June 1st – Pokémon Trailer and Sonic Frontiers gameplay

The month of gaming is starting with a bang. Yesterday we got the confirmation that a new trailer for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet would be shown at 9 est. The trailer gave us another glimpse of the new region, whose name is yet to be revealed. It showcased three new monsters, the electric Pawmi, the grass type Smoliv and the new sensation, the pig Lechonk. Near the end of the trailer we also saw the new box legendary Pokémon. The Scarlet version exclusive, called Koraidon, is predominantly red and seems to have a sort of wheel shaped neck. Its counterpart, exclusive to Violet, is called Miraidon and has features that resemble a jet.

It is interesting to note that the central themes will likely revolve around the past and future. The names of the professors suggest this, Sada and Turo, are derived from the Spanish words ‘pasado’ (past) and ‘futuro’ (future). Their outfits are also a nod to those themes. The designs of the legendary Pokémon themselves further imply this with the futuristic and technological looking Miraidon, in contrast to the organic look of Koraidon.

The games promise an open world of exploration and non linearity, breaking from past entries. How they achieve this will be interesting to see. If gyms are back again my guess is that they will scale depending on player level or number of collected badges. There are some short glimpses of what may be gyms. What has been shown so far has been mostly focused on the open environment. Co-op is also a new addition that was mentioned. Up to four players can join up on the adventure. Sword and Shield explored a little bit of co-op in the Dynamax den battles. Multiplayer exploration sounds like an interesting concept, but what will it entail? The trailer doesn’t show much other than the players meeting in the field. Will they be exploring different areas within the same instance of the game? Can they catch the same Pokémon? It seems to be implied that both versions should be able to interact in this way, since the trainers have the respective version colors. We have barely gotten a peek at the new Pokémon. The open world will vibe with everyone who played Legends: Arceus. There is even a small shot of the player crouching to sneak around while near a Smoliv.

There are still more things yet to be revealed. We have not seen what might be the region’s evil/mischievous team. Heck, we don’t even know the region name yet. Gens 6, 7 and 8 introduced some special battle mechanic, will gen 9 have its own? Traversal will most likely take a page from Legends or Sun/Moon by using ride Pokémon. Launch is scheduled for November 18th. I feel that it’s likely we will see another trailer before that.

The second showing of the day included a preview of Sonic Frontiers shown as part of IGN First. The footage focused on a vast open world with a multitude of rails scattered about, ruined towers and some simple puzzle mechanics. Solving puzzles opened up new areas, revealed rails and so on. The one glaring absence was that there seemed to be no enemies to battle. It’s possible the focus of the showcase may have been adjusted to focus on Sonic himself and the traversal of the environment. There wasn’t much else other than various items to collect, apart from the traditional rings. Additionally nothing about the actual story has been revealed. Not much else to say other than to wait and see if there is more to Frontiers.

Tomorrow, June 2, is Sony’s State of Play presentation at 6 est. The gaming events will just keep rolling from here.