Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Predictions/Speculation/Discussion Thread

[Nikita Dracovish]

If the rumours about Goh replacing Ash are true, do you think they'll do a repeat of S/M, except with Goh being the student and it being Paldea?

 

[Eitarou]

Don't all Pokémon have one? I thought Raids only kept the rarest and also some exclusive ones. Otherwise what happens if I try to use Terastal on a Pokemon that doesn't have a Tera Type?

They mean the Pokemon was Terastallized in a regular, non-Raid battle. And yes, all Pokemon have Tera types.

 

[Sakuraa]

Don't all Pokémon have one? I thought Raids only kept the rarest and also some exclusive ones. Otherwise what happens if I try to use Terastal on a Pokemon that doesn't have a Tera Type?

I'm a bit confused what you're asking here. Don't all Pokemon have one what?

As for the bold, all Pokemon have a Tera Type, meaning there's no situation where you will Terasallized a Pokemon without a Tera Type.

 

[Myth]

I'm a bit confused what you're asking here. Don't all Pokemon have one what?

One tera type, I had misunderstood.
Although it seems kind of redundant to also have terastalized Pokemon outside the dens if all of them have a hidden Tera type anyway, unless they're like SwSh's brilliant Pokémon. In any way, it's nothing that bothers me. I would only find it sad if other regular wild Pokemon didn't have a Tera Type.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

One tera type, I had misunderstood.
Although it seems kind of redundant to also have terastalized Pokemon outside the dens if all of them have a hidden Tera type anyway, unless they're like SwSh's brilliant Pokémon. In any way, it's nothing that bothers me. I would only find it sad if other regular wild Pokemon didn't have a Tera Type.

In Raid Battles, there's a higher chance for a Pokémon to have a rare Tera Type.

 

[Sakuraa]

One tera type, I had misunderstood.
Although it seems kind of redundant to also have terastalized Pokemon outside the dens if all of them have a hidden Tera type anyway, unless they're like SwSh's brilliant Pokémon. In any way, it's nothing that bothers me. I would only find it sad if other regular wild Pokemon didn't have a Tera Type.

Oh ok.
I personally like that we'll be able to find them outside of dens only because the Tera Raid Battles look like they may take a while, and I'd personally rather just have a quick, normal battle. It's also possible that they won't all have rare Tera Types, so I guess we'll have to wait and see on that.

 

[Lanstar]

Looking at previews about the game, there is one concern I found:

The lack of level scaling.

This kind of hurts the feel of the game, as you could wonder around an open world, but end up being to underleveled or overleveled at any point in the game. A gym leader could be too overpowered or underpowered - and to really feel a challenge, you'd have to go through a linear route as intended for the sense of challenge.

Plus, imagine you wanted to start the game of with certain pokemon in mind, only to find you'd have to go to an overleveled area - and that pokemon would bulldoze the underleveled trainers. I suppose breeding it for a fresh start could work, though.

An open world pokemon game like this is screaming for level scaling. Why not just adjust trainers, gym leaders, and wild Pokemon based on the number of gym badges you've got? It doesn't sound that hard to implement - They've done various level adjustments in past games.

 

[Greninjaman]

Well, I heard somewhere that the levels of the wild Pokémon in each area varies from very to very high. Like, you could be walking around an area seeing level five Litleos, only to encounter a level 50 Pyroar in a different part of the area. I could be mistaken and misremembering of course.

 

[Articfoxgamez]

Plus, imagine you wanted to start the game of with certain pokemon in mind, only to find you'd have to go to an overleveled area - and that pokemon would bulldoze the underleveled trainers. I suppose breeding it for a fresh start could work, though.

To be fair this isnt a new problem for pokemon, atleast you can actually catch the pokemon before litterally the very end.

An open world pokemon game like this is screaming for level scaling. Why not just adjust trainers, gym leaders, and wild Pokemon based on the number of gym badges you've got? It doesn't sound that hard to implement - They've done various level adjustments in past games.

Theres one problem with Trainers and Wild pokemon: they would have to be scaled based on progress across every path, otherwise you could make the game real easy by shoving off the gyms for last.

 

[RileyXY1]

To be fair this isnt a new problem for pokemon, atleast you can actually catch the pokemon before litterally the very end.

Theres one problem with Trainers and Wild pokemon: they would have to be scaled based on progress across every path, otherwise you could make the game real easy by shoving off the gyms for last.

Although they're now making trainer battles optional.

