Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Vs. Pokemon Legends: Arceus - Which Game Is Better?

Multiple major 3D Pokemon games released in the same year is quite an unprecedented event. With Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Pokemon Scarlet & Violet both releasing in 2022, it's fair to say that Pokemon fans were eating pretty well. However, with these games being released in such close proximity, you can't help but wonder which one turned out better.

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Scarlet & Violet is the obvious answer, given it's a mainline Pokemon game with new Pokemon and a new region, but Legends: Arceus also did a lot to shake up the formula in ways we haven't seen in years. In the name of science, we'll compare both of these games in a number of areas, like graphics, gameplay, and story, to determine which game is better: Legends: Arceus or Scarlet & Violet?

8 Graphics - Legends: Arceus

Let's call a spade a spade. Neither Pokemon Legends: Arceus, nor Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, are first-rate showcases of the Nintendo Switch's presentation power. In a bizarre trend, the Switch's mainline Pokemon games seemed to look worse as they went along, although Legends survived relatively unscathed.

Though there's only one hub, it's richly realized, and - by 3D Pokemon standards - looks pretty good. The biomes have some clear graphical issues, but Scarlet & Violet take the cake in that regard. You'll occasionally find a nice angle overlooking, say, the snowcapped northern mountains. Larry's facial expressions are impressive? So, there's that? Goodness, gracious. Scarlet & Violet are not great-looking video games.

7 Gameplay - Legends: Arceus

Both Legends: Arceus and Scarlet & Violet are notable for being far more open-ended than previous, more linear Pokemon games. Scarlet & Violet's design, in particular, allowing you to tackle whatever objectives you want in any order, was a big step for the series. However, Legends: Arceus made some major improvements that Scarlet & Violet built off of.

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Arceus streamlined the catching and battling systems, allowing you to quickly catch and secure Pokemon without needing to battle them. It also added additional nifty wrinkles like the Noble Pokemon battles and move styles. That's not even mentioning the various quick-deploy Ride Pokemon that were condensed into Koraidon and Miraidon. Legends: Arceus walked so Scarlet & Violet could run, and it deserves recognition for that.

6 Story - Scarlet & Violet

This is a tricky one because both Legends: Arceus and Scarlet & Violet have pros and cons to their stories but in heavily contrasting ways. Legends: Arceus' story was a bit better-paced, properly ramping up the stakes and gradually cluing you into the state of Hisui and the forces affecting it. Due to its open-ended nature, Scarlet & Violet's story is a bit disjointed, with most of the good bits not coming until the end.

However, on the flip side, Legends: Arceus' story doesn't have as many really cool beats or setpieces. The characters are likable enough, but they don't really do much. Scarlet & Violet's cast, particularly Nemona, Arven, and Penny, are much more fleshed out, and when things start getting good in the last arc, they get really good. We especially have to give props to Arven's surprisingly touching arc in trying to heal Mabosstiff. It's a close call, but we're going to give Scarlet & Violet the point on this one.

5 Performance And Presentation - Legends: Arceus

Both of these games were fairly glitchy at release. Both were riddled with bugs, graphical glitches, frame drops, and all that other unpleasant stuff that's admittedly pretty fun to meme about. The question here is less "which game is more broken" and more "which game is less broken."

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And the answer is pretty clear. Legends: Arceus is far less buggy, and performs considerably better than Scarlet & Violet. It's not winning a single award on this count, but it's up against something, um, bad. Not to mention, Scarlet & Violet's DLC expansion areas are worse about this than the base game's. Wild.

4 Pokemon Variety - Scarlet & Violet

This one's a no-brainer. The Hisuian forms introduced in Legends: Arceus are pretty cool, especially the ones with old-timey aesthetics like Hisuian Voltorb. However, there are only a handful of variants and entirely new Pokemon in the Hisui Dex, with the lion's share being holdovers from the Sinnoh Dex. It's thematically appropriate, given Hisui is Sinnoh, but not especially interesting.

Scarlet & Violet, on the other hand, give us an entirely new Dex of Pokemon to appreciate, as well as new regional forms and Pokemon like Wiglett and Toedscool that are, for lack of a better word, spin-offs of existing Pokemon. It kind of goes without saying that a Dex with its own unique starters has a natural edge over one that has to pull its starters from three other Dexes.

3 Shiny Hunting - Legends: Arceus

Shiny hunting is a staple in the Pokemon games. Chasing alternate color versions of your favorite Pokemon is exciting, and finally finding the one that shines is always worth the effort. Between Scarlet & Violet and Legends: Arceus, the latter does Shiny Hunting much better.

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Shinies are much more common in Legends: Arceus, which could be a downside for some players as it may "devalue" the rarity of finding them. However, The sparkling noise that plays when a Shiny has appeared makes the process of Shiny hunting way better than Scarlet & Violet. It doesn't help that many of the new Pokemon introduced in Scarlet & Violet have Shiny variations that are only a slight shade difference, making hunting them even harder.

2 Endgame - Scarlet & Violet

Endgame activities in Pokemon games often revolve around either breeding a team for competitive battling, tackling the Battle Tower or similar system, or Shiny hunting. Sadly, Legends: Arceus has no competitive battles, but it has the Eternal Battle Reverie as a replacement for the Battle Tower, in which you face Pokemon of ever-increasing difficulty.

Scarlet & Violet have competitive battling, but no Battle Tower. Instead, the main battle-focused endgame activity you'll be doing is Tera Raid battles. These are greatly improved versions of Sword & Shields Max Raids, and offer great rewards. Overall, Scarlet & Violet's endgame content feels more replayable, so it wins this round.

1 The Verdict - Legends: Arceus

With a slim 4-3 lead, our ultimate victor is Pokemon Legends: Arceus! Despite some shortcomings, Legends: Arceus breathed new life into the franchise. It can easily be argued that Scarlet & Violet have done the same thing in different ways, so they're an easy recommendation despite "losing" in our subjective analysis.

It's just that Pokemon Scarlet & Violet are more consistently hampered by their issues. It's harder to look the other way, if that makes sense. They're front and center. The frame rate is falling apart on a routine basis, the graphics can be almost disorientingly poor, and when you combine those two key factors... yeah.

Now, if you'll excuse us, we're off to dream about Scarlet & Violet remasters, I guess.

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