It can be difficult to review “Pokémon” games. Each new installment has been similar over the last 20 years with a few changes here or there. Occasionally, a change might be drastic, but the core of the game doesn’t change much at all. When “Pokémon Legends: Arceus” was released at the beginning of 2022, it was new, it was different, it was fun. And while it had its issues, it reminded people how much potential this franchise has to make something really incredible. 

Then, The Pokémon Company and Game Freak ended 2022 with the release of “Pokémon Scarlet” and “Pokémon Violet” in November, and they dropped the ball. They kept the open-world concept introduced in “Legends: Arceus,” but otherwise reverted to the same old formula. The experience is still enjoyable at times, and there are a handful of notable changes. Although bogged down with awful storytelling and writing, there are now three paths to follow rather than just the traditional one path to being the Pokémon Champion. Of course, the game isn’t complete until you go down all three paths. It was different enough to keep me intrigued, but it quickly became clear that it’s just a series of chores to keep you occupied until you can engage in the main story of the game. Still, the excitement of catching all-new Pokémon seems to never get old. And the introduction of auto-battling and related mechanics make traveling with your party Pokémon feel more alive. 

Graphically, “Scarlet” and “Violet” are a mess. They somehow look worse than “Legends: Arceus,” which at least had an appealing visual language, and they’re riddled with glitches and character models that pop in and out of existence and move at the lowest frame-rate possible until they’re close enough to the player character. 

The quality of these games has dropped since they made the switch to 3-D 10 years ago. It could either be laziness on the developer’s behalf, knowing that each new “Pokémon” game will be a bestseller no matter how much (or little) effort is put in, or it’s that the development cycle is so quick that they’re now releasing one or two games a year. Despite my love for the franchise, “Pokémon” has just about turned into the annual chore of the gaming world. Something really needs to change.