New Details for Pokemon Scarlet & Violet

Arcaders it has been a while, but I have come back briefly to give you my impressions of all the new announcements for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. While most of the direct itself was not too exciting, what I was waiting for was more information about Scarlet and Violet. I was hoping to have my sock knocked off about the new Pokemon games and today I wasn’t disappointed. All the new features, gameplay mechanics, and even the very small amount of Pokemon they showed look great and it got me excited to play this game which is coming out on November 18th, 2022. Here is a rundown of all the announcements about the new mainline games and a bit of my thoughts:

S & V will be the first true open-world Pokemon games. If it is an upgrade from Pokemon Legends I will definitely be very happy. 

In this generation, your character is a student of two different schools depending on the version you purchase, the Naranja Academy in Pokémon Scarlet, or the Uva Academy in Pokémon Violet. As a student, you have been tasked with an independent study assignment, the Treasure Hunt. There is not enough information on this yet to give an opinion on this but from what we know I feel it is a good setup for the game. 

There will be three major storylines and you can play them in any order including gyms. This is huge news and I can’t wait to see how this merges with classic Pokemon gameplay. 

The new region is called the Paldea region and the region is based off Spain. Visually I love how this looks and it makes this new region very unique. 

The box art legendary Pokemon, Koraidon and Miraidon, can transform into a true all-terrain vehicle that the player can ride through the region. Not going to lie when I heard this I thought it was kind of ridiculous but as an open-world game mechanic, I think it will be fun.  

Terastallizing is the new mechanic for this generation which will turn your Pokemon into living crystals making them much more powerful and some Pokemon might even change type depending on the Pokemon. I like this over dynamaxing in Sword and Shield. It can look a bit weird but still, it should be fun.   

Raid battles return but in this version, they are called Tera Raid Battles. I am glad that raid battles from Sword and Shield will return in a new form in S & V and I like some of the improvements they made including not having to wait for your turn before doing something. 

There will be a four-player co-op mode in the game where you can adventure with friends. I have thought that Pokemon has needed a co-op mode for a very long time. But while I like this feature I think I will have to see how it plays when it comes out and how much freedom it will give you when adventuring.  

If you didn’t see the Pokemon direct no worries I have posted the video below. So now that you know what I think about these new announcements I want to know what you think. Do you like these new modes? Are you excited by this news? What version will you be purchasing? Let me know in the comments below.