Many fans of the Pokemon franchise tempered their expectations for the Pokemon Presents event hosted to celebrate Pokemon Day 2022. After all, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl released on November 19, 2021, followed soon after by Pokemon Legends: Arceus on January 28, 2022; it would make sense for the franchise to take an off-year for Generation 9. Yet Game Freak came out swinging with the reveal of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, schedule to release for Switch in late 2022.
The reveal teaser put a fair amount of information out there. Fans are confident Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's region is inspired by Spain thanks to architecture referencing Antoni Gaudi's Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona, as well as its starters; the Grass-type Sprigatito, Fire-type Fuecoco, and Water-type Quaxly; utilizing Spanish puns. This generation is also confirmed to be wholly open world. Scarlet and Violet's player characters drew attention for their new art direction and matching outfits, but the most notable thing about them may be the suggestion that Game Freak is leaning into customization more than ever.
Increasing Character Customization in Pokemon Games
Since the earliest days of Pokemon Red and Green, the series has centered youngsters going on adventures to meet new Pokemon, fill out a regional Pokedex, and train to become Champion of that region's Pokemon League. The original Pokemon protagonist Red had a design set in stone, which carried through to Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 protagonists Nate and Rosa (albeit with some unique outfits for activities like Contests). Starting with X and Y on Nintendo 3DS, players could choose between a very limited set of trainer templates and then buy outfits to customize their appearances.
Given X and Y's Kalos region is based on France, the idea of making it a fashion-forward locale is sound; even Champion Diantha is canonically a world-renown actress. Over subsequent games the options for character customization grew, adding a few darker skin tones and a lot more clothing types. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl even bucked the tradition of remakes having redesigned canon characters by letting players dress up Dawn and Lucas. There's still a lot to be desired for the series' customization, with people of color in particular lampooning Game Freak for not delving beyond a few options, but Pokemon Scarlet and Violet could continue innovating in this regard.
Potential Customization in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet
When fans are first introduced to the yet-unnamed protagonists of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, the duo seem to run by in a flash. The most interesting thing about them, more obvious in images released by The Pokemon Company, is that their apparent school uniforms swap between orange and purple color schemes depending on the version. Yet this attribute contributes to perhaps the most generic Pokemon protagonists yet. Whereas characters like Elio and Selene from Sun and Moon stand out as base characters despite customization options, the new protagonists seem like gender-swaps of the same person.
This may be surprising in light of the series' penchant for unique character designs that rival franchises like Final Fantasy in number, but it makes a lot of sense if Game Freak is aiming to create a canvas. Tabula rasa comes to mind; protagonists who are such a blank slate that the options available to customize them are richer than ever. Perhaps the developer has even made them generic to the extent "boy" and "girl" are no longer the standard, with more racial options included, giving everyone the chance to recreate themselves by starting with more general features to adapt.
A region based on Spain would be a great place to work in this idea. France and Spain are next-door neighbors, so given prior connections between Pokemon regions like Kanto and Johto there's a good chance the land in Scarlet and Violet has crossover with Kalos (perhaps even paying off the unused railroad in Couriway Town).
Spain itself has a rich history of style worth drawing upon, not the least of which including outfits associated with traditional dances like flamenco. Pokemon Legends: Arceus leaned into traditional Japanese garb, so Scarlet and Violet can do the same - perhaps calling back to monsters like Alola's Oricorio as an in-universe inspiration. Regardless of where Game Freak pulls its ideas, the important thing is for this developer to keep moving forward and expanding its breadth of character customization. Hopefully the generic new protagonists are a good sign.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are set to release in late 2022 for Nintendo Switch.