Pokémon Violet Indefinite Pause

Okay. I say this with a bit of a sigh, but I’ve decided to not finish Pokémon Violet for now. This post is to justify wimping out.

What made me decide this is the Main Quest pathway, Victory Road, Battle of the Elite Four. Yesterday, after defeating all 8 gyms, I beat three of the Elite Four. The last one wiped out my whole Pokémon team, so I saved and quit. No biggy.

Today I jumped back in, expecting to start at number four. Nope! I must start over with the first and re-run the gauntlet of all Elite Four back-to-back, so like twenty level-60 Pokémon in a row.

Ehhhh…

So I checked a walkthrough guide (very minor spoilers follow).

After the four, there’s a fifth (no surprise). Then I can move onto the final battle for the title of Champion. With that, the Main Quest is over. I’m so close!

After the main quest, I can choose to do the ultimate final thing. It basically wraps all three story lines in the open-world game together and would be worth playing through.

When I checked the guide, I also noted that my Pokémon team is a little bit under the recommended level to finish the game. And I’ve already used all my Rare Candy and items to gain levels quick. That means I should return to the field for more battles — grind.

Grind for what? To win just a few more battles to say I finished the main quest. I don’t care to do that. But if I did, I’d get to finish the ultimate final thing.

Instead, I’m calling an indefinite pause for now.

I’m close enough to the finish that it’d be feasible for me to return at a later time just to check off the box: Completed. I’m likely to do that (eventually) because I really dislike having JRPGs on my play-log that I did not complete. But I have several JRPGs to play on my backlog that I think are better than Pokémon Violet. So I will no longer delay those.

For now, here’s my close-enough status for the three story pathways and final area in Violet. I guesstimate 90% game completion:

1. Victory Road: all 8 Gyms beat, 3 of 4 Elites beat. 4th Elite, Elite boss, and final Champion not beat. Pathway incomplete.
2. Starfall Street: all 5 Teams beat, penultimate Team boss beat, ultimate Team boss beat. Pathway complete.
3. Path of Legends: all 5 Titans beat, final Titan boss beat. Pathway complete.
4. Final Area: not started.

I had been trying to race through Pokémon Violet when I started, but I totally fell off playing games for several weeks. Resuming the game yesterday after a long stretch was challenging to me; I wasn’t motivated. It’s a fun game, but I lost interest in it and am ready to start a new adventure with what I think are more promising JRPGs on my backlog.

Next up is either Octopath Traveler II or Star Ocean: Second Story R.

Update: On Mastodon, I’d hinted yesterday at my misgivings with pushing to the end.