Nintendo and GameFreak have taken the gaming world by storm in 2022 with the release of their first large-scalePokémongamePokémon Legends: Arceusand it looks like fans of the most popular franchise in history will not have to wait long for the next entry. As part of a newPokémonPresentation on Sunday morning, GameFreak announced the Ninth Generation ofPokémoninScarlet and Violet. As a part of the announcement, the first teaser trailer for the game was shown off.
The trailer starts off with a live-action segment of a security guard at the GameFreak offices making his rounds until he hears a noise, and he goes to investigate. He passes a flickering GameFreak sign and slowly approaches the room where the noise is coming from. It is a mysterious room full of antiques. The music intensifies, the lights start going haywire, and a bright white light consumes the screen showing off the first footage of the game. From there, fans get their first glimpse of the new open-world landscapes with many great shots of familiar Pokémon in the wild like Pysducks, Combees, Pikachu, and Meowth. We also see a lot of new locations that feature a desert setting, windmills, and multiple different towns featuring some elaborate houses, a beautiful town square, and a giant building with a large pokèball in the middle. The trailer then shows us a Pokémon Trainer running into one of the houses and passing by a white Nintendo Switch OLED Model.
From there the trailer zooms out from the in-game Switch to a real-life Switch and back to the security guard. The guard discovers a painting with the 3 new starter Pokémon on it and the classic theme music starts playing in the background. The starters will be Plantkitten aka Prigatito, Firegator aka Fuecoco, and Hatduck aka Quaxly. The trailer ends revealing the previously mentioned titles of Scarlet and Violet and a worldwide release window of late 2022.
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This is a very exciting announcement as this is being pegged as an open-world adventure. It will be interesting to see what GameFreak means by that as the trailer shows off large open pieces of land similarly toArceus’. That game had a Monster Hunter approach where it had large open sections separated by loading screens. While it remains unclear if this will be a true open world in the modern sense of the word it really does not matter.Arceus’ open sections were extremely vast, its relaxing wild Pokémon catching gameplay was so addicting and a month later most fans have still found it hard to put down the controller. It is also just great to seePokémonback in a seemingly modern setting, and it is going to be exciting to see how the many towns are going to flow with the open-world gameplay.
Pokémonhas seen many ups and downs as a franchise in its more than 25-year-old history. The Switch era of the series is a prime example of that. TheRed and Blueremakes were generally well-received, the eighth generation ofSword and Shielddivided fans due to its lack of polish and innovation, and theDiamond and Pearlremakes left a lot to be desired in a handful of areas. However, GameFreak is on a bit of a hot streak and finally gave fans what they wanted with Arceus. That game has changed the franchise forever and hopefullyScarlet and Violetexpand uponArceus’ wonderfully fun foundation while improving some graphic/technical hiccups like the outdated quick menu system. It has never been more exciting to be aPokémonfan, and you can watch the full trailer for the new game down below.
Get ready to catch them all in the ninth generation and for the latest news onPokémon Scarlet and Violet, stick with Collider.
