Pokemon Scarlet & Pokemon Violet - General Discussion/Speculation Thread

[Wulava]

The initial reveal, which implies that they'll be going back to how Sword and Shield worked in that regard.

Nothing implies that. We've barely even seen battle gameplay.

 

[Aielyn]

I don't understand what your looking at, but to me it looks to be a Cutiefly above the fence to the left and in front of the plant on the right fence. Too small to be certain, but they kinda look like small yellow dots with black legs.

Sorry if I was unclear, I was showing a picture from the video, because I wasn't confident of being able to provide a video. I'll have a go at providing the video...

There are spherical bushes in front of the house, and the little moving thing starts below the leftmost of them (in the shadowed patch of garden right behind the fence), and then moves across to roughly below the front door (still in the shadowed patch).

It's quite quick, so you may need to re-watch from about 2:05 a couple of times to see it properly. It's definitely moving, and it's too small to be a cutiefly, in my opinion. I recommend setting it to replay at 0.25x speed, to get a better look at it.

 

[Alli]

Sorry if I was unclear, I was showing a picture from the video, because I wasn't confident of being able to provide a video. I'll have a go at providing the video...

There are spherical bushes in front of the house, and the little moving thing starts below the leftmost of them (in the shadowed patch of garden right behind the fence), and then moves across to roughly below the front door (still in the shadowed patch).

It's quite quick, so you may need to re-watch from about 2:05 a couple of times to see it properly. It's definitely moving, and it's too small to be a cutiefly, in my opinion. I recommend setting it to replay at 0.25x speed, to get a better look at it.

Looks like Cutiefly to me. Considering Cutiefly is only 10 cm it could be it, although you're right that it's too small. Hard to tell.

Might just be an effect or it might be a Pokémon.

 

[Pokefan_1987]

Despite what people have been saying i'm very against the rival school idea. I'd opt for they just got out of school and it's intended because of Spain's warm climate.

Even as a whole i have always been appalled at the idea of Pre-School characters fighting with a pokemon.
How is a 4-5 year old supposed to be realistically able to handle dangerous creatures and feed them when their parents aren't around. Why do they even allow those kids into the Battle Facilities in the post content?

 

[Ultra Beast Lover]

I think we're supposed to accept that the little ones are prodigies, either that or their family members catch and train Pokemon for them.

I wouldn't be opposed to there being a school. It'd be a neat way for them to do a tutorial. Before the test the teacher could ask, "Do you want to review how to catch Pokemon?" And if you know how catching Pokemon works you can say no and it'll begin right after the player finishes the test, if you don't then you get a quick catching tutorial and then we skip to after the test.

 

[Bolt the Cat]

Legends having only 242 pokemon is evident they're going small again, so I'd say around 350 to start, and then they'll release more in the future like with Sword & Shield.

This is my concern as well. I'm even concerned about them getting to 300, and when they fall under that mark we tend to have dex variety issues such as gym leaders needing to use duplicate Pokemon or random Pokemon not of their type.

The limited Dex is probably a combination of the fact that completing it is required to get Arceus, and also the fact that simply catching the Pokémon isn't enough to complete an entry. You have to do several things to get credit for each Pokémon. So if you add all of that up, it would equate to catching over 1,000 Pokémon. Far more than you'd normally see in a single Pokémon game.

I could see them doing what you mentioned with removing Pokémon temporarily and adding them later. Also having two versions of the game as per tradition will probably help this too.

Yeah, I agree. Arceus was a special case, also because you have to research all the Pokemon in order to meet Arceus. Like it's already a bit of a chore with the 200+ (can't remember the exact number) Pokemon in the game.
Now imagine that with 400 or 500 Pokemon
I don't think we can really deduce how many Pokemon will be in the game just now, there's too many factors, but I also think it will be more than in Arceus.

I think you have cause and effect backwards here. I don't think the limited dex is because of the research tasks, I think the research tasks are there to compensate for the limited dex. They seem to be trying to implement gimmicks that try to make catching duplicate species more interesting in games that don't have a lot of dex variety. This was stated to be the motivation behind the DexNav in ORAS, for example:

Spoiler: Long Interview

https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/77ue9n

It was an idea that followed from Pokémon X & Y. In these games, every time you went to the green zone of the grass, you'd find new Pokémon you hadn't seen before. On the other hand, in Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire you didn't have so many, so if the same set of Pokémon kept appearing, like Zigzagoon, the players wouldn't have interest in going to the grass, one of the central aspects of Pokémon.

