Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's open world creates a huge leveling problem for the game. Generation 9's unprecedented exploration opens the game up to completely free-roaming Pokémon and the ability for players to complete the game in any order. In Pokémon games, it is crucial to have Pokémon at a proper level to progress, especially in an open world where players can wander into something unexpected. However, even though Scarlet and Violet offer free exploration, there is a soft order of objectives for players to follow.
Scarlet and Violet's main game consists of three different story paths for players to complete: the Gym challenge, Team Star confrontations, and battling the Titans. After that, players can explore the Paldean Crater and encounter Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's Paradox Pokémon in the post-game. The rest of the post-game consisted of rematches with the Gym Leaders, a replayable tournament, and hunting the Legendary Pokémon.
Pokémon Scarlet And Violet's Leveling Problem
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's leveling issue is rooted in the scaling for areas and objectives. Game Freak set the levels too close together, and just with natural progression, players can level their Pokémon to the point where they are over leveled for nearby content. This turns much of the story content into an easier experience than it already was, which strips away any challenge. Wild Pokémon suffer from this as well, removing the challenge of running into a brutal battle unless players go out of their way to go to a higher-level area.
Pokémon Scarlet And Violet's Level Scaling Removes Any Challenge
A proper challenge is not the primary goal of any Pokémon game, but it can still be a helpful addition. Often enough, three to four of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's biggest story objectives are scaled around the same level, requiring little training in between. Once those objectives were over, players were ready to take on the next set, which could be considered proper progression or making the game too easy. Game Freak is likely to continue the open-world style from now on, which would mean changes should be made to avoid this issue again.
The solution to this issue is proper level spacing between objectives, but that does depend on how many objectives future games have. If every objective were four to five levels apart, then further training would be needed between each, lessening the feeling of being overpowered. Option two would be a system that scales off the players' level rather than having a set level. A great example of this would be if a Gym Leader in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet were set to always be three levels higher; if a player challenged that gym with their highest Pokémon being level 25, the Gym Leaders Pokémon would be at least level 28.
Scarlet and Violet are essentially a test for numerous new features for the franchise, with many of them being a good foundation for the future. The level scaling is an issue that does need to be addressed if Game Freak wants to avoid making its games too easy. There is a chance Game Freak will not see it as a big enough issue that needs a fix for future generations. Whether level imbalance is fixed in forthcoming titles or not, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet created a big leveling problem.
Source: Nintendo of America/YouTube
