Pokémon (Not-So) Griefing Thread - Scarlet and Violet Released with 10 Million Copies in First 3 Days in Buggy States

[The Ultimate Ramotith]

I think there's something about 3D models that made them rethink their designs, and it stinks. It's like they wanted the mons to be easier to model, and animate, so they toned down some of the crazier stuff.

There was an interview abou that:

https://lewtwo.net/index.php/CGWorld_Vol._296_Interview_with_Creatures

 

[Grayback]

Gen 10 reveal with the starters, titles, and maybe region. Release window.

I don't recall the precise timing of how past generations were introduced, but this strikes me as too early.
If they started announcing stuff about Gen 10 now, it seems like it would take the wind out of the sails of Legends ZA. There are plenty of people who will just skip Legends ZA if they hear that a new, "proper" game is also going to be coming out soon.

If the Teraleak hit them hard enough, they might end up revealing a new gimmick (or at least hinting at it).

I hope that they don't introduce a new battle gimmick just for the sake of throwing in something new. The battle mechanics are in a pretty good state, where they just need tweaks, not an overhaul. Terastallization is well-balanced and was well-received by the VGC people. Let them just stick with that as the battle gimmick for a while.

I get that they have to always put new stuff into the games in order to keep people interested and get them to buy the newest thing, but I hope that whatever they add to Gen 10 that could be called a "gimmick" is out-of-battle stuff. Something related to exploration, or customization, or whatever. Don't just throw in the next dynamax or Z-move thing compulsively and fuck up battling.

Gen 5 remake or sidegame vaguely hinted at to tie in with Black Bolt/White Flare.

It would make some sense to go along with the card set, but I wonder if they would really release more remake games before the next Gen 10 mainline games.
I hope that they do, though. Even though I'm an escaped mental patient who didn't like the original Gen 5 games, I would like a chance with the remakes to get to actually like them and see what everybody else sees.

Any predictions for what the remakes will be called, assuming that they stick with the convention of [adjective or thing + original name]?
I tried to come up with some a while ago, but it's weirdly hard to find two things that match the colors but also go together well.
I liked Midnight Black / Heavenly White (heavenly in the sense of the sky, since all of the towns had names based on the names of clouds, and I guess midnight is a sky... appearance... thing...)
Watch them announce that the remake games are actually going to be called Black Bolt / White Flare as well, just to fuck with us.

 

[Squawking Macaw]

Not before an Explorer's remaster.

How about an original PMD game? Remember the last time we got one?

I remember. I remember being FURIOUS that I had to wait until next year to play a game everyone else had.

Any predictions for what the remakes will be called, assuming that they stick with the convention of [adjective or thing + original name]?

Blaze Black and Volt White

Jokes aside, even the names got more boring. HGSS and ORAS were opposite but complementary, Heart and Soul, Alpha and Omega. Maybe FRLG's names were boring as well, but they were the first remakes so the convention wasn't established yet.

Meanwhile Brilliant and Shining are synonyms, their names might as well be Sparkly Gem #1 and Sparkly Gem #2 (I know pearls aren't gems but I don't know what else to call them). What's next, Radiant Platinum?

 

[Anonitolia]

The Presents pre-show is live.

They couldn’t even be bothered to do more than slap some glasses on a normal pikachu model doing its battle idle animation for the DJ

I guess the music in the background isn’t half bad though

EDIT: there was like one good remix and it’s gone now, this isn’t even working as good background noise
also it’s nothing but KANTOOOOOO but that shouldn’t be too surprising at this point
at least they gave the DJ a few more animations

 

[Computer God Autism]

How about an original PMD game?

It wouldn't be good.

 

[Anonitolia]

Alright, the actual Presents is live now. The standard liveblogging shall ensue!

Not sure if I'll be able to make it through the whole thing due to other obligations but I'll try my best.

