The Pokémon Company has been pumping out games for the mega-franchise more than usual, as ILCA's Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl and Game Freak's Legends: Arceus have all launched less than a year apart. However, the train will continue to chug on, as the 9th generation of Pokémon is set to release in late 2022 in the form of Scarlet and Violet.
Legends set a new bar for where the billion-dollar IP should finally be aiming, so fans will have high expectations. Fans on Reddit have been enthusiastically (while expressing some concern) discussing features they hope to make the final cut.
Animal-Like Starter Pokémon
Though it's become partly a joke, the starters turning into bipedal humanoids by their third stage has become a tired trope of the games. There are several great starter Pokémon species, but they've been debatably losing their charm when Game Freak started making them feel less and less like fantastical animals.
Redditor BeardedBears exclaimed "Please... Please don't let every starter have a stage-3 humanoid form... I'm so tired of Pokémon with a human bauplan." It's an understandable criticism, as while this is a fictional world with superpowered animals, making them all bizarre-looking humanoids still seems to miss the point of "Pocket Monsters."
Legends: Arceus Catching Mechanics
The aforementioned Legends: Arceus brought the next step in the mainline Pokémon games that many veteran franchise fans have been waiting for. While the game wasn't a single seamless open world, it did have several large Monster Hunter-like zones to explore populated with different species. Another one of Pokémon Legends: Arceus' best features, though, was making the catching mechanic an action-focused and involved gameplay feature.
Redditor The-Only-Razor was happy to hear Scarlet and Violet will make the jump to a vast, seamless open-world setting and added "Hopefully the catching mechanics are the same as PLA as well." It seems heavily suggested battling/catching will return though, but perhaps the return of the Safari Zone could have a contained version of Arceus' catching mechanic.
Legends: Arceus, But With More Battling
Conversely, something else fans would like to see is a fleshed-out version of Legends: Arceus' gameplay loop. As great as the game was for finally revitalizing an old formula and making catching such an addictively involved feature, seeing proper battling become more than punctuation in Scarlet and Violet is a reasonable next step.
Redditor jobezark plainly said, "Give me PLA with more battling and I’m hooked." The Pokémon battles in Legends were fun when they became relevant and did well to break up the loop, but it could be exciting to see a tighter balance.
Shaking Up The Battling Formats
Legends: Arceus did some interesting and exciting things with its battling mechanics. The introduction of the Strong and Agile styles were great ways to encourage players to be more strategic in how they use their moves. But with Scarlet and Violet, the return to a modernized setting should pave the way to get more creative with battle formats again.
Redditor Sour_Pancakes27 said in response to someone's wish for more PLA combat "As long as it isn’t more 2v1 or 3v1 battles while only being able to attack 1 mon at a time." Area-of-effect (AoE) attacks, in particular, sound like a great way to give the games more of a classic JRPG spice in a post-Legends mainline game.
Mixing Legends' Zones With Sw/Sh's Wild Areas
Scarlet and Violet being confirmed as one large open world is encouraging, as it lends more credence to the theory that Legends: Arceus was another stepping stone in how Game Freak approaches the scope of their games. And as exciting as that prospect is, the developers will have to avoid the classic open-world problem of bloat, i.e. lots of space with little to do in them.
The Wild Areas in Sword and Shield had this issue on a smaller scale, as they seemed far too static and barren, which Legends corrected with smooth transitions into catching and battles. Redditor frenzyguy was more cautious and tempered, saying "It seems more like [a] wild area but everywhere. I hope for a mix of legends and wild area, but my hopes aren't too high."
Seeing Shiny Pokémon In The Overworld
Shiny Pokémon are a beloved staple in each generation, and their rarity is part of what gives them such a high appeal. They've been a fun gimmick feature ever since the Johto games (Gold, Silver, and Crystal), but it's been nice for fans to get more streamlined ways of "Shiny hunting."
The odds of finding one are incredibly low as is, but Legends added an excellent yet simple feature by simply showing them in the overworld instead of waiting for a wild battle to officially start. Redditor Falloutman399 said, "All I want is to be able to see shinies in the overworld like Arceus, that was far and away one of my favorite changes..."
Diverse Player Customization Options
While there were exciting developments from the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet reveal trailer, one of the complaints was how surprisingly bland the protagonist character designs looked. Most of the main characters at this point always have some level of personality to their looks.
However, some are theorizing that these "blank slate" character designs suggest much more in the way of cosmetic customization. Redditor FlyingMudkip184 felt confident, saying that "I agree, but I have no doubt that they'll include heavy customization options, so I don't really mind." Cosmetics in Legends were admittedly on the shallow side, so this should be a simple feature to expand.
Smoothening Out Graphical Rough Edges
Pokémon Legends: Arceus received a strong critical reception thanks to its inventive shakeup of the gameplay formula and expanding the scope of its world. But it's hard to ignore the technical and, in this case, graphical shortcomings of the game. It looks like it's at least a generation behind and is saved by its art style and occasional lighting effects.
Scarlet and Violet's trailer looked like a modest improvement in this department, but it has a ways to go. Redditor naynaythewonderhorse said that they "really hope they learn what anti-aliasing is by release though." That's to say that one of Legends' most notable graphical issues was the jagged edges visible on 3D models.
Gym Battles & More Cities Mixed With Legends: Arceus' Style
Legends: Arceus being a "prototype," so to speak, for what Scarlet and Violet will hopefully become seems more apparent when looking at the former's premise and setting. Taking the land of Sinnoh back to when it was called the Hisui region in a feudal Japan-inspired era is an easy excuse to have a world that's sparsely populated with people.
Jubilife was the only city that made sense contextually, but many will hope Legends' formula will grow exponentially with a modern-day setting and classic series conventions. Redditor owlitup was optimistic with the trailer, saying the "Game looks exactly like Arceus but with cities which hopefully means gyms and more battles. I’m here for it, was my only complaint with Arceus."
A New "Eeveelution"
Yet another fan-favorite series tradition for the mainline games is the Kanto Pokémon Eevee getting a new evolution. While it hasn't happened with every mainline game, it's happened enough to be considered something of a franchise staple. It's the main gimmick behind Eevee's biology, and fans are long overdue for a new one.
Redditor The-Owl-that-hoots humorously said, "I pray to Arceus for new Eeveelutions." The last time Eevee received one was the Fairy-Type Sylveon in the 6th generation, and given there are still nine unused types, Eevee would be more than justified in getting a new one this year.