Pokemon Legends: Arceus isn’t even 2 months old yet, and we already have a detailed trailer for Generation 9 of the main series games. I don’t see anyone complaining.
After looking at the game specs that Nintendo and GameFreak put up, I think we can safely assume that the new Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet are going to be the best we’ve seen yet.
The Pokemon Company announced the reveal during the Pokemon Presents livestream on Youtube, on 27th February, 2022. The two new titles have already gained a lot of hype, and it’s not all for nothing.
There’s still a lot of mystery surrounding the games – and we have most of the essential information we need – but what most fans want to know is the difference between Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.
1. Oranges and Grapes – What’s the significance?
Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet will have several notable differences. Usually, the two versions of every new generation game feature version-exclusive Pokemon, wild or otherwise. With the Gen 9 games, it’s possible that we are looking at more differences than usual.
In the trailer we see a fruit bowl with oranges and grapes, and two shields on opposite sides of a doorway, one with oranges, one with grapes. This definitely refers to the version differences, where orange is Scarlet and grape is Violet.
What this has to do with the new games has yet to be revealed. But we can definitely expect version exclusive Pokemon in Scarlet as well as Violet, with added moves and features for each set of Pokemon.
In Pokemon Sun and Moon, we got 15 different Pokemon each for the 2 versions. In Sword and Shield, the differences were more pronounced, especially since we had a wider range of Pokemon that included Legendary Pokemon, Mythical Pokemon, and power boosts such as the Gigantamax feature.
For Scarlet and Violet, we can expect a similar demarcation like in Sword and Shield, where Sword got the Legendary mascot Zacian, and Shield had Zamenta.
While we still don’t have any idea of who the Gen 9 mascots are, you can be sure that either version will be equally awesome.
What it will come down to in the end, is personal Pokemon preference.
The official Pokemon website also revealed that the character options will include male and female Trainers, the Scarlet pair wearing Red and the Violet pair wearing purple. As of now, we don’t know whether these color difference have any meaning or they’re just for show.
Either way, the two versions should have exclusives, although, I’m hoping all the main ones are available in both, since Nintendo Switch requires a paid subscription if you want to trade Pokemon between games.
2. Why is Pokemon Scarlet and Violet so important?
Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet are crucial to the Pokemon gaming world as they will introduce the ninth generation of the Pokemon franchise. They are going to be Pokemon’s first open-world games, and the Starters released have already become fan-favorites.
The Pokemon role-playing games or RPGs began with Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue, which presented us with the first generation of Pokemon. Since then, the core series games have more or less followed the same course of action:
- The player, in the role of a Trainer, journeys through a select region/s
- The player chooses 1 out of the 3 Starter Pokemon
- The player explores the new world, battles and trades with other Trainers, and engage with wild Pokemon
- The player tries to catch ‘em all – collecting as many Pokemon by winning, trading, or catching them from the wild
- The player collects badges and evolves their Pokemon, to challenge the Gym Leader of the region
- The player tries to complete their Pokedex – an index that records every Pokemon caught
Of course, every new-gen game brought various new features that differed from the others; some even got rid of older features that cause a huge uproar.
For example, Gen 7’s Pokemon Sun and Moon, didn’t have the concept of Gyms or Gym Leaders, although Gyms were brought back in Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee!
3. New Pokemon
A new generation in Pokemon also indicates new Pokemon and, as of Alola and Galar, regional variants of Pokemon that had been introduced earlier. We can be sure the Generation 9 will have a regional variant of older Pokemon as well.
What I can’t wait to see is whether we get any unique power-ups. Gen 7 gave us Legendary and Mythical Pokemon that could evolve, along with Z-moves and Z-crystals. Gen 8 introduced the in-game mechanics of Dynamax, Gigantamax, and Eternamax. I can bet Gen 9 will have something even cooler.
Can you imagine if they give us a new type? It would blow up the internet. Remember when the Fairy-type was introduced in Generation 6? Up until then, there was no Pokemon type that was strong against Steel.
Fans in community chats have been throwing around the idea of a Sound typing for some time now; who knows, maybe GameFreak will turn our 2022 downside up by making our Fanon into Canon.
For now, the only new Pokemon confirmed are the 3 adorable Starters: the Grass-type Sprigatito, the Fire-type Fuecoco, and the Water-type Quaxly. Most fans including me have already decided who they’re going to pick when the games come out. (Go Fuecoco!)
The trailer also revealed a few familiar faces, like Meowth, Lucario, Drifloon, and Psyduck, who looked more advanced, graphically, than their older variants.
Speaking of – Magnemite stole the spotlight with its metalling shiny upgrade, which makes me think we might get a new version of coloration for some of the ‘mons. Shiny Pokemon were introduced in Generation 2, along with a Red Gyarados that everybody wanted to get their hands on.
4. Gameplay Experience
Apart from the in-game features, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s major attraction is the fact that it’s going to be fully open-world.
In my other posts, I give a complete breakdown of the trailer and also reveal in what way Scarlet and Violet games will be a true open-world adventure.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus was advertised as open-world and it did have vast hub areas with sprawling Pokemon.
But the new duo is bound to give us an even better experience since the there won’t be any borders that connect the towns to the wilderness.
Players will be able to explore, watch, and catch Pokemon from the skies, in the seas, and in the streets. Like Pokemon Legends: Arceus, we’re definitely looking at the manual capturing system, which is a step up from just tossing the Pokeball to catch them.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet will also work with Pokemon HOME that lets you transfer your favorite Pokemon from other games.
However, Pokemon HOME stated that only specific Pokemon from other generations will be transferable to Scarlet and Violet.
This might be telling of the fact that the new games are only going to feature particular Pokemon that are compatible with the new titles. This means that the Pokemon we’ll get in Scarlet and Violet will be improved and upgraded models of the old.
Until Gen 6, we only had 2D Pokemon graphics. Even when we evolved to 3D, the animation seemed a little simplistic. But the Lucario we saw in the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet trailer does have amazingly animated expressions.
All the Pokemon in the sneak peek look more 3D, if that makes sense. So, I don’t mind skipping out on some of the older ‘mons in exchange for enhanced animations.
In addition to better graphics and in-game player experience, Scarlet and Violet will likely be multiplayer and have expansive DLC support.
Since the games will be open-world, we can also expect open endings and multiple routes to finish chapters. The map is not going to be linear, so every player is going to experience the game differently.
5. Is preordering worth it?
Preordering Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet is a good idea for fans looking for bonus features and retail-specific offers. Pokemon Legends: Arceus offered an exclusive mask item for customers that had preordered the game.
Although nothing has been confirmed yet, there’s a high chance that Scarlet and Violet also have unique features for their preorder customers.
Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet on Nintendo Switch are both available for preorder in the US and the UK. The games are set to release at the end of 2022.
6. About Pokémon
Pokémon was first released in 1996 and is set up in a world where humans catch monsters and store them in pocket-sized poke-balls.
They are creatures with an affinity to certain elements and some superhuman abilities related to that element.
Revolving around a teenage boy Ash Ketchum, Pokémon takes us through his journey to becoming the most accomplished Pokémon trainer the world has ever seen.
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