With several decades and nine generations of games, thePokemonseries has developed many of its own traditions, but its future generations are now at a crossroads afterPokemon ScarletandVioletreworked one such trope with in-game trades.Pokemonhas always aimed to intuitively teach its players how its various mechanics and features work, such as whenBlackandWhiteintensified itsbattle music when the player’s Pokemonwere at low health or howSunandMoonadded a vignette-like effect when near a trainer’s field of vision. But more often than not,Pokemonwill use the Pokemonthemselves in order to educate players.
For instance, whenGoldandSilveradded newmechanics likePokemon’s day-night cycleand friendship, many new Pokemon evolutions reflected these, best showcased with Eevee only evolving into Espeon and Umbreon at high friendship during the day or night respectively. Trading was a similar mechanic that has always existed as a core part ofPokemon’sgameplay. As such, certain Pokemon have remained virtually unobtainable unless evolved via trading, butPokemongames have remained inconsistent in teaching players about this with the trope of in-game trades. Now thatScarletandViolethave reintroduced this tradition, however, the pressure is on Gen 10 to make a similar decision.
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Pokemon’s History of In-Game Trade Evolutions
While everyPokemongame has featured multiple in-game trades, there have only been a handful of generations where some of these include aPokemon that evolves when traded. More specifically, onlyYellowandBluefrom Gen 1 include trades for Haunter, Graveler, and Machoke, while Gen 6 had both an Alolan Graveler and Phantump as trade options. This was an ideal way to teach players that Pokemon can evolve from trading, as well as offer one or at most two Pokemon that would have otherwise been inaccessible, all while it still leaves several more to be traded and in doing so incentivizes players to trade among themselves.
But it is unusual thatPokemonhasn’t implemented this strategy across all its generations, even though games such asLet’s Go PikachuandEeveeorSwordandShieldprovided in-game trades that taught players about the regional forms of Pokemon. Stranger still, following the recent Gen 4 remakes ofBrilliant DiamondandShining Pearl, it coincidentally is an outlier as it frustratingly offered a Haunter trade that wouldn’t evolve due to its Everstone. However, followingPokemonScarletandViolet’sown in-game trades, there’s a chance futurePokemongames could maintain this particular tradition moving forward.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s In-Game Trades Sets the Standard
ScarletandViolethave already proven that Game Freak considered how best to guide players about its mechanics and features, as they too feature in-game trades for Paldean and Johtonian Wooper as well as linking Palafin’s evolution to the new Union Circle. In line with this and perhaps even prompted by the Haunter-Everstone rug pull of Gen 4,ScarletandVioletfeature an in-game tradefor its own Haunter that does evolve once received. As a result,ScarletandViolethave so far ensured that players are taught that certain unobtainable Pokemon, whether it’s a regional form or an evolution, can be acquired through trading.
So while there are already many Pokemon with regional forms and trade-based evolutions, either with or without a held item, with many more likely to come in future generations,Pokemonwill need to ensure that players are made aware of this. Just as recent games have gone to considerable effort to make regional forms accessible, such asSwordandShieldadding multiple in-game trades with itsIsle of Armor DLC, then this should also be reflected in trade evolutions. Gen 10 and beyond therefore needs to decide whether to keep the standardScarletandVioletset or, more accurately, whether it will disappoint players with another Everstone trade.
Pokemon ScarletandVioletare available now for Nintendo Switch.
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