The Long Road to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

Official Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Artwork (Source: Twitter)

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve made it. We’ve finally arrived at the release week of Pokemon’s ninth generation of games.

As The Pokémon Company International has advertised ad nauseum, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will be the mainline series’ first true open world adventure, complete with an instance-minimal region, three separate storylines whose beats may be tackled in any order the player pleases, and the ability to play alongside up to four friends in the same overworld, in addition to all sorts of other innovative features.

While it’s wonderful that the franchise is finally breaking free from its older, 2D-optimized habits to make way for a fresh new experience, it’s worth noting that we didn’t get to this point overnight. In fact, a look over the past near-decade of Pokémon games show that the road to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s innovations was a slow, incremental process.

In light of that, I wanted to use this week’s blog post to highlight all the little ways previous games helped pave the way to Scarlet and Violet, starting all the way back in 2013 with the series’ first 3D titles.

Pokémon X and Y: The First Leap

Back when Pokémon games were 2D, they only really got bigger and prettier; they didn’t really make a lot of changes to the formulas and mechanics the series was known for because nothing ever really needed to be changed much besides balancing aspects directly related to the battles. However, as technology improved and more was expected from not only the presentation of games, but also their substance, Game Freak decided it was time make their big jump into the third dimension (It should be noted at this point that I’m not mentioning Colosseum or XD here because they technically aren’t main series installments, just in case that wasn’t clear).

With X and Y, we got full-on models and animations for all 721 Pokémon that existed at the time, in addition to all the various forms for each species. Put aside your bitterness that Pokémon would proceed to recycle these assets for another 8 years before finally making proper updates to them and understand that they had to do this all practically on scratch the first time, while making sure that performance would hold up on a small, portable console.

Furthermore, while the feature wouldn’t fully realize itself until the next installments, this would also be Pokemon’s first time detaching itself from its traditional grid format in the form of roller skates, allowing the player to go in any direction without any worry about being stuck to specific fixed points. Combined with the limited free camera movement that was available Lumiose City (aside from the centermost area), and you have yourself the grandfather of 3D Pokémon movement.

X and Y is often met by fans with lament over what could have been, given the glaring lack of a third version to address those games’ problems. However, it’s sometimes worth looking at things through the lens of what they are so that you can find the little things worth at least a little gratitude. With that in mind, Pokémon X and Y represent Pokemon’s first baby steps into a much larger, more revolutionary world.

Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire: A Sneaky Addition

I wasn’t planning on saying much, if anything, about Pokemon’s Hoenn remakes, if I’m being honest. I only really planned to mention the continued progress on free-range movement in Pokémon games by allowing the player to romp around the world on their own two feet after X and Y limited the control stick for roller skate movement.

But then I remembered that ORAS didn’t just include free-range movement. It also included free-range sneaking.

As part of the games’ DexNav feature, the player could hunt for certain Pokémon that they had already captured by scanning for them. The Pokémon would then appear in a patch of rustling grass, promising the potential of higher levels and IVs, moves only available via breeding, and even extremely rare hidden abilities.

But in order to even battle those Pokémon, you had to make it to the rustling grass, and simply even walking towards them would cause them to quickly flee. In order to approach, you needed to take full advantage of the control stick to move slowly and quietly, tip-toeing until you could step right up to the Pokémon and trigger the encounter.

This would be the introduction of proper stealth mechanics to Pokemon’s mainline games, which usually only incorporated the feature as navigating your way around trainers so that you didn’t have to battle them. While the feature would then be absent from most later Pokémon games, it would eventually return in a rather huge way in the more action-oriented Legends Arceus before assuming a more conventional form in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, where slowly approaching a Pokémon and triggering an encounter from behind would catch the Pokémon unawares and prevent it from acting on the first turn of the battle.

Perhaps it seems small in comparison to some of the other things I’ll end up talking about, but it’s nonetheless worthy of mention, as well as a reminder that even the smallest addition can end up paying off massively in the long-term.

Pokémon (Ultra) Sun and (Ultra) Moon: Officially Off the Grid

Now I mentioned that the Gen VI games technically accomplished this already, but these would be the first games to completely eliminate them from gameplay. Gone are the days where you’d walk or run using the D-Pad, which are relegated to quick access to Ride Pokémon in the Alola games; from this point, it’s all analog all the time, and the game design very obviously reflects this.

