Pokémon Scarlet/Violet Has Quite the Journey for It’s Players
More Pokémon Scarlet/Violet news dropped this morning! We have news on new Pokémon, new features, new details on story questlines, raids, trainer customization, and a whole lot more! Scarlet and Violet continues to follow the theme of finding things of value, and it seems the main goal of the player will be to find their own great treasure.
Take on the Victory Road
The Pokémon Company went into more detail on three main questlines you’ll be faced with in the game. There’s of course the obvious traditional route “Victory Road” where you battle eight gyms and defeat the elite four. However gyms this time around will have a few tricks! You’ll have to complete tasks known as a “Gym Test”. Brassius, the grass type gym leader, will challenge you to gather a herd of Sunflora, the sunflower Pokémon, before battling him. Apparently, he will have Sudowoodo on his team. Who isn’t normally a grass type, but will terrastalize into a grass type to match the gym’s theme. Nemona, your rival will assist you on this journey to become a Pokémon Champion!
Forge Your Own Path to Great Treasure
Another unique kind of questline is “Path of Legend”. This will take you all over the region of Paldea with, Arven. Who’s goal is to collect legendary herbs known as Herba Mystica. You’ll battle huge titan Pokémon who serve as bosses and obstacles to collect these rare herbs.
Finally, the third questline, Starfall Street, includes defeating Team Star. A band of rambunctious students who are known for causing havoc at the academy you’ll be studying at. You’ll find their bases around the region and run through defeating enemy Pokémon, eventually finding a crew boss. Each crew will have its own type and boss to count. Mela, the fire type crew boss, rides along in a sweet car to terrorize the player.
There’s a lot of features coming to Scarlet/Violet that are pretty unique! Let’s Go mode, a more passive style of battling where your Pokémon will wander around you and battle Pokémon on its own, as well as collect items in the world. This may be useful in the late game where you just want to train fast or make your Pokémon tougher by raising its EV’s in battle.
Y’all Got Anymore of Them TMs?
A new take on TMs (Technical Machines) appears in Pokémon Centers around the Paldea region. TM Machines allow players to craft their own TMs with LP (League Points) and crafting materials collected by defeating Pokémon in the wild. LP is collected by selling materials and progressing the story. Players can unlock more craftable TMs by progressing each questline. Every TM made can only be used once, but you can make as many as you want. Allowing for a little bit of grinding for that endgame team.
Take a Lunch Break at a Picnic with your Pokémon
Another feature involves taking picnics with your Pokémon around Paldea. These are fully customizable picnic kits where you can change the tablecloth, basket, bottles, etc. Players can gather ingredients for a sandwich to craft and feed them to their team. But be careful not to overstuff it! Ingredients will fall off if you put too much on it. Your final sub sandwich will restore your Pokémon’s HP as well as give it some yet disclosed benefits. If I were to speculate, it’d probably be EV related to help boost your Pokémon’s stats.
Making sandwiches isn’t the only thing you can do at a picnic. As your Pokémon travel with you, and battle alongside you, they will get dirty and grimy. You can restore them to their fresh selves by washing them when you’re settled at your picnic site. This will restore their HP and increase the bond you have with them as a trainer.
Other features include trainer customization in terms of hair and facial features, but it seems like the clothing will be restricted to only schoolkid type clothes. You can customize the eyes shape, color, lashes, freckles, lipstick, brows, and more of your trainer! You can take this look and shoot selfies around Paldea which you can use as the profile picture for what will serve as your trainer card.
Play With up to Four Friends With the New Union Circle
With a first for the Pokémon series comes 4 player co-op with the Union Circle. With this, you can battle, trade, show off, and adventure with your friends all across the region. However there are some limitations to how seamless you can travel during co-op, the details of which aren’t fully disclosed as of this moment.
While you’re with your friends, you can participate in Tera Raids. A raid system similar to Sword/Shield’s Dynamax raids. You battle against a huge Terrastalized Pokémon with a time limit. Don’t worry too much if your Pokémon gets knocked out! After a few turns it will return with full health. In the meantime, you can cheer your friends on, in order to give them benefits that will help them during the raid!
Welcome to the Family
We’ve got some new Pokémon I’d like to talk about too! As well as some I missed when writing other articles. First up, let’s talk about the newest Pokemon to join the roster.
