Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's DLC Shiny Change Shouldn't Be a 'Once in a Blue Moon' Thing
Highlights The Teal Mask DLC in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet introduces the Glimmering Charm, allowing players to obtain more Tera Shards for their critters and providing a new twist on Pokedex rewards. Shiny Pokemon in Scarlet and Violet are found in the overworld and can be easily missed due to minimal color palette changes, but they are highly valued, and The Teal Mask DLC introduces a shiny move for the first time. The inclusion of a shiny move in The Teal Mask DLC sets a precedent for future games, potentially allowing all shiny Pokemon to have unique moves in future titles, but it may be challenging for Game Freak to implement this feature for a large number of creatures.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s The Teal Mask DLC came out just a few days ago, and players are already amassing plenty of Tera Shards thanks to the Glimmering Charm obtained for completing the Kitakami Pokedex. This item is a worthy addition to Gen 9 for those who want to change the Tera type of their critters, and it’s a good way to shake up the Pokedex rewards after the base games’ Shiny Charm. Often considered one of the best items to get in Pokemon games, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s Shiny Charm comes in handy for finding color-changed critters in Kitakami as well, and one of the DLC’s new ones comes with a change that should be more common in future games.
Shiny Pokemon in Scarlet and Violet are quite different from past games, as they are exclusively found in the overworld due to the removal of random tall grass encounters, but unlike Pokemon Legends: Arceus they don’t make a sound when spawning. It can be easy to miss shinies, especially if the color palette changes are minimal, which is the case of multiple Pokemon species included in Gen 9. Still, shiny Pokemon are often considered the most valuable kind of critters after event-exclusive monsters, and The Teal Mask giving one of them more love bodes well for future titles.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s Dipplin Shiny Move Should be More Common
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s Dipplin, a cross-gen evolution for Pokemon Sword and Shield’s Applin, is given a bright yellow shiny pattern that is already making the rounds online. More importantly, Dipplin’s signature move Syrup Bomb is normally of the same color as the base Pokemon’s caramel apple body, which is red. However, the shiny version of Dipplin shoots a Syrup Bomb that changes its color from red to yellow, matching the shade of the critter’s shiny color palette.
The fact that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s The Teal Mask has a shiny move is incredible, as traditionally all moves have always stayed the same regardless of a critter’s shiny or regular status. Instead, this sets a noteworthy precedent because it not only shows that it’s possible to change the way moves are displayed for shiny Pokemon, but also that this could be a reality for all future shinies and games. Players could experience shiny moves from their favorite critters at all times, or at the very least this could be done in similar ways as Gen 9, meaning that only a Pokemon’s signature move gets this treatment.
Either way, shiny moves would be a fan-favorite addition to Gen 10 and beyond regardless of how often they happen, and they would also make shiny Pokemon all the more valuable and unique. This doesn’t mean that it’s going to be an easy process, however. In fact, Pokemon Sword and Shield limited the regional Pokedex to only a few hundred critters rather than every Pokemon in existence, and this caused controversies and sparked debates for a long time. Yet, the reason behind this choice was to reduce the burden of creating 3D models for hundreds of creatures, and changing the colors or even the textures of some moves might be unfeasible.
If the Switch 2 leaks and rumors are to be believed, Nintendo’s newest console could provide developers with better toolkits to improve the performance of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet and similar games. Still, it remains that making shiny moves for over a thousand creatures might prove problematic for Game Freak, but at the same time, it could very well be disappointing for players not to see more of this new feature in future games after getting a taste of it.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available now for the Nintendo Switch.