Despite the many complaints and negative reviews concerning Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's performance issues that impacted many players, Nintendo recently announced that the games sold ten million copies in just three days. This is also considering the fact that there hasn't been a lack of Pokemon content over the years since Gen 8's launch, as both the Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra DLC dropped, then Gen 4 remakes, and then Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Speaking of Pokemon Legends: Arceus, there are major differences between its approach to semi-open-world areas and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's full-fledged open-world setting, and some of them can be appreciated while looking at these two games' way of handling shiny critters.
Shiny Pokemon have become an ever-increasingly popular feature of modern games because of the transition from 2D graphics to 3D, fully explorable worlds where pocket monsters run around. Gen 9 is the epitome of this logic because Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's free exploration made it so that Game Freak removed the iconic tall grass from the games, making every encounter with wild critters happen in the overworld. While Pokemon Legends: Arceus' shiny color palettes were fairly in line with those of past games, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's shinies often sport brighter colors that make the difference between a shiny and the regular form much clearer.
Why Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Bright Shiny Color Palettes Are Great
Pokemon Legends: Arceus introduced a feature that alerted players with a specific sound when a shiny Pokemon was nearby, and this made it so that many trainers ended up catching multiple shinies in their adventures. Shinies were quite easy to find following the auditory cue, and they also sparkled in the overworld when players got near them, which normally only happens at the start of a battle. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's shiny Pokemon follow a different approach, and they lose both the initial sparkle and the iconic sound.
As such, the intended way of encountering shinies in Gen 9 is by carefully paying attention to the patterns of some critters and how they might differ from the base color palette, if at all. Luckily, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Let's Go auto-battle feature helps a lot with shiny hunting, as the pocket monsters unleashed in the wilds to battle other critters will never attack a shiny Pokemon, making them easier to spot. However, Game Freak needed another failsafe of sorts in place for shinies after removing Pokemon Legends: Arceus' features, and this is likely the reason why some creatures have brighter colors in their shiny form.
Relying solely on one's sight to spot differences that at times can be minuscule, and it can be all the more difficult to do in an open-world setting where Pokemon are found hanging from trees, roaming fields, flying in the sky, and diving in the sea. It can be all the more challenging for colorblind Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players, who may have a hard time telling a shiny from a regular Pokemon based exclusively on their colors. Game Freak's brighter shiny color palettes in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet help a lot with these issues, as they are often diverse enough from the base forms that much easier to spot them.
For example, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Bellibolt goes from a bright green to a bright yellow in its shiny form, which is a great visual aid to see this Pokemon in the wild and notice its rare shiny form. The opposite example comes from returning pocket monsters like Gengar, whose shiny color palette is almost identical to the original. Overall, the fact that Gen 9 features mostly shinies with recognizable color palettes is great, and it helps the game in an area that is now lacking after having experienced Pokemon Legends: Arceus.
PokemonScarlet and Violet are available now on Nintendo Switch.
