So, the second major Pokemon Circulation in 2022 is declining.While some of us are still advancing Pokemon Legend: Arceus‘The first open world in the series, Pokemon Company just revealed scarlet and Purple, they boldly use the same structure in the mainline series. However, that’s not what made the Pokemon community just disappear this Sunday.
The announcement confirms that developer Game Freak fully expects the series’ first foray into the modern open world to be a hit with fans and casual players alike. These new entries are significant, though, as they represent the ninth generation of Pokemon (Arceus marked the start of the “Side” series). Of course, the new generation means we can explore previously unseen areas of the Pokemon world – 2019’s Sword and Shield is entirely British, while the new gaming duo sticks to Europe…but this time, they’re both It’s about Europe.
First of all, let me, a Spaniard, be clear: Europe is a real country – contrary to popular belief – and it is not located somewhere below the United States. Reading about Game Freak’s “A Tribute to Coco and Encanto’s Aesthetics” made my head spin. These comments are an insult to Latin American countries and the entire Iberian Peninsula (not just Europe) – it turns out that Southern European countries are not just Italy and Greece.
Don’t worry too much about offending the Spaniards though; we’re happy with the whole situation, because we generally like to laugh at ourselves and how outlandish many of our aesthetics and customs seem to others. Thankfully, though, Game Freak seems to be making good use of most of these elements in its fantasy work. With that in mind, allow me to break down the coolest, weirdest and funniest things our Spanish trainers have found so far in Scarlet and Violet.
“The main characters look like cayetanos,” announced half of Twitter’s Spaniards as soon as the game’s first trailer was released. You must be wondering what the hell is cayetano, good or bad. Well, it’s a popular word used (jokingly) to refer to trendy people, especially those still associated with conservative values and outdated Hispanic culture – it’s actually a female variant (Cayetana) , but it’s hardly used outside of preppy families. Can you see the connection?
The first screenshots released by The Pokemon Company confirm that our characters attend the most expensive private school in the area (you won’t see these costumes anywhere else). In addition, the exquisite Andalusian-style house in the suburbs is undoubtedly a residence owned by Cayetanos. We’re also pretty confident Game Freak is adding “cortijos” (rural houses surrounded by large tracts of land) to these games, which means new horse and bull-like Pokemon are on the way. Trainers who dress like bullfighters (or even the head of the gym) should be locked up too – maybe there’s a “bull square” (bullring) gym?
As famous as flamenco music and bright country houses are, Andalusia doesn’t represent all of Europe. The first trailer for Scarlet and Violet has a lot of elements that belong to other regions. The cathedral-like structure (pictured above) appears to crown a large town, similar to the Sagrada Familia found in Barcelona, Catalonia. Snowy reminds foreigners that Europe is more than “sun and beaches”. If you’re familiar with Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, those windmills are instantly recognizable – who knows, maybe we’ll see a delusional guy trying to fight them as if they were giant Pokemon Same. Hey, this series does something weird (right, AZ?)
While the Scarlet and Violet trailers gave us a first glimpse at the game, the Spanish community was left with a lot of – admittedly – pointless questions. Give us some real Spanish representation in foreign video games and we’ll applaud. Give us the same in Weird Pokemon (a very famous franchise here) and we’ll break the internet. I could fill a couple of articles with memes and low-quality jokes that only make sense if you’ve been surfing Spanish Twitter for the past decade, but I’ll only share the legendary (and more relevant than ever)” Proud to be Spanish” Dragonite without any further context:
By the way, I have to talk about our flag and its colors, because Game Freak is playing with fire here, we really don’t know if they did it on purpose… The “rojigualda” flag is yellow and red, and it’s us In use since 1785, except during the Second Republic, it introduced dark purple into the lower stripes of the flag, basically representing the desire to change the traditional Spanish model of government and expel the monarch. Yes, yellow and red are prominently featured in the game’s logo, but the player must choose between red and purple, the latter immediately associated with a short-lived government that was marked by a July 1936 military coup and The subsequent military coup was wiped out by the Spanish Civil War. Spicy!
This flag and color business also makes me wonder about the bad guys that might terrorize this new area. Europe is still horrified by the devastation wrought by its conflict with Basque terrorists (ETAs) for decades, so having the usual cartoonish, Pokemon-utilizing villains don txapellas (a traditional Basque hat) A little deaf.
Unsurprisingly, Pokemon fanatics are also obsessed with our brief look at the region’s full map, as it’s pretty much an altered Iberian peninsula that seems to integrate Portugal as part of the region – the open west will Great world has a distinct cultural personality and also gives some love to our country’s neighbors. It also raises some geography-related questions: Will water-centric towns be located where our most famous coastal cities are? And what about deserts as dry as Almeria (the province where countless Westerns have been shot)? Ah, so many possibilities…
Finally, I have to give a few words to the three starters who are grabbing a lot of attention on Spanish social media as I write this. Here are a selection of thoughts shared by many fans in the Spanish Pokemon community: Sprigatito is a super cute name (‘gatito’ is short for gato or cat), protect them at all costs; yes, Fuecoco looks like Totodile and Weird concoction of red peppers; Quaxly is a “cayetano” duck just for that hairstyle, trust us.
The buzz and hype will only increase and get noisier as more details emerge in the coming months. For now, The Pokemon Company and Game Freak are the clear winners. Maybe it’s the appeal of seeing my underrepresented culture in the Pokemon world, or maybe it’s the structural evolution that the franchise seems to be committed to, but I’m about to get a Nintendo Switch.
Pokemon Crimson and Violet – a brand new open-world Pokemon adventure combo – will launch on Nintendo Switch in late 2022.