 

[Greninjaman]

Theres one problem with Trainers and Wild pokemon: they would have to be scaled based on progress across every path, otherwise you could make the game real easy by shoving off the gyms for last.

That is interesting. Perhaps there is still some degree of level-scaling...?

 

[Daren]

Level scaling is a very, very tricky thing to get right, in my experience. Executed poorly you get a situation where having levels at all feels meaningless or levelling up can be actively harmful (or as I call it, the "Oblivion Effect"). I suspect the more drastic power changes through leveling the harder open world RPG would be to get right and Pokémon is on the high end scale of that.

I don't scaling is entirely necessary if there's a good amount of content available at every rough "power range" and most regular species are available readily, but it remains to be seen if that'll happen here, and it does lead to the issue where you can do the Gyms in any order but all but one order could feel awkward.

In Legends (and to an extent Sw/Sh) areas had both higher and lower level Pokémon, so maybe Ice-types are in an area around the late-game bosses but there are still low level wild Pokémon there, so if you travel early on you could get a low level Sneasel or whatever. Pokémon has regularly had the issue where certain species appear too late for their stats--even in Legends you only get Hisuian Zorua (who was advertised pretty heavily before release) after you already have fully-evolved Pokémon and Zorua is too weak to do much until evolving.

 

[Articfoxgamez]

From what I can guess from previews, it does seem like the reigon has a lot of verticality with ties in directly with level balance. Areas higher up on cliffs and hills and what not have stronger pokemon than those lower down.
Similarly based on trailers stuff like islands which require swimming also have higher level pokemon than the coast around it.

So its entirely possible say, the base of the mountain has lower early game level pokemon compared to the peaks.

 

[Greninjaman]

Level scaling is a very, very tricky thing to get right, in my experience. Executed poorly you get a situation where having levels at all feels meaningless or levelling up can be actively harmful (or as I call it, the "Oblivion Effect"). I suspect the more drastic power changes through leveling the harder open world RPG would be to get right and Pokémon is on the high end scale of that.

I don't scaling is entirely necessary if there's a good amount of content available at every rough "power range" and most regular species are available readily, but it remains to be seen if that'll happen here, and it does lead to the issue where you can do the Gyms in any order but all but one order could feel awkward.

I do agree that all areas will have a wide level range to them. Like the first area of Scarlet and Violet might have some level 2 and 3 Pokémon, but there might be an area only accessible with Legendary's climbing/swimming ability that is like level 50.

 

[Titania]

Can somebody please explain why do you still have to battle the wild Pokemon even though you can directly throw Pokeballs at them?

I actually prefer battling the wild Pokemon first, but I just don't get why they give you the ability to throw Pokeballs at wild mons if you still have to battle them first.

 

[Cute Charm]

Can somebody please explain why do you still have to battle the wild Pokemon even though you can directly throw Pokeballs at them?

I actually prefer battling the wild Pokemon first, but I just don't get why they give you the ability to throw Pokeballs at wild mons if you still have to battle them first.

The approved B-roll looks like you're throwing a ball with a Pokémon in it at a wild Pokémon, not an empty pokeball. It's possible that the handlers misspoke or the people invited to preview it were misremembering stuff.

 

[Articfoxgamez]

Yeah it doesnt seem to be actually throwing a ball, it's just a way to start battle if you manage to sneak up on a pokemon. Automatic animation or whatever.

 

[RavenRaziel98]

FULL Pokemon Scarlet Violet Demo Gameplay WITH SOUND

❱ Never miss a video! Subscribe & Bells ON https://bit.ly/3galjxh⚡Follow my Socials⚡❱ Discord for trades and giveaways: https://discord.gg/blaines❱ Twitter...

youtu.be

The footage provided by Nintendo without voice over. Provided to those who are curious about the soundtrack and stuff like that. Pokémon center theme confirmed. Overworld music seems nice so far. Gym battle theme keeps a slice of the Sw/Sh atmosphere. Team Star base rockish as I've expected (although this obviously does not have to be the case for all the bases).

 

[Articfoxgamez]

I really don't get the concern of let's go knocking out shinies. Because it looks to me like you cant just press let's go and the pokemon will go around fainting everything. It seems like you would have to actively see the shiny, and willingly tell the pokemon to attack it specifically.

 

[RavenRaziel98]

True, even while conquering a Team Star base it looks like you have to actively target a pokémon and then send out one of yours. This also seems to be the case with picking up items.