Farigiraf
Category: Long Neck Pokémon
Type: Normal/Psychic
Height: 10’6″ (3.2 m)
Weight: 352.7 lbs. (160 kg)
Ability: Cud Chew / Armor Tail
“As a result of its Evolution, the head of its main body and the head from its tail have become one. Both of Farigiraf’s brains are connected through thick nerves, increasing its psychic energy, and it can emit psychic waves from the antennae on its head. Farigiraf is always mindful of its surroundings, and while it can detect danger in an instant, there are times when its body cannot react as fast as its two brains can think.”
The Pokemon Company
This long neck Pokémon is an evolution of Girafarig. A Pokémon first introduced way back in the gen 2 games, Gold, Silver, and Crystal. This giraffe Pokémon is finally getting some attention! It’s a Normal/Psychic type with the potential to learn one of two completely new abilities, Cud Chew, and Armor Tail. When Farigiraf has Cud Chew as its ability, when it eats a berry, it will eat the berry again at the end of its next turn. This can be a game changer when it comes to using berries as a held item. Imagine being able to heal twice with the same berry in two turns.
Armor Tail, a more situational ability, will make opposing Pokémon unable to use moves with priority like Protect, Shadow Sneak, or Quick Attack. If it turns out a lot of people are using priority moves, this may be a great ability to run.
Klawf
Category: Ambush Pokémon
Type: Rock
Height: 4’3″ (1.3 m)
Weight: 174.2 lbs. (79.0 kg)
Ability: Anger Shell / Shell Armor
“Klawf can rotate their protruding eyeballs to see everything around them, eliminating all their blind spots. They can latch upside down onto cliffs to ambush their prey from above, however, they eventually get dizzy from the blood rushing to their heads, so they cannot stay upside down for very long. “
The Pokemon Company
Another Pokémon that you will definitely face is the derpy looking crab known as, Klawf. You’ll encounter a titan form of this one during your Path of Legend questline. It comes with one of two returning abilities for this generation. Anger Shell, which activates when the Pokémon is at less than 50% of its HP. Klawf will raise its Attack, Special Attack, and Speed by one stage, while its Defense and Special Defense stats will lower by one stage each. It’s similar to the move Shell Smash, but set as an ability. The other ability you’ll find this crab with is Shell Armor. An ability which prevents the Pokémon from receiving critical hits even if it’s guaranteed.
Now, we’ve got a duo of legendaries by the names of Armarouge, and Ceruledge. Exclusive to Scarlet and Violet respectively. They both look like characters straight out of Mega Man, and they’re both a mix of fire types. They also have the ability Flash Fire. This makes it immune to fire type moves, and when it’s hit by one it will raise the power of fire type moves by 1.5 times. Will-O-Wisp can be used with no effect to activate this ability. This will prove to be a good strategy to use in double battles against an opponent.
Armarouge
Category: Fire Warrior Pokemon
Type: Fire/Psychic
Height: 4’11”
Weight: 187.4 lbs.
Ability: Flash Fire
“Armarouge’s set of armor belonged to a distinguished warrior and is the source of the energy used for its Psychic-type moves. It also uses the psychic capabilities of this armor to control the fire energy within its body and unleash attacks.”
The Pokemon Company
Ceruledge
Category: Fire Blades Pokemon
Type: Fire/Ghost
Height: 5’3”
Weight: 136.7 lbs.
Ability: Flash Fire
“Ceruledge dons an old set of armor steeped in grudges and wields blades made of fire and ghost energy. In battle, these blades transform into great swords to increase Ceruledge’s power. Cuts from these great swords leave wounds from which life energy will flow.”
The Pokemon Company
Take a Sneak Peek at More New Pokémon
There also seems to be some Pokémon that were quietly sneaked into the trailer. At 7:16 in the video, you can see on the minimap three unrevealed Pokemon and a Rookiedee. It seems like a mouse Pokémon, a bird Pokémon, and what looks like a mushroom or rock Pokémon? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
I’m personally excited for Scarlet/Violet to drop!. What questline do you think you’ll finish first? Are you looking forward to 4 player co-op? If you somehow end up playing with me in Scarlet/Violet, you can catch me making the most outrageous Italian subs for everyone’s Pokémon! See you on November 18th.
