A Pokemon Scarlet and Violet player with color blindness has taken to Reddit to voice their displeasure at the changes made to shiny hunting for Pokemon's ninth generation. User markimark1305, despite enjoying their playthrough of the game, noted that shiny hunting feels quite hopeless due to changes to the way in which shinies are revealed to the player when exploring Paldea in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.
Throughout the long history of mainline Pokemon games, the majority of players have been able to spot shiny Pokemon upon entering a battle with them due to their non-standard color palette. A distinctive shiny sound and sparkle also play when the creature is encountered, aiding visually impaired players who may be otherwise unable to identify a shiny Pokemon due to conditions such as color blindness. The franchise's previous open-world title, Pokemon Legends: Arceus, also featured these three aforementioned factors, with players not having to engage in battle with a shiny in order to trigger its distinctive glimmering sound and accompanying sparkles.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, however, change things up, and not in a good way. Within the latest set of games, players must initiate battle with a Pokemon before its shiny sound and accompanying visual sparkle play, meaning one must identify a shiny in the wild from appearance alone and then proceed to engage it in battle. What this means for some visually impaired players, such as markimark1305, is that they must meticulously examine each critter they come across on a route or risk walking straight past an extremely rare shiny -- a tiresome process that ruins the otherwise enjoyable gameplay experience.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus received criticism for its own lack of accessibility options, with players having to rely upon a sound cue to know when a shiny was nearby if they could not spot it in the wild, something hard of hearing players could not do. The game did not offer any alternatives, such as an option to instead vibrate the controller, which led to fans hoping Pokemon Scarlet and Violet would do better in this department. However, Generation 9 continues this frustrating trend by forcing players to enter battle to see if a Pokemon is shiny or not, a problem Pokemon Legends: Arceus did not have.
Though some criticisms of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are a bit extreme, the decision to change the underlying mechanics behind shiny encounters has had a visibly negative impact on the gameplay experience for prospective hunters with a visual impairment. With accessibility issues such as these having existed for years at this point, it is hard to tell if Game Freak will address them any time soon, or if players with visual and auditory issues will continue to get the short end of the stick.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available now, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.
