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Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are coming out in just a few days now, and many fans are excited to play Gen 9 games to discover all that the Paldea region has to offer. Much like Gen 8 set the bar high for quality-of-life changes and new elements introduced, Gen 9 will bring multiple tools to enhance the experience of all trainers, starting with free exploration in Paldea's open world, all the way to Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's rumored Pokemon-editing DLC feature. Another exclusive feature from Gen 9 is the Pokemon picnic, which is a mini-game in and of itself where players can make sandwiches for their critters to enjoy, and maybe even get some eggs in return.
Like in Gen 8, players will be able to access their in-game PC and boxes anywhere and transfer Pokemon around in a matter of a few clicks, which is going to be particularly helpful in Gen 9 due to the games' open-world nature. Among the various leaks that surrounded Gen 9 for the past few days, there is a noteworthy thing that players who got early access to their pre-ordered copies or those who played the ROM, and that's that trainers will be able to open their PC and boxes while facing the Elite Four. For multiple reasons, the reception to this can easily be lukewarm from Pokemon Scarlet and Violet fans.
Why Switching Pokemon Between Elite Four Battles Can be Good and Bad in Scarlet and Violet
Unlike Gen 8, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet will be bringing Elite Four back, but the fact that players can now change their team before or after every fight can have a rather big impact on two main factors: team compositions and how difficult the game truly is. In terms of team compositions, this change is actually a great one because it can allow players to focus on more new critters at once rather than immediately commit to a specific team of six.
This is something a few Pokemon games in the franchise have suffered from, especially because it can cause players to experience the game as a whole, trying out different pocket monsters to see which of them are one's own favorites. This can also help with Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's three storylines, as players are encouraged to not focus on one of them at a time, but rather to explore the entirety of Paldea. As such, getting to the Elite Four too early or too far deep into the endgame could make the battles not really exciting due to the perceived level of challenge.
Speaking of how challenging Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are going to be, allowing players to just change their team composition at any point during the Elite Four and Champion encounters means that players can go in unprepared and with zero knowledge, and still waltz through every battle. This is because having a fresh team ready for every encounter without having to care too much about restorative items, PP, and other factors, is what can make Elite Four and Champion battles so much easier.
With Gen 8, several fans were outspoken about the fact that the games were far too easy to provide any sense of challenge, and this might carry over to Gen 9 through things like Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's experience share and Let's go battles, for example. As such, being able to freely switch one's Pokemon around between Elite Four battles removes that sense of danger and anticipation that some titles in the series were able to achieve, such as with Cynthia as a Champion in Gen 4 remakes. As such, the overall reception of this new feature can go either way.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet release on November 18 for Nintendo Switch.