My History
I think it's important to give my personal history with Pokemon before saying anything considering Pokemon tends to have a fanbase who will praise and defend anything regardless of quality, and on the other end there are people who hate anything Pokemon related solely on the basis that it's Pokemon.
As a very young child I watched the anime on Cartoon Network and liked it a lot. Apparently. The age in which I watched it was too young for me to actually remember anything so I'm not nostalgic in any way on that basis. During middle school I played Leaf Green because that's what everyone was doing at the time. I enjoyed it but thought nothing more than that. In high school I tried Soul Silver and got bored of it quickly. After that I did not pay attention to Pokemon at all. I missed the GO craze completely. In more modern times I have just looked at it, thought it looked really bad, laughed at the Pokefags, and moved on. I do not even own a Nintendo Switch. This is all to say I'm not nostalgic for Pokemon, nor am I a Pokefag, but I'm not anti-Pokemon either. I am ultimately indifferent. It is with this that I hope to give a fair account of Pokemon SV as I have no loyalty.
Pokemon Scarlet/Violet is the best iyashikei game I have played since Boku no Natsuyasumi, and exudes the best sense of childhood adventure I have felt in a video game. Going in I did not expect my opinion to end up positive. Especially considering the reception that the game has got.
Bugs
Considering the reception, bugs would be a good place to start. There are a lot of videos of bugs online, however it gets the ‘werks on my machine’ stamp of approval. There were issues such as seizure moments and character textures not aligning with models but I feel comfortable saying they were emulator issues because I've encountered them in other games I've emulated yet haven't seen it happen to anyone I've watched play it natively. Other bugs I encountered were things that I deliberately induced such as back climbing. I'll throw performance in here too, seeing as I don't have much to say on it. I played on an emulator thus I don't get a say. Ran flawlessly at 30 fps as 60 doubled the game speed, there was only one area where it dropped to 20, and it wasn't a very big or common area.
Visual Design
The second big thing people complain about is the graphics. Which to that yeah it does look like shit, its a switch game. The only thing which contributes to the whole looking bad thing outside of its platform limitations is the repeating textures. In areas where it's not so visible the game actually looks really nice, especially in tandem with its almost pseudo-cell-shaded style with bright flat colours. It really accentuates that feeling of summer and childhood wonder. It wouldn't work with ‘better’ graphics because in a more complicated design there is more detail and thus more (purposeful) flaws and cant capture the childhood innocence in visual world view. But yes the game has some obvious repeating textures.
Gameplay
The next big thing I've heard complaints about is the gameplay itself. I think the complaints here are people victim to their age and experience. Pokemon Scarlet/Violet is easy. It's a game for young kids, it'd be an issue if it wasn't. I remember playing Leaf Green and having no issues while never letting my Bulbasaur move from my first party slot. SV isn't much harder than that, I never had to go into fights with pre-thought out tactics nor did I have to bother much with buffs or actually build a team with synergy. But in this lies what was a big part of my enjoyment of Pokemon. My team is made up entirely of Pokemon I liked. You get to build a team feelings and emotions first. Who's cute, who's cool. It's just yet another factor that adds to this immense feeling of iyashikei that the game has. It wouldn't be as special and cool if I had to sacrifice a Pokemon I like for one I don't because of viability. But all that said, from the perspective of a child, I'd imagine it to be at a decent difficulty where they'd have to actually think, however it's not too complicated to completely floor them and stump progress. The games meant for 6-10 year-olds (and this becomes very clear in the story) and its as easy to forget how dumb kids can be as it is to forget how smart they can be.
The second part of gameplay is the open world, which thematically suits itself very well to Pokemon. The freedom to challenge gyms as you see fit and go wherever and catch whatever feels more in line with the atmosphere of exploration and adventure that suits Pokemon more than the pseudo-linear design of the other games. I wanted a Hypno so the very thing I did was run off to find one with no regard to what I was meant to do or where I was meant to go. This is freedom not given in the other games, or really in jrpgs as a whole. It also allows things to be done in different orders so if a certain type of gym is harder than another which may be higher level you can do that first and aren't restricted to the predetermined path. This also allows you to challenge areas at a higher level than you are which results in increased difficulty and some fun experiences. I did a gym 20 levels above me leaning on Lucario's counter ability. It was fun and an experience I wouldn't have been able to have otherwise. The counter-issue to this is that in response it makes you incredibly over leveled for some part, mirroring Elden Rings main issue. Because the levelled areas aren't laid out very linearly or clearly you will not do the levelled route and you will do some things under and some things over levelled. The other big issue of the open world is that you will find yourself fighting Pokemon that are too high level for you to actually use so it makes areas you are severely under leveled for in terms of gym progression disappointing because you won't be able to use any of the captured Pokemon even if they are lower level than your party. This is clearly done for balance, but it still sucks. The obvious solution is to return to the linear design but that would remove too much of what made the game great. The second solution would be level scaling but that also removes a lot of the fun and sense of progress, so maybe something like just making them harder to catch and removing the disobey mechanic would've been a better compromise. Or even level scaling them down upon capture.
