Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet - The game is out but let's be careful with them spoilers!

I really wasn't expecting a Gen 9 announcement today. I know 3 years is the standard rate now, but this feels too fast to me. It looked like some of what we saw in Legends is back, so here's hoping this is as good as it has the potential to be . . .

Buskalilly wrote:

In BDSP, there is a recurring poster in various houses which seems to be Van Gogh's Starry Night. Van Gough was from the Netherlands, which for a couple of centuries was the only country with which Japan would trade or interact. We could be seeing windmills, canals and bicycles aplenty!

Peep them windmills!

Oh what! That's really taken me by surprise too. Looks very Legends Arceus-y, which is potentially good gameplay-wise - though you're right, it really doesn't feel like BDSP and PLA have had much time to breathe.

We could see three Pokémon games within 366 days, madness.

So it is Spain and the starters are Sprigatito, Fuecoco, Quaxly


I might start with the Grass cat Sprigatito, as reminds me of Litten, just I like never start with grass.

The website also mentions you'll have different outfits depending on which version you go far, and how it reads sounds like there's a reason for that.

Those starters all look good to me

Buskalilly wrote:

I know 3 years is the standard rate now, but this feels too fast to me. It looked like some of what we saw in Legends is back, so here's hoping this is as good as it has the potential to be . . .

Same.  I think we both expected something like, if not exactly, Let's Go Johto.  That would have been good.  Instead we have another main entry, already.  Ludicrous.

That said, I'm going to tentatively say it looks good?  Really colourful environments. They've lost the stealth-catching thing from Legends, but it looks like the open world and the entirely visible Pokémon have made the cut.

Unsure whether to go for green cat or applegator at the moment.  Leaning towards applegator, because I've seen people calling it ugly.  Also I haven't picked a fire-type starter since gen. 3!

First time I saw the screenshot, I thought these starters were fanfic 'Mons.

Dino dude for me. Cat and ducky look shite, and I almost always choose water.

As for whether this game needs to exist for another two years - why can't we bask in Legends: Arceus for a little longer? It's good and it took me by complete surprise.

Ready to be the Sancho to my Don Quaxly

I should now be leaning back towards Sprigatito, given that all I've seen is people calling it a generic green cat. Trouble is, they're... right? It's cute, but it's also something I could see coming out of Nexomon or another knock-off. And I haven't had a fire-type starter since gen. 3.

stu_the_great wrote:

As for whether this game needs to exist for another two years - why can't we bask in Legends: Arceus for a little longer? It's good and it took me by complete surprise.

Not everybody manages to get 90 hours out of the first area though.

But yes, you're right. I feel like Arceus isn't being given its due. We're sweeping on too quickly without appreciating it enough.

neil wrote:

Those starters all look good to me

Samesies!

The Pokéballs Man wrote:

They've lost the stealth-catching thing from Legends, but it looks like the open world and the entirely visible Pokémon have made the cut.

They didn't show it but we don't know for sure - they didn't show overworld Pokémon in the first Sword and Shield trailer, they teased that out.

I only like the fire starter. I dislike the other two but especially the cat, whose face suggests it lost a fight with a leaf.

Buskalilly wrote:

neil wrote:

Those starters all look good to me

Samesies!

The Pokéballs Man wrote:

They've lost the stealth-catching thing from Legends, but it looks like the open world and the entirely visible Pokémon have made the cut.

They didn't show it but we don't know for sure - they didn't show overworld Pokémon in the first Sword and Shield trailer, they teased that out.

Thing is, clearly these worked on alongside each other that going to be stuff we now like in Legend not S&V and vice versa.

Hopefully since Legends been so popular the next thing they work on take ideas from it, and they just don't forget about things.

Balladeer wrote:

Not everybody manages to get 90 hours out of the first area though.

But yes, you're right.  I feel like Arceus isn't being given its due.  We're sweeping on too quickly without appreciating it enough.

I'm just hoping that all it has brought to the table won't be swept under the rug for another Sword and Shield. it's been a real reinvigoration for me after years of sliding down the apathy slope.

Looking at the trailer again, I don't see how they can omit stealth in what appears to be such an open environment. It seems to go hand in hand with the sweeping landscapes. Hopefully this is later revealed in a future trailer.

[EDIT]

Me and Mas made exactly the same point about stealth without me even realising.

