Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

The story is actually very solid and most of the dex newcomers are excellent, like the fan favorite Tinkatonk that is a battling powerhouse. Arven, Turo, Team Star and Clavell all have compelling character moments and some storylines actually garnered few teardrops from me. But goddamn if this game isn't ugly. This entry has the dubious honor of having the absolutely worse art direction in ANY of the Pokemon games.

This is a low bar, but this has some of the best characters and story of any of the pokemon games. Its central gimmick looks stupid but actually introduces very interesting wrinkles to the well worn battle formula. Quite a few of the new mon designs are outstanding. It runs like absolute dog shit. Pokemon is THE biggest IP in the world and they can't make games that look good and run smoothly.

Fun game overall, but you can't tell me that the terracrystalizing doesn't look absolutely dumb...

Not my favorite nor my least favorite, still fun, although it could've been better without the rushed release.

Occasionally a satisfying gameplay loop peaks through. Most of the time I was just angry at how bad the graphics, performance, characters, and environments are. It is a bummer that the latest mainline Pokémon game is such poor quality.