So it's another year, and another Pokemon generation! Hey, I actually completed Legends: Arceus in time! I was rather worried that I wasn't going to actually be able to finish that game before Scarlet and Violet came out, thanks to a lot of real-life events getting in the way, but I did finish Arceus and had a decent gap between the end of that game and the start of this one.
So yeah, as usual, this is going to be my typical text-based rambling playthrough as I go through Pokemon Violet.
I pre-ordered my game and got it on the day of worldwide release, which is 18th November, so yeah, I'm excited! I didn't really get too much into the game, but these first episodes tend to ramble on and on anyway.
I have been wholly and entirely unspoiled about anything about this game other than the very first trailer. Which means that other than the starters, the cover legendaries, some early-promotional Pokemon and that one Diglett regional variant that became a meme, I know absolutely nothing about this game. I can guess from the design of the version-exclusive professors and legendaries that Scarlet is themed in the past and Violet is themed in the future, or something along those lines? I was always going to choose Violet because I like purple more, but the legendary does look a lot neater to me.
Anyway, the beginning of the game! We start off in character creation and... it is admittedly a bit more advanced than the previous game? But I really never cared too much about character customizatoin, least of all in a Pokemon game. I one of the more bitch-basic haircuts, dye my hair brown, and kind of go on to just play the game. I mean, most of the time the character isn't going to do much in terms of expression, and I'm not really the type of player who fusses over eye shape or mouth shape.
I'm apparently a new transfer student that is enrolled into Paldea's Uva Academy, and... I could describe it scene-by-scene, but I do want to get this out by tonight so it's basically just a university promotional video. Very cool-looking showcase of all the activities done at a Pokemon school as Director Clavell and his little suit with Premier Balls gives the typical 'world of Pokemon' speech, restructured as a welcoming video for any prospective students. Very neat -- and even in this opening montage, we get to see a couple of new Pokemon. There's a weird orange Pikachu-clone-looking species that Clavell shows off to us in the intro, and we get to see a Muk fight against a jet-black regional variant (presumably) of Tauros.
Uva Academy is basically here to help teach about Pokemon, with a lot of battle and learning activities and... a bunch of neat easter eggs in the background like one of the classes teaching kids about the difference between standard Kantonian Raichu versus the regional variant, Alolan Raichu.
Then we cut to... a jet Pokemon? Which I think is Miraidon, the Violet version mascot, who's flying around like a jet? Is Miraidon a Transformer? Its eyes sure look digital, but it doesn't look like the serpent-with-wheels-on-the-underside-of-the-neck like the cover art. Is sure flies all throughout the region of Paldea, and we get to take a look at a bunch of other Pokemon -- including a herd of the aforementioned black regional Tauros, some green parrot Pokemon, a flock of flamingoes, and I think another bird Pokemon? Things kind of go quickly, and Miraidon passes through a bunch of windmills and whatnot before crash-landing.
Cut to the title screen, and my character wakes up at his home, which... as usual in these 3D games, the initial environments are always a labour of love from the designers despite the fact that you get out of it as soon as possible. Some neat details, like the Hoppip avse, a Skwovet plushie and a Croagunk ball, stickers of Applin, Hattenna and Driflooon, CD albums featuring an emo Chewtle... and a whole lot of artwork, each of which has a name. Paldea Mama is an art connoisseur, I see!
Anyway, thanks to a mix-up with the enrollment documents, Director Clavell of Uva Academy actually show up to give up said documents. Unlike Pokemon's usual standards, there's actually an animation of Clavell handing over the bag, instead of the item handover being off-screen! I am actually impressed at this otherwise rather unnecessary but much appreciated detail.
Which of course leads to the starter Pokemon choice. I think these Pokemon games really realize that dragging out the starter Pokemon choice any longer than two or three minutes is kind of unintuitive, and Clavell just lobs Sprigatito the weed cat, Quaxly the pompadour duck, and Fuecoco the pac-man dinosaur crocodile thing.
I've always known that I didn't really vibe with Quaxly at all, so it's always down to either Sprigatito, who seems to be a pretty safe design, and Fuecoco and his ridiculous goofy energy. And... for a while, I've never really committed to either one. I think this is probably the first Pokemon region where I didn't have an immediate favourite?
But here's the thing. Clavell actually tells me to walk with the Pokemon as I go from my house to my rival's house, and... and it's kind of a great way not just to showcase the Pokemon-walking-alongside-you feature of this generation, but also to, y'know, actually show off the starters. And sure, this is typical starting town location -- the idea is that Cabo Poco is a town with a lot of gardens -- but it really is charming to see these guys just waddle and toddle around. Obviously, the Power of Science guy is there in the starter town. Some things can never be changed in Pokemon and this is one of them.
Very interestingly, after Mama gives me the newest model of the Rotom Phone (we're in the smartphone generation, unfortunately, as much as I yearn for the PDA Pokedexes of the past...) and the UI now has a damn minimap! It's a huge improvement that really does sell how Pokemon is finally trying to embrace 3D worlds.
A lot of the story at this point is pretty... basic? It's charming, don't get me wrong, but it does feel like something we've seen before in Pokemon games. Clavell is just a pretty kind mentor, and our rival/neighbour/student council president is Nemona and her cool Nube gauntlet-glove thing. There's a pretty cool little detail about how Nemona does have a regular team she usually battles with, but she's deigning to raise one of the starters in order to have the experience of growing alongside me as a rival.
