Pokemon Scarlet & Violet - 18th Nov 2022! **OFFICIAL INFO ONLY**

I wouldnt count either the "popular" and "good competitive" pokemon as reasoning for a inclusion of a Pokemon in the game.
Notably for example, lord and savior Greninja was missing from SwSh, and several competitive behemots were missing well over until the 2nd DLC came in.

Honestly I think they just go with whatever they think fits the area.
There really is no telling for what will and won't be included. What they included in SwSh was kind of random. The DLC of course brought over a lot of good competitive Pokemon which was great. For the main game I think it will be similar to SwSh. A mix of popular and just random Pokemon. A popular Pokemon is not necessarily a competitive one.

One thing is for sure, they will of course include Pikachu because that is essentially the mascot of the franchise. And I assume they will include the Gen 1 starting Pokemon as well, too iconic for the franchise. I do hope they bring over all starting Pokemon but I doubt they will. Probably will reverse the ones from SwSh. Gen 1, Gen 2, Gen 4, Gen 5, Gen 6 and Gen 9. But if they're bringing over Hisui Decidueye maybe all Gen 7 starters will return again.
 

Pikachu315111

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Thanks. I suppose it will be like SWSH then, most but not all Pokemon after a year or so of expansion packs. I take it there will be 500-600 at launch, with expansions added in a bunch as time goes on.
Shall we compare regional dex siz... numbers:
  • Galar started with 400, added 110 in Isle of Armor, and 74 in Crown Tundra for a total of 584.
  • USUM's Alola has 403.
  • SM's Alola has 302.
  • Kalos has 457.
  • B2W2 Unova had 300.

So, as R_N said, 400 is probably the baseline, MAYBE 450 considering how many more Pokemon we've had since Kalos, the size of Paldea, and Paldea's wide range of environments we're expected to explore all over (with friends). Curious how they'll split up the dex this time around. There's that compass theme so I guess they could do "North", "South", "East", and "West" sections, though with the game's exploration theme I'm wondering if maybe splitting it up by the environments wouldn't be a batter idea. Actually, looking at the map, you can split the map into roughly 8 sections based on the environments which would also fit into the compass theme (maybe bring back the DexNav or the Habitat List).

When it comes to DLC there's two ideal island chains they can do: the Balearic Islands to the east of the Iberian Peninsula and the Canary Islands southwest of Portugal (and west of the disputed border between Morocco and Western Sahara). Yeah, both of them are island chains, but there's really no other locations unless they want to do Southern Kalos in the north or base a place on Morocco in the south.

It can't possibly get worse than this, can it..?
In what sense?

YEEEEEES IT HAS AYE-AYE ACCURATE FREAKISHLY LONG MIDDLE FINGERS LET'S GOOOOOO I TOTALLY CALLED IT someone owes me money, probably
You and everyone else, so like that's what a penny for each person?

I wonder if the eaten-berry-changes-the-paint's-color-thing will be translated in gameplay? Type change depending on held berry? return of natural gift?
Also, this thing 100% get Belch.
Well hopefully at the very least the paint on its fingers will change colors. Then again they don't mention/show form changes, and for something like that they usually do. It brings to mind how they mention Smeargle can have different colors, but the ones in the game are always green (red for Shiny).

But even if it did change forms I doubt it'll change Types; it would have been just cosmetic like with the Flabebe family, Furfrou, and Vivillon. Though Natural Gift would very much make sense for it to have, maybe retcon as a Signature Move (which would give them an excuse to buff it).

Not gonna lie, it looked very ugly in both videos

It's not exactly the prettiest animal. Infact its infamously ugly, hence why it's so well known (and misunderstood).


