Eight facts about Pokemon Scarlet & Violet
The Pokemon Scarlett and Violet hype has reached a fever pitch following the big Nintendo Direct. Fans will continue to be excited until November with new information, including items and Pokemon.
There have been several notable announcements that could change the mind of even the most ardent Pokemon fan. Here are eight facts about Pokemon Scarlett and Violet.
The Region of Paldea is an Open World
The most popular feature in Pokemon history was to create a world the player could explore to their hearts’ content right from the beginning of the game. Scarlet and Violet are set in Paldea, which Spain inspired. The region’s open-world nature makes the geography more diverse. There are many inviting spaces, large oceans, meadows, and towers.
Even better, the player can ride on top of legendary Pokemon to scale mountains and surf the oceans. The final form of transportation will be Miraidon and Koraidon, both in Scarlet and Miraidon (in Violet). However, it seems that the player will ride a similar Pokemon called Cyclizar as they begin their adventure.
Finally, a True 4-Player Cooperative.
Open-world gameplay is an excellent way for players to share their love of Pokemon with other people. Because the Pokemon anime was so focused on the friendship and adventures that Ash and his crew had, it was only natural that many fans wanted to be like them. Although there has been some co-op in the past (e.g. in Let’s Go), it took until the upcoming generation before the dream became a reality.
All players can ride together on their favourite Pokemon through the wilds in the Paldea region. It’s unclear whether there will be restrictions on how far the coop party can split or how the in-game combat mechanic will work, but it will be fun to explore this new world together.
Raid battles are also returning. Raid battles were a great addition to Sword and Shield. This time, they will be better and more efficient. Players won’t have to wait for their friends to attack before attacking. Players can now shoot and raid Pokemon in any order, unlike the prototype raid fights of Sword and Shield. This should improve the pacing.
New Core Battle Features
The new battle features are expected to revolutionize how players interact online and change the game of competitive play. New moves like Shed Tail allow Pokemon to swap with other parties and create substitutes.
Mirror Herb is a new item that allows Pokemon to duplicate the stat changes of other Pokemon. The new Pokemon Stadium feature will allow players to bring their best teams online to compete in casual and ranked battles. This is something that the franchise has often struggled with in the past.
The competitions will see which player ranks highest. Online rental of Pokemon will be possible for players – an exclusive feature not available online.
Your Pokemon can follow you again.
Pokemon Yellow was the first game to allow players to take their starter Pikachu along on their Kanto adventures. This feature has made occasional returns to different games in the series and will be back in Pokemon Scarlet or Violet.
It’s exciting that players can now have their Sprigatito scamper behind their backs. Still, it remains to be determined how Pokemon will scale depending on their lore sizes – something that has been inconsistent previously.
While Pokemon Let’s Go games revealed some differences in size between species, Shining Pearl and Brilliant Diamond had models that were almost identical in size. We will soon see the crushing size of a Wailord when Scarlet and Violet show it.
Out with Dynamax, in With Terastal
Every Pokemon game has had a battle “gimmick” since Generation VI. While not all of them have been successful, there have been some interesting variations to the formula. Terascale, the latest of these unique features, seems to be more complex than the Dynamax mechanic from the previous generation.
It works similarly to Dynamax. The player can select a Pokemon to transform while fighting, but they don’t get super big, but they become very shiny. The Pokemon’s moves get more vital; depending on which Pokemon they are; they can even change types.
Pikachu, for example, can transform into a flying type by changing. This could cause headaches for the opposing player. It is still to be seen whether this mechanic will be accepted by top players in competitive play or if it will not be viable as it did with Dynamax.
Although gyms can be played in any order, they won’t scale.
Another exciting development for the series is that players can tackle challenges in any order they like. This is a first since the Gen IV games. And even then, only a few gym leaders could do it out of order.
Scarlet and Violet allow the player to take their level 6 Fidough to the highest-ranking leader of the gym and try to prove that they are the best.
Yes, it’s true. The gyms will not scale to the player’s current team level but will be hard-locked to specific difficulties. It’s like Ganon challenging you at the beginning of Breath to the Wild. You can do it. But do you want?
It won’t play like Pokemon Legends: Arceus.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus was an exciting addition to the franchise’s roster. It featured a semi-open world and a modified version of traditional battling. Players didn’t even have to fight for Pokemon.
This gave players a sense of control and made the catching process more fluid than the traditional. Although Scarlett and Violet seem to be elevating the franchise’s open-world concept, it doesn’t appear that the ability to catch Pokemon in a non-combat environment is returning.
Instead, players will have to enter battles like any other mainline Pokemon game. It appears that battling is returning to the more traditional, competitively viable single-turn-based format. This will make long-time competitors happy.
There are three paths in the story.
A Pokemon game can have many objectives. However, they can be combined or used as post-game content. The player can choose to focus on three story objectives in Pokemon Scarlet or Violet. This includes the classic gym challenge, where they work to earn the badges that will prove their worth and help them achieve more outstanding achievements.
The trailer has only hinted at the other storylines. One involves a mysterious vehicle driving through the Paldea region, presumably Team Rocket. Another plotline may have to do with a mysterious flower. The players will need to wait and see how these scenes fit into more giant puzzles in the Paldea region.
Fans were excited to see Pokemon Violet and Scarlet become the console games they hoped Sword and Shield would. Players in Paldea still have many surprises to look forward to, but they will all have to wait until the Switch games launch in November 2022.