Nemona has very strong 'friendly Kenpachi' energy, I feel, being a battle freak whose every second sentence goes back to battling. I think I like her a bit more than Hop, for sure.
And I was around 50/50 about picking Sprigatito, but... Fuecoco actually did kind of steal my heart in the brief five minutes that I ran around with him. Especially that brief animated cutscene where Quaxly's posing with his pompadour and Sprigatito's making some flower petals... while Fuecoco accidentally burns a berry! And as the three of them line up, Quaxly just gives Fuecoco a withering glare that causes the goober to drop the burnt berry in slight disappointment. So... yeah, I really do ended up getting my heart stolen by this fire crocodile.
...how is this a fire crocodile? He looks more like a Pacman Dinosaur.
Whatever the case, I did end up picking Fuecoco, and... for now, I'm not nicknaming them, unlike my normal playthroughs. I'm still not too familiar with the new Pokemon names since I followed exactly nothing of the pre-release news, and I would like to familiarize myself with these newer Pokemon. I would definitely rename them later, though.
After the requisite rival battle (Nemona picks Sprigatito, the weaker starter to mine), I wander to her mansion of a house. She has a swarm of Pachirisus, a Chansey, a Gible and a Goomy. And a whole bunch of staff. Some sort of rich lady, I see! And she's got paintings of her own, including my faovurite -- a rather abstractized version of Greninja using Water Shuriken.
Mama gives me a sandwich (which falls into my key items), some potions, and downloads the... Pokedex app? Okay? The characters talk about how in the past, people used to use pen and paper to record Pokedex entries, a cute little nod to Legends Arceus. The Pokedex entry recording is rather interesting. There's like, a 'book' volume being slotted into place? That's interesting.
Nemona gives me a Pokemon capturing tutorial with a Lechonk, the Normal-type piggy that's all around the promotional artwork. From the context, this is our 'Rattata' or 'Zigzagoon' or 'Skwovet', the early-route... well, I can't call it the early rodent, since it's a pig this time! Don't particularly care about Lechonk, but I did find it cute that Lechonk spurns all but the finest of foods, and the scent it has repels Bug Pokemon. That's a neat subversion to the filthy mucky pigs.
And I get my first encounter with a Pokemon that I... instantly fall in love with. I mean, Fuecoco's cute and all, but TAROUNTULA. It's an adorable spider that hangs on trees, and wraps its abdomen with a literal ball of yarn created from its string. It's got a sad grandpa face and itty-bitty tripod legs that it scuttles around.
This is our early bug. This is our early bug, and it's MINE. I NEED THIS IN MY PARTY. THIS IS MY SPIDER BUDS.
Okay, yeah, if nothing else, Paldea's given me at least one Pokemon that I really like! This is a good day.
The open-world is pretty similar to Legends Arceus but not at all identical. It's a lot more traditional, just that the encounters feel a bit more randomized and the tall grass hides the smaller Pokemon like Tarountula, Scatterbug and Fletchling a bit more neatly. There's also an auto-battle function if I toss Fuecoco out, where he'd instantly chomp and burn the Hoppips and Scatterbugs in the way. I love, as with Sword/Shield and Sun/Moon, the great mixture of old and new Pokemon.
There's also the weird brown... rat... mole... thing that Clavell showed off in the World of Pokemon segment, but despite me being on top of the radar I really can't find where it is. Oh well.
Anyway, as Nemona get all excited about catching Pokemon (she's great at battling, not catching), a weird, mysterious cry that's most likely Miraidon ends up getting our attention near the lighthouse. That's where I'm stopping off for today, since I'm spending my night just testing out the controls and reading through the Pokedex entries and trying to catch that weird orange fat bunny-rat guy that keeps showing up in my minimap!
Random Notes:
- Monster reviews are going very slow because they take a lot of energy to produce. Obviously Pokemon ones will be always priority on this blog. Reviewing the human characters for Legends: Arceus might be delayed a bit because of the fact that there really are a lot of them.
- The uniforms for the academies differ across versions, including the pants of our main character, as well as Clavell and Nemona's outfits.
- No, I'm not going to do any online content. I still find the fact that you have to pay $4 for a monthly online subscription in addition to paying for the already-expensive Switch cartridge to be absolutely nonsensical. It did really make a lot of the farming in Pokemon Shield feel rather bland to me, yes, but I've always felt like the online features in this series should always be optional instead of shoehorned down our throats.
- In these first couple of parts I'll just be using official artwork, but I'll try to do some screencaps with my Switch.
- I also bought Persona 5 Royal, and I'll be playing it concurrently with Pokemon Violet. A bit too much for me to let's play both series at once, but I have been looking forward to this game being released on either the Switch or PC (where I game on) for literally years now.
- While I have so far not been spoiled about any of the new designs, a friend did tell me that knowing my personal preferences, I dodged a bullet not picking Sprigatito? I'm not sure the context of that comment, but okay, I have a chompy crocosaurus.
- Fletchling's dex entry mentions a Pokemon called a Squawkabilly that they fight for territory over, so I assume it's the regional early-route bird!
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