So... How about that new Pokémon Scarlet and Violet trailer, eh? Lots of new information was secreted away inside that three-minute long peek at the upcoming game, and we're going to try to dig all of it up. Come with us on a journey through Pokétime and Pokéspace...

Confirmed Details

First up, feel free to reacquaint yourself with the trailer:

All good? Well, let's dive right in...

Puns, puns everywhere

Clothes

It's a Pokémon game. Of course there will be puns, wordplay, and little references in the names. Here are just some of the ones we got in the new trailer:

  • Lechonk
    • A Pokémon based on the Iberian pig, which is a black pig used to make jamón ibérico, the famous (and delicious) Iberian ham. "Lechón" is the Spanish word for a suckling pig. "Chonk" is... a meme word used to describe chunky animals.
  • Smoliv
    • Olives are a common Mediterranean food and export, and this grass-type Pokémon is small (or "smol"), so... Smoliv.
  • Miraidon & Koraidon
    • The two legendaries come from the Japanese words for "future" and "ancient" respectively, mirroring the overall past/future theme of the two games. There might also be more to this theming, if you read on...
  • Professors Turo and Sada
    • The Spanish for future is "futuro" and the feminine version of the Spanish for past is "pasada".
  • Pawmi
    • Generation IX has its Pikachu-style electric mouse, and his name is Pawmi. This might be a combination of paw and ami(go)? We're not 100% sure.

Motorbike theming

Legendary (1)

Did you know that Spain is really into motorbikes? We did not. But motorbikes, and motocross (off-road motorcycle racing) are both big themes in this new region, perhaps like football was in Galar. Here's the evidence:

The legendaries

Koraidon and Miraidon are both bike-shaped, and even have wheels. They've also got "ride-on" in their names, their backs look suspiciously like seats, and their shoulders look like handlebars, so they might be able to turn into bikes, Transformer-style.

At least one gym looks like a motocross track

We'll have to take this person's word for it, but the bottom-right image here is apparently similar to a motocross track — like Excitebike, but muddier.

The Pokémon Centers look like petrol stations

We checked, and apparently petrol stations in Spain look pretty much exactly like the ones in the UK and US, so we're willing to accept that the strange outdoor Poké Centers are modelled after them.

Non-linear exploration

The newly-published Pokémon website has this to say:

You can experience a new style of adventure, with a world that you’re free to explore at your leisure and not in an order dictated by the story. You will, of course, journey to hone your skills as a Pokémon Trainer, but many more discoveries and stories await you. Meet a variety of people and Pokémon, and adventure in the world of Pokémon the way you want to.

You hear that? That's non-linear gameplay, baby! We'll look more into what that means in a bit.

The... outfits?

Clothes

Some people are more interested in the fashion of the Pokémon games than anything else, and those people include this writer. The characters seem to be largely dressed in school outfits, but their hats, hairstyles, bags, and glasses change. Also sometimes they wear shorts, and sometimes they wear trousers.

So, there will probably be an element of fashion, like in Sword & Shield... but we're intrigued about how it'll interact with the uniforms.

Accurately sized Pokémon

Look at these Flabébés! They're tiny!!! 10cm, to be exact! And it looks like they'll be roughly size-accurate. Does this mean that we'll be seeing giant Pokémon, too? Hard to say, but we hope so.

CO-OP?!

Yep! From the website:

Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet allow multiplayer gameplay with up to four players.​ Along with series staples, such as trading and battling Pokémon, you will be able to explore the various locations of the region in these games with other players. You can discover new Pokémon and explore unfamiliar areas with your friends and family, opening the door to an adventure more precious and fun than ever!

First open-world Pokémon game

Double yep! From the website:

Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet are the first open-world RPGs in the Pokémon series.

Past vs Future

It looks like Scarlet & Violet will be based on the past and the future, although it's not really clear what that means. Read more about it here:

New UI

We love an upgrade to the interface, and this one looks nice and minimalist:

Ui

Toby Fox is back, baby

Toby Fox has announced that he's doing music for the games again, but this time he's the composer for the field theme, saying "this time, my music is not optional!"

Enter The Speculation Zone

A third legendary?

Right at the end of the trailer, there's a strange bit of footage, which is a sort of scaly, sort of glass-like, moving texture... and then an icy Poké Ball flies past. Could this be a hint at a third legendary?

Dynamic Pokémon levelling

This is absolutely speculation, but... if the Scarlet & Violet world is non-linear and open, does that mean we can expect dynamic levelling, where wild Pokémon match your abilities? This seems unlikely, but what's more likely is that the gyms dynamically match your own level, since it would be really boring to accidentally take on a low-level gym with massively beefy Pokémon.

Regional variants

We haven't seen any regional variants yet, so we can only speculate. But based on what we know (Spain! Portugal! Food!) we can take a few educated guesses:

  • Tauros, but more like a toreador
  • More Eevee evolutions
  • Snorlax but siesta-themed
  • Exeggcute but a frittata
  • Palossand, but he looks like the Sagrada Família
  • Oricorio but, like... more... flamenco
  • A rapier version of Aegislash
  • An evolution of Mudbray called Donkixote
  • What if Vanillite was sangria instead

Bulls

There's gotta be bulls. Bullrings. Bullfighting. etc. A bull-themed gym? Who knows!!

More food

Everyone loves Spanish and Portuguese dishes! Custard tarts! Paella! Tapas! Galar represented the UK with Sinistea and Polteageist, so let's see a patatas bravas Pokémon. And then we should eat it.


What are your predictions and hopes? Tell us in the comments!

Which version are you getting?

Further Reading: