The Pokemon Company officially revealed Pokemon Generation 9 during the Pokemon Presents livestream on 27th February, 2022.
Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet are the two new titles that have been announced, and will have several notable differences.
Usually, the two versions of every new generation game feature version-exclusive Pokemon. With the Gen 9 games, it’s possible that we are looking at more differences than usual.
This guide is designed to keep you up-to-date with all the version differences and exclusives, as soon as they are made official.
Check back on this article for the latest updates. Here are all the differences between Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet!
1. Different Protagonist Players
The only official difference revealed so far is that Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet will have different starting outfits and looks for the Trainers chosen by the players.
On 8th March, 2022, the official Pokemon Twitter account shared that the players will be able to choose different adventures that depend on which main character is picked in the beginning.
Character options will include male and female Trainers, the Scarlet pair wearing Red, and the Violet ones wearing purple. As of now, we don’t know whether these color differences have any meaning or they’re just for show.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are the only RPG Nintendo Pokemon main series games to have protagonist players wear different garb, the colors depending on the version of games chosen.
The characters also sport different hairstyles, which may or may not symbolize character personality and abilities.
2. Different Crest Logos
In the trailer video, we see a fruit bowl with oranges and grapes, and two shields on opposite sides of a doorway, one with oranges, one with grapes.
This definitely refers to the version differences, where the orange is Scarlet and grape is Violet.
What this has to do with the new games has yet to be revealed.
Different crests are a throwback to Pokemon Sword and Shield, where the version difference is marked very distinctly.
The color differences also remind me of Generation 1’s Pokemon Red and Blue, where Red is the protagonist player and Blue is his antagonist.
Since the colors scarlet and violet are so similar to red and blue, there might also be some connection of the colors with the Trainers themselves.
3. Different Pokemon Exclusives
Every version of games in the Pokemon franchise has had version exclusive Pokemon. So, we can definitely expect version exclusive Pokemon in Scarlet as well as Violet, with added moves and features for each set of Pokemon.
In Pokemon Sun and Moon, we got 15 different Pokemon each for the 2 versions.
In Sword and Shield, the differences were more pronounced, especially since we had a wider range of Pokemon that included Legendary and Mythical Pokemon, and power boosts such as the Gigantamax feature.
For Scarlet and Violet, we can expect a similar demarcation like in Sword and Shield, where Sword got the Legendary mascot Zacian, and Shield had Zamenta.
While we still don’t have any idea of who the Gen 9 mascots are, you can be sure that either version will be equally balanced with awesome, powerful ‘mons.
A new generation in Pokemon also indicates new Pokemon and, as of Alola and Galar, regional variants of Pokemon that had been introduced earlier. We can be sure the Generation 9 will have a regional variant of older Pokemon as well.
Scarlet and Violet will most likely also have exclusive regional variants.
We can expect unique power-ups, too. Gen 7 gave us Legendary and Mythical Pokemon that could evolve, along with Z-moves and Z-crystals. Gen 8 introduced the in-game mechanics of Dynamax, Gigantamax, and Eternamax.
Gen 9’s Scarlet and Violet will also have these features, plus more. Each version will have a few different Pokemon that feature different power boosts.
What we know for sure is, that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet will have their own set of version exclusive Pokemon that can be caught in the wild as well as traded.
Regular Pokemon and box Legendaries can be traded; however, with the core games now on Nintendo Switch, players might have to take a paid subscription to facilitate trading Pokemon between games.
4. Different Gym Leaders
If Pokemon Scarlet and Violet follow with the Gym-Battle system, we might get exclusive Gym Leaders and rivals that use different Pokemon types, like in Pokemon Sword and Shield.
5. Different Locale Aesthetic
In Pokemon Black and Pokemon White, the locales were exclusive depending on the version you got. Pokemon Black had cities that were more urban, while Pokemon White had a more rural landscape.
We know that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is set in the Iberian Peninsula. It’s possible that the two version get different biomes or aesthetically different landscapes. This can tie into the open-world feature that the games promise.
Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet on Nintendo Switch are both available for preorder in the US and the UK. The games are set to release at the end of 2022.
6. About Pokémon
Pokémon was first released in 1996 and is set up in a world where humans catch monsters and store them in pocket-sized poke-balls.
They are creatures with an affinity to certain elements and some superhuman abilities related to that element.
Revolving around a teenage boy Ash Ketchum, Pokémon takes us through his journey to becoming the most accomplished Pokémon trainer the world has ever seen.
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