by Doc – Owner, Founder, Is Expecting to Play SV For At Least The Next Ten Years In Some Form or Fashion
I firmly believe that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will be one of the most moddable games in all of Pokémon history going forward. Based on its relatively undeveloped engine, movement mechanics, ability to add more content through the existing DLC structure, and very wide open and empty spaces, it would be ideal for modders to add content as the anti-homebrew mechanisms on the Nintendo Switch are gradually unfurled and regular users will eventually be able to mod their Switches easily.
I’m hopeful that homebrew will, much like the Nintendo Wii, get to a point where you’ll be able to just stick in a USB drive and mod your Switch, and I consider it likely that Switch homebrew probably will be available the very second Nintendo stops updating Switch consoles permanently (though that will certainly be a very long time from now). So let’s just say that I’m somewhat optimistic about the future of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet modding.
The Obvious “Give Us New Towns, Complete Pokedex, etc.”
First, there is always the prospect of adding new towns, new buildings, and new Pokémon, as is done in every other Pokémon ROM hack and mod out there. Pokémon Emerald is sort of the 2D template for most Pokémon ROM hacks thanks to the availability of modding tools for it, and Pokémon Emerald has received mods of all shapes and sizes with most of them revolving around those categories. Most ROM hacks have followed in Emerald’s footsteps.
Obviously Pokémon Scarlet would benefit tremendously from having complete access to all of the Pokédex and some environmental cleanup, along with old movesets brought forward into Generation 9. Thanks to the fact that Home has 3D models available to it, and Pokémon Legends Z-A, BDSP, and other Nintendo Switch Pokémon titles have 3D models, it will likely be fairly straightforward to port those models into the Pokémon Scarlet engine. So it’s not far-fetched to suggest we may someday get a full Pokédex implemented into Pokémon Scarlet, and similar additions to Pokémon Sword and Shield as well.
Now that that’s out of the way…
Bringing Back the DLC Event Tera Raids
Pokémon Tera Raids are by design the endgame content for Pokémon. Much like Dynamax Raids and Ultra Wormholes before them, Pokémon Tera Raids are both the ongoing sidequests during the main game and the rewards for beating the endgame. There were many Pokémon Tera Raids released as DLC or as limited-time events that have since disappeared, such as the Paradox Pokémon raids currently going on at the time of this writing to celebrate the end of the game’s life cycle, and the famous Mewtwo vs. Mew event raid that happened fairly early in the game’s lifespan.
It would be a useful addition to have those raids reimplemented into the game. There is a small but determined fanbase for Pokémon Tera Raids that greatly enjoys almost “solving” them as if they are actual puzzles to be solved, and some of those DLC raids were quite enjoyable and unique. For example, the Mewtwo raid? Absolute peak. It would also be interesting if modders changed the way that legendaries are obtained in the Indigo Disk DLC to instead require completion of Tera Raids, and were able to implement new legendary Tera Raids into the game to obtain them. Just a thought.
Expanding the Porto Marinada Market
The Porto Marinada market is certainly worth expanding on and expounding on a bit. At present, it only has four stalls. The first three stalls open up as you progress through the game, and they sell a random assortment of items in bulk periodically for less than their market value. If, for some reason, you found yourself needing to buy 38 Great Balls for a 10% discount, that’s the place to go.
The fourth stall only opened up when Pokémon Home functionality opened up, and gave you the ability to buy supplementary items for the legendaries that you brought in or unlocked in the Indigo Disk DLC. For example, Giratina and the other legendaries of its generation often have items specific to them that serve specific functions. Those items could be auctioned off at the auction. However, there are other unused stalls in that area that would be well served by either placing new vendors there, or by introducing some kind of expanded market functionality. I know this sounds ridiculous, but wouldn’t it be hilarious if you could haggle and buy and sell commodities with other merchants through Pokémon?
Racing Minigame to Battle Team Star
I once heard a rumor, that has never been confirmed, that early builds of Pokémon Scarlet intended to have some sort of racing minigame where the player, riding their mount, races around the racetracks to defeat Team Star. That’s why Team Star’s bases all seem to be racetracks even though their only connection to any sort of motor vehicle is the final boss of each one. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but we see echoes of that in the gym test for the Ice-type gym leader as well, and there are a few instances in the game of racing down racetracks. Basically, it would be really stinking cool if something like that were eventually implemented into the game, almost as if it were correcting for lost development time.
More Adventures with Arven, Nemona, and Penny
I would like to see more interactions between the three main storyline characters—Arven, Nemona, and Penny—in the game, embarking on some future quest. I thought the epilogue was very well done and enjoyed it tremendously, and was quite sad when it ended as that was the last time I would see these friends interact. It never hurts to come up with a few other side stories that some old school buddies can encounter along the way. There’s plenty of opportunities in the region to come up with ideas like that.
Rebattling Gym Leaders and Trainers
The ability to rebattle gym leaders, the Elite Four, and the various trainers available around the world and at the school tournament would be much appreciated. I always felt bad that I wasn’t able to battle Nemona several times at the end of the game’s story, and there’s still part of me that just wants to battle her! But seriously though, rechallenging much of the game would be quite enjoyable.
Wild Paradox Pokémon Spawns
Modifying wild spawns is a given for any ROM hack, but the question of how to modify them is an interesting one. I think it would be very cool to have a slim chance that a Paradox Pokémon would appear in the wild in the Paldea region. The game already allowed for such an occurrence to happen in its canon by having the Great Tusk or Iron Treads Pokémon appear as part of the game’s story, so who is to say it couldn’t happen elsewhere? You may even encounter Koraidon or Miraidon!
Cross-Universe Professor Encounter
A postgame custom story event where the professor from the other game appears in the Crystal Pool and some weird occurrences happen would be quite interesting… and it would be more interesting to see that the caves underneath the Area Zero lab did, as a result, start spawning the Paradox Pokémon from the other game in some kind of cross-universe parallel timeline shenanigans.
Anyway, these are just my thoughts. I’ve loved the hell out of Pokemon Scarlet since its release and it’s changed my life in so many ways, I feel like I’m not ready to move on to Pokemon Legends: Z-A just yet.
Amiibo Doctor 