The brief trailer shows a security guard patrolling a building before being led into a room filled with memorabilia representing Pokémon and the hitherto unnamed region where the ninth-generation games will take place. The trailer didn't feature much gameplay, but fans could see a few new creatures and a bit of the local architecture. Reactions have been largely positive, but some fans are worried the game is coming out too soon for it to be as polished as it should be.
The Starters Should Stay On Four Legs
The Pokémon franchise contains hundreds of popular monsters, but each generation's starters hold a special place in many players' hearts. While some are more popular than others, one trend among the best starter Pokémon is retaining their animalistic qualities.
A common critique of Pokémon such as Inteleon and Delphox is that they look too humanoid. Coriniander mirrors a popular request, saying, "Please let the grass cat stay on 4 legs." The last cat-inspired starter Pokémon was Litten, a fire-type critter that starts on four legs and evolves into a humanoid cat wearing wrestling attire.
A Misleading Trailer
The trailer for Pokémon Scarlet & Violet starts with a security person walking through an empty business building. As they begin to see movement out of the corner of their eye, they use their flashlight to start looking around for more information.
This security guard eventually stumbles across a room filled with references to the new games and their region, but it's still unknown what a security guard or business building has to do with the games. This investigative opening tricked many people, including itslzumi, who itted, "I fully thought it was going to be Detective Pikachu 2 until near the end."
A Dull Protagonist
There are several Pokémon that even non-fans know, but there are far fewer human characters that are popular outside of the fandom, and the ones that are come almost exclusively from the anime. It's not a rare complaint that mainline game protagonists are a bit bland, and some fans are already claiming that the newest protagonist seems to follow this trend.
VishnuBhanum is overall optimistic about the games but says, "I like everything else except the player avatar, it looks really bland for some reason..." Others believe that it's too early to tell and that customization options will bring more life to the character model.
A Region Inspired By Spain And Portugal
While every Pokémon game takes place in a fictional world, each of the regions in the first eight (and, apparently, the ninth) generations takes heavy inspiration from actual countries. The first few represented different regions of Japan, and others have covered , the UK, New York, and Hawaii.
Several fans noticed that this hitherto unnamed region takes inspiration from Spain, but what other Spanish landmarks may be in generation nine.
The Games Are Releasing Too Soon
Traditionally, there has been about one major Pokémon game released each year throughout the franchise's lifespan. These releases included main "generational" games, "third games" such as Pokémon Yellow and Pokémon Crystal, and remakes.
However, the announcement of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet (and their release later this year) will make for an unprecedented three games over a 12-month period. Nehemiah92 isn't optimistic that this is a good thing, saying, "They really aren't letting the games breathe. I'm already burnt out from Pokémon and would be fine if they actually gave some time on the new game."
Pokémon Legends: Arceus Was A Test Run
The Pokémon franchise has come under fairly strong criticism over recent years for several reasons, but one of the most common complaints was that, ironically, the games were refusing to evolve. Given that, fans were excited when Pokémon Legends: Arceus shook things up by using a pseudo open world.
Arceus was rather short, though, and XenonVH2 echos many fans' thoughts by saying, "[Pokémon Legends: Arceus] was the Beta for Gen 9." It does indeed seems like Game Freak was testing the waters and practicing for a bigger project that can expand on these ideas even more.
New Starter Pokémon Are Always Exciting
There is a lot for fans to get excited about in each new Pokémon generation, from a new region to new collectible companions. However, one of the most popular reveals is always the three starter Pokémon that players will get to start their journey with.
Most people quickly find themselves drawn to one over the others, but Oreo-and-Fly is excited for all of them, exclaiming, "I want cat. I want duck. I want gator. I want new bug." While no new bugs have yet been released, there will assuredly be a new one on an early route.
Curiosity About Legendaries
Game names like Pokémon Sun & Moon or Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire may seem random, but they always have an interesting connection to the legendary monsters of their respective region. While this may have been looser in early games (Lugia is silver and Ho-oh has gold accents), the connections have been much more pronounced lately.
For example, Yveltal from Pokemon Y literally forms a Y when in flight, and Zacian from Pokémon Sword wields a large sword. This trend has fans curious about generation nine. T3r4byt8l0l expresses this, saying, "Scarlet and Violet are interesting name choices, can't wait to see what the corresponding Legendary Pokemon look like."
No More Chinese Zodiac Starters
While Game Freak has never officially confirmed or commented on it, there is a popular fan theory that each type of starter Pokémon follows a specific field of inspiration. Specifically, fire starters are supposedly animals from the Chinese zodiac. Each one so far works, but generation nine seems to buck this trend.
The only unused animals at this point are an, ox, sheep, horse, and snake. While Fuecoco is indeed a reptile, his nickname of "The fire croc Pokémon" makes it unlikely he'll be evolving into a snake. AsFuecoco's final form will sit among other highly-ranked fire evolutions.