Bearing that in mind, to turn things more interesting, we created DexNav, showing the Pokémon that could appear in the area. It was one of the main reasons for implementing that functionality. However, it's not that interesting or useful if there is a great variety of Pokémon. In Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon there are many different kinds of Pokémon you can find, so we didn't implement the DexNav.

Similarly, this is probably the reasoning behind mechanics in LGPE and LA such as Candy, Grit items, and research tasks. The cause of the smaller dexes is most likely factors such as not wanting to ruin nostalgia and the increased time and resources needed to design 3D models.

I’m not sure we can use PLA as a barometer here. PLA is basically past Sinnoh, and the in-game Dex has to both reflect the Pokemon found in DPPt/BDSP and the era that the game takes place. The PLA dex is already larger than the Pt Dex. You can justify a few new entries for Pokemon that may have been displaced due to human settlement. Anything larger than that would be harder to justify in the context of the story.

They seem to care about the gameplay more than the story, they can always come up with something in the story to justify what they're doing in the gameplay. LA took a lot more liberties than a typical remake, so I don't think that was the reason behind the smaller dex. If it was, we wouldn't even get some of the later gen Pokemon like Braviary and Zoroark in the game.

Here's a question for everyone: How much info do you hope they decide to release (be it from trailers, etc.) about the games before they launch?

I wasn't thinking much about this up until the games were announced because I at the time just wanted to know that Gen 9 WAS coming this year, but now that we're past that stage, I think, like usual, I hope they flood the internet with trailers and news between now and release. Especially since, unlike with Gens 7 and 8 due to being burned by SwSh, I probably won't be getting the games day 1 unless I get blown away by something that is shown.

I'd want to know the following:
-Roughly how many Pokemon are going to be in the regional dex? They won't give a definitive answer here, but showing a large variety of Pokemon in the trailers is a good sign.
-How much are the battle and catching mechanics like they were in LA and more traditional games? How are they different from all past games?
-How open is the progression? Can you complete gyms in any order?
-How do field abilities work and what kinds of field abilities will be available?
-What kinds of side content will be in the game? Will Requests be returning from LA?
-What is the burst gimmick for this game? How does it work?
-Are regional variants returning? What are some of the new regional variants/evolutions in this game?
-Will the game have ELs like LA or EVs/IVs like past games? Will abilities be returning?
-When is Home compatibility going to be enabled for this game?

Despite what people have been saying i'm very against the rival school idea. I'd opt for they just got out of school and it's intended because of Spain's warm climate.

Even as a whole i have always been appalled at the idea of Pre-School characters fighting with a pokemon.
How is a 4-5 year old supposed to be realistically able to handle dangerous creatures and feed them when their parents aren't around. Why do they even allow those kids into the Battle Facilities in the post content?

Yeah, I don't really like the school idea either. School is way to repetitive and structured for an open world game, and I'd dread constantly returning to the school and going to classes when I just want to go out and explore the world. Coming back to report to Prof. Laventon in LA was annoying enough, this might be worse.

 

[Ultra Beast Lover]

If there is a school I don't think they'll have us going to classes outside of a beginning segment and some later plot points. What I'm thinking will happen, if we aren't misinterpreting things, is that we start out at school with our rival and/or our possible sibling, we listen to a lecture, do a quick test that'll maybe serve as the tutorial, and it's revealed that the Professor was impressed with our scores and wants to give us a pokedex and wants us to represent the school in a certain challenge.

Of course, it's also possible that the patch represents a recruiting agency whose member saw potential in you. Or that the patch is just a fancy logo and the school attire is just a coincidence that's meant to represent that the protagonists are really young.

 

[Golden_Arcanine]

Despite what people have been saying i'm very against the rival school idea. I'd opt for they just got out of school and it's intended because of Spain's warm climate.

Even as a whole i have always been appalled at the idea of Pre-School characters fighting with a pokemon.
How is a 4-5 year old supposed to be realistically able to handle dangerous creatures and feed them when their parents aren't around. Why do they even allow those kids into the Battle Facilities in the post content?

