Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, all the news revealed by the trailer

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

Despite the billions of copies sold in twenty-six years of honored career, and perhaps because of its extraordinary success around the world, Pokémon today has become an extremely divisive topic. Each new title is greeted with skepticism and optimism in equal measure by a community that often ends up arguing under trailers, news and commercials, but it is undeniable that this climate has fueled it a bit by Game Freak himself, whose slips, for some time. year, they begin to attract more attention than past successes. In this sense, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, could represent a moment of redemption after the release of the Pokémon Shining Pearl and Shining Diamond remakes and the experimental Pokémon Legends: Arceus, which was initially presented as the future of the series and now perhaps. it won't be anymore.

It's a confusing situation, in short, but the new trailer for Pokémon Violet and Scarlet has had a much more positive response than in the past, a sign that perhaps the famous franchise could be back on the right track.

Open world !?

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, will be the first true open world of the series. , which will thrill even those approaching the series for the first time ": after the experiments of the Wild Lands in Pokémon Sword and Shield and the freely explorable maps of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, in short, Game Freak officially makes its entry into the open world dynamics with the ninth generation of its reference franchise. The first few seconds of the trailer didn't give the impression of an open world, but now those very large areas, framed from afar ... and suspiciously empty ... take on a completely different meaning. The trailer shows us what we assume to be the beginning of the usual journey that our character - a boy or a girl - will make to discover the world to collect all the pokémon in his PokéDex.

One of the most striking novelties it would seem to be the presence of a mentor that changes depending on the version chosen: in Pokémon Scarlet it will be Professor Olim, in Pokémon Violet it will be Professor Turum. Let's try to analyze them more in depth. They are certainly younger and, well, sexy characters than the professors from previous episodes, but it's mostly the clothes that grab our attention. Professor Olim wears a costume that looks almost primitive, featuring tattered two pieces and tribal-looking trinkets. Professor Turum, on the other hand, wears a suit that looks like something out of Tron, and his haircut is more modern too. Then there are the names. Olim, in Latin, is an adverb that serves to contextualize a fact in the past. Turum would seem to be a contraction of "futurum": in English, for example, the two mentors are called respectively Sada and Turo, contractions of "pasada" and "future" which, in Spanish, obviously mean past and future.

In the Spanish localization, however, Sada is called Albora, because "pasada" is a slang that refers to something that is best left behind, gone out of fashion. Albora is a feminization of "albor", which in Spanish expresses something that belongs to a distant beginning, such as our proverbial dawn of time.

Pokémon Violet and Scarlet, the new region is inspired by the Iberian Peninsula All this discourse suggests that the two versions could be distinguished in this respect and the story could have to do with time or time travel. The two legendary Pokémon revealed at the end of the trailer perfectly embody this concept. Koraidon, who will appear in Pokémon Scarlet, resembles a dinosaur with a tail, feathers and what appears to be a ... spiked wheel emerging from his chest? Maybe that's why the fanbase thinks it's a Dragon / Fighting type. Miraidon, on the other hand, recalls a species of Chinese dragon, were it not for the reactors that are found in place of the lower legs and digitized eyes, and for this reason it is assumed that it is of the Dragon / Electric type.

In any case, they are certainly the most bizarre legendary pokémon we have seen in recent years, and it is probably on them that Professors Olim and Turum are investigating. To help them there will be us and Nemi, a coach who apparently will play the role of the canon and inevitable rival, even if the official website describes her more as a guide who will teach us all the tricks of the trade.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Nemi is our new rival The trailer does not reveal anything else in terms of narrative, but the official site, the location and the promotional material released in the last hours suggest that the setting, this time, is it will inspire Spain or Portugal, and in fact the architecture of the region that we saw in the trailer, at one point, is very reminiscent of the Spanish Sagrada Familia. We haven't seen the map of the region yet, but the open world nature of this title will allow players to explore the world far and wide right from the start, without being tied to an actual campaign.

It looks like we can decide in what order to tackle each gym - if they still are! - and which maps to explore first, but we don't know how Game Freak intends to balance the difficulty curve: it would make no sense to reach maps where wild pokémon exceed level 50 when they do not yet have level 10 or higher. So there will be some kind of stakes, or Game Freak has designed an RPG that "scales" with the player's level, adapting the opponents to his team.

Multiplayer !?