Spoiler: spoilered for your convenience

Going in chronological order:

• Opening with Chris Brown from TPCi. Starting with 2025 World Championships shilling. Seems like just a normal ad, talking about the cards they'll get for competing and the games they're going to show off.
  • Paradise Resort card artwork got revealed
• Immediately got pulled away. Here's what I think I missed:
• Concierge Season 2
• Aardman details.
  • Some new animated series for 2027 called "Pokémon Tales: Sirfetch'd and Pichu"?
  • It doesn't look like stop-motion, it's too smooth. It looks like CGI trying to imitate the Aardman style. What a shame
  • Seems to be set in Galar.
• Mega Evolution set got some cards shown off in a nice trailer, but I'm pretty sure literally all of these were already revealed prior
  • Releasing September 26th
• Shovelware spinoff "Pokemon Friends," literally mobile-game tier but the only gameplay I saw was on the Switch 2
• M O B I L E S L O P
  • Pokémon GO Fest 2025 Eternatus reminder
  • Master Sex Carmine and Sinistcha
  • Pokémon Sleep reminder, three legendary beasts
  • Cafe Remix Lapras something
  • UNITE Latios/Latias reminder
• Scarlet and Violet
  • Tera Raid reminder
  • They're giving away a jumpsuit outfit? wtf man why isn't this obtainable in-game by normal means
• Champions info.
  • Team recruitment WORKS LIKE UNITE, LMAO
  • Brief gameplay reveal
  • Planned to release 2026. No further mentions
  • Came after being told we'd get news for mainline games...
• Z-A news.
  • Starts with the pink sparkle around an Absol, it's probably the wild Mega thing
    • Yeah it's the wild mega thing. It's just SV Titans but with wild Megas.
  • New characters, one with dreads one with a weird ponytail thing? Neither look very French
    • Former is an aspiring fashion designer, latter is an aspiring dancer
  • New person with blue dyed hair, looks like a Flare admin
    • Called Mable. She handles "research," which seems to just be a Battle Pass with every reward being a new TM.
  • Some Royale bosses shown.
    • One called Corbeau, boss of the "rust Syndicate" who knows Team MZ somehow
  • Emma, bingo
    • Detective. Sidequests involving helping her solve mysteries
  • Confirmation of Mega Dragonite... looking like Khu's leak. Oh god
    • It looks pretty bad. They gave it huge wings on its head but they don't fucking do anything. It still uses the tiny ones on its back
  • Wild Megas are probably real
  • Joining "Team MZ" who protects Lumiose apparently. Fucking Khu probably got another source. great
    • not helped by all the emphasis on wild Pokémon that match the other Pokémon in his leak
  • Basic gameplay overview, bingo. No real new information save for the return of character customization
  • Ralts with Gardevoirite as a pre-purchase bonus
  • That's it lmao

 

[30+GameOvers]

I am expecting nothing and will probably still come away disappointed

 

[Tony Martin's Force Ghost]

must endure the slop content... This is painful at least the Japanese man is speaking now.

Fuck this is bad...

 

[Squawking Macaw]

I hate mobileslop so much bros.

THE DRAGONITE LEAKS WERE RIGHT LMFAO

THE LEAKS WERE REAL

 

[Tony Martin's Force Ghost]

Why do they need til 2026 to release champions? Also, wtf did they do to my boy Dragonite...

 

[30+GameOvers]

The claymation show is weird, but at least it's something different from the ashime slop people have been subjected to for decades now. The Pokemon theme park looks legit interesting, maybe I will visit it if I go to Japan someday, but it's not something that will get me to go there by itself. The Champions game looks like a poor man's Stadium game mixed with Sword/Shield's online component, so a nothing burger in other words. Now, as I type this, I am watching ZA trailer and the first thing I noticed is that the anime aesthetic is gone and now we have more "realistic" models more akin to Scarlet/Violet or pre-troonout GO! models. Either way, gameplay doesn't look interesting, Lumiose City was never interesting, it will be pozzed to hell and I couldn't care less about the whole thing. New Megas can eat my dick, bring back old ones and bring back Z moves while you're at it. Mobile garbage doesn't warrant a mention.

