Pokémon Scarlet and Violet develop on the world of Pokémon in so some ways. The video games are set within the big, sprawling world of Paldea, one of many greatest areas the franchise has ever featured. The video games additionally widen the core journey by offering gamers with alternate routes along with difficult fitness center leaders. Whereas the imaginative and prescient and scope are nicely past what we’ve seen in prior mainline Pokémon video games, there’s one key facet the place they take a transparent step backward: character design.
That’s as a result of, for the primary time since Pokémon X and Y, you possibly can’t customise the total outfit of your coach. You’ll be able to customise the look of your character with a variety of non-gender-locked hairstyles, 4 pores and skin tones, and varied equipment, however you solely have 4 choices of outfits to choose from.
In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, you play as a newly minted coach attending an ultra-elite college. You’ll be able to decorate your coach with gadgets like backpacks, sun shades, socks, sneakers, or hats you could purchase in varied cities. However you possibly can’t change your character out of the varsity uniform. As it’s now, there are 4 base uniform choices: a pants-and-suspenders state of affairs, a puffer vest with shorts (shorts!), a form of wrinkly seashore shorts look, and at last a extra formal pants and winter coat over your white button-up combo. All of those outfits riff on the varsity’s stiff look of a white button-up and tie.
Moreover, shopping for equipment will be cumbersome. Every city has its personal set of retailers, and you must discover every particular person store and purchase totally different sorts of equipment one after the other. You’re compelled to retailer hop as you purchase every merchandise — from the sock store to the backpack store and to the hat store — in every city. The video games’ technical points additionally affect the flexibility to buy. Once I entered a store menu, I must set my Swap down and wait round a minute for the outfit and coach avatar to load so I may see what my coach appeared like with pink stockings on.
However even this irritating course of is eclipsed by different limitations. I chosen a curly coiffure for my character and wasn’t capable of put on most of the hats. This eliminated a whole part of an already restricted set of customization choices. I preferred the choices I did have — I settled on some hip spherical sun shades, however I simply wished I may put her in a skirt or gown or one thing aside from the 4 fundamental choices.
The sport does justify the outfit with its story. You’re a pupil, and whilst you can skip out on college after just a few hours of hanging on the market initially, you’re technically doing unbiased examine through which you discover the bigger world. Nonetheless, I simply wished it could have even let me select a skirt. I like my character and I like the lovable selfies she takes with others, nevertheless it’s only a bummer to see that cute outfits didn’t appear to be a precedence on this explicit journey.