Additionally, this marks Pokémon’s liberation from the limitations of birds-eye view as the series officially transitioned from a tile-based world to a far more organic approach to world design, marking a paradigm shift that will eventually culminate into regions free of linear route design a half-decade down the road.

On the gameplay end of things, the introduction of Totem Pokémon and SOS battles marks Pokémon’s first time designing what I like to call “asymmetrical” encounters. Up until this point, Pokémon battles were always an even playing field. You will battle trainers and wild Pokémon that have effectively no differences in terms of how they operate; in other words, if you were fighting a level 50 Pikachu, it would effectively the same as the level 50 Pikachu you have barring various things such as EVs, IVs, etc.

SOS and Totem Pokémon Battles shake things up by making it so that not every battle would be a fair one. In the case of SOS encounters, a wild Pokémon can call for backup, turning a 1v1 battle into a 2v1. Totem Pokémon battles, which are arguably the more defining in terms of Pokémon’s newfound battle asymmetry, pits you against a Pokémon with a distinct boost to its stats that separates it from anything you have at the start of battle. Even if you had a level 49 Kommo-o of your own, the level 49 Totem Kommo-o you’d have to eventually fight would start the fight with a 50% boost to all its stats by the first turn, and that’s to say nothing of the potential fairy-quelling Scizor that can show up during the second.

Asymmetrical encounters would continue on in the form of later games’ multiplayer “raid” battles, as well as Pokémon Legends: Arceus’ Alpha and Noble Pokémon, and as per trailers, it seems the trend will continue with an entire storyline surrounding massive “Titan” Pokémon.

With Sun, Moon, and its Ultra-themed enhanced versions, we can finally see a vision of Pokémon beyond the time-old format begin to take shape. We’re not there yet, but with the Nintendo Switch quickly coming into the picture after the games’ releases, a dream of Pokémon beyond the shackles of portable technology has finally started to take root.

Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee: The Physicalization of Pokémon

Like Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, the Let’s Go games don’t really have a whole lot of room for innovation on account of being remakes, but still bring something deceptively big to the table.

The most notable feature that has carried over from LGPE is, of course, the appearance of Pokémon in the overworld. Before this point, every standard wild battle was hidden behind patches of tall grass with an RNG’d chance to show up. In these games, every Pokémon from your first Pidgey to your millionth Zubat will show up in the world, meaning that running into the Pokémon you want—or avoiding battles entirely—is as literal as it can possibly be. Ever since, every Pokemon game (except Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl) have incorporated overworld encounters as a basic mechanic, with random grass encounters being utilized by Sword and Shield in a minor way before being completely ditched by Legends: Arceus, and based on what we know, they will be absent from Scarlet and Violet as well.

It’s also worth noting that one of your Pokémon being able to follow you in the overworld game back after being gone from main series games since Heart Gold and Soul Silver. While the feature would again return in Sword and Shield’s DLC areas, they are coming back as a fully-fleshed feature in Scarlet and Violet with them being able to obtain items on their own and fight self-sufficiently in the new auto-battle mechanic.

…Oh! And it also introduced Poké ball-throwing as a proper mechanic, setting us up for its proper adaptation in Legends: Arceus and its more simplified implementation in Scarlet and Violet.

Overall, LGPE worked to help make the Pokémon experience feel like more than just a game of odds as the devs and designers put focus into fleshing out all the little in-between components.

Pokémon Sword and Shield: Welcome to the Precipice

Despite being rather infamous, the release of Pokémon Sword and Shield was the point where we can see all the little baby steps from previous generations finally manifest into, well… medium-sized toddler steps. The games still stay true to the rigid structure of its predecessors, but they ultimately serve their role as transitional titles, bringing modern (non-Let’s Go-ified) Pokémon gameplay to the Nintendo Switch.

While I could go on and on about how the Galar Region is essentially a big pretty hallway, credit where credit is due with the introduction of the Wild Area as Pokémon’s attempt to dip its toes into proper open world design philosophy. In the Wild Area, a wide assortment of wild Pokémon are available right out the gate, in addition to plenty more ranging from just outside your level range to on par with members of the Champion’s team. Even with the limitations imposed by lack of necessary gym badges to catch higher-level Pokémon and the inability to explore every nook and cranny until you’ve beaten the third gym to unlock the second half of the Wild Area and the bike upgrade that allows you to surf across water and visit islands, options for the players are able to personalize their teams like never before.