Pretty much nothing special, I'm more interested in how the theme park will work but that's about it. Thanks for a reminder as to how soulless the actual games are, TPCi! I can only imagine what it feels like to be a Scarlet Violet fan, all the content you get is Raid garbage where you don't even get a reward until an arbitrary number of people do the same raid as well! What a joke, and they are advertising being able to play the game in more than 3 frames per second on Switch 2 like it's a feature, lmfao!

 

[Tony Martin's Force Ghost]

Z-A just looks awful. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!! I am starting to believe my theory on Nintendo being pissed with GF.

 

[Anonitolia]

Wow they really have nothing for Z-A. Like, literally nothing. Everything that mattered had already been revealed on Pokémon Day. Holy shit lmao

Also, that Mega Dragonite really does just dip into horrible fan design tier. It is straight out of 2013 DeviantArt. It is terrible.

 

[30+GameOvers]

Wow they really have nothing for Z-A. Like, literally nothing. Everything that mattered had been revealed on Pokémon Day. Holy shit lmao

I noticed that they didn't even have unique music for the boutique when they talked about clothes, altho it might just be memberberries for the XY zoomies. It is genuinely depressing that little kids who played XY as their first games are now old enough to get nostalgic and buy this game for that alone.
It's shocking how by the numbers ZA is when compared to Arceus, I wonder if it's the same people are behind it.

 

[Tony Martin's Force Ghost]

Is it the same team as Arceus doing ZA because this feels like such a downgrade? There isn't even a fucking story, and the stories suck.

 

[Anonitolia]

Is it the same team as Arceus doing ZA because this feels like such a downgrade? There isn't even a fucking story, and the stories suck.

No idea about the team overall but it's a different director who's never directed anything on this scale. It shows, I guess.

---

Going to go over the obligatory Z-A site changes because why not. The Direct didn't give us squat anyways lmao

Spoiler: sigh

okay, so, for those in the back, Khu seems to have gotten a new source, or at least properly guessed the absolute bottom of the barrel pick for Dragonite and its design, so expect a month or two of retards fellating him in the near future. I don't want to give him credit for this, given that, as I mentioned before, it is literally 2013 DeviantArt tier (to the point that I'm convinced some future lolcow is going to sue TPC for ripping off their fan design), but it's worth taking into account in case you see people worshipping the ground he shits on.

So, with that in mind, I'm going to proceed as if all of his leaks do not exist in the hopes of avoiding actual, genuine spoilers for those interested. If those people even exist by this point lmao.

All of this is taken from the Japanese site because the English one hasn't changed yet. Everything is machine-translated, so expect some bumps in the road.

Spoiler: Official Art

They're going for the fucking BDSP art style with Mega Dragonite. Wonderful precedent.



Wannabe fashion designer, "Naveen":


Leader of the "Pokémon Research Institute." I think she's still just called Mable. (Checked the site in Japanese: yeah, her name's unchanged. She's still called Mable.)


Emma


Poison-type "rust gang"(? forgot the name) leader, "Corbeau". Supposedly a "mafia boss." inb4 Rocket expy


Student of that dance school, "Lida". Funnily enough, the way she's drawn makes me think she's supposed to be Korean. Is this a k-pop thing? Why is there a k-pop dancer in Paris? Why am I asking stupid questions?



New official art for daytime vs. nighttime... I'm not sure why the fashion designer is over there hiding in the bushes for nighttime, maybe that's supposed to indicate that he's supposed to be the edgy rival? Then again, I highly doubt you'll be able to pair up with the dancer for anything, so it probably doesn't mean anything.


Better look at the daytime artwork:


Better look at the nighttime artwork:

Spoiler: Screenshots of """"new""" game features

Not "New Game" features. Just features in the game that we did not know about before.

Here's the new Pokedex interface, which seems to only show Pokémon portraits once you've actually caught the 'mon now. It also shows space for the mon's entire evolutionary line now. I'm not sure why they changed these things, and I'm mixed on them. What I'm definitely not mixed on is the really shitty blue-light shader they have for the model you're hovering over when browsing the thing. That looks teeeerrible. At least they have the sense to get rid of it when you select the Pokémon entry itself. (Which also does not have any information on abilities. Or anything save for name, possible genders, weight, height, and type.)