Story
Next complaint, the story and character. At its core Pokemon SV is a story about being a child, specifically moving up in the world to middle school. This is a rough and confusing time for kids, and simultaneously a nostalgic time for adults making this a great theme for a game like this targeting the iyashikei and kid market. The game starts with an introduction to the school system used in middle school. The games teaches kids how classes work, the school structure, the types of things taught, staff, facilities and students. This would alleviate anxiety in kids confused or scared about entering school, while simultaneously for adults it comes off as nostalgic for childhood. There are four individual storylines which are all about teaching kids things. One is about bullying, one is about trying your best, one is about grief and sadness, and one about distant parents. All things important and good for kids to learn about. None of it is overly deep or complex but it really shouldn't be. Kids don't need an exploration of Kantian philosophy or anything, they just need to be told to try their best and keep their chin up.
The Gym storyline is a basic story about getting stronger through adversity. It's not complicated and is told through gameplay, but what's interesting is that in order to fight the gyms you have to perform tests which often are an allegory for childhood tasks, moments and learning things for the first time. There are things like learning how to order food at a restaurant, doing radio exercises, sliding down the snow, public speaking, and even an interview (very Kafkaesque). For kids I can see it helping to give them confidence in themselves for things in the real world, and for adults it's just comfy to be able to do all these childhood things again that are lost with age.
The second storyline is about bullying and not fitting in, and it takes a surprisingly mature look at it. To summaries the whole thing, it appears like a bunch of truants are bullying people but it turns out that they were victims themselves and their truancy is caused by being scared to go back to school. Eventually the kids learn to reach out to others, put faith in their friends, fight back and put aside their fears and be strong so they go back to school. There's even a part where a bullied girl helps someone who bullied her previously from being bullied and breaking a cycle of abuse. I don't think I need to explain why it’s a good message for kids. The way that it's told is through a gradual thematic change from them being presented as evil villains to humans which is done very well and smoothly in a way that introduces the idea of not everyone being against you is some evil creature but a human with thoughts, feeling and justification for their actions. Many adults don't even seem to realize this. And even as an adult there's some really touching moments with it even if it's not on the level of misery or change that adult media has. It's very sweet and touching.
The third is a story about illness and grief. A man has a very sick Pokemon and you go around finding ingredients by fighting strong Pokemon to make meds to make the Pokemon better while he tells you of his relationship with his Pokemon and it being there for him when no one else was. Again, it's very simple but it's done decently well. Basic themes of loyalty and selflessness as well as showing illness to kids in a way that explores how bad it can get in a way that's not too ‘adult’ or more accurately miserable. This is why despite the theme it still has a somewhat light atmosphere and a feeling of linear progress to health which allows it to keep a calming atmosphere and a constant sense of doing something helpful.
The fourth and final one I have issues with. It seems to want to be about distant parents. As a short summary, the guy's mum (Sada) is a researcher always away from home who focuses on work more than her son (Arven). She calls on her Arven and his friends (you) to go help her fix a mess she made, where it is reveled that she is dead and is just a robot she made, and then once the mess is fixed she gives the ‘I love you son’ speech and then fucks off into the past. Well there are nice things here; the guy learns to become more independent, and does resolve things with his mother and come to a mutual understanding of why she did what she did, my main concern is that a parent really should care about their kid more in the first place. Arven accepting, understanding and forgiving his mother for not being present and moving on from her death to be stronger is a good message and the bittersweet holds a nice taste ratio where kids would get the message that there can be happiness in sadness. But having the reason why she died to protect a Pokemon is bad, especially when she has a son. He should take priority. It makes her seem like a really bad and excessively neglectful mother, which is part of the point, but it puts her past the point of earning the redemption she gets. I'd rewrite it so she was distant prior and died saving Arven instead of the Pokemon, however Arven repressed the memory. Despite this being the final story and the games climax, it is quite short, even if parts of it are teased throughout so it's not too big of a stain on the game.
Other Things
Things that I can't fit elsewhere are;
A lot of the characters are really cute and charming like Nemo being a bit of a yandere or Iono being a complete zoomer.
A lot of cute bits in general like the worn down jaded businessman giving you the façade move, or how everything big is commemorated with a fun photo. Very iyashikei.
The soundtrack is pretty great.
I've seen people complain about there not being unique animations for each pokemon and skill. So I did the maths. There are 400 pokemon and each can learn around 40 moves so you'd be looking at 12000 unique animations, 24000 if you want miss animations, and 9600000 if you want unique animations per enemy. It's just not realistic.
They should be more careful about who they keep in the world and keep it to people who represent parental and real world figures who kids would actually see on their day to day basis. Keep it stuff like Trainer Elise the housewife, and not the fat balding man in a school uniform who has a Gardevoir. I get the joke, but just fucking don’t. The joke is that he's like those weird creepy people on the internet but kids don't know that and it causes it to just come off wrong, like someone like that shouldn’t be around kids.
I first downloaded this with the intent to see how bad it was, but in the end I left with my personal game of the year. The entire thing is cute, charming, and comfy. And I hope in this I have explained why is a way more than just buzzwords. If I was a good christian mum, I would gladly let my little gremlins play this. There's a really telling line from one of the elite four, “Your hands may be small but let them grasp victory”