Auto Heal was introduced in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet to help streamline the game's more tedious functions. However, some innovations to mainline Pokemon titles feel like pulled punches, and as one fan points out, the game doesn't go as far as it needs to prevent "menu hopping" and forces players to still treat some ailing Pokemon one by one.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet have been heralded for their true open-world characteristics and fun Pokemon designs and names while also being chastised as a technical mess. It's a game that has made significant steps forward for the franchise, yet doesn't go far enough to cover its bases and become a potentially all-time great entry. One example of this was pointed out by a fan who shared their thoughts on Reddit.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Auto Heal feature will use any available HP-restoring item in the player's inventory, but if a Pokemon has a status effect like Paralysis or Poisoning, the player will have to heal each of these afflictions one by one with a specified item. This was pointed out on Reddit by u/theDKdynamite in the Pokemon subreddit, where there are frustrated fans that agree and bring up instances where the Auto Heal function could also be useful.
Auto Heal also will not instantly revive fainted Pokemon, and players will have to go to their inventory and revive any downed Pokemon individually. Though it's presumed to be a limitation so the "game won't play itself" as one detractor commenter put it, it feels like a logical next step for the feature's functionality. There is also a possibility that Auto Heal will not use Full Restores.
One possible reason Auto Heal didn't expand to status effects may be because some Pokemon actually get boosts from being afflicted (i.e. Makuhita or Ursaring with the Guts ability) and players may mindlessly heal status effects off of them. Another potential reason for its limited capability was that Auto Heal was made with Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's auto battling feature in mind. Pokemon in Auto Battle won't pick up status-changing afflictions that way, so the feature was not designed with them in mind.
The idea to exclude status healing items from Auto Heal in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is sound thanks to the comment about Pokemon with abilities that are boosted from status effects. It protects the player from themselves if they decided to play the game that way, but it still could be argued that the Auto Heal feature should have all-encompassing inclusions for status ailments and maybe have an option to turn on or off using status healing items.
PokemonScarlet and Violet are available now on Nintendo Switch.
