The release of “Pokémon Scarlet” and “Violet” on Nintendo Switch has many fans concerned about the franchise’s future. It was first announced in February and had lots of promise, with it being one of the first to be an open-world game for the Pokémon. When released on Nov. 18, it turned out to be a massive disappointment showing many bugs, glitches and performance issues.

Pokémon is a franchise that has been around since 1996 and is under The Nintendo company. The creation of Pokémon was by a Japanese man named Satoshi Tajiri. who started a magazine called “Game Freak,” The magazine soon transitioned into creating video games and found success upon the release of “Pokemon Red” and “Pokemon Blue.” Ever since this, they have continued to further the franchise and the popularity of Pokémon. Both Scarlet and Violet were released with much excitement from fans. Still, they were let down by the graphical issues, low frames per second and a small amount of polygons or shapes inside a character or Pokémon.

When starting the game, the player first decides their character’s appearance. The player is then introduced to Professor Cavell, the director of Naranja Academy/Uva Academy. He shows players the world of Paldea and the Pokémon they can choose from as their starter. The three starters of this generation are Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly.

These starters can be one of the first instances of bugs that can start to show throughout the game. If the player’s Switch is an older model or isn’t updated, characters or Pokémon will glitch across the screen and can disappear entirely. It can also cause issues with flashing over and over on the screen if it’s an outdated Switch.

Traveling across Paldea, the player will come across tons of Pokémon. If they are at a far enough distance from the camera, they will become a low-textured or low-poly creature. While the bugs can be funny, this doesn’t excuse it from being so awful.

The camera is also one of the significant issues that the players complain about in these games; its movement is annoying and can glitch under the ground to reveal the world that players aren’t supposed to see. These make “Pokémon Scarlet” and “Pokémon Violet” look unfinished and like the developers didn’t check for bugs.

Many articles from Polygon and Kotaku have claimed that bugs infesting the game have caused many to refund their game since it is ridiculous and impossible to play. People have contacted the Nintendo eShop and received their refunds from the respective places they bought it from.

As of Dec. 1, “Game Freak” has acknowledged the bugs and put in a patch to fix these graphical issues and performance for the game. Nintendo has apologized for its performance and will continue to work on improvements for “Pokémon Scarlet” and “Pokémon Violet” in the foreseeable future.

Contact Ryder Richardson at [email protected]