Although so little is known about what Pokemon Scarlet and Violet will entail, what's quite certain is that Generation 9 will feature lots of shiny Pokemon. This feature has been one of the series' most beloved additions for many years, as it offers players the opportunity to find and try to catch incredibly rare critters. Even if some shiny color palettes are quite similar to the original, with one of the most renowned examples being Regice, shinies often drastically change the colors of their species in awesome ways, and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet should do the same.
A Teddiursa could spawn with a bright green fur instead of its species' commonly brown appearance, for example, and this peculiar characteristic does make many shiny Pokemon very sought after by collectors and fans. As such, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet should get rid of two major features regarding shiny Pokemon at different stages of the game: uncatchable shinies and resetting static encounters to find shinies. In fact, many games feature encounters where players can run into a shiny critter they cannot actually catch because of game mechanics, tutorials, or being very early in the game. On the other hand, many players often spend a lot of time resetting their games for the small chance of finding shiny Pokemon.
Why Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Approach to Shiny Critters Should Change
One of the biggest issues with Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl was that many players ended up encountering uncatchable shinies in the form of the early Starly, Bidoof, or Shinx encounters. These could be found during the very first battle players get into after choosing their starter, but other uncatchable shinies could be found in the early stages of the game before finishing the catching tutorial. This has been a thing for a long time, and in some Pokemon games, players can even run into a shiny critter while the catching tutorial is happening, thus making that poor Pokemon lost forever.
Shinies are one of the most valuable things to have in any Pokemon game, and they shouldn't be automatically lost. This can even often happen in Safari Zones throughout the series, with shiny Pokemon appearing in battle in a scenario where players don't have the option of using their own Pokemon or items, and instead, they have to rely on the randomness of throwing food or Poke Balls. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet should make it, so it's impossible to run into shiny critters that players cannot catch.
Similarly, resetting the game for a shiny to appear has lots of downsides, and it limits the experience by having thousands of players trying to catch a given shiny critter this way, which again Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl further showed. In the Gen 4 remakes, many players ended up starting their actual journey days or even weeks after the games' official release, and that's because they tried for hours upon hours to soft reset their games in order to find a shiny starter from the get-go. This continued with the recent events for unlocking both Shaymin and Arceus, as players went to great lengths to try and reset the game for a shiny legendary.
Again, shinies are a great rare occurrence, and resetting the game until players finally get their shiny starter or legendary ruins the experience to a degree. It can also easily lead to burnout after achieving this one goal. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's shinies should be completely random encounters, but Gen 9 games should guarantee that players can always have a chance to catch those shiny critters, too. Pokemon Legends: Arceus does have a fantastic approach for shiny Pokemon in the overworld, and it's something Scarlet and Violet could draw inspiration from.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are scheduled to release in late 2022 for Nintendo Switch.
