With Pokémon Scarlet and Violet just a little over a month away from release, the Pokémon Company saw fit yesterday to drop a 14-minute monster of trailer filled with new faces and gameplay mechanics for players to look forward to. One of its biggest reveals (literally) is a never-before-seen evolution for Girafarig: Farigiraf, which appears to have gained some extra height and a space helmet in exchange for a name that is extremely difficult to pronounce at first blush (thankfully, the trailer’s narrator took the liberty of doing so). The trailer also gave fans a first look at Scarlet and Violet’s new TM crafting system, which lets the player use materials collected from the Pokémon they’ve defeated to teach their own team some new moves.
Centered mostly around gameplay elements unique to Scarlet and Violet, the new trailer took plenty of time to further explain how the game’s type-changing Terastallization battle gimmick works. Essentially, any Pokémon in the game can terastallize, but each unique monster has only one set Tera-type (the type it becomes after Terastallization). Occasionally, the player may happen upon a wild Pokémon whose Tera-type differs from its base typing, such as a Fidough (normally a Fairy-type) with a Flying Tera-type. These special Pokémon can be found and caught either in the wild, or in the returning raid battles from Sword and Shield — this time around, the player’s Pokémon will be auto-revived after several turns if it is knocked out, and each participant in a raid battle can use cheers to buff the entire raid party’s stats.
Rather than focusing on new Pokémon reveals, the Pokémon Company decided to unveil some of Scarlet and Violet’s cast of human characters this time around. The first to make their debut was the evil Team Star and their Fire-type-using boss Mela, who likes to have her Pokémon battle on top of an excessively modded car. Another of Paldea’s gym leaders was revealed as well: Brassius, a stern-looking Grass-type user who uses his troupe of Sunflora to test gym challengers before they battle his Grass Tera-type Sudowoodo.
When the player isn’t hunting for new Pokémon, challenging gym leaders, or fighting Team Star’s grunts, they’ll have a chance to try out Scarlet and Violet’s picnics. During a picnic, players will be able to create sandwiches using ingredients they’ve collected to build stronger bonds with their Pokémon. Unlike Sword and Shield’s camping, however, one might be lucky enough to stumble upon an egg in their picnic basket that wasn’t there before — yes, it appears picnics will be replacing (or possibly supplementing) the old Pokémon Daycare as the game’s new breeding mechanic.
For those excited to sink their teeth into the latest helping of Pokémon, Scarlet and Violet will be available on Nov. 18 for the Nintendo Switch.