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, the cooperative mode for up to four players Despite this important change to the structure of the progression and exploration, the combat system will remain the same as always turn-based, as evidenced by the fight scenes in the trailer. The dynamics have not yet been seen in detail, but it seems that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have inherited at least one characteristic of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, namely the possibility of sneaking up to wild pokémon to catch them or take them by surprise, perhaps earning a turn free at the start of the fight. We do not yet know, however, if the fights will take place on the spot, without any transition, or if the game will load a separate battlefield like in the old titles of the series, but we do know that there will still be the fights with the NPCs that will attack us at seen when we are close enough.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, NPCs will continue to attack Open world or not, it seems that Scarlet and Violet will not give up the clichés of the series. Perhaps they will no longer be called gyms, but there will still be tests to overcome and important battles to be faced in large battlefields such as the one with the mill that can be seen in the trailer and which looks to all intents and purposes a kind of stadium or arena. Looking carefully, you will notice a flight of stairs that comes from the floor below, and which suggests the return of the dungeons or dungeons, if you prefer.

Now we just need to understand how the old game structure fits not only in the open world perspective, but also in the light of the other, great news unveiled in the new trailer: cooperative multiplayer up to four players. Hoping that Game Freak has learned something from the Wilds of Pokémon Sword and Shield, the multiplayer mode seems to have enormous potential. In this case, in fact, it is a question of sharing the game world with three other players, with whom we will obviously be able to fight, exchange the monsters and explore the scenario.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, the three initial pokémon Nintendo do not he explored the characteristics of this multiplayer component, which seems much more dynamic than in the past, but on which it is still difficult to speculate on conjectures. For example we don't know how it will affect battles and captures, but we imagine they work in a similar way to what is seen in the aforementioned Sword and Shield Wilds. Game Freak will absolutely have to streamline this functionality, because a slow and cumbersome drop-in / drop-out multiplayer like Animal Crossing: New Horizons would be intolerable, just to name another Big N title with four-player support.

As we have said, however, the potential of this game dynamics is enormous and could completely revolutionize the philosophy of the game, especially in the post-game when, after the campaign, it remains to hunt down the legendaries. Game Freak could introduce legendaries who must necessarily be faced or captured in the team, perhaps inspired by titles that have tried a similar approach. The first that comes to mind is Monster Hunter Stories 2.

The new pokémon

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Lechonk immediately became the star of the social networks The monsters revealed by the trailer are not there is a lot to say, also because pokémon design has always been polarizing. On this occasion, however, something unexpected happened when Lechonk, one of the new monsters, literally conquered the net. Within a few hours, the little pig that "constantly walks in search of food, relying on its fine sense of smell", as the Nintendo Italia Twitter account officially describes it, has become the absolute protagonist of an infinity of memes and fanarts. .

To tell the truth, the new pokémon revealed have found a little bit of all the favor of the public. In addition to the legendaries - which have been more divisive, in fact - we have officially discovered at least three new pokémon: the aforementioned Lechonk, but also Smoliv and Pawmi.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Pawmi is the Pikachu wannabe of this generation Smoliv is a Grass / Normal type pokémon that literally carries an olive on its head and secretes a fragrant oil to distract attackers and escape. Pawmi, on the other hand, is an Electric-type pokémon that stores the electric current in the fur and plays the role of the inevitable monster who tries to steal the place of mascot from Pikachu in each episode without succeeding. Together with Lechonk, which is a Normal-type pokémon, these two pokémon represent Nemi's starting team and we will probably have to face them several times during the adventure.

The trailer does not reveal other unreleased pokémon, but it shows us welcome returns such as Gengar - and therefore, presumably, Haunter and Ghastly) or Bagon, which should evolve into the mighty Salamence. As usual, in short, the regional PokéDex will include a still unknown amount of unpublished pokémon that will wander along with those already captured in previous titles, but to know all the details we will have to wait for the game's release, in November.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Smoliv is a new monster of type Grass / Normal In short, the new trailer of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet would seem to promise some important evolutions in the dynamics and structure of a series that over the years has also become too self-referential. Whether Game Freak will be able to manage the risks and difficulties of an open world is still to be seen, but fans of the Pokémon universe can look to November with greater optimism and put their hearts in peace on the technical sector, which still remains to say the least. ancient. It goes without saying that we will be following the next updates with great interest, as we are sure that Nintendo will continue to disclose more and more information between now and November.

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