At first glance Urburden seems like the superior option just because speed is the most important stat in the game and Unburden by itself is capable of making almost anything into a fearswome sweeper -if the stats are good enough...-.
At what Speed and offense stat # (either Attack or Special Attack) would be the most ideal for an Unburden user? To list some of them for reference (from slowest to fastest):

  • Slurpuff: 72 Spd / 80 Atk / 85 SpA / 480 BST
  • Drifblim: 80 Spd / 80 Atk / 90 SpA / 498 BST
  • Hitmonlee: 87 Spd / 120 Atk / 455 BST
  • Thievul: 90 Spd / 87 SpA / 455 BST
  • Liepard: 106 Spd / 88 Atk & SpA / 446 BST
  • Hawlucha: 118 Spd / 92 Atk / 500 BST
  • Sceptile: 120 Spd / 105 Atk / 530 BST
  • Accelgor: 145 Spd / 100 SpA / 495 BST

Yes, I know, other factors like Types and Moveset also needs to be taken into consideration, I'm just asking as a general rule.


So, guess it's my turn to share my thoughts on Grafaiai.

I like the little guy! While not exactly what I thought of an Aye-aye Pokemon would be, it still checks the boxes I was hoping it would: a bit gnarly looking (with a tinge of "ugly cute") with long disturbing fingers. Granted, the reason why the fingers are disturbing are a bit different from a normal Aye-aye, but it still gets the point across.

Infact, I want to take a moment and thank GF for not going the "easy" route with an Aye-aye Pokemon. It would have been so easy to make it a Dark-type and be this nasty creature which curses people with bad luck and death. The real life Aye-aye unfortunately has this evil stigma among indigenous people of Madagascar which has led to people killing them whenever they're seen. "Well, they didn't totally ignore it, they made it part Poison-type". Actually, I think that's one purpose. In the Pokemon world Poison-types too are generally seen as mean & evil and used by evil teams. But when you take a closer look at the Poison-types, you'll see plenty of normal looking Pokemon which just so happens to be poisonous, there are plenty which are even cute (Bulbasaur, the Nidorans, Oddish, Poipole, the new Paldean Wooper). So I think Poison-type is a deliberate choice to represent it having that stigma, as much as its deliberate to also make it park Normal-type to represent it's just a normal Pokemon (just as the Aye-aye is just a normal animal).

Okay, you probably had enough of me on my soap box, back to talking about Grafaiai. Let's go through its profile.
  • "Moody Pokémon with a fastidious disposition", people already mentioned about it getting the Moody Ability. Being a "fastidious" painter, I'm wondering if they'll give it Sketch. "Of course not! It would ruin any lore they want to build behind it and there would be no reason to give it a secondary Type or Level Moveset". Well, you can say I'm clinging onto false hope, but what if Sketch was made a special Move? Like it can only get Sketch when it reaches Level 100, or has to learn it from a specific Painter NPC. Through most of the game it'll be like a normal Pokemon, and then in the post game gets a little bonus treat.
  • "Preferring to roam alone. Caught up in territorial struggles", from what I read this is pretty much the same thing as real Aye-aye. Though fun fact, apparently Aye-aye can use echolocation and are the only primates to do so! So sounds like it could be getting the Sound Moves: Hyper Voice, Snarl, Disarming Voice, etc..
  • "Category: Toxic Monkey Pokemon", would have gone with something like "Tagging Monkey" myself but I guess it is a monkey that's poisonous so...
  • "Ability: Unburden & Poison Touch". Poison Touch, obvious, but Unburden? Feels like a strange Ability, like I guess a spray can does become lighter when you use up all the paint but that's not the most immediate thing that comes to mind. Being its an artist how about Adaptability? If it eats Berries to make more paint maybe Cheek Pouch. Since it sneaks around at night to paint over other Grafaiai's markings how about Infiltrator? It's eyes are like a pair of goggles so there's Tinted Lens. Well, I guess all choices for Hidden Ability now.
  • "Sets Up Poison Traps. The poisonous saliva it uses to paint paralyzes Bug Pokémon, which are drawn to the saliva's sweet, fragrant scent". Signature Move (though wouldn't it have said if it did have one)? A Poison-type Freeze-Dry that's SE against Bugs with also a chance to Paralyze? Also sounds like it could get Lick, Poison Spikes, and Sweet Scent.
  • "This Pokemon attack foes by spitting at them or by slashing at them after coating its claws with the saliva". And that's pretty much quite a few Poison-type Moves covered. This behavior also sounds similar how it and other lemur species have "stink fights", but instead of paint its pheromones.

