Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Announced, Unanimous Love For Starters

Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet Announced

On February 27th, 2022, the gaming community celebrated Pokémon Day. And, with it came the surprising reveal of the generation 9 games, Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet.

Pokémon Day serves to celebrate the franchise’s birthday, which started back in 1996 with Red and Green. Of the newest games, Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet, this is all the information that we know so far:

• The region is based on the Iberian Peninsula, with the Pokémon League shown in the trailer using La Sagrada Familia from Barcelona, Spain, as a reference.
• The trailer revealed the game to be an open world. It allegedly features towns with no borders in what seems to be a continuation of the concept displayed in Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
• The trailer revealed the starter trio: the capricious Sprigatito, the laid-back Fuecoco, and the earnest Quaxly. 
• Trainers will have different clothes depending on which version they play. Furthermore, they’ll wear the same outfit regardless of gender.

Eagle-eyed fans have assembled a list of over 50 Pokémon confirmed to appear in the games. The list is based on the ones featured in the trailer, which all but confirmed the return of Lucario, Kantonian Mewoth and, surprisingly, Hisuian Zoroark.

On top of that, for the first time in many generations, fans seem to be unanimously pleased with the design of the starter trio, which often features a day-one favourite and two others who are lesser stars of the show.

The appearance of the starters also sparked theories on their inspiration, which have circulated on Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit. Fans have also developed many possible final evolutions for the starters.

It’s believed that each starter trio could gain the primary type of another starter as the second type for their evolution.

The grass starter, Sprigatito, taking its name from a Sprig (from a plant) and the Spanish word for Little Cat (Gatito), is based on the Iberian Lynx. It’s theorized that Sprigatito could end up evolving into a Grass/Water-type, given how Iberian Lynxes are fantastic swimmers.

The fire starter, Fuecoco, owing its name to the Spanish word for fire (Fuego) and Crocodile (Cocodrilo), resembles a bipedal crocodile with a piquillo pepper mask. The theory mentions how Fuecoco could become a Fire/Grass-type at some point, given how the piquillo peppers, native only to Spain, are prepared by fire-roasting.

The water starter, Quaxly, has a more obvious etymology, coming from the sound ducklings produce. Quaxly seems inspired by the Ruddy duck and sports a navy-styled cap. Quaxly’s theorized Water/Fire typing seems the least convincing of all three starters, citing naval use of fire artillery as its possible reason.

The Pokémon Company didn’t promote the event as much as they expected to be sensitive to current global events. As they could not postpone the event, they reduced its promotion to offer the option to tune in digitally.

While very little is known of the current games due to the announcement’s newness, the trailer and starter trio already seem very promising to fans.