Do you want to know how long Pokémon Escalata / Pokémon Purple last ? Well, I warn you that it is not easy to answer that question precisely because we are faced with one of those cases in which there are a thousand valid ways to complete the game: maybe you prefer to go straight for the main missions, while another decides to get lost in the immensity of Paldea hunting for rare species to expand their collection. Taking this into account, we are going to use a table of contents as a reference rather than exact times.
|
campaign only |
20-23 hours |
Complete the missions via Stardust, Legendary Path and Victory Journey (18 medals) |
|---|---|---|
|
epilogue |
2-3 hours |
A closing episode available after completing the Pokémon League and the other missions |
|
collectibles |
32 stakes |
Stakes unlock several legendary Pokémon , and if you have a guide, they only last for a short while. |
|
Extras |
— |
171 MT, snack recipes, 3 trades with NPCs and more |
|
pokedex |
400 species |
Alternative forms (e.g. variocolor, origins, sexual dimorphisms, etc.) are not included. |
|
replayability |
Unfathomable |
Shiny Hunt + PvP + Academy Tournament |
All in all, a standard playthrough should last you about 25-30 hours if you stick to the “must-do” tasks and occasionally take a detour to explore. Adding Paldea’s Pokédex to that will bump your hour count up to about 50-60 hours, depending on how you set it up (e.g. no one trades you rare Pokémon, no food power-ups).
According to How Long to Beat , the average Pokémon SV duration is 24 and a half hours .
How to know your playing time
Gone are the days when Pokémon games would tell you how much game time you’ve accumulated when you save your game or in the main menu – if you want to get an idea of how deep you are in the veritable time-waster that is Pokémon Scarlet / Pokémon Purple, you’re going to have to look it up manually. In fact, depending on what you’re trying to find out, you’ll have to head to one place or another.
The time of your current game
If you’ve never deleted your save data, or are just interested in knowing the length of your current game, then while playing the game press the Y button to open the Paldea map. Once inside, press X to open a small drop-down on the left side of the UI. Select “profile” to see your trainer card , which describes things like your medals and their effect (on the front)… and also your time played count.
Cumulative time (all games)
In case you’ve deleted one or more saves in the past and want to know how much time you’ve accumulated across all of them with the program open, press the Home button on your Nintendo Switch and tap or select the icon that corresponds to your profile in the top left corner of the screen. The first option in the left column, “profile,” stores information about the playtime of all the titles you’ve tried , although you’ll have to wait a few days until it starts counting the exact hours.
How to delete your game and start over
Before we get started, please note that Pokémon Scarlet and Purple do not have cloud save enabled – if you delete your save, you’ve lost it for good. It might be a good idea to store your rarest or most valuable creatures in the companion Pokémon Home app – which has no Gen 9 support at the time of writing – before doing this, but if you’re absolutely sure, you’ll be pleased to know that the process is just as easy and straightforward as with any other Nintendo Switch game.
- Access the Home menu
- Tap or select the “console settings” menu
- In the left column, scroll down to “data management”
- Select “clear save data” at the bottom of the right block
- Choose the game whose data you want to delete and follow the on-screen instructions
The new Pokémon games don’t feature NG+ mode or support multiple save slots, so if you want to start from scratch with your profile, this is your only option. Alternatively, you could also create a separate profile, from which new save data would be created; but keep in mind that to play online via PvE or PvP you would need your own Nintendo Switch Online membership (or be added to a family account).