Pokémon Scarlet & Violet: My Thoughts, Wants and Predictions

Well folks, here we are, another day another big Pokémon announcement. Last Sunday's Pokémon Presents gave us a few things that weren't exactly major but still something to keep the fans happy like the Shaymin event being made available in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl and a free content update for Pokémon Legends Arceus. But then at the very end, we got a new trailer for the next pair of Pokémon games, and not just any pair...but the pair to start off Pokémon's ninth generation. Blimey, it still feels like I only just got started with Gen 8 and now we're on Gen 9?!

And so here we are with Gen 9's flagship titles revealed: Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. So what are Pokémon Scarlet and Violet going to be like? What do we know so far and what are my thoughts on them? I'll go into that along with some personal wants and my own predictions for what we may get in these games. So let's dive in...

Section 1: What Do We Know About Pokémon Scarlet and Violet?

Naturally, we have little information about the games to go off given we only had a reveal trailer come out on Sunday the 27th last month. What we know so far is that this is going to be a fully open world Pokémon game unlike anything we've had before. Even Legends Arceus wasn't fully open world given we needed to unlock certain areas before we could travel through them. From what we've been told, the world of this game "seamlessly blends towns and cities with no borders into the wilderness". The region itself also appears to be taking inspiration from Spain or Portugal but we have no name for it yet.

We also know what the starter Pokémon look like and what their names are. From left to right we have Sprigatito, Fuecoco and Quaxly. Their typings should be obvious from their colour schemes. Any other new Pokémon introduced in these games remains to be seen.

We also know that these are what the player characters will look like. Interestingly enough, for the first time ever in the Pokemon series, we have player characters who's colour of their clothing differs between versions.

Also in the trailer, we see that in terms of returning Pokémon, we will be getting the Starly line, the Hoppip line, the Petilil line, the Bounsweet line, the Psyduck line, the Combee line, the Drifloon line, Kantonian Mewoth, Stonjourner, the Clauncher line, the Wingull line, the Swablu line, the Pikachu line, the Chansey line, Seviper, the Larvitar line, the Magnemite and the Riolu line. The official website shows that surprisingly enough, Hisuian Zoroark is available too, which really begs the question how any Hisuian Pokémon are still alive in modern times...

Any other returning Pokémon remains to be seen.

Section 2: My Thoughts

Personally, I like what I've seen so far. The region itself looks gorgeous from what we've seen of it so far and I already can't wait to explore it, the open-world gameplay is just what the franchise needs to fully progress into the modern era and given how well it worked for Legends Arceus, it'll be very welcome to see in a new pair of Pokémon games and the trailer has me excited to see more, be it more of the region, more returning Pokémon and more new ones we can catch for the first time.

The starter Pokémon look decent too. Sprigatito in my opinion has the best design of the trio with its utterly adorable appearance as this cute kitten with big purple eyes. Fuecoco looks more like a baby dinosaur than a crocodile to me but I still like its appearance (even if it's hard to unsee that it looks like an apple somewhat), though I would've gone with a different design for the eyes than what we got here. I dunno, the eyes just look weird to me and they should've gone more with what they did with Totodile while making them a slightly different shape so they don't look too similar. Quaxly looks...OK at best but nothing great. It just looks like a duckling wearing a beret and continues this trend of the Water starters looking the least interesting of the bunch that started with Sun and Moon. Sobble grew on me over time despite me not thinking too much to its design so maybe Quaxly will grow on me too. I am amused at the jokes about it being the Pokémon Donald Duck though. XD

Even though Sprigatito is the best looking of the starters, I intend to choose Fuecoco as my first starter for my first run on the games. Why? Simple: fire crocodile! Do I need another reason? It helps that Fire is one of my favourite types in Pokémon and crocodiles are my favourite animals so choosing my first starter for these games is a no brainer.

