How to fix framerate issues in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is finally available worldwide (Image via Pokemon Scarlet and Violet)
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are finally available worldwide (Image via Pokemon Scarlet and Violet)

While there has been no official communication regarding Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's technical issues, players have discovered a workaround to address one particularly frustrating problem with framerate issues that they've come across while exploring the Paldea region.

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One of the most common criticisms levied upon Pokemon Scarlet and Violet at launch was regarding the numerous technical issues that the title is teeming with. Players and critics alike have noted several such problems in their playthroughs that affect the framerate of the title by a significant margin.

Alongside that, issues like "time slicing", lags, and several glitches have also been found, which have severely impacted the overall player experience. This article provides players with a possible fix for framerate issues in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.


How can players address the framerate issues in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet?

Issues with framerate and technical glitches in the latest Pokemon games were pointed out in a number of reviews. Players complained about the same as soon as the games were made available, with Sportskeeda's own Pokemon writers bemoaning the unoptimized state of the latest titles on the Switch.

A fix for the issue was shared by Centro Pokemon (@CentroPokemon) on their Twitter channel that they claimed would address the framerate issue of Scarlet and Violet. The tweet went as follows:

"FRAMERATE ISSUES CAN BE FIXED BY RESTARTING THE GAME: For our English following, we feel this is very important. Based on our testing, the biggest issue we have, the framerate drops, appear to come from a memory leak or similar when you are near towns or cities."

Centro Pokemon asserted that their tests revealed that the issue of frame drops was being caused by a memory leak or something of a similar nature that they claimed was triggered when the player was near towns or cities in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

They further added that in all the tests they did, they encountered terrible framerate issues after playing for a while, but this was fixed when they saved and restarted the games. Once that was done, the games returned to normal levels, according to Centro Pokémon.

While this requires shutting down and restarting the games, players will likely be happy to do so if that solves the framerate issues that everyone has been complaining about for the time being. In another tweet, Centro Pokemon backed this method of dealing with the issue.

They mentioned that they did further tests to verify the solution and claimed that closing and restarting the games would fix other serious performance issues that plague could disrupt a player's experience. They concluded by saying that Game Freak would hopefully address the issue soon.

It is quite disappointing to come across such bugs and glitches in the mainline titles of such an iconic franchise. As fans noted in the comments, optimization issues like this are unbecoming of an "AAA game" at launch. One user claimed that it was unlikely that the memory leak issue would be patched out because earlier games had similar problems that were not fixed.

It remains to be seen how the developers decide to solve the problem that their player base is facing. Marking the beginning of Generation 9, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet was released worldwide on November 18.