Spoiler: English versions for comparison.

It's still a fucking smartphone app. I think unique 'dex designs are well and truly dead at this point.

30-second showcase of a wild battle:

Some more battle screenshots (no, nothing glowy is nearby in the one on the right, the daytime shading really is just that bad):


New Nurse Joy design:


And a closer look at the open-air Pokémon Centers.


Level-up, new move, and evolution screenshots. These are making me wonder if the game is just built on the SV engine, because they look nearly identical. It would explain a lot if it was. The horrible graphics, the slowdown, the similar visual languages...


The Battle Royale has an app in which you can edit your profile picture, apparently. Really really making me think this is just built off of SV.


Character customization also seems to be identical to SV, only with more clothing options of course.


Photo mode screenshots. Once again, the interface is near-identical to SV's.


Here's the pokemart interface.

Spoiler: Other miscellaneous bits and details

Still no mention of abilities. It's likely they're not in the game. At all. Not surprised, just tired


The wannabe fashion designer is partnered with a Scraggy, which I'm sure will have absolutely no significance and not relate to the character at all whatsoever. Especially since, if the leaked designs are right, its hoodie turns fucking white. Like the character.


The k-pop dancer is, subsequently, paired with a Staryu. Another supposedly leaked mega. If those fucking designs are actually real then I guess that explains why Starmie's is a dogshit meme. Because it's paired with a dogshit meme character. Hah.


Mable's gamer chair and laptop have the Flare logo on them. The team has probably been redeemed or something somehow.


The Pokemon Research Institute just seems to be Sycamore's lab...


The poison guy seems to mainly be paired with an Arbok. Notably, this went completely unaccounted for in the supposed story leak that called Emma's hair being cut and her taking on the role of detective. It, instead, claimed that this guy's main partner was going to be a Scolipede... so either the marketing is obfuscating that, or the leak got something wrong.


It seems like the only difference between catching Pokémon in daytime vs nighttime is that they're only restricted to Wild Zones during the nighttime? Machine translation, so take this with a grain of salt, but I think that's what they're trying to say here.


Alphas are returning. I don't know why this wasn't mentioned anywhere in the trailers, or the English site, or anywhere prominent at all. They're still around. For some reason.


You get Mega Stones from Quasartico by shattering "Mega Crystals" that grant you corresponding shards. These shards can be exchanged at Quasartico for actual stones, or bought wholesale at the Lumiose Stone Shop. EDIT: you can also get them from "pacifying rogue Mega Pokémon" if the English site is to be believed. No clue if this refers to a one-time quest to get the Key Stone, every single Mega Stone in the game, or both. This is still machine translation, so I'm inferring a fair amount.


Also lmao those crystals look so bad it's fucking comical.


Japan is getting a Switch 2 bundle on launch:

Same deal as MKW, where the base console is cheaper and the included title is downloadable-only.

At least the starters got plush toys with funky hats.

Except for Tepig, who's getting shafted as usual.
Apparently these are for a Twitter giveaway. If you want one, you have to like a specific tweet? I think the winners are going to be announced when the game releases. Dunno. Don't care much lol.

In closing, I can only post my rather predictable reaction:

 

[Grayback]

Live fan reaction:

 

[Squawking Macaw]

What a massive nothingburger. We had to trudge through so much mobileslop to be given a shitty little trailer. they even wasted time showing off trainer customization like it isn't an expected feature that the last three generations had. At least the stopmotion shows have a nice artstyle, I suppose.

The leaks included the Megas going out of control, the blue-haired Team Flare woman being a major character and Mega Dragonite having Dragonair wings, it's safe to assume the other leaks are real. It's pretty damn lame, literally just a retread of the Dynamax storyline from Gen 8.

 

[Linoone]

This was as predictable as I could’ve imagined. A nothing burger of a Presents.

 

[Grayback]

they even wasted time showing off trainer customization like it isn't an expected feature that the last three generations had.

Scarlet & Violet's clothing customization was so terrible that it might as well have not been in the game.
It was such a big step back that the fact that they're bring back and seemingly expanding customizatiom honestly is news.