Pokémon Violet

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet largely follow the same basic gameplay structure of previous Pokémon games, where players obtain creatures known as Pokémon, primarily through catching and trading, and use them to explore the world and battle other Pokémon Trainers. However, a new feature has been added which allows players to choose to battle Trainers on paths. The games introduces 112 new Pokémon, including three new Starter Pokémon, Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly, which act as the first Pokémon players can obtain in-game and two new Legendary Pokémon, Koraidon and Miraidon, with the types of fighting-dragon and electric-dragon, who accompany players throughout the games.

Scarlet and Violet have open worlds, which include both urban areas and open wilderness without borders between the two, unlike previous installments in the Pokémon series. Players can use either Koraidon or Miraidon, depending on the games' version, as a mount in the overworld, allowing access to several abilities that can be used to traverse Paldea's terrain. Players can also use a new "Auto Battle" feature, allowing them to send out their Pokémon in the overworld and defeat Pokémon without having to enter turn-based battles. In addition to this, players are given the option of participating in three different story routes, and objectives within routes can be done in any order.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are set in the Paldea Region of the Pokémon universe, which appears to be loosely based on the Iberian Peninsula. The region features diverse landscapes including lakes, wastelands, and mountain ranges. A large crater, called the Great Crater of Paldea, lies in the center of the region. Inside the Crater is an area named Area Zero.

In Scarlet and Violet, the player attends either the Naranja (Scarlet) or Uva (Violet) Academy, which has an annual "Treasure Hunt" that encourages students to seek something they treasure by exploring the region. After encountering either the Legendary Pokémon Koraidon or Miraidon, who joins and assists the player despite having lost its ability to battle, they are encouraged to participate in three stories: Victory Road, Starfall Street, and Path of Legends.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet started development in late 2019, around the time that Pokémon Sword and Shield released. During development, developers Game Freak wished to incorporate a "real and deformed" look into the games, including more realistic textures and more stylized character designs. According to Keiichi Maezawa, a member of Game Freak, at a conference discussing this approach, this was intended to ground the games in a more realistic environment and make the games closer to the real world. To further express realism with the games, natural sound was incorporated into the games' overworld.

Though this had been a feature in prior games, the developers wished to increase the expressiveness of these sounds and create a large sample of sounds that could be used for later games in the series. They created a program called "PokeSynth" to accomplish this goal, which could be used to make a wide variety of sounds using a Pokémon species' in-game cry. Members of the development team also went into the forest and used speakers to evaluate the realism of how the sounds of Pokémon would appear in-game. They also went to zoos to study how different species of animal changed their vocalizations under a variety of conditions, and defined Pokémon into different groups to determine what sounds each species would make.

Scarlet and Violet received "mixed or average reviews" according to review aggregator website Metacritic, making them the lowest-rated mainline series Pokémon games. Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the games received fair approval, being recommended by 48% of critics.

GameSpot writer Jake Dekker regarded the non-linearity of the games as their "strength", while Nintendo Life described the experience as capturing the "real magic" of the first Pokémon games, Red and Blue. The latter also praised the story as "wholesome" and offering "genuinely tender moments". Writing for IGN, Rebekah Valentine found the new open world gameplay style enjoyable, highlighting other new gameplay mechanics such as Tera Raids and new online mechanics. She criticized various elements of the games, in particular finding the games' lack of polish and depth in various aspects such as its online features and exploration in its open world to be lackluster and low quality.