The Big Pokemon Scarlet And Violet Clues We All Missed

Shortly after the incredibly successful launch of "Pokémon Legends: Arceus," Game Freak announced that there's yet another pocket monster collecting journey on the horizon for pokéfans. "Pokémon Scarlet" and "Pokémon Violet" were announced during 2022's "Pokémon Day" celebration and are set to be the next mainline entries in the series. There's always a lot of hype whenever a new "Pokémon" game is announced, but this time the buzz seems to be even louder than usual. This is probably because many fans are extremely excited as this will be their first opportunity to see what Game Freak can do with all the technical improvements introduced in "Arceus," but with the story, scale, and expanded pokédex that comes with a brand new generation of "Pokémon." Not to mention how amazing the ninth generation's starters look!

Now that fans have seen the new starters and know that the games are on their way, a few have pointed out that Nintendo and Game Freak have been dropping hints about this new "Pokémon" adventure for a while now. Subtle Easter eggs have been planted in past games teasing Gen-9 that most fans never even noticed. Here are a few that have been found so far.

The "Scarlet and Violet" announcement trailer was a strange one to be sure. Much of the screen time was spent following a security guard as he walks down a corridor until he passes through a scarlet and violet LED lit door to a strange storage space where he sees a vision of the new "Pokémon" games. There are several odd objects in this room, but one that the camera lingers on for a moment is a bowl of oranges and grapes, immediately before cutting to a long shot of a door with two shields one either side of it: one featuring an orange and the other featuring grapes. Many believe that the oranges are actually blood oranges and that the fruit are meant to correspond to the colors of the games' titles.

Reddit user DDD-HERO made a post titled, "I found a "Pokémon Sword" and "Shield" hint to gen 9!" They then described a very particular decoration tucked away where few people were likely to notice. "It's located in Hotel Ionia in Circhester," the post stated. "If you enter the left portion of the hotel (I didn't check the right), you'll see that the lobby has side rooms that are roped off from access. If you look at the wallpaper, you can see that there are images of oranges and grapes which were featured in today's Gen 9 reveal!" This Easter egg was so well hidden that most fans never even noticed the wallpaper, let alone thought to analyze what was printed on it, but it seems clear in hindsight that this was Game Freak subtly teasing the upcoming games.

"Sword/Shield" and "Arceus" aren't the only "Pokémon" games from the last few years. "Pokémon Brilliant Diamond" and "Shining Pearl" were released in 2021, giving fans an opportunity to play new and improved versions of the DS games. These games have largely been overshadowed by the "Pokémon" games that were released on either side of them, but it seems that Game Freak may have left a clue for fans here as well.

DDD-HERO later came back to their post about the oranges and grapes and made an edit, suggesting that they found another hint about gen-9. "Also found evidence in BDSP Twinleaf Town's flower colors near the exit to Route 201," the update states. "The flowers aren't the same design [as] they were in ["Diamond," "Pearl," and "Platinum."] DDD-HERO then linked two photos: one from the original "Diamond" and "Pearl" that featured white flowers, and one from "Brilliant Diamond" and "Shining Pearl" that featured larger scarlet and violet flowers. It's entirely possible that this is just a coincidence and that the developers simply wanted to add a bit more color to Twinleaf Town's design, but DDD-HERO notes that Pastoria City still uses white flowers that are considerably more similar to the original game's design.

Every core "Pokémon" game takes place in a new region generally based on real world places. Galar is based on the United Kingdom, Alola is based on Hawaii, Kalos is based on France, ect. There are several hints (including the shape of the map in the trailer) that indicate that the region in Gen-9 will be based on Spain.

Artist and content creator @soulsiverart pointed out on Twitter that there is a correlation between the color variants of the Pokémon Basculegion and the flag of the country where the next region of the game will take place. They compared the red, yellow, and purple versions of Basculegion to the Second Spanish Republic flag, which was striped in the same three colors. That might seem a little thin on its own, but the comparison doesn't end there. SoulSilverArt also shared a post featuring red, white and blue Basculin from "Pokémon Black" and "White," which were set in the Unova region based on the United States.

Shiny Pokémon are extremely rare variants that have different coloration than their peers. The act of "shiny hunting" has become a popular pastime in the diehard "Pokémon" community, particularly in the newer generations like "Pokémon Sword," "Shield," "Brilliant Diamond," "Shin,ing Pearl," and "Legends: Arceus" where the Pokémon can be viewed on the map before the player engages in battle with them. Sometimes Pokémon have regional variances too. Zoroark, for instance, is traditionally a Dark-Type Pokémon with dark gray and red coloring. The Hisuian Zoroark from "Arceus" is a Normal/Ghost-Type that has white and red coloring. It's one of the few Pokémon in the game that got this sort of special treatment, making it very noticeable to fans.

@Itsuba_Zero on Twitter pointed out that the regular and shiny versions of Zoroark also reflect the colors of the upcoming "Pokémon" games. This theory seems more likely to be a coincidence, however, as the original normal and shiny variations of Zoroark also had scarlet and violet accents. It is possible that Game Freak chose to make regional variants of these specific "Pokémon" to draw attention to that detail, however. Like all of Game Freak's Easter eggs, it is extremely subtle.