Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are finally available but they have been a mixed bag. While the open-world makes the classic Pokémon formula feel fresh, the performance issues are really bothering players. However, a quick fix has been discovered; restarting the game after saving.
Admittedly, needing a quick fix like this to sort out performance problems is pretty embarrassing, especially for a billion-dollar franchise like Pokémon. Nintendo and Game Freak will likely fix some of these problems with an update or two, but it shouldn’t come to this.
How effective is this quick fix for the performance problems in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet? Should players just wait for an update that will fix some of these issues so they can enjoy these games?
On Twitter, Centro Pokémon theorizes that the two games might be suffering from some kind of memory leak. Playing the games normally leads to a lot of performance issues that make the experience a real slog. However, saving and then restarting the games improves the performance, at least according to the tests done.
“In every test we did, when the framerate became terrible after playing for a while, saving and restarting the game fixed it and returned it to normal levels,” claims Centro Pokémon. “We hope this can be patched soon.”
Fans knew that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet were going to have some issues with performance but the level of slowdown from these games was still surprising. Even Pokémon Legends: Arceus was able to perform better than these two games, though that is a more self-contained RPG with smaller hubs.
Some fans think the poor performance of these games should lead to an upgraded Switch from Nintendo but that’s not necessarily the case. After all, games like Dragon Quest XI, Breath of the Wild, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 are able to perform decently. They also have superior visuals to the Pokémon games.
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Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are now available on the Nintendo Switch. However, fans may want to wait for an update or two that will clear these issues.