So, will I use Grafaiai? Well, like with most Pokemon, I'll see. It all depends when I get it. I'll be honest, Poison/Normal doesn't sound that ideal of a Type combination, it's essentially a Poison-type that is neutral to Fighting and immune to Ghost which is :blobshrug:. Maybe it'll be able to make a niche for itself in the meta with Unburden. Just glad to finally have an Aye-aye Pokemon. :bloblul:
 
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Actually, there’s reason to suspect that we’ll get a pair of 3rd versions:

BW: BW2
XY: no extra versions
SM: USM
SS: no extra versions
SV: ???

Now that DLC is in the picture I have no idea how that would work but it’s something to think about.
BW2 and USUM aren't third versions though. They are entirely new games completely separate.
 
Being a "fastidious" painter, I'm wondering if they'll give it Sketch. "Of course not! It would ruin any lore they want to build behind it and there would be no reason to give it a secondary Type or Level Moveset". Well, you can say I'm clinging onto false hope, but what if Sketch was made a special Move? Like it can only get Sketch when it reaches Level 100, or has to learn it from a specific Painter NPC. Through most of the game it'll be like a normal Pokemon, and then in the post game gets a little bonus treat.
It learning Sketch would be cool, provided they either backtrack on egg moves being relearnable (which is what allowed CAP's Necturna to work) or just hard-code Sketch to not be relearnable.
 

Pikachu315111

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It learning Sketch would be cool, provided they either backtrack on egg moves being relearnable (which is what allowed CAP's Necturna to work) or just hard-code Sketch to not be relearnable.
Well, it seems like Tutor Moves aren't affected by Move Reminder, so maybe do the following with it:
  • Moves that are Sketched has a special mark on them.
  • There's an NPC who teaches Sketch to certain Pokemon.
  • For Smeargle, as long as it has an empty moveslot and doesn't already know Sketch, they'll always teach it Sketch.
  • For other Pokemon, if they see that Pokemon has a Move which has been Sketched they'll say that Pokemon can only learn one Sketch Move and only offer to replace the Sketched Move with Sketch.
  • That way we can leave Smeargle as the only Pokemon which learns Sketch and have up to four Sketched Moves, but maybe allow some other Pokemon to also get Sketch but just restrict it to just one Move.
 

churine

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so heres a cool fact: gamefreak are actually a bunch of sega nerds, theyve developed games for sega consoles before like pulseman and at their office they even have a genesis (mega drive) hooked up. its probably very coincidental but i find it funny how this new pokemon seems like it references two other sega properties lol. also first ever poison/normal type, thats cool didnt think it would be a monkey either
 
I was initially going to say that even a single instance of Sketch is a pretty big design constraint because it requires the Pokemon to be balanced even with Shell Smash or Spore or Belly Drum or Geomancy, but this Pokemon gives me the impression of being single-stage (though I expected Wooloo and Yamper to be single-stage and I was wrong) and those usually have BSTs low enough that it'd probably still not be overpowered. Now I'm wondering if this Pokemon is designed to use the Belly Drum + Unburden strat even without the potential Sketch; it'd have flavor synergy since it would want to use a Berry with that combo.
 
Necturna was an interesting proof-of-concept that a single Sketch can be balanced but I trust GameFreak's ability to balance anything about as far as I can collectively throw them. Personally I hope it doesn't get Sketch at all, only because I can't see a realistic circumstance where it getting Sketch means that it isn't either saddled with Smeargle-tier stats or completely fucking broken.
 