I'm not fond of the player character's designs though. These are by far the most generic and boring designs I've ever seen for a player character in Pokémon. They don't even LOOK like Pokémon characters! Their generic, pedestrian designs and school outfits make them look like background characters from any school-based anime or manga you can find out there and it's just a shame that the player characters have to look so bland. They're a huge step-down from more creative and iconic designs like Red, Green, Ethan, May, Dawn, Hilda, Serena and Gloria and it just feels like more effort could've been put into these designs. Hopefully there will be a character customization feature like the previous 3-D games so we can make them look more interesting. I do find it nice that their uniforms have different colours between versions but they could've been more inventive than just giving them different coloured uniforms. Maybe different uniforms in general would've justified this feature a bit more. Out of the uniform colours, the Violet Uniforms look the best to me.

Section 3: What I Would Like To See

Now when it comes to these games, what would I like to see in them?

First of all, there are several Pokémon species that I hope make their appearances here in the game. I hope to see the Aron, Onix, Magby, Elekid, Pidgey, Deino, Dratini, Hisuian Growlithe, Honedge, Gastly, Litwick, Sandile, Budew, Scyther, Staryu, Joltik, Tyrunt, Murkrow, Abra, Galarian Ponyta, Toxtricity, Chewtle, Galarian Zigzagoon, Teddiursa line (complete with Ursaluna), Beldum, Numel, Impidimp, Machop, Galarian Farfetch'd, Vuplix (both variants), Nidoran (both genders), Ralts, Trapinch, Bagon, Snorunt, Cubchoo, Togepi, Bergmite (but with Hisuian Avalugg), Snom, Tynamo, Cranidos, Noibat, Johtonian Sneasel, Gligar, Aipom, Pancham, Heracross, Mankey, Rufflet (but with Hisuian Braviary) Zangoose, Litleo and Rolycoly lines all come back for these games. For single-stage Pokémon, I hope to see Druddigon and Duraludon return and given Pikachu's presence, I wouldn't mind if we could have both versions of Raichu available.

I also hope, and even expect, to see new regional variants in this game and maybe some new evolutions. For Pokémon I want to see a new variant of, I would like to see Pidgeot, Dragonite, Onix and Steelix, Salamence, Tauros, Gliscor, Noivern, Honchkrow and Aegislash get new variants. I bet Game Freak could come up with something creative with new versions of these Pokémon.

For new evolutions, I think it'd be awesome to see new evolutions for Zangoose, Seviper, Tauros, Beartic, Drednaw, Druddigon, Duraludon, Frosmoth and Primape. All of these Pokémon would benefit so much from new evolutions and I think we could get some awesome new Pokémon out of these. I would also LOVE to see a Dragon-type and Steel-type Eeveelution respectively. A Steel-type Eeveelution and a Dragon-type Eeveelution would be really awesome to see and play around with.

I would like the combat system to be back to the way it was in previous games. Legends Arceus was a nice change of pace, but ultimately should remain a one-time only deal so having the original combat system back would be nice. I would like double battles to be back as well, though I imagine that's a given for modern Pokémon games. Also from Legends Arceus, I'd love it if trade-evolution Pokémon evolve with their items being used as evolution stones and the Link Cable is available to evolve Machoke, Haunter and Kadabra like in that game, though I doubt it given it's two games again. I also hope, and think it's very likely, that EXP Candies will come back for these games.

I also think it'd be beneficial for these games to have their own gimmick rather than bringing back an old one. No Mega Evolutions and no Dynamaxing. The games need their own identity so if we get a new gimmick, it should be something unique to itself and not from past games. As for what this gimmick should be, I have no idea. I'm not as creative as Game Freak is so I'll leave that up to them.

As for the Gym Circuit, I REALLY hope we get version exclusive Gym Leaders like in Sword and Shield. That should be the staple new feature of all future Pokémon Games as it justifies buying both versions more. For what Gyms I want to see, I think the eight Gyms we battle should be in order:

Normal, Poison, Fire, Ground, Ice, Dark, Fairy and Dragon.

For the version exclusives, I'd have Fire and Dark in one game and the other would have Water and Psychic instead. This Gym circuit I feel would pose more of a challenge as it's less predictable and not as traditional as other Pokémon games and we have types like Poison, Dark and Fairy that haven't had many Gyms so we can give them more a time to shine here.