Press release wrote:

The Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet games, the newest chapters in the Pokémon series, are coming to Nintendo Switch later this year. With these new titles, the Pokémon series takes a new evolutionary step, allowing you to explore freely in a richly expressed open world.

Various towns blend seamlessly into the wilderness with no borders. You’ll be able to see the Pokémon of this region in the skies, in the seas, in the forests, on the streets—all over! You’ll be able to experience the true joy of the Pokémon series—battling against wild Pokémon in order to catch them—now in an open-world game that players of any age can enjoy.​

It's the bolded bit that makes me think we won't be seeing stealth captures in this game. Of course there could be both like in Legends, but that line feels like an early attempt to control people's expectations for when stealth captures aren't there.

I agree doubt we will see in S&V, but might in Legends 2 or Gen 10.

When GF, go people liked that this in Legends & Gen 9 let's do that again, hopefully.

As they didn't just whip up S&V in a month, been years.

I guess it seems a bit soon because Legends felt like a pretty beefy experience on par with a new gen game.

Hoping that you can at least throw pokeballs outside of battles like in Arceus, catching them like in that game. But we didn't see anything like that in the trailer so I'm a little doubtful.

Still, an apparently fully open world pokemon game now, with likely some other interesting features too. And the expected graphical overhaul too. Exciting stuff.

masofdas wrote:

Thing is, clearly these worked on alongside each other that going to be stuff we now like in Legend not S&V and vice versa.

Hopefully since Legends been so popular the next thing they work on take ideas from it, and they just don't forget about things.

I was literally talking about an example which you're ignoring in your response?
Let's Go and S&S were worked on alongside eachother, and new additions which we saw in the former were present in the latter. Legends and ScaVi are being released a similar length of time apart, and were presumably worked on for about the same period. Game Freak is a pretty small studio, and what happens in one part of the office doesn't go unnoticed in another.

Sorry mate.

Yeah that's a good example of Let's Go and SWiSH. I'm personally going into S&V with view of games take awhile to make, might not have everything I like from Legends and I'm not going to salty that can't stealth catch Mon but maybe can in Gen 10.

Much like the rest of you, I was very surprised to see we're getting a mainline entry in the series this year. It does not feel like three years have passed since Sw/Sh. Part of me almost wishes they took a bit more time to polish this one up even shinier, as a bit of visual flair would no doubt go a treat with the open environments they've been teasing.

I've seen that it looks like they're heading to Spain/Portugal with these entries, which is neat! Also, as much as it might be a bit basic, I'm all in on grass cat.

From your .gif preferences I'm not surprised.

I think it looks nice already. Of course the frame rate's dreadful, but I've got every confidence that will change (it did in PLA), and it's much more vibrant colours-wise than PLA was.

masofdas wrote:

Sorry mate.

No worries dog.

Quote :

Yeah that's a good example of Let's Go and SWiSH. I'm personally going into S&V with view of games take awhile to make, might not have everything I like from Legends and I'm not going to salty that can't stealth catch Mon but maybe can in Gen 10.

I'm sceptical about whether we'll get the stealth catching, not because of time constraints but just because I don't know if that's what they want to do in the main series. Let's Go and Legends both had no-battle catching but Sword and Shield didn't make any movement in that direction at all.

Some great designs in this trailer. Lechonk is beautiful and precious. Four-player simultaneous Pokémon feels more like a gimmick than anything else, but I guess we'll see...

https://twitter.com/PokemonNewsUK/status/1531985405729464323

That's brilliant news. Just let me stoat about with my Lechonk at my own pace, that's all I want and need.

Be great if can go to any gym at any time.

World looks empty. Earth texture looks like shit. Still no voice acting. Character models ripped straight from Xenoblade X. Looks like a terrible game, Pokémon is done. This will kill the franchise 100%

Balladeer wrote:

Four-player simultaneous Pokémon feels more like a gimmick than anything else, but I guess we'll see...

Oh yeah, almost certainly. There were raids and stuff in Sword and Shield, plus you could kinda see other players in the wild area. Overall though, that stuff could be ignored.

Legendaries have a spinny bit in the middle. I wonder if they're supposed to windmill-esque a la Don Quixote?

Anyway, I've seen enough now. Time for a Pokémon news blackout until release!

I have to admit the 4 player stuff completely passed me by until I read it here, the raids in Sword & Shield were decent though so I've got high hopes for them building on it.

I won't have much more to say though, will want to try and so some sort of blackout too although that's near impossible nowadays with the Pokémon Company insisting on showing every little detail.