Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet are the latest to join the mainline Pokemon games. They bring a refreshing take on the traditional Pokemon formula by introducing open world, non-linear progression, a new battle mechanic known as terastallization, and of course new Pokemon. The theme of Pokemon Scarlet is a focus on the past, whereas Pokemon Violet is a focus on the future. As a preference, I went with Pokemon Violet.
| Highlights | The ability travel almost anywhere in Paldea after a 20 minute introduction to the school, schoolmates and teachers/headmasters. You can choose whatever path you want to take and nothing will stop you from taking on the hardest challenge first. |
| Cost | $69 (in Australia) |
| Website | https://scarletviolet.pokemon.com/en-au/ |
Version differences
Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet are pretty much the same game, except the key characters are different, such as whether you have a female or male professor, whether your riding companion is Koraidon (Scarlet) or Miraidon (Violet), and the types of Pokemon that appear in the respective games, including whether in Area Zero you see Ancient Forms (Scarlet) or Future Forms (Violets) of Pokemon.
While I think the Ancient Forms look mighty impressive and better designed than the Future Forms, I tend to prefer futuristic settings. Plus if I had the choice to visit the past or future, the answer would always be future.
Gameplay
From the moment you pass the introductory sections and meet either Koraidon or Miraidon, you can choose whether you take down the eight gym leaders and Victory Road, partake in solving a mystery of giant Pokemon with Arven, or eliminate all five of the Team Star bases. Once all the stories are complete, the characters in each of the individual stories converge towards facing the final dungeon, Area Zero – which also happens to be the location of the Paradox Pokemon (e.g. where to find the Future Forms) and the final challenge.
The ability to take on any challenge in any order was a thrill. Without consulting any walkthrough or guides, I found myself either struggling against a gym leader well beyond my Pokemon level or simply overpowering them. This aspect took away that formulaic approach to the previous, traditional mainline games and allowed players to experiment and find things out, sometimes the hard way.
Traveling with Miraidon was an excellent experience and as they gained more and more abilities each time I assisted Arven with one of his quests, I was able to traverse more and more of the world with ease. I would sometimes come across some powerful Pokemon that I couldn’t reach with ease and took note to come back to it later when Miraidon had the ability to either swim or climb.
Additionally, the whole concept of items and technical machines have changed. You can literally find anything on the map just by traversing the map.
New features
Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet introduce the new battle mechanic Terastallization which allows a Pokemon within a team to gain or power-up a type, e.g. a Pikachu with a ground tera-type could terastallize and become a ground type Pokemon in addition to its electric type. This new mechanic allows certain Pokemon to completely subvert expectations in a battle by turning on its head what type weaknesses it had. It is a very interesting concept and one that probably has great utility in the competitive arena.
Tera-types for Pokemon can be acquired by capturing these Pokemon in the wild, changing a Pokemon’s existing tera-type by exchanging items, or by defeating a terastallized Pokemon in a Tera Raid. Tera Raids offer the most replayability because they are the most challenging aspect of the game and some Pokemon are unique to this feature.
In one Tera Raid, I saw a shiny Larvesta and fortunately it was only a 3 star raid and was able to capture it. In Pokemon Scarlet and Violet you can tell if the raid Pokemon is shiny or not.
Another interesting feature worth calling out is Let’s Go. This feature calls out the lead Pokemon to collect items on the map or enter into a quick battle with nearby Pokemon. The advantage of this quick battle system allowed players to quickly obtain items from defeated Pokemon (for TM crafting) and an additional neat feature is that Pokemon would not attack shiny Pokemon.
Some final thoughts
Pokemon Violet managed to bring back so much nostalgia. It’s an incredible game to play. Yes, it was glitchy and buggy when it first came out and some the environments are pretty bland and unexciting, but most of the features were done incredibly well and I had so much fun with the game. I liked that battles happen in the field and that I could choose which Pokemon I wanted to battle against.
It was excellent to see certain Pokemon get additional evolutions such as Bisharp, Primeape and Girafarig.
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