Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, like every other mainline Pokemon game, has players make a very important decision right from the start. Of course, this decision is which Paldea starter Pokemon to choose as the player's companion. There's a lot to learn about each of these Pokemon that players simply don't know when they pick at the start of the game, and sometimes trainers choose to restart their game completely in order to pick a new starter Pokemon. There are other reasons to restart a game as well, so whatever the cause, players can restart their game with the following steps.
It should be said that these instructions are for players that want to completely restart Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Players wanting to simply reset their game back to a previous save or something of the like should not follow the steps below, as the player will completely lose their save file and have to start all over.
How To Restart Pokemon Scarlet and Violet
Save files in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are linked to the player's account on their Nintendo Switch. As such, restarting the game from the beginning isn't actually done from a menu within the game, but rather from the Switch's system settings. From the home screen on the Switch, navigate to "System Settings." Using the sidebar on the left side of the screen, select "Data Management." Finally, press "Delete Save Data" and choose Pokemon Scarlet and Violet to delete the save data associated with a certain Switch account. The next time that account user loads up the game, it will start as though they have never played it.
This is a rather extreme option, and some players may be wondering how they can play the game again from the beginning without losing all of their hard work. To do this, the best thing is to create another Nintendo Switch profile. Since each profile can have a saved game, players will be able to start a new game in this way without losing all of their progress on their original save. This is a much safer option, especially if players aren't quite sure that they want to completely restart.
Unfortunately, these are the only two ways to restart Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. There is currently no option for having multiple save files on a single account, but that should come as no surprise to long-time fans of Pokemon. Whether a feature like this will be added to the game later or to future installments remains to be seen, but it does seem unlikely.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available now on Switch.