Today’s Pokémon Presents has just aired, and in usual fashion some new bits of news have been unveiled for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet! We’ve got a complete summary of everything announced during today’s presentation — but if you’d rather watch it for yourself without any spoilers, you can do so via this link right here.
Welcome to the Paldea Region
For those keeping up to date on leaks and such, it’s very rare to watch a Pokémon Presents without saying “the leaks were real”. Unfortunately, “the leaks were real” does apply here. As has been speculated, the region’s name is Paldea, and trainers can ride either Koraidon or Miraidon to traverse its landscape. It’s unclear when this functionality is unlocked, but it’s assumed to be rather early on.
No matter which version of the game you play, you attend an academy as a student to embark on a treasure hunt. There are three stories in-game, and one of them sees you challenging and battling all eight Gym Leaders — in any order you want! There are two other “stories” to play, but their contents are unknown. We also don’t know for sure if you can choose to play through one of the other two stories first, but it was implied that you can.
New Pokémon and More
As you can see above, the Paldean form of Wooper has been officially revealed! It’s a Poison-type Pokémon this time, though its evolution has not yet been shown. There’s also a new Ice-type Pokémon called Celtitan and a puppy Pokémon called Fidough (excellent name). The Skiddo and Tynamo lines seem to be back after being absent from all other Pokémon titles on Switch thus far.
If you’re looking to catch some Pokémon with friends, you can use the new Union Circle feature to team up with up to 3 of them at once. You can each ride Koraidon and Miraidon together and “enjoy all the Paldea region has to offer together” — whatever that means? There’s probably some kind of limitation here, but they made the multiplayer seem vast in the trailer.
The New Gimmick
Paldea’s signature battle gimmick is called the Terastral phenomenon. Trainers can Terastallize their Pokémon, which will change its appearance to add a crystallized texture. With Terastallization active, the Pokémon’s type and moves are boosted. More interestingly, however, is that certain Pokémon have unique Tera Types. For example, two Eevees you catch may have different ones — one could become Grass-type during Terastallization, and another could become Water-type. It appears that a Pokémon’s Tera Type is randomly selected, but we don’t know if that means a Pokémon can Terastallize into any type or only from a predetermined pool.
Tera Raid Battles are also a thing, kind of like Dynamax Raids from Sword and Shield. You can attack or heal without having to wait for your allies, so they go by much faster than they did last generation. Finally, as an early purchase bonus, you’ll receive a Pikachu that knows Fly and has a Tera Type of Flying (which means its type changes to pure Flying when it Terastallizes).
At any rate, it’s going to take a while before we’ve got the spelling of Terastallization down. Scarlet and Violet’s gimmicks look neat at a glance, but how will they hold up in actual gameplay? That remains to be seen, but you can be sure we’ll post an update next time news is revealed. If you want to watch the entire Pokémon Presents, you can do so here.
If you would like to read more Pokémon guides, please follow this link.
