Fans think Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's battle animations are a downgrade from Legends Arceus

News
By published

Fans think battles looked better in Pokemon Legends: Arceus

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet
(Image credit: Nintendo)

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet fans are voicing their opinions on the upcoming game’s battle animations after new gameplay footage was released yesterday. 

Following the reveal of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Grafaiai, fans have been sharing their thoughts about the upcoming game’s visuals. The discussion began when Twitter user @CentroLeaks retweeted a clip of Grafaiai in battle with the caption: "Another example of how battle animations are worse in #ScarletViolet compared to #PokemonLegendsArceus."

It’s not hard to see that CentroLeaks may have a point. In the clip - embedded below - we can see Grafaiai going up against a Jumpluff in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Immediately after launching an attack, we can see purple effects extruding from the Pokemon before eventually making their way to Jumpluff who reacts after a slight delay.

After this clip, we are then shown footage of a battle between Shinx and Sneasel from Pokemon Legends: Arceus. It doesn’t take a Pokemon expert to see that the battle animations for this game are much more interesting to watch. Firstly, Sneasel jumps into action before launching an attack, and the two battle it out face to face. That's a significant change from the previous clip that saw the two Pokemon fighting from opposite sides of the screen.  

Not everyone agrees with this point though, as a discussion about the quality of the two Pokemon games broke out in the replies to the tweet. "It looks fine to me. It's not the best but not a deal breaker," one user replied. "One is a competitive multiplayer game designed to minimize time and animations, and the other is a single-player action JRPG," another explained, "this is like asking why Max Raids in [Pokemon Sword and Shield] had simple attack animations."

In case you missed it, this new gameplay footage has come from a Pokemon reveal trailer that introduced fans to Grafaiai, a poison/normal type Pokemon that likes to paint. The definitely aye-aye-inspired creature has divided fans with many not sure whether to call this thing cute or just freaky.

Wondering where Pokemon Legends: Arceus landed on our ranked list? Take a look at our best Pokemon games list. 

Hope Bellingham
Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.