30 Changes We’d Like To See In The Next Pokémon Scarlet & Violet Update
Let’s start this off with a big old disclaimer: We are not game developers. We are not good at programming. We don’t really know why Pokémon Scarlet and Violet were broken and buggy on release. And also, we definitely don’t just want to join the pile-on of hate aimed at Game Freak right now, even though they’re probably doing fine with a record-breaking 10 million copies of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet sold in a matter of days.
But even though we can’t provide concrete reasons for the game being broken, or solutions to the problems, we do have a few ideas and hopes for the future of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet — so we’ve made a list of 30 changes, fixes, and additions that we’d be happy to see in an update.
Here we go…
The Changes We’d Like To See In The Next Pokémon Update
Software fixes
General stability improvements
If there’s something that we’d like to see Game Freak tackle first, it’s the stability of the game. Currently, it’s a bit of a crapshoot to figure out if the game will crash or not — and that’s not ideal! People need to know that their game isn’t going to fall out from under them more than anything else.
Better textures
With stability fixes, the game would be playable, but it still wouldn’t be pretty in a lot of places. The main glaring issue with the open world of Scarlet and Violet is the textures, which are either dull as hell (looking at you, sandy areas) or very obviously repeating, as with the cliffs and mountains of Paldea.
A little variety and contrast in these areas would not go amiss, and would make the world look a lot prettier, instead of the gigantic walls of featureless brown scattered around the place currently.
UI consistency
We’re having a nightmare of a time learning which buttons do what in this game, because it’s pretty inconsistent. Sometimes Y is back, sometimes it’s B. Sometimes it’s both. The + button feels like it should open the menu, but instead, it’s X to open the menu, and + summons your ride. The Pokédex is mapped to both the minus button and the X button within the Y menu, and it feels like it should be in the X menu instead anyway. It just feels messy and chaotic.
Faster loading times
This affects shops and Boxes most of all. It takes an age to load all the hats and gloves and Pokémon every single time! Surely there’s a fix for this? It’s never been a problem in Pokémon games before.
Multiplayer fixes
A large portion of the bugs that people are finding are to do with multiplayer. It’s probably to be expected — it’s a massive feature with a lot of edge-cases that are hard to plan around, especially on the reduced timeframe that Pokémon games get these days. But, well, multiplayer feels very… unrefined at best, and unfinished at worst.
Don’t get us wrong — it’s really fun, and being able to complete story quests with pals around is incredible, as well as seeing the notifications pop up letting you know what they’re doing in the world. Also, collaborative sandwiches are the most fun we’ve had in a while. But connection issues, animation bugs, and the fact that your pals can’t actually help you with story quests makes it a bit of a disappointment.
Character customisation
More skin tones
Pokémon ScarVi currently offers… four skin tones. Two are very light (and almost indistinguishable), one is olive, and one is darker, but that’s really not much in the way of options for a large portion of the population. Surely skin tones are one of the easier character customisation options to add? Especially considering the vast number of eyelash types there are. Who even really knows their eyelash type?
More genderless options
It’s 2022, and the gender-agnostic future that Game Freak dreams of is… that no one is allowed to wear a skirt. Seriously? Why? Give us back our skirts, and let everyone wear them. Forcing everyone into trousers and shorts is not progress!
Red hair
We understand that natural red hair is probably not as common in Game Freak’s home country of Japan, but if ten million people have bought Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, then statistically, 100,000 of those players have naturally red hair. Not red like ketchup, but red like, you know, ginger hair. It would be nice to have a hair option for them!
No more uniform
We’re feeling very Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall about Scarlet and Violet’s choice to force us to wear uniform 24/7. It invalidates a lot of the other fashion choices — what’s the point in wearing blue if it clashes horribly with orange?
At least give us the chance to have what our schools called an “own clothes day”, where you get to wear whatever the heck you like, because after all, most of Pokémon ScarVi’s story isn’t even set in the school!
Motorbike accessories
We love Koraidon and Miraidon as the vehicle of choice for our Paldean Pokémon trainer, so why not let us dress them up a bit? Bike horns! Saddles! Tiny little hats! It would help us set ourselves apart from other trainers while in co-op, since most of us are running around on the bikes all the time anyway.
More options
Skip battle animations
Being able to go into the settings and turn on the “skip battle animations” option is an absolute must for a game that’s all about long, drawn-out battles, and battles that you want to be over ASAP. It’s been in the series for ages, which only makes its absence in PSV more conspicuous!
Camera sensitivity
This is a rather basic request, and most games these days include this even in a sparse options menu, but can we alter the camera sensitivity? It’s currently way too slow, and Arceus knows the game has enough issues with slowness already.
Turn off EXP share
Some of us like being able to split experience six ways, but others — the ones who are actually good at the competitive part of Pokémon — want to have more control over levelling up their ‘mons. Not giving us the option seems like a strange choice for Game Freak to make, but we can see this feature returning at last in a future update, especially because it’s just a relatively simple toggle.
More selfie poses
We love the selfie poses we have so far, but we wouldn’t say no to a few more. Consider what people are taking selfies for — mostly to show off things or express a reaction to something in the game — and add more poses based on that. Here are some suggestions: ????????
Pokémon selfies
We also want to take pictures with our Pokémon! Perhaps take a leaf out of Disney Dreamlight Valley’s book, here — DDV will have nearby characters come over and pose if they see you’re taking a selfie. In Pokémon ScarVi, our Pokémon are usually running around us in a circle like toddlers having a sugar high. Some of them will even purposefully move out of the way when we try to photograph them, like a grumpy cat. Can’t we bribe them with Pokétreats or something?
We’re only halfway through our list, so keep going to page two for even more things we’d like to see added into the game…