Scarlet and Violet News: Region, Gimmick, and New Pokémon

Yesterday's "Pokémon Presents" dropped a lot of news on us, but then again the drought of news has been a long one. Any news would have seemed like a lot. Before going into the stream I had hoped we would see the new gimmick and some new regional forms, which we got both. I also assumed we would get the region name, which we did along with a map. Starting in November we will be able to explore the open world region of Paldea.

I wonder what the deal is with the big crater in the center?

Not much was shown in the way of specific areas within Paldea, but how it will be navigated was. As many suspected, the legendaries are motorcycles. Well, kind of. Miraidon clearly is. Koraidon just sort of runs around everywhere on all fours. Regardless these two function like the bicycle in Sword and Shield as well as having a gliding and mountain climbing mode.

Early on in the video eagle eyed viewers caught glimpses of returning pokémon like Deerling and Sawsbuck, which are currently unobtainable in any Nintendo Switch pokémon game. In an early flyby, viewers also saw a new Wooper which was elaborated on later in the video.

Paldean Wooper is a Poison/Ground type.

There wasn't a Paldean Quagsire shown, which makes me think that either it has a wildly new design or we are getting a regional evolution for Paldean Wooper that isn't a Quagsire. This would give Wooper a branched evolution like Meowth has with Persian and Perrserker. The website says that Wooper gained its regional form after being pushed out of its original territory into poisonous bogs. What pushed it out remains to be seen, but it possibly a new pokémon. It may be like how Alolan Rattata and Yungoos are counterparts in Alola.

Is Fidough edible?

Wooper wasn't the only new pokémon shown as we got two new Generation 9 pokémon: Fidough and Cetitan. If Twitter is anything to go by, both have already gathered a crowd of fans. I personally prefer Cetitan, but then again I really like whales. Fidough is a Fairy type, like most food (specifically pastry) based pokémon. Cetitan is pure Ice and looks to be the ace of the Ice Gym Leader Grusha, who was also shown in the trailer.

I need this on my team as soon as possible.

As I expected giving the time frame of this stream, we also were shown the regional battle gimmick, which has become a staple in pokémon since Generation 6. The new gimmick is Terastal, or Terastallization if you want to twist your tongue, is combo of "Terra" for Earth and "Crystal." So, basically you crystallize your pokémon which changes its type. 

It's like "Crystal Body" and "Delta Species" pokémon cards had a baby

Basically, each individual pokémon has a "Tera Type" that could be any of the possible pokémon types. When you activate terastallization once per battle, the pokémon changes to its tera type. It's also not species locked. It's not well explained if the type completely changes or the type is just tacked on. Either way, your pokémon puts on a giant gaudy gem hat to represent its tera type. The effect remains active for the entire battle and boosts its same type attack bonus (STAB). It sounds like a fun mechanic, although the hats will take some getting used to. The item used for terastallization, the tera orb, has to be recharged after each use by getting energy from crystals or Pokémon Centers. I think that's smart to reduce spamming it in the overworld which would make trainer battles too easy.

Raids also return featuring Terastal bosses. Unlike raids in Sword and Shield, these have a timer and players attack the boss in real time. This seems like a more fun take on raid battles and I am glad to see them return. 

Now for the TL;DR pro and con run down! 

Pros:
-Paldea looks great and the overall feel of the region is inviting.

-The new pokémon have top notch designs.

-Pokémon that are missing from every other Switch pokémon game are coming back.

-Terastal looks like it could be fun and I personally like it better than Dynamax.

-Miraidon makes me want a motorcycle in real life. So cool.

Cons:

-The Terastal hats are ridiculous.

-Terastal looks fun, but I still prefer Mega evolution.

-The stream said early on that all of the voice over work was not in the actual game.

-Link Codes are still used for raids despite players being able to make 4 player co-op parties.

-Koraidon looks dumb when it's in its ride mode.

These are just my opinions, so feel free to let me know yours in the comments, in the chat in my next stream, or in Discord.