When Pokémon Scarlet and Purple were first revealed earlier this year at Pokémon Presents in February, two very distinct teams were formed: skeptics who wondered how Game Freak could have developed both Legends Pokémon Arceus and EV at the same time, and the regulars who suspected whatever happened that a new opus of the main series would see the light of day in 2022 or 2023. Regardless of the team chosen, it must be admitted that the announcement of 9G was too close to the release of Arceus (in January) and doubt could then set in: how a medium-sized development team could work on two games, one completely changing the gameplay of the license, the other bringing new creatures and being a open world? Game Freak has just provided an official answer to this question.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: the franchise’s most ambitious title
Pokémon Scarlet and Purple is by far the most ambitious installment in the Pokémon franchise simply by offering a real open world to explore freely and in the order you want. With the ninth generation, a series of new features will also be added such as Teracrystallization, Legendaries taking the form of motorcycles or even the choice in the story quests. But a question torments players about the quality of the title: Did Game Freak give the game enough development time?
At a recent conference held as part of the Computer Entertainment Developers Conference or CEDEC, the developer has spoken openly about how it has created assets for each title in the franchise. From Red and Blue to the latest games in the series, Game Freak talked about how it’s used different effects to improve game graphics with each generation. There was also talk about how much time Game Freak typically spends working on a title in the Pokemon franchise.
Pokémon Legends Arceus and Pokémon Scarlet & Purple developed at the same time?
Game Freak confirmed, for example, that work on Pokémon Scarlet and Purple began just as work on Pokémon Sword and Shield was wrapping up. It can therefore be assumed that the company has started developing EV since the end of 2019, which gave it a little over 3 years to create and refine it. A typical period of time for Game Freak who believe this is the optimal amount of time to spend on a Pokémon title. According to them, Pokémon Legends Arceus would also have taken 3 years to develop. For LPA, work began in autumn 2018, even before the release of Sword and Shield. As a bonus, Game Freak explains in the conference that a pipeline system allowed them to develop both games at the same time.
Anyway, it seems that LPA has laid the foundations of the open world that we will find in Scarlet and Violet and that the development of the two titles has been done in parallel with two separate teams.
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