Just how much ‘freedom’ will Pokemon Scarlet & Violet have?
Pokemon fans have a new adventure to look forward to with the upcoming gen 9 installments “Pokemon Scarlet & Violet”. Although we got a ton of information with the last few trailers, there’s still a lot to wonder and speculate about.
True open-world Pokemon is finally here. Pokemon Scarlet & Violet will seemingly take what Pokemon Legends Arceus did and expand upon that with the ability to explore freely in an open-world game. Players will be in an entirely new region called the Paldea region with tons of new Pokemon starting November 18th, 2022.
Now let’s get into some of the rumors, leaks, and speculation! Of course, these “leaks” are rumors for now so we cannot automatically assume everything that’s coming out is 100% correct.
If you’re someone that doesn’t want anything spoiled at all, this is your warning.
In Legends Arceus it was an open world to a point, the map was separated and unlocked one story at a time. In Scarlet & Violet, it looks like it will be a truly open-world game where “various towns blend into the wilderness with no borders”. According to Pokemon.com, you’re free to explore at your own leisure and not in an order dictated by the story.
Hopefully, the world will feel more alive than Legends Arceus with the inclusion of civilization. We’re expected to see cities, towns, Pokemon centers, and more people overall as users will be able to battle other trainers and gyms.
According to rumors and leaks, there are supposedly around 3 cities and 9 towns in the game. From the Pokemon Presents trailer, we know we’ll be able to do the gyms and stories in any order you want. We will see 8 gyms, and the gym journey is only 1 of the 3 main stories within this game. Apparently, we’ll be able to progress in any of the 3 stories however we choose at any time.
This type of free will sounds amazing and probably will be, but it’s also been found that there’ll be no difficulty scaling.
This is really unfortunate because this means if you don’t go by the order the game is designed for, the difficulty won’t follow. For example, the 5th gym will have its set difficulty no matter the order in which a player gets to it. If you’re good enough to beat the 4th and 5th gym and go back to the 2nd gym, the 2nd gym will still have the same difficulty and levels as if it were the 2nd gym you were supposed to go to.
It would certainly be more work, but most fans would want to see the towns and gyms you visit to match the difficulty as the story progresses, no matter the order or path a player takes. This feels like a missed opportunity as it would give the game tremendous replay value. Pokemon fans love replaying the games, so it would be even more of an incentive if they can replay in different orders.
in older Pokemon games you still had to follow a linear story and do things to level up and advance to further towns and sections. Just how much freedom will a player have? Will we truly be able to go anywhere from the start? Will it be similar to how in Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild where you could go to the finale as soon as you begin the game?
There’s been speculation that maybe each town you go to has its own story within itself. This could explain why you can go anywhere in any order not dictated by the game. A bunch of mini storylines that will tie into one overarching story could make a lot of sense for an open-world Pokemon game such as this.
Going back to gym battles, some information has been leaked about those as well. Apparently, gyms will have rematches up to 2 times and gym leaders will have second jobs and hobbies within the game. This is nice because it brings these characters to life more, plus it’s something that is common with the TV show.
It was also leaked out but then confirmed by the trailer that there are classes, interviews, and exams in the game. The school/learning feature has a chance to be a clever and relatable addition to the game.
In 2 trailers now, they’ve shown us towers with our character at the top. It’s possible those towers serve as vantage points where maybe a user will have the ability to fast travel between areas. It’s also quite possible that the towers are filled with levels where each floor is a maze with trainer battles within them. Could the towers be part of one of the other 2 main storylines? We’ll most likely have to wait and find out more when the game comes out.
Another interesting aspect to look out for in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet’s open-world concept is the addition of multiplayer with up to 4 players. How much of the story will you be able to accomplish with other players? How will the game recognize there being 4 different main characters? Are team battles or duo battles going to be a thing? It will be interesting to see how this feature plays out and keep players engaged.
Similar to Legends Arceus, Scarlet & Violet will play around with the past affecting the future. This has been speculated all the way down to the legendary Pokemon Koraidon and Miraidon. Some believe it’s the same Pokemon or a Pokemon with the same origin but one grew up in the past and one grew up in the future. And some believe these are what they look like if one was created naturally and the other created through science.
If you look at the professors for each game, Scarlet’s professor seems like she’s going to be from the past and have a liking for things being natural. Violet’s professor looks like he’s from the future and is all about evolution through science perhaps.
Even down to the customization of your character, which looks to be more enhanced. But depending on which of the two games you choose, the outfits may be limited to the style that matches the time period you’re in!
There’s a new phenomenon in the Paldea region that will explain the game’s new gimmick. “It is said that the terastal energy seeps from the ground of the Paldea region is involved in the phenomenon.” When a Pokemon terastallizes, a tera jewel will appear above its head. Once this happens, the Pokemon gain special power depending on its tera type. It enhances your Pokemon’s abilities and power of the moves that are the same type as the Pokemon’s tera type. To learn more about the phenomenon click here.
Then recently we got a trailer on what competitive play could look like. The new trailer also introduced a new Dragon/Normal type Pokemon “Cyclizar”. New moves and items were shown off as well to help enhance your battle strategy.
Here are a few more rumored leaks about the upcoming games:
– Exp Share cannot be turned off.
– You can choose when to evolve your Pokemon in the menu.
– Gym types are Electric, Water, Grass, Ice, Bug, Ghost, Psychic, and Normal.
– Regional Pokedex has 400+ Pokemon.
There are a ton more leaks floating around out there about Pokemon Scarlet & Violet. if you’re interested in seeing more info speculation about the game and the Pokemon within it, check out the compiled list that Reddit user DSDark11 made here. This list continues to stay updated as rumors and leaks get confirmed and as new ones pop up.
We are expected to get another trailer for this game on September 7th at 9:00 AM EST.
What are you hoping to see from the new trailer and the game in general? Stay tuned for more updates on Pokemon Scarlet & Violet as the game gets closer and closer to its release date.
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