We were lucky enough to get a sneak preview of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, and from what we’ve played, they are shaping up to be the biggest Pokémon Adventure the Nintendo Switch has yet.

The latest Pokémon generation shows a lot more ambition. Aside from the newly discovered Pokémon to capture and collect, the game is now a fully open world and features three separate story quests that players can go on that their own pace: Victory Road (gym challenge), Path of Legends (search for the Herba Mystica) and Starfall Street (beating the troublesome Team Star). Here’s a taste of what’s in store:

Open World Pokémon

After working towards it with Pokémon Sword and Shield and Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet bring about the first fully open-world games in the series. Depending on what version you buy, you’ll be able to obtain one of two legendary Pokémon: Koraidon and Miraidon. These legendaries can be ridden through the region and pretty much allow you to go anywhere. They can glide, swim and scale mountains making traveling quick and easy.

Much like Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Pokémon no longer appear in the tall grass but rather walk about on the overworld. There are multiple ways of catching them: you can walk up and touch them like usual but, like with Pokémon Legends: Arceus, you can also throw a Pokéball holding Pokémon at them to trigger a battle. If you manage to hit them on the back, it will give you an advantage in the coming battle.

One especially interesting thing is that they’ve given the Pokémon a more unique ecology. Some of them have a little more interaction with trainers and the world around them. For example, the Wigletts will dive under the ground if they see you coming, meaning you have to sneak up on them from behind if you want to battle and catch one. 

It’s not perfect though. While the Pokémon models themselves are great, at certain times in the story, when there are a number of Pokémon on screen, the animation frames on these models can become somewhat slow and janky. It doesn’t seriously hurt the game but it is notable and something to keep in mind. 

We should also note that we were playing on a demo build of the game that may not be reflective of the complete version.

Pokemon Battles

Pokémon battles are now a lot faster and more convenient. The game takes cues from Pokémon Legends in having battles take place on the overworld, allowing players to pop in and out of fights much faster compared to the older titles.

Another convenient feature is that now, all trainer battles are optional. You can only initiate a battle if you go up and speak to them, meaning that you can continue to explore the world at your own pace. The days of sneaking past NPCs when your Pokémon are low on health are a thing of the past.

For those that don’t like being forced into fights with weaker Pokémon, there’s also a new auto battle mechanic where you send Pokémon off to fight without having to go into an actual battle. This cuts out the tedium of level grinding and makes it easier to gather material dropped by wild Pokémon to craft specific items. 

That being said you do have to be careful with it. How successful your Pokémon is will depend on level and typing. My Sprigatito ended up fainting after only two auto-battles.

Speaking of Sprigatito, they’re quite interesting as they are one of the few starters that learn the move ‘U-Turn’ naturally. We don’t know just yet how viable Sprigatito will be competitively but learning a major competitive move so early is a good sign. 

This brings me to the game’s difficulty. Despite all the new quality-of-life conveniences, some of the boss battles on Starfall Street and Path of Legends were fairly challenging for Pokémon standards. I found myself scraping through at some points even with the right type combinations.

Terastallized Forms & Raid Battles

Raid battles have also returned from Pokémon Sword and Shield, but instead of catching Gigantamax Pokémon, the new games introduce a newly discovered type of evolution: Terastallized Pokémon. These crystalized critters add a new layer of gameplay by essentially giving your Pokémon a new typing, including all the typings strengths, weaknesses, and stab moves. For example, a Pikachu, who is traditionally weak to ground types, could Terastallize into a flying type which will make them immune to ground types but also weak to electric, rock, and ice.

I honestly prefer these to both Z moves and Gigantamax forms. Giving a Pokémon a new type allows for far more varieties and options when it comes to battles but also potential risks by giving the Pokémon a whole new set of weaknesses. Not to mention, like with Gigantamax forms, it doesn’t take up an item slot. Overall, it feels like there’s a lot for competitive trainers to play around with using the Terastallized Pokémon and it’ll be interesting to see where the meta goes this gen.

In terms of the raid battles themselves, they’re a lot of fun and have been improved over the raids in Pokémon Sword and Shield. Back in Galar, you had to wait for everyone to use an attack before you could choose another move. Here you can attack whenever you please after a certain amount of time. Players are further able to perform three ‘cheers’ during raids, which can cause a range of different effects from boosting your Pokémon’s stats to healing your allies. 

Another thing that is nice is that you can get multiple species of Terastallized Pokeémon per battle as opposed to just one like with the Gigantamaxed monsters.

Gym Battles

With that being said, the gym battles I played through were a little on the easier side. After scouring through the town to find ten Sunfloras, I then challenged the grass-type leader Brassius.

Picture caption: You get a selfie after every quest you complete. If they’re anything like this one, they’ll be quite addictive to collect. 

Firstly, I gotta say, I really like Brassius’ design-wise. He doesn’t get a lot of screen time but I love his expressions and obsession with Avant-Garde art. With how memable Pokémon character expressions have become lately, I can see the internet going places with this guy.

That being said, I wish he was a tougher gym leader. He pretty much used his terastal form to make the battle easier, changing his Sudowoodo from a rock type to a grass type which in turn allowed my Fuecoco to torch it faster. Hopefully, the gym leaders later in the game will be a bit more of a challenge.

TMs, Customization, and Picnics

When looking at new customization features, you can make your own TMs using materials dropped by wild Pokémon. This makes them more fun to collect and ensures that you can get more in stock. To balance things out, however, the TMs are once again temporary, only being used once per Pokémon.  This could be seen as a downside but the materials were pretty easy to collect so you’ll likely have enough of whichever move you’re looking to get.

I also like the amount of customization for the playable trainer. I personally feel the default look for the player character is a little plain but there are a lot of options to spice them up with different hair, eye colors, lips, and facial features like moles or freckles. The best part though is that your appearance can be changed from anywhere in the game just by opening the main menu. It’s a small thing but again, it’s really nice just how convenient everything seems to be in this game.

Finally, there are new mechanics to hang out with your Pokémon. Throughout the game, you can also hold picnics for your Pokémon and make them sandwiches, complete with some great expressions from the player characters.

This works more or less like the curry recipes in Pokémon Sword and Shield. They can restore HP to your team, give you some buffs and make your Pokémon like you more. You can also take this time to bathe your Pokémon which will have similar results. Depending on where you’ve been trekking around the region, you and your Pokémon can get pretty dirty, and what better way to unwind than with a nice relaxing bath?

Finally, despite what I said about multiple Pokémon models on screen looking janky, they actually look pretty smooth during the picnics which is great since it lets you see your whole team together.

A Whole New World

I’m very excited to see what Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have to offer. Pokémon Legends gave us a good taste of what an open-world game could look like but this seems like the full course.

Being able to move around anywhere on a legendary beast, tackling different missions and gyms as I pleased with little hand-holding or tutorials was a blast. I’m also very grateful for the amount of quality-of-life features. So much of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet feels like it really cuts the fat from traditional Pokémon, streamlining the battle system and allowing you to play more to your style with optional battles and automatic grinding.

Overall, it feels like Pokémon Scarlet and Violet took the best parts of Pokémon Legends: Arceus and brought them back into mainline Pokémon, taking the best of the two styles and making something new. I suppose we’ll soon find out just how super effective this new form is when the games launch on the 18th of November.

We would like to thank the Pokémon Company for giving us the opportunity to play the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet trial demo.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet ©2022 Pokémon. ©1995–2022 Nintendo / Creatures Inc. / GAME FREAK inc. Pokémon is a registered trademark of Nintendo, Creatures, and GAME FREAK. Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch logo are trademarks of Nintendo