It learning Sketch would be cool, provided they either backtrack on egg moves being relearnable (which is what allowed CAP's Necturna to work) or just hard-code Sketch to not be relearnable.
I doubt it will get Sketch as any kind of move. That’s just Smeargle’s thing.
I do think it will get Metronome however. Especially with the 2 giant fingers it has, which coincidentally can be used for Taunt.
A combo I’d like to see is Belch+Nasty Plot on Grafaiai since it also has Unburden too.
 

AquaticPanic

Intentional Femboy Penguin
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Community Leader
first pokemon to canonically be flipping you off
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1662093416764.png

(this is also reflected in Clefable's playstyle!)





I'm interested in having another Poison Touch user. Feels like the kinda mon to have Fake out and U-Turn, and bothof those sound pretty fun with Poison Touch.

Also I like to picture cinccino being eternally pissed off at trying to clean things but some stupid lemur keeps throwing paint everywhere
 
I doubt it will get Sketch as any kind of move. That’s just Smeargle’s thing.
I do think it will get Metronome however. Especially with the 2 giant fingers it has, which coincidentally can be used for Taunt.
A combo I’d like to see is Belch+Nasty Plot on Grafaiai since it also has Unburden too.
I doubt it'll get Sketch myself but... I wouldn't exclude the possibility of a signature move that has something to do with painting.

Which will still have nothing to do with Sketch. I guess.
 
I doubt it'll get Sketch myself but... I wouldn't exclude the possibility of a signature move that has something to do with painting.

Which will still have nothing to do with Sketch. I guess.
I imagine said signature move has a similar effect to Tea Time, or is a Poison version of Soak/Forest’s Curse.
 

DrCoeloCephalo

Banned deucer.
I came here to say that people get really uppity about the idea that every Pokémon has to fit the place their generation's region is based on. Sure, there are no aye-ayes in Spain, but there are no giraffes in Kansai either. The only generations where it seems like the Pokémon designs have an overarching theme are 5 (multicultural) and 7 (tropical).
It's never not going to bug me that Galar is supposed to be Britain and yet they exclude Snubbull and Granbull when Britain is known for the British Bulldog and they exclude the European Dragon Salamence but allot the Hydreigon whom is from Greece.

I hate to be such a downer but... honestly Grafaiai is like the first Pokemon in a long while I think I actively hate lol. The thing chewing up berries, sticking its fingers in its mouth, and painting with it is absolutely disgusting and I can't get over it. It doesn't help the first video I saw of it on a tiny phone screen made me think it was picking its nose to paint, but this isn't much better. This is actually the first time in like a good long while I remember being viscerally disappointed with a Pokemon's design. I think it's been since the elemental monkeys had their evolutions unveiled in Gen 5 maybe?
Don't feeel down about it. This is a completely expected response given aye-aye lemurs are incredibly eerie in real life. Even the natives have folklore that the animal itself is an omen of disease, death and bad luck that you have to kill on sight. It stands to reason playing into the animal's bizarre features of its soul-piercing eyes and otherworldly fingers wouldn't sit well with everyone.
 
  • "Ability: Unburden & Poison Touch". Poison Touch, obvious, but Unburden? Feels like a strange Ability, like I guess a spray can does become lighter when you use up all the paint but that's not the most immediate thing that comes to mind. Being its an artist how about Adaptability? If it eats Berries to make more paint maybe Cheek Pouch. Since it sneaks around at night to paint over other Grafaiai's markings how about Infiltrator? It's eyes are like a pair of goggles so there's Tinted Lens. Well, I guess all choices for Hidden Ability now
Don't think too hard about Unburden. It's a delinquent Pokemon. Just like Thievul, when the cops show up you drop what you're doing and split. I don't think much more reasoning behind it than that.
 
  • Drifblim: 87 Spd / 120 Atk / 455 BST
Drifblim has 80 base Attack and 90 Sp. Atk. If it was 120 base Attack it might actually be a good Pokemon.

