[ad_1]
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are coming out in less than three months, and while The Pokemon Company has released four trailers thus far, very little is officially known about Gen 9 games, particularly so in terms of new pocket monsters. Three months from launch, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet have only revealed 12 new Pokemon, which is an astoundingly low number for a huge franchise that’s releasing a major entry in its mainline series very soon. This can be even more disheartening when looking at what sort of Pokemon were actually revealed, as three of those 12 are the starters, two are the box Legendaries, and one is their sub-Legendary pre-evolution, leaving only six monsters out of the equation.
The bulk of information regarding Pokemon Scarlet and Violet doesn’t come from the official channels as of now, but instead, it comes from several leaks and rumors that started appearing online over the months. Many of them are from a reliable source in the form of Riddler Khu, a leaker who correctly described the main features and new Pokemon from Pokemon Legends: Arceus way before the game was released. Now that there’s a news drought in what was supposed to be Pokemon Scarlet and Violet‘s reveal cycle, leakers like Riddler Khu have ended up being the main marketing for Gen 9 games thanks to everything that is being revealed ahead of launch.
How Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s Leaks Built Hype Ahead of Release
Although The Pokemon Company’s silence might be a marketing strategy in and of itself, which was used to a less extreme degree with both Pokemon Sword and Shield and Pokemon Legends: Arceus, it may do more harm than good to Gen 9 games. The only thing that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet fans know more about is the Terastal phenomenon and how it works, as both the third and the fourth trailer went over its main aspects. An example is that, in the span of the two August trailers, trainers went from knowing nothing about the gimmick to learning about what it is and how it works.
And yet, Game Freak is underserving Pokemon Scarlet and Violet fans who want to build their teams ahead of the games’ release date, as very few new pocket monsters have been unveiled up to now. Building a team is part of the experience in Pokemon games, and planning one before launch allows players to target specific areas of the games to find the critters they want as soon as possible, with this decision often coming down to either strategy or aesthetics – or a mix of both.
Because the exact number of new Pokemon in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet seems to be around 105, with 84 being unique Gen 9 species, 5 being cross-gen evolutions, and 16 being Paradox Pokemon, knowing 12 of those monsters is very little. Thanks to the leakers, however, fans now know the entirety of Gen 9’s Pokedex as far as general design and type combinations go, and their contribution feels like the proper marketing team for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.
Maybe The Pokemon Company was too generous with the reveal cycle of Pokemon Sun and Moon, as everything about the games was revealed way before their release, but the opposite approach can be bad for the same reasons. An example is that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet‘s new Fire Pokemon are a great concept based on the leaks, with them being split evolutions of the same base critter that represent a warrior and a sword, but that could be a much more effective piece of information if revealed via official channels. Four trailers are not necessarily too few for a new Pokemon game, but their content didn’t live up to the hype the community manifested when Gen 9 was first announced.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet release on November 18 for Nintendo Switch.
[ad_2]