Screenshot: Nintendo / Kotaku
Today, the Pokémon Company announced the release date of the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. The games come out for the November Switch on November 18, 2022. Here’s a new trailer that includes something completely new for the series: not one, but two professors.
First announced in February, Scarlet and Violet are the next major entries in Game Freak’s hugely popular Pokémon series and the first since Sword and Shield in 2019. Although Pokémon earlier this year did some offframp with Pokémon Legends: Arceus — Prequel spin-off with action-adventure gameplay similar to Monster Hunter — these latest versions so far seem to be a return to the typical classic Pokémon training formula.
In other words: you move to a small town with about five buildings. You try to choose the best friend of three adorable baby animals (in this case: Sprigatito, grass-type kitten; Fuecoco, fiery crocodile-type … dinosaur … something; and Quaxly, a water duck with an extremely silly-looking hat) . Then you watch your best friend slowly grow into a great monster capable of leveling cities, and then you direct them to fight other people’s best friends. In the course of your adventure, you gather a team of other terrifying creatures that walk around the countryside with six of them on a tow.
But both versions will add some new ones. Namely, this time there are two (strangely grown up) professors: Professor Sada and Professor Turo. Dating back to the days of Oak in the first games, professors in Pokémon games serve as a guide and mentor for the player.
Pokémon’s latest major games take place in fictional realms based on real-world regions such as France and the United Kingdom. Some fans believe that Scarlet and Violet are inspired by Spain and Portugal. (The footage released so far bears a great geographical and architectural resemblance to the Iberian Peninsula.) Scarlet and Violet also seems to include a four-player cooperative game; in the trailer, a non-player character says, “If you connect with friends, you can go on adventures together – up to four of you at once!”
The trailer ended with a pre-screened cinematic panning of the two version-specific legendary Pokemon. I won’t say that they look stupid until I see their moves, but they look like some ordinary Pokemon that I could catch on, for example, Route 106. (Legends are overrated anyway.)
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Both versions are the cornerstones of Nintendo Switch’s stellar range for 2022. Next week we will see a new entry in Nintendo’s long-awaited football series, Mario Strikers. This was followed two weeks later by Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, a musou spin-off of Fire Emblem. A month later, you see the release of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, a role-playing game that is designed to absorb at least 400 billion hours of your lag. And in September, Nintendo released Splatoon 3, the latest entry in the highest PG rating of all multiplayer shooters. Not to mention the big games that have been announced but don’t have release dates yet, like Bayonetta 3.
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