Additionally, I’d like you to recall when I mentioned “raid battles” a little earlier. In addition to being examples of asymmetrical gameplay, Max Raid Battles are also the main series’ first attempt at Pokémon as a cooperative experience (except for that whole 2v1 feature in the Let’s Go games, but those really don’t count towards what I’m talking about). In these battles, four trainers face off against an imposing Dynamax Pokémon and must work together to defeat it and enable its capture. While opting for an all-out-damage playstyle is the safest bet, there’s plenty of room for more supportive playstyles involving screens, Helping Hand, stat-influencing moves, and status afflictions (if you ever saw a Sean in a purple coat using a Nuzzling Boltund, then hello! That was probably me!). Even though there’s ample room for bad luck and screw-ups, the feeling of accomplishment after taking down a giant Pokémon as a team never gets old, and it seems Pokémon understands how successful these sorts of battles are with Scarlet and Violet’s Tera Raid Battles.

As I said, Pokémon Sword and Shield were transitional titles: there are a lot of ways that these games embody the tired old customs of 3D Pokémon, but beneath the surface and through the cracks, one can definitely feel something major finally taking hold.

New Pokémon Snap: The Ecosystem-ification of Pokémon

Now I’m going to keep this brief because this is technically a spin-off game, but I can’t help but think of this game when I look at how Legends: Arceus and Scarlet and Violet have toiled to make Pokémon out as not only battle companions, but as unique creatures with unique behaviors. Seeing Pokémon fight, surf through water or sand, conceal themselves for protection or predation, etc. adds an incredible sense of vitality to the world in ways that Pokémon simply wandering around never could. PL:A would explore the concept in a somewhat basic fashion, but as the little ecological survey event (which you may recall as the thing that introduced Wiglett) showed, Scarlet and Violet plan to try and capture that New Pokémon Snap liveliness for itself.

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl: Uhhh…

Yeah, I honestly don’t have much to say about these games without getting caught up in aimless griping. They’re worth mentioning because they happened, but as far as the progression of Pokémon games into an open world setting, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl did pretty much nothing to help the cause.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus: The Great Evolution

Now THIS is more like it. Marketed from the get-go as a major paradigm shift in the way Pokemon is played, PL:A lived up to its promise as being a major reinvention of the franchise.

With large, freely-explorable areas replacing routes and Pokémon encounters being so much more than just standard battles, it feels as though every dribble of progress has finally culminated into a monumental tidal wave of innovation (by the franchise’s standards, at the very least), yet Legends: Arceus manages to up the ante even further.

To start, PL:A does away with having the in-game time be linked with your Switch’s internal clock. Now, day and night cycles work much more like your usual RPGs, meaning that if you are unable to play during a certain time of day, you don’t miss out on any Pokémon, events, etc. that only happen during that time.

Furthermore, and perhaps the most important of PL:A’s changes, is the transition between battles and exploration being absolutely seamless. Instead of being transported to a pocket dimension for every battle, they will instead take place exactly where they are started, building on the Let’s Go Games physicalization by pretty much neutralizing the need for instanced gameplay.

Of course, while I would call Pokémon Legends: Arceus a giant leap forward for Pokémon and an amazing experience in their own right, I can’t say that it’s the Pokémon game everybody has been clamoring for. After all, the lack of the conventional battle format and proper multiplayer beyond trading make comparing PL:A to other Pokémon games kind of… impossible. Still, it seems that whatever Game Freak wanted to prove with Legends: Arceus, they did, as little less than a month later, they announced a brand new Pokémon adventure that put all the lessons learned from PL:A into practice.

Conclusion

While I’ve talked a lot about how Pokémon has slowly made improvements throughout the 3D era in order to reach the point of being able to make an open world game on the same scale as Scarlet and Violet, no amount of hopeful expectations will be able to determine whether or not they’ll actually stick the landing.

While we’ll be finding out in little less than a few days as of this writing, the question remains: will Pokémon Scarlet and Violet be the game everyone hopes they’ll be? Or will they end up a confusing experience that stumbles just short of expectations?

Here’s to hoping my words here will age more like wine than milk.