Sometimes you really don’t need more than a headline. But as we were watching the new 14-minute trailer for Pokémon Scarlet And Violet this morning, among the news of Terastalizing creatures and Far Cry-like base battling, one thing stood out to us above all else: You can give your Pokémon a bath.
Scarlet & Violet is continuing to develop the ways you can bond with your Pokémon—seen since X & Y’s Pokémon-Amie let you pet and play with your menagerie—continuing Sword & Shield’s scenes where you can just take a break, set up camp, and have a bit of R&R with your Pokémon friends. As before, you can get a ball out for them to have a kick around (until today, there was nothing sillier than watching a Gyrados chasing after a ball like an excited puppy), and make some meals for them to enjoy. But unlike before, soon you’ll be able to whip out the rubber Duckletts and get a good lather going.
Just look how happy that Goomy is in the picture above. Because, as the trailer’s narrator says, “Looks like it feels nice, too!”
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“When Pokémon have gotten dirty from a long journey,” says the bubbly lady, “a nice scrub and shower gets them all clean.” A sentiment only slightly undone by the Goomy in the video not being in the least bit dirty at the start of its ablutions, and looking exactly the same at the end of them.
It’s clearly a crying shame this isn’t some sort of PowerWash Simulator crossover, where your pocket monsters are just filthy when you get into camp, and then a lovely sponging and showering sees them restored to their former sparkly glory. Perhaps for the next game, maybe?
However, for now, everything is forgiven simply because the sponge you use to bubble up your beasties is shaped like a Mareep. (No, don’t think about what it would be like to use a woollen sponge, you’re just spoiling it.)
I love how this seems to serve no sensible purpose at all, but for perhaps a bit of Pokémon bonding. It’s like someone at Game Freak said, “We’ve got to think of something else to add to this camp thing,” and then realized they forgot to shower that morning. “Hmmmmm.”
I absolutely cannot wait to give baths to some furious Steelix, or shower down a Scizor, purely for how utterly ridiculous it will look. It will be as daft as Pokémon Go letting you tickle Ultra Beasts on the tummy until they love you more. Also, if Game Freak aren’t suddenly hurriedly programming in my rubber Ducklett idea, then I don’t know what’s wrong with them.