Why does school have to mean a pre-schooler? Most middle school kids are 11-14, which is roughly the age that most Pokemon games had the trainers age at.

 

[Divine Retribution]

Why does school have to mean a pre-schooler? Most middle school kids are 11-14, which is roughly the age that most Pokemon games had the trainers age at.

There's a trainer class literally called Preschooler, I think that's what he's referring to.

 

[MrJechgo]

That school talk makes me want to see Stadium 2's "school mode" to return

These had lectures and battles with rental Pokémon. The goal was to apply the lesson to the battle, such as using the right type, using the right moves and using the right switching.

 

[Pokefan_1987]

Coming back to report to Prof. Laventon in LA was annoying enough, this might be worse.

I don't mind him his campsites provides healing and fast travel. At least he consistently gives out money from the Survey Corps funds due to the lack of trainers and aside from having to grind for valuable items to sell. Although the ammount money can be laughably low sometimes..

However his hat is silly in environments that aren't cold XD

 

[Bolt the Cat]

That school talk makes me want to see Stadium 2's "school mode" to return

These had lectures and battles with rental Pokémon. The goal was to apply the lesson to the battle, such as using the right type, using the right moves and using the right switching.

That was a great tutorial mode, you can learn a lot of detailed strategies there. It'd be great for newbies if they could bring that back.

 

[Noy]

hmm after looking at some SV stuff again, I just recalled that GF has been adding new regional forms every new version (including PLA) of late. I wonder how many of, and which ones, of the mons we know to be in SV will have regional forms or new evolutions.

 

[SBaby]

If there is a school I don't think they'll have us going to classes outside of a beginning segment and some later plot points. What I'm thinking will happen, if we aren't misinterpreting things, is that we start out at school with our rival and/or our possible sibling, we listen to a lecture, do a quick test that'll maybe serve as the tutorial, and it's revealed that the Professor was impressed with our scores and wants to give us a pokedex and wants us to represent the school in a certain challenge.

That could be a way to do it. Another way could be for you to join a club where you do research and/or catch Pokémon and compete in the League that way.

As long as they don't do what games like Mana Khemia do, where the school is like, 'Ok now we want you to go to Town B and do these tasks, and you've got a week (in-game time) to complete them'. I don't really foresee them being this rigid about it though, since that would be offputting to pretty much every fan of the franchise if they did that.

More likely the progression of the curriculum would be reflected by how far you've gotten in the story. This is all assuming they're actually doing the school theme though. It could very well be something different and the outfits might be there for a completely unrelated reason. I was simply saying that's what they looked like to me.

 

[Vulpixely]

So I have a theory. I think the gimmick will have something to do with stats. The 6 points of the crystal thingy in the Japanese logos match up with the stat hexagon that every Pokémon has. Maybe it maxes out a stat for a turn or something like aegislash with the stances. Who knows, but I feel like there’s a chance it could be something to do with it based on the shape of the crystal.

 

[Rune Knight]

So I have a theory. I think the gimmick will have something to do with stats. The 6 points of the crystal thingy in the Japanese logos match up with the stat hexagon that every Pokémon has. Maybe it maxes out a stat for a turn or something like aegislash with the stances. Who knows, but I feel like there’s a chance it could be something to do with it based on the shape of the crystal.

I think that your concept makes the most sense and is the most likely. Also could involve a temporary level boost which would in turn also temporarily increase all of the Pokémon's stats. To me, the shape of the crystal kind of resembles that of stardust from Pokémon Go.

 

[ShadowForce720]

I think that your concept makes the most sense and is the most likely. Also could involve a temporary level boost which would in turn also temporarily increase all of the Pokémon's stats. To me, the shape of the crystal kind of resembles that of stardust from Pokémon Go.

You know regardless of what the new gimmick is I do wonder if it will be tied to/originating from a specific Pokémon like how the origin of Z-moves and Dynamax/Gigantamax were tied to Ultra Necrozma and Eternatus respectively.

 

[Pokemon Fan]

Where did they confirm this?

Regarding capture mechanics, it states on the official site that you battle pokemon to catch them. Ergo it seems unlikely real-time catching will be in this game.

 

[janejane6178]

When more info

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

When more info

Probably next month or so. We’ll probably get a new trailer teasing some new Pokémon and a brief glimpse of the region.