Pokemon Scarlet & Violet
Games review
As of Jun 23, 2026, Pokemon Scarlet & Violet is rated 71/100 on OpenCritic (143 critic reviews).
Is Pokemon Scarlet & Violet worth it in 2026?
A 71/100 from 143 critics signals a compromised release, not a disaster, but not a triumph either. The open-world direction was the most-mentioned point across all sampled reviews, which makes the failure sharper rather than softer: the ambition and the collapse are the same thing, not opposites. Critics praised the structural shift and called out meaningful new mechanics and a story worth caring about, while separately flagging that the open world itself suffers from poor design and lifeless environments, and on top of that, 11 of the sampled reviews cited pervasive technical performance failures, the loudest single signal in the data. What shipped is a promising skeleton of what Pokémon's open-world future could be, sent out before it was ready.
Pokémon fans who have followed the series closely enough to appreciate its most ambitious structural shift to date and can accept that technical failure, frame drops, bugs, weak visuals, is a consistent tax on the experience, not an occasional inconvenience.
The performance problems are not minor polish issues. Eleven of the sampled reviews flagged them as pervasive, and the open world that critics most wanted to celebrate is also the open world critics separately complained about for lifeless environments and design that needed a ground-up rethink.
ReviewPond's conclusion, drawn only from the verified scores and review themes below. Not a paid or editorial opinion.
Pros
- open-world direction13
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- Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are an ambitious attempt to take the Pokemon franchise open world, but they fail to live up to expectations.
- The open-world gameplay of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is a brilliant direction for the future of the franchise, but this promising shift is sabotaged by the numerous ways in which...
- An interesting reworking of the traditional Pokémon gameplay for an open-world setting brought low by its lifeless environments and graphics
- positive franchise direction5
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- Despite technical shortcomings and some filler content, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are chock-full of meaningful additions to one of gaming’s most popular franchises. At worst, thes...
- Pokemon Scarlet & Violet's open-world approach reinvigorates the long-running series.
- It's a smaller step than many may have hoped for, especially considering what Pokémon Legends: Arceus did, but it's definitely one in the right direction.
- meaningful new mechanics4
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- Despite technical shortcomings and some filler content, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are chock-full of meaningful additions to one of gaming’s most popular franchises. At worst, thes...
- Pokémon Scarlet and Violet adds a number of changes to the classic Pokémon formula, and most of them pay off, particularly the auto-battles, vast open world, and the three distinct...
- Ultimately, these games were the result of Game Freak and Nintendo taking a risk and giving the fans something they've been begging for over a long while. It tries to mix Legends:...
- engaging story and characters3
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- Despite my frustrations with its structure, mechanics, and the fact that it looks and runs like a middling GameCube game most of the time (there were several instances, even outsid...
- Pokemon Scarlet and Violet take the long-awaited step into a fully open-world, but one poorly implemented and marred by frustration. A compelling story and characters are a saving...
- Ultimately, these games were the result of Game Freak and Nintendo taking a risk and giving the fans something they've been begging for over a long while. It tries to mix Legends:...
Cons
- poor technical performance11
see reviews +-
- The open-world gameplay of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is a brilliant direction for the future of the franchise, but this promising shift is sabotaged by the numerous ways in which...
- An interesting reworking of the traditional Pokémon gameplay for an open-world setting brought low by its lifeless environments and graphics
- Unfortunately, the performance is so abruptly bad that it completely ruins, to an infuriating extent, what otherwise could have been the best Pokemon game to date.
- unfinished or rushed feel5
see reviews +-
- The open-world gameplay of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is a brilliant direction for the future of the franchise, but this promising shift is sabotaged by the numerous ways in which...
- Despite technical shortcomings and some filler content, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are chock-full of meaningful additions to one of gaming’s most popular franchises. At worst, thes...
- I know, I know, I’ve had my fun mocking the visual glitches and performance issues in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. But I really hope that the performance issues don’t ultimately def...
- weak visuals and graphics3
see reviews +-
- An interesting reworking of the traditional Pokémon gameplay for an open-world setting brought low by its lifeless environments and graphics
- Despite my frustrations with its structure, mechanics, and the fact that it looks and runs like a middling GameCube game most of the time (there were several instances, even outsid...
- I know, I know, I’ve had my fun mocking the visual glitches and performance issues in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. But I really hope that the performance issues don’t ultimately def...
- poor open-world design3
see reviews +-
- "The open world inherently changes so much for the series that it needed a total ground-up rethink of the mechanics"
- I know, I know, I’ve had my fun mocking the visual glitches and performance issues in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. But I really hope that the performance issues don’t ultimately def...
- Pokemon Scarlet and Violet take the long-awaited step into a fully open-world, but one poorly implemented and marred by frustration. A compelling story and characters are a saving...
Themes and quotes are drawn from 20 sampled reviews with text; the scores above reflect all 143 ratings. Counts are how many of the sampled reviews mention each point.