Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet Announced

Generation 9 is official.

Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet will release late 2022.

The Starter Pokémon

To begin with everybody's favorite part of a new generation, the starters. All we have for now is still images of each starter, coming from a painting in the trailer, and the Pokémon website. Along with those images though, came names and basic stats on the website.

The Grass Type starter is Sprigatito, the Grass Cat Pokémon. Then there is the Fire Type Fuecoco, the Fire Croc Pokémon. Finally, we have the Water Type Quaxly, the Duckling Pokémon. They seem to each be given specific personalities, which may hint to starts having cutscenes or something to put their personalities on display, similar to the Sword and Shield starters. Their evolutions will likely come in the middle of this year, but for now it seems like there may be enough for fans to fall in love with one or the other already.

What We Know

Other than the starters, there are a few things we can observe from the trailer. The trailer showcased some vague locations, which seem to show an open world. Now, it can be argued that Sword and Shield had a somewhat open world as well. This though, looks like it could either be in the vein of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, or Pokémon Sword and Shield. Not all locations look purely open, some seem to have straightforward paths.

Whether the world is fully open, or gives the illusion that it is, it's closer to what fans have been asking for as of late. This includes the upgraded graphics, even in the early build featured in the trailer.

The Questions

Now, Pokémon fans can take to social media with fun speculations about what Generation 9 holds. Some questions being asked are as follows. Are “Scarlet” and “Violet” a callback to the original Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue? Will the full national Pokédex be included? How open world is the game? What online capabilities will exist? Well, There are no certain answers to these very specific questions for now, but it can be assumed we'll know more as the year goes on. With the hope that the game is packed with content, there should be plenty to announce slowly until the release late in the year.