Scarlet & Violet

The story of Scarlet and Violet can be broken into five storylines; the introduction, Victory Road, The Path of Legends, ★ Starfall Street ★, The Way Home, and the post-game. I’ll be going over each of the four major arcs and the post-game in their own articles, to make sure each gets the time and attention it deserves. Today, I want to briefly talk about the introduction, and then take my time discussing my thoughts on the Victory Road storyline.

Updates to the official Pokémon website and social media channels have revealed that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will be receiving new retail releases worldwide from November 3rd, bundling the original game together with The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC.

First announced in an update to the official Scarlet & Violet website following the August 8th Pokémon Presents video presentation, Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet's first Mass Outbreak Event featuring Clefairy will commence on September 29th at 00:00 (UTC) / September 28th at 17:00 (PDT), running through to October 1st at 23:59 (UTC) / 16:59 (PDT).

The next Online Competition for Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet has been announced. Registration for the Kitakami Prologue will open on October 2nd, at Midnight (UTC), with the competition itself scheduled to run from October 6th, at Midnight (UTC), running through ton October 8th, at 11:59pm (UTC).

I realise that so far in this series it probably seems as though I dislike Scarlet and Violet, and that, in general, I have nothing positive to say about those games. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. While I am dubious of the insane release schedule for new Pokémon games, and the subsequent detriment that was caused due to the overambitious goal of creating the first fully open world Pokémon game, there are many redeeming qualities about the games themselves. Let’s start with the basics. I really love a lot of the characters introduced in these games. Standout characters for me are Nemona, Arven, Clavell, Hassel, and Larry, but there are plenty of other characters that I love as well. I could probably write an entire article for each character, just gushing about how much I like them, but I’ll settle for just doing a single article on them all together and just hit the highlights.

Buckle up, folks, because it’s about time for me to address the elephant in the room. In my previous article, I concluded that, given the limited development time, going for the open world gimmick was a detriment, and only ended up contributing to eating up a lot of dev time unnecessarily. So now let’s talk about the release schedule for new core series Pokémon games in more detail, as well as why I feel the release of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet was completely botched as a result of madcap deadlines and an overly zealous release schedule.

The version-exclusive Paradox Pokémon, Slither Wing and Iron Moth will be making their first appearance in a 5-star Tera Raid Battle event in Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet this weekend, starting September 22nd at midnight (UTC), and running through until September 24th at 11:59pm (UTC). Slither Wing will appear exclusively for players with Pokémon Scarlet, while Iron Moth will be appearing exclusively in Pokémon Violet. Slither Wing and Iron Moth will both be able to be encountered in a wide array of Tera Types, including rare Tera Types for both species.

In the previous article, I discussed my initial reaction to the whole “open world” gimmick in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. While I understood the developers hopes of bringing a bit of fresh air into what many considered to be a stale franchise, I had plenty of concerns concerns with Pokémon trying to hop aboard this particular train. Now, it's time to talk about how that open world actually ended up in practice.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet received an update to Version 2.0.1 today alongside the release of The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 1: The Teal Mask. This update makes a significant number of changes, including for players who have not yet purchased the DLC, with the addition of new Pokémon, a selection of new quality of life features, some adjustments to other game features, and the implementation of some minor bug fixes.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have been out for almost nine months now, and, with the imminent release of the first DLC, I figured it was about time for a bit of reflection on the base games themselves.

A limited-time distribution of a Cetitan with the Ferocious Mark was announced for Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet at the end of the Japanese version of the 1st episode of Paldean Winds, which aired today on the Japanese Official Pokémon YouTube channel. This Pokémon is based off of the Cetitan from Glaseado Mountain which played a significant role in this episode. This distribution will remain available until August 31st next year.

The Genetic Pokémon Mewtwo is making its first appearance in 7-star Black Crystal Tera Raid Battles this month until September 17th at 23:59 (UTC). No follow-up appearance of the Pokémon has been announced as of this time.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's Ranked Battles Season Regulation Set E will come into force with the start of the next Season on October 1st, running through to November 30th at 11:59pm (UTC). This new regulation set will expand the list of allowable Pokémon to include those found in The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 1: The Teal Mask.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's Ranked Battles Season 10 has begun, and will run through to September 30th, at 11:59pm (UTC). This season, which will run through to August 31st, at 11:59pm (UTC), will follow Regulation Set D, which came into force at the beginning of July with the start of Season 8.

The SpeedDocsAThon (SDAT) speedrunning marathon, hosted by Speed Docs, is raising money for Save the Children across two weekends. The second half will take place from September 1st to September 3rd, and feature runs of both Pokémon Scarlet/Violet, and Pokémon Ruby, with runners attempting to complete the games, or a specific objective within the game, as fast as possible. The event can be watched from their Twitch Channel.

Following on from the brief teaser posted yesterday, a new video posted to Pokémon's official social media channels has given fans our first look at Poltchageist, a new Pokémon being introduced in The Teal Mask, the first part of The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

As you may have heard, several competitors at the recent 2023 Pokémon World Championships were disqualified due to using hacked Pokémon. The logical question to then ask is: why? Much like in regular sports, we see cheating happen among top players who clearly already have the skills required to win - surely they wouldn't need to cheat, right? For Pokémon, though, the cheating is not compensating for lack of skill, but for lack of time, and this is an issue the series has faced for a while.

The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, the paid DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, received a brand new trailer during the closing ceremony for the 2023 Pokémon World Championships. This trailer revealed new details about Part 2, The Indigo Disk, including the return of past generation First Partner Pokémon, more information on recently announced Paradox Pokémon, a selection of new attacks, and a teaser for a brand new Tera Type.

A limited-time distribution of an East Sea Gastrodon was announced for Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet during the August 11th livestream of the 2023 Pokémon World Championships. This Gastrodon is based on the one used by Eduardo Cunha in their Masters division victory at the 2022 Pokémon Video Game World Championships. This distribution will remain available only until August 14th, at 11:59pm (UTC).

The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, the paid DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, received a brand new trailer during the August 8th Pokémon Presents video presentation, revealing new details about Mossui Town, Blueberry Academy, and the characters and Pokémon that players will be able to encounter there later this year. Updates make to the official website for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet shortly after the presentation additionally detailed a number of new gameplay features and events that will be coming to the game starting with the launch Part 1, The Teal Mask, including the new Mass Outbreak Events.