A few months before its release, it seems that Pokemon fans know so much but so little about Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet. These two games claim to be the first Pokemon games with a completely open world, eliminating the barriers that the last two Game Freak games used in their worlds. Based on this, players will be given much more freedom in how they move around the world, and they will even be able to share the passage of the game with three other people. Despite the fact that at the moment less than ten new Pokemon have been discovered, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet already have something to count on.
However, there is another issue that fans have been discussing. Game Freak demonstrated a sample of the introduction of some kind of trick with a combat system in the last few major Pokemon games. X and Y introduced Mega Evolutions, Sun and Moon used Z-Moves, and Sword and Shield used Dynamaxing. These abilities did not persist beyond their respective generations, and it has already been shown that Scarlet and Violet abandoned the turn order system from Pokemon Legends. Fans are sure that some new mechanics will appear in Pokemon games of the 9th generation, and a special design direction found in several characters may hint at what it is.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet seem to be teasing the theme of time
While the names Scarlet and Violet for this generation of Pokemon seem to refer to the old Spanish flag, any further meaning was not initially clear. Now that the gameplay-revealing trailer has introduced the professors of the two versions and the legendary boxes, a second meaning of these colors has appeared. Professor Scarlet Sada’s name is similar to the Spanish word for the past, and Professor Violet Touro’s name is close to the word for the future. They are both dressed accordingly: Sada wears tribal clothes under her lab coat, and Thuro chooses a sleek bodysuit instead. Legends also follow this theme: Corydon Scarlet resembles a feathered predator, and Miraydon Violet can best be described as a hoverbike.
At the moment, this is all Pokemon fans have to work with. Game Freak has been reserved to release updates for these specific Pokemon games, and even their main gym progress remains unknown. The only thing that can be gleaned from the legends is that they both resemble motorcycles and can eventually be used instead of any vehicle corresponding to the pit stops shown in the trailer. The elements of the past and future are currently just a visual theme, but there are many ways that a Pokemon game can use such a concept.
Time Travel May Affect Scarlet and Violet’s Research
Obviously, the distant past and the distant future can affect the history of the game. Some kind of temporary instability or a villainous team trying to invent time travel for personal gain can easily get into the Pokemon title. The only problem is that Pokemon Scarlet seems to focus solely on the past, while Pokemon Violet only cares about the future. This may turn out to be a mistake, but in its current form, writing and developing a game to travel to the past or the future will be quite a difficult task. Creating past, present and future versions of this area will require much more work than what was required in the past themes of land and sea or life and death.
Thus, the presence of two or three versions of the entire open card can probably be written off. It would be much more acceptable for both gameplay and plot to cause time bubbles. These bubbles will contain different Pokemon from the past or the future, and players can use alternate periods to solve environmental puzzles that would otherwise stop them on the way. For example, various man-made and city-related Pokemon will be more common in the future, and the last bubble can return the flooded ruins either to their original form, or the ice age with new frozen bridges. Thus, many more Pokemon will be able to fit into each game, multiplayer users will be able to transfer each other to their respective versions for a while, and each area will become even more memorable.
Battles can use past and future versions of Pokemon
Of course, this brings the discussion back to the new combat mechanics. Players have been discussing since the initial reveal of the trailer what it could be, with theories often involving some kind of Pokemon-type expansion. Some have suggested that something new can be added, such as a sound type, or that an additional type can be applied to Pokemon during battles. With time travel, the possibilities of this mechanics are narrowing. Although it is unlikely that Pokemon have more than two types, there may be a way to change the type of Pokemon similarly to Mega Evolution.