As other people have mentioned, though, Poison/Normal is not fantastic typing, especially offensively. Unless this Pokemon either has an evolution or way higher stats than first appearances would suggest, I doubt it's going to be some crazy good Unburden sweeper. Poison/Normal could be an interesting defensive typing in more Ghost-infested metagames, but does this Pokemon really look like a defensive behemoth to anyone?
 
Drifblim has 80 base Attack and 90 Sp. Atk. If it was 120 base Attack it might actually be a good Pokemon.

As other people have mentioned, though, Poison/Normal is not fantastic typing, especially offensively. Unless this Pokemon either has an evolution or way higher stats than first appearances would suggest, I doubt it's going to be some crazy good Unburden sweeper. Poison/Normal could be an interesting defensive typing in more Ghost-infested metagames, but does this Pokemon really look like a defensive behemoth to anyone?
I think they meant to write Hitmonlee but wrote Drifblim twice.

I'm not sure what to make of Grafaiai (or Grafayeaye as I pronounce it in Spanish). It's definitely unique and I expect it to have a signature move—because we don't have enough of those. Due to Poison Touch I'm guessing it'll be more physically leaning but the idea of Nasty Plot + Belch is interesting (if gimmicky) so I hope it'll have workable Special Attack. Doubt it'll leave the lower tiers tho.
 
Shall we compare regional dex siz... numbers:
  • Galar started with 400, added 110 in Isle of Armor, and 74 in Crown Tundra for a total of 584.
  • USUM's Alola has 403.
  • SM's Alola has 302.
  • Kalos has 457.
  • B2W2 Unova had 300.

So, as R_N said, 400 is probably the baseline, MAYBE 450 considering how many more Pokemon we've had since Kalos, the size of Paldea, and Paldea's wide range of environments we're expected to explore all over (with friends).
General trend seems to be up, except for Alola. But then that did include all other Pokemon in the national dex. I'm thinking this will be a little bigger. And maybe DLC plans will add even more Pokemon overall but I am doubting it.
 
Drifblim has 80 base Attack and 90 Sp. Atk. If it was 120 base Attack it might actually be a good Pokemon.

As other people have mentioned, though, Poison/Normal is not fantastic typing, especially offensively. Unless this Pokemon either has an evolution or way higher stats than first appearances would suggest, I doubt it's going to be some crazy good Unburden sweeper. Poison/Normal could be an interesting defensive typing in more Ghost-infested metagames, but does this Pokemon really look like a defensive behemoth to anyone?
Yeah, poison defensively is cool on it's own, and Poison/Normal could make for some interesting defensive cores. Offensively, both STABs are walled by Steel/Rock/Ghost, which is...oof. Maybe it gets Boomburst or Scrappy(HA) or something, but otherwise it'll have stupid amounts of 4MSS.
 

Pikachu315111

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so heres a cool fact: gamefreak are actually a bunch of sega nerds, theyve developed games for sega consoles before like pulseman and at their office they even have a genesis (mega drive) hooked up.
GF made Pulseman?


Don't think too hard about Unburden. It's a delinquent Pokemon. Just like Thievul, when the cops show up you drop what you're doing and split. I don't think much more reasoning behind it than that.
Yeah, the delinquent part of its didn't really click with me until Lockstin pointed out its baggy sleeves and coloration of its ears is supposed to look like a hoodie (with hair sticking out).

Hopefully the ingame timer doesn't actually go off real world time and instead have it change from day to night say every hour or so.

Drifblim has 80 base Attack and 90 Sp. Atk. If it was 120 base Attack it might actually be a good Pokemon.
I think they meant to write Hitmonlee but wrote Drifblim twice.
Ernesto is correct (a funny accident considering Hitmonlee and Drifblim couldn't be further apart in Typing, lol). It has been corrected.

Edit: tbh the design also looks like Jake Paul.
Okay, I don't mind calling it ugly, but that right there is one step too far.
 

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