Nintendo previously teased this year’s entry into the Pokemon franchise, the ninth generation Scarlet and Violet. There was no release date announced back then, though series tradition dictates that it would release sometime in November. Now, the publisher has revealed more about the game, which includes the confirmation of a release date.
This comes as part of a new trailer, which also shows of the new Legendary Pokemon of the generation. For Scarlet, this is Koraidon, and as for Violet, it will be Miraodon. Two of them look distinct enough that, were they not the representative legendaries of their own games, you’d never expect them to be counterparts of each other.
The trailer also shows that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet will come with a new feature, which is allowing up to four players to play together. Unlike in previous games where the multiplayer modes were limited to trading and battles, the implementation in Scarlet and Violet looks a lot more like your conventional co-op multiplayer. This is a major step up for the franchise, which has traditionally been a strictly singleplayer service outside of battles and trades.
While not part of the new trailer, the official Pokemon website states that Scarlet and Violet offers “an open-world experience” where players are free to explore at their leisure. In other words, areas of the region are no longer locked off by story progress. Which is pretty amazing, since this means players can, should they choose to, catch a pseudo-legendary early on in their playthrough. These powerful species of pocket monsters have traditionally been locked to areas near the end game or even post game.
All these new improvements sound pretty exciting, especially for an otherwise near-stagnant franchise. There also looks to be a lot of improvements adapted from the revolutionary Pokemon Legend: Arceus. But at any rate, the ninth generation of Pokemon games are now slated for release on 18 November 2022.
(Source: Pokemon [1], [2])
