Breaking Down the New Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Trailer
A brand new trailer revealed several new mechanics for the upcoming Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, as well as a new Pokemon. Here’s a breakdown of what you need to know.
New battle mechanics and a brand new Pokemon were revealed in a short trailer on the Official Pokemon YouTube Channel. The trailer revealed what appears to be a pre-evolution for the legendary Pokemon Miraidon and Koraidon as well as several mechanics to make Pokemon battles more interesting. You can watch the full trailer below:
Cyclizar, a Dragon and Normal type Pokemon shares many design choices with the two legendary Pokemon previously revealed. It seems that this Pokemon will follow evolve into the appropriate legendary depending on which game is being played. Taking a note from its name, it might even become the equivalent of the bicycle in the early parts of the game.
Cyclizar also introduced a unique move called Shed Tail, in which it creates a Substitute and then switches out, effectively giving a fellow party member a substitute instead. Though it’s worth noting that this move appears to take at least 50% of Cyclizar’s health rather than the usual 25% for the move Substitute. Moves that switch out to an opponent like U-Turn, Volt Switch, Flip Turn, and Baton Pass have already proven to be competitively strong, so this new move will likely fall into the same category.
Two new items were also revealed. Mirror Herb is a held item that matches the stat boosts of the opposing Pokemon. In the trailer, Cetitan (a new Pokemon revealed in the last trailer) swapped into battle as an Azumarill used Belly Drum, a move that maximizes a Pokemon’s attack stat. Cetitan then used its Mirror Herb to also maximize its attack. The finer details on this will determine its usefulness in battle. For example, if a Pokemon holding Mirror Herb switches into a Pokemon that has already boosted its stats will it still copy them, or does the item only work if a stat-boosting move is used in front of it? The difference here can make the Mirror Herb into a useful counterplay tactic or a niche gimmick.
The other item shown in the trailer was called Loaded Dice, which raises the potential for multi-hit moves, like Bullet Seed, to hit more times. Again, more details will shine a light on exactly how useful or powerful this item can be. For example, if this item guarantees more hits, like three instead of the usual minimum of two, or still have a minimum of two but just raises the likelihood of more hits, the randomness could make it somewhat unreliable.
The Official Scarlet & Violet website also details another item called the Covert Cloak, which wasn’t shown in the trailer. The Cover Cloak protects the holder from secondary effects, such as flinches from the move Fake Out. In the right situations, this could be a very useful item, but since most moves only have a small chance of activating a secondary effect, it likely won’t make a huge difference most of the time.
Finally, the trailer showed off more of the Terastallize mechanic, introduced in the last trailer. The ability to change types mid-battle was shown to be powerful, with Tyranitar Terastillizing into a Ghost Type to become immune to an incoming Fighting-type move, and then striking back with a new move called Tera Blast that changes type based on what type the user has Terastallized into.
This trailer revealed several new interesting mechanics for Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, but the real depth of these changes won’t be understood until more details are revealed about how they work.
What are your thoughts on these new mechanics? Leave a comment down below letting us know your thoughts!
