To meet another trainer’s gaze in any previous generation of Pokemon always signified an impending battle. Once that trainer noticed you, the war was on, regardless of the place you were or what you were up to, irrespective of the fact that your Pokemon had enough health to withstand a single tackle.
The Pokemon Scarlet and Violet games give the impression that this is not the case. Rumors are circulating that NPC fights will no longer be required and that players will have at least some discretion over whether or not they participate in a friendly Pokemon competition.
According to IGN’s assessment, when we stepped ahead of a non-player character for the first time during our hands-on session, the NPC did not begin a fight or a conversation with us. The Nintendo representative clarified that the trainer’s head icon indicated they would battle us. However, this would only occur if we started the fight by speaking to them first, which would remain the case throughout the game.
Suppose the player is compelled to infiltrate Team Scarlet’s HQ, and opponent trainers catch you. In that case, it is likely that Scarlet and Violet’s regions not included in the demo will still contain some required combat. However, the fact that you won’t have to worry about trainers wandering around in the overworld will undoubtedly make the game appear more enticing.
One further issue that was highlighted in every demo was how the Nintendo Switch appeared to struggle a little bit under the weight of the technical needs of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. According to Eurogamer, Scarlet and Violet had significant problems with performance, and Nintendo Life experienced unusual hitches when shifting Pokemon in specific settings. These hiccups seemed to occur when the game tried to free up some RAM to make room for the following Pokemon model.
