Pokemon Scarlet and Violet details Paldea Region, Academies and Tera Forms

Today’s Pokemon Presents dropped a ton of information for many of the current Pokemon titles like Unite, GO, and even Pokemon Cafe Remix. But the most exciting part was a deep dive into Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet, revealing a ton of new information hinted at previously by Nintendo — oops, I mean “leakers”.

Welcome to the Paldea Region

The Paldea region is set to be one of the most unique lands in Pokemon history. While the landscape itself seems familiar to anyone that played Sword, Shield, or Arceus, the key thing to note is that once you set out from that place directly under the big swirling toilet volcano in the middle, you can go wherever you want.

Scarlet/Violet is set to be a completely open-world game meaning you can go wherever you want from the jump and tackle the gyms in the order you want to. Though nothing has been said yet if the gyms adjust in difficulty as you go. I really can’t imagine they don’t as your eighth gym being a bunch of level 15s would be fairly anti-climactic.

Game Specific Academies

Depending on which version of the game you’re playing, your character will either attend the Naranja Academy or the Uva Academy.

This is basically the main story hub for the game similar to the Galaxy Team Headquarters in Pokemon Legends Arceus. From here you’ll be sent out on various quests and have various goals.

There will be three main story points that involve the academy. While two remained secret the one they talked about was the most familiar. You’ll travel the land in whatever direction you want and tackle eight gyms, collecting badges and heading towards Victory Road.

Koraidon and Miraidon are in the games a LOT

Depending on which version you have, you’ll encounter the cover art legendary surprisingly early; Koraidon if you have Pokemon Scarlet and Miraidon if you have Pokemon Violet.

The legendary will travel with you serving as a vehicle of sorts as it can transform to allow you to ride if like a motorcycle, most across water like a jetski, and even glide from high points with wings.

They also seem to hint that it will, eventually, evolve into a final powerful form which makes me wonder if you can use it in battle before that point.

Terastal Phenomenon

Here’s one of the big ones that “leakers” (who definitely aren’t Nintendo) have been hinting at for a while now.

All Pokemon will be able to undergo a special transformation into a Tera Form. According to the official page, this can be done using a special item called the Tera Orb. This turns your Pokemon into a crystalline beast with a large item on its head that denotes their type. For example, the Eevee in the picture above has a diamond crown for Normal Type. Fire Type will have what looks like a chandelier, Grass Type, a flower. So on and so forth.

When it’s in this form, it gets a large stat boost, especially involving moves of its particular advertised type.

A really cool thing about this is that sometimes you’ll encounter Pokemon with a rare tera type that isn’t their normal type. For example, they showed an Eevee that Tera Formed into its Normal type. But then two other Eevees became Water Type and Grass Type. These Eevees got a blue tint with a frozen water fountain on their head and a green tint with a flower on its head respectively.

Another example they showed is the pre-order bonus Pikachu. When changed into its Tera Form, it gains crystalline balloons on its back and doubles as a Flying Type.

This is kinda cool because it allows you to change your Pokemon’s type mid-battle allowing for some surprising twists and surprises.

And many of these can be found in new Tera Raids where you’ll be able to go after Pokemon with rare Tera Types similar to the raid battles in Sword and Shield, but unlike those raids, you’ll be battling at your own speed without waiting for your teammates meaning you’ll all be attacking at the same time similar to the raid battles in Pokemon GO meaning that they won’t be all day affairs anymore.

In closing…

Honestly, there was a lot of new information given and, with the exception of the fact I think a lot of the NPCs lack the uniqueness I want from main characters in Pokemon, I think the game looks exciting. It combines a lot of recent innovations that when mixed with the new reveals shows potential for what could be one of the most exciting entries in recent years.