Rather than the Elite Four, I'd go more with Sword and Shield's set-up where it's a tournament royale to determine who faces the Champion. Instead of re-matching your rival and three Gym Leaders like in Sword and Shield, I think your first three opponents should be NPCs that have strong teams with no single typing and your final opponent before the Champion should be your rival. This equivalent of the Elite Four could potentially be VERY challenging and having your rival be your fourth opponent would add some personal stakes to the story as it's you and your rival fighting it out for a chance to battle the Champion. Also I would like to see the rival be given a sympathetic motivation behind their desire to be Champion and not just another case of "because" like with most rivals.

I hope the story gives us a straight-forward evil villain and doesn't give us another twist villain like Sword & Shield and Legends Arceus have done. It'll just get tiresome real quick if we get yet ANOTHER twist villain for the games. Also, I hope the evil team, if there is one, will be a proper villainous team and not a group of delinquents like Team Skull and Team Yell were. We need proper villains like Team Rocket, Team Galactic and Team Plasma again. Also it would be nice to have a female villain this time around as we have too many male villains in Pokémon. And no, female grunts don't count, I mean a MAIN female villain like Lusamine in Sun and Moon.

Speaking of teams, I would LOVE to see the return of Team Rainbow Rocket from the Ultra Sun and Moon games. For this version of the team, we could add alternate versions of Lusamine and Chairman Rose with Lusamine using Solgaleo or Lunala and Chairman Rose using Zacian or Zamazenta depending on the version.

Also, pointless to say but what the heck, I hope we get a female Champion this time around. We can't just have Cynthia and Diantha, we need another female Champion.

These things may be too much to ask for, but it would be nice to see all these in the new games.

Section 4: My Predictions

Now it's time for me to predict what we may get in these games. I'm not usually one for predictions and fan-theories, especially as 90% of the time, I'm wrong when I try to predict anything. Still, I'm gonna go for it and see if any of them come true when the games come out:

1: I think the story will follow the traditional Pokémon formula with not much of a change to the usual kinds of stories they tell.

2: This is less a prediction and more of a "Well obviously!" kind of statement, but I'm certain the Eevee line will be back and all the Eeveelutions will be available.

3: Given this is a Spanish-based region, I guarantee we'll be getting some kind of bull-based Pokémon given the Spanish's (rather sickening) obsession with bull-fighting. It's also why I strongly believe that Tauros will show up in this region too. I mean it'd be a missed opportunity if it didn't appear, wouldn't it? Now if the bull Pokémon is a new form for Tauros or a new Pokémon, I can't guess for sure but knowing Game Freak, they might do both.

4: I also imagine that Game Freak will delve deep into Spanish lore and mythology for inspiration so we may see Pokémon based on creatures that come out of those things.

5: The Legendary Pokémon will likely be based on some kind of creature from Spanish mythology and I estimate we may get at least one Fairy-type and at least one Dragon-type Legendary.

6: The EXP share system will undoubtedly return, and there still won't be the option to turn it off because why would there be? XD

7: The starter Pokémon might become dual-types when they evolve. I estimate that Sprigatito will become a Grass/Poison or a Grass/Psychic type in its fully evovled state, Fuecoco might become a Fire/Ground or a Fire/Water type and Quaxly will unquestionably become a Water/Flying type.

8: Following from Sword and Shield, I'm guessing we'll get more than one rival character, and one will be friendly while the other will be a jerk.

9: We might be back to TMs and TRs like in Sword and Shield, or we'll be back to TMs full time. Hopefully they'll be continuous use and not single use.

10: HMs won't return and we'll probably get Ride Pokémon again like in Sun & Moon and Legends Arceus. You'll be able to ride on a fast Pokémon on land, ride on one that swims across water and ride on one that flies. There might be one to sniff out treasures and climb cliffs too.

Conclusion

And that's it for this post, all my thoughts, hopes and predictions for the games to come. What do you think to them and do you have any thoughts, hopes and predictions of your own? Feel free to list them down below in the comments and share what you think.

That's it for this special post. See you next time, media fans!