Scarlet & Violet

The Pokémon of Myth from the Sinnoh region, Dialga and Palkia, are making their first appearance in a 5-star Tera Raid Battle event in Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet starting December 7th, at 4:00pm (PST) / December 8th at Midnight (UTC), and running through until December 21st at 3:59pm (PST) / 11:59pm (UTC).

Limited-time distributions of Darkrai and a Shiny Lucario were announced for Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet today alongside the final trailer for The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 2: The Indigo Disk, which aired today across the various language Official Pokémon YouTube channels. Darkrai's distribution will be available until December 21st, at 11:59pm (UTC), while Lucario will be available until January 3rd, 2024, at 11:59pm (UTC).

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's Ranked Battles Regulation Set F will come into force with the start of the next Season on January 4th, 2024, running through to April 30th, 2024 at 11:59pm (UTC). This new regulation set is expected to expand the list of allowable Pokémon to include those found in The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 2: The Indigo Disk, which releases worldwide later this month on December 14th.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's Ranked Battles Season 13 has begun, and will run through to January 3rd, at 11:59pm (UTC). This season follows Regulation Set E, which came into force at the beginning of October with the start of Season 11, expanding the list of allowable Pokémon to include those found in The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 1: The Teal Mask.

The Pokémon Latin America International Championships of the 2023 to 2024 Play! Pokémon season took place in São Paulo in Brazil from 17 to 19 November which was the first International Championships event of the season. The Top 8 players of each division have been confirmed by the Pokémon Company International. The most popular Pokémon in teams for Pokémon GO and VGC and the most popular deck archetypes and their percentages of popularity on Day 2 of the Latin America International Championships were also shown in the livestream on the Official Pokémon YouTube Channel.

A limited-time distribution of a Revavroom with the Peeved Mark was announced for Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet at the end of the 3rd episode of Paldean Winds, which aired today across the various language Official Pokémon YouTube channels. The US version of the episode, for whatever reason, did not include this announcement, though the UK version posted on the same channel did. This Pokémon is based off of Team Star's Revavroom, which played a significant role in this episode. This distribution will remain available until October 31st next year.

The next past generation first partner evolution to make its Paldea debut in special Tera Raids will be the Formidable Pokémon Hisuian Samurott, who will be making its first appearance in 7-star Black Crystal Tera Raid Battles between November 24th at 00:00 (UTC), and November 26th at 23:59 (UTC), with a follow-up appearance one week later from December 1st at 00:00 (UTC), to December 3rd at 23:59 (UTC).

YOASOBI's brand new song, Biri-Biri, is now available for streaming and download in both Japanese and English across a wide variety of music platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music and the iTunes Store, Amazon Music, Tital, and deezer. The song is directly inspired by After the Rain With You (Japanese: きみと雨上がりを Kimi to Ameagari o), the original short novel based on Pokémon Scarlet and Violet that was released as a free-to-read web novel in Japan last Friday, November 10th.

A limited-time distribution of a Dragapult was announced for Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet during the livestream of the 2024 season Pokémon Latin American Championships. This Dragapult is based on the one used by Alex Gómez Berna in their Masters division victory at the 2023 North American Pokémon International Championships in July. This distribution will remain available only until November 20th, at 11:59pm (UTC).

Benelux Speedrunner Gathering (BSG) will be hosting their ninth charity speedrun marathon this weekend, raising money for Stichting MIND, a mental health charity in the Netherlands. A run of The Teal Mask DLC for Pokémon Scarlet will be featured on the event's final day on November 19th. The event will be be streamed live all weekend on the ESA channel on Twitch.

The Pokémon Company have announced that Japanese superduo YOASOBI will be releasing a brand new song, Biri-Biri this Saturday, November 18th, in commemoration of the first anniversary of the release of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. The song will be simultaneously released for both download and streaming in both Japanese and English versions. A music video will also be made available in the near future.

Since 2018, November 21st has been recognised as Eevee Day by the Japan Anniversary Association, and has been celebrated each year with a variety of in-game and in-person events. Ahead of Eevee Day this year, between November 17th at Midnight (UTC) and November 20th at 11:59pm (UTC), a combination of 7-star Tera Raids and Mass Outbreaks featuring Eevee will be running in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's Ranked Battles Season 12 began earlier this week on November 1st, and will continue through to November 30th, at 11:59pm (UTC). This season follows Regulation Set E, which came into force at the beginning of October with the start of Season 11, expanding the list of allowable Pokémon to include those found in The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 1: The Teal Mask.

The next past generation first partner evolution to make its Paldea debut in special Tera Raids will be the Ghost Flame Pokémon Hisuian Typhlosion, who will be making its first appearance in 7-star Black Crystal Tera Raid Battles between November 3rd at 00:00 (UTC), and November 5th at 23:59 (UTC), with a follow-up appearance one week later from November 10th at 00:00 (UTC), to November 12th at 23:59 (UTC).

Having gone into a generalized look at Scarlet and Violet's ★ Starfall Street ★ story arc and given my thoughts on that in the last part, I’m now moving onto the two most important characters of this path, namely Cassiopeia (Penny) and Clive (Clavell). Cassiopeia serves as the “brains” behind Operation Starfall, while Clive fulfills more of a support and diplomatic role. The player, of course, is expected to be the muscle.

It's the spooky season, and Ghost types of all sorts are appearing this week all over Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: in Mass Outbreaks, in Tera Raids, and in a special Online Competition!

The Happiness Pokémon Blissey will once again be appearing in 5-star Tera Raid Battles in Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet between October 20th, at 00:00pm (UTC), and October 23rd, at 11:59pm (UTC). As with its previous appearance, Blissey will be appearing in both versions of the game, and will be available in a wide array of Tera Types, including rare Tera Types for this species.

Now, we come to the third and final of the three main story arcs of Scarlet and Violet, ★ Starfall Street ★. In this arc, the player is blackmailed into helping out a mysterious hacker who goes by Cassiopeia into defeating the five Bosses of Team Star in order to disband that organization. Along the way, the player meets up and is helped by the extremely hip and stylish Clive, who is definitely not a disguised Director Clavell.

As part of The Pokémon Company International's ongoing celebration of Pokéween, select GameStop across the United States and Canada are distributing free code cards for an Electric-Tera Type Mimikyu that can be redeemed in Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet. These GameStop distributions have begun today, and will continue through until October 29th, or while supplies last. These same code cards are also being distributed to attendees of the Brazil Game Show in São Paulo, which continues until this Sunday October 15th.

Pokémon was my queer awakening. I had silly little crushes on male and female characters alike, and I resonated with many of the designs of the series’s more gender nonconforming designs. Pokémon has always had a wink and a nod to queerness: Jessie and James’s genderbending antics, Beauty Nova in X and Y, Blanche from Pokémon GO… the list goes on. But with Scarlet and Violet, queerness shines bright as celestial stars.