The triumphant release ofThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomhas somePokemonfans feeling “salty” about the series' most recent entries. There once was a time when main seriesPokemongames consistently released to strong reviews and a warm reception from fans, but that all changed with the Nintendo Switch.
The Nintendo SwitchPokemongames have struggled to live up to the franchise’s impressive legacy.Pokemon Let’s Go PikachuandLet’s Go Eeveewere dismissed by many as being too casual and criticized for catering to thePokemon GOcrowd.Pokemon Sword and Shieldwere hit by the “Brexit” controversy as they were the first main series games to not feature all the Pokemon that came before.Pokemon Legends: Arceusturned things aroundin terms of critical and fan reception, but thenPokemon Scarlet and Violetthrew everything off the rails and became the lowest-rated main seriesPokemongames in the process.
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Pokemon Scarlet and Violetfeature a large open worldon a console that’s over six years old, which many have pointed to as a reason why the games have poor performance issues. However, the recent release ofThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and its general lack of bugs or technical problems, has caused somePokemonfans to realize that the Switch’s outdated hardware and the scope of the games aren’t really to blame. A recent post on Reddit with nearly 2,000 upvotes has pointed this out, withPokemonfans agreeing that they are feeling “salty” about the newer games in the series now thatZelda: Tears of the Kingdomis out.
Pokemonfans have said that there has been a lack of effort with the newPokemongames, andZelda: Tears of the Kingdomillustrates that point. If something aslarge and complex asZelda: Tears of the Kingdomcan run perfectly fine on Switch, then fans feel that the same should be true forPokemon Scarlet and Violet.
Of course, there are other circumstances to take into account.Game Freak-developedPokemongameshave been releasing at a near-constant pace for decades, while there are larger gaps betweenZeldatitles. Whereas there are five Game Freak developedPokemongames on the Switch, there have only been two equivalentZeldagames released on the console in the same timeframe, those beingBreath of the WildandTears of the Kingdom.
Giving the franchise a break and allowing more development time for theGeneration 10Pokemongamescould go a long way in ensuring that the next titles in the franchise avoid the pitfalls ofScarlet and Violet. The nextPokemongames will almost certainly release for the next-generation Nintendo console as well, which should hopefully mean that they’ll be able to work with superior graphics and performance, but fans will have to hang tight for more details on that front.
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