Game Freak is always planning for the next Pokemon games, and so it sometimes likes to hide hints in its games about what fans can expect from future releases. Sometimes these hints aren't obvious until after the new games are announced, and with the reveal of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, one Pokemon fan has seemingly discovered hints for the new games in more recent entries of the series.
Reddit user DDD-Hero has found potential clues hinting at Pokemon Scarlet and Violet hiding in Pokemon Sword and Shield as well as Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. In Pokemon Sword and Shield, players can visit Hotel Ionia in Circhester. On the left-side of the lobby, players can see that there is a room that's roped off and is inaccessible to them. As pointed out by DDD-Hero, the wallpaper in this roped-off room features blood oranges and grapes, which are fruits that were featured in the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet reveal trailer, and are associated with Spain, the country where the new region is likely based on.
While this could certainly be nothing more than a coincidence, Game Freak does have a history of hiding things like this in the games, and so it's entirely possible that this is a genuine tease for Scarlet and Violet. However, DDD-Hero perhaps even more compelling evidence of The Pokemon Company teasing Pokemon Scarlet and Violet before the games' reveal in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.
In Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, DDD-Hero found that the flowers near Route 201 in Twinleaf Town have been changed when compared to the original versions of the games. In the remakes, the flowers have bright scarlet and violet petals, whereas they are much smaller, less vibrant, and have an overall different design in the original games. While some could write this off as developer ILCA changing the flowers across the board (Game Freak was not the lead developer for the games), that doesn't seem to be the case.
DDD-Hero traveled to Pastoria City in the original Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Here are the exact same flowers from Twinleaf Town, but while Twinleaf Town's flowers have gotten a facelift in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, the Pastoria flowers are left relatively untouched. This suggests that the flower changes weren't an across-the-board decision, and that the ones in Twinleaf Town were uniquely altered for some unknown reason, though the running theory is that the change was to hint at Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.
Of course, there was another Pokemon game released recently in the form of the critically-acclaimed Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Since Pokemon Scarlet and Violet clues were retroactively found in Sword and Shield and Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, it's entirely possible that there are clues waiting to be found in Pokemon Legends: Arceus as well, though that remains to be seen.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet will launch in late 2022, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.
