah.

Dude, I saw, especially early game, but even near the end of the game, I was still

running into this tiny little dude mm-hmm.

, and I was like, why?

There's a, uh, it's like called, it's called Flit.

It looks like a mushroom.

Yeah, it's like a floating mushroom.

Like I think it's a fairy type.

I don't know.

Uh, I never caught it because it pissed me off so much.

But I was like, dude, literally, cuz I remember I was starting the game and I

was just going through and I was like, you know, I'm trying to decide and I'm

streaming and I'm talking and I'm like, I'm trying to decide if I'm gonna be

upset about no more random encounters.

And then I would randomly run into this little dude just

cuz I didn't see him mm-hmm.

And I was like, you know what?

Don't

miss it at all.

I'm not

missing it at all because I mean like, I'm getting it.

Uh, and I think there I was immediately reminded of like one of

my favorite Game Boy or Game Boy.

One of my favorite Nintendo DS games, uh, was a game called,

um, dragon Quest Monsters.

. Okay.

Okay.

And it's basically, uh, it's basically scarlet and violet, but it's with

dragon quests, like bad guys.

Um, so there's like the slime and there's like, you know, all those

other monsters and things mm-hmm.

, uh, that are just roaming around on this open world.