News: Auto Battles a new feature of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

Also two Megamans and a crab.

This one is certainly interesting QoL feature and I'm surprised GF is including it in the game. Isn't the whole point of Pokémon the bond between trainer and their Pokémon, that is strengthen by battling together? What happened to that?

But, given that this is modern Pokémon, I don't think there will ever be a need for grinding and you'll be overleveled anyway, so I don't think this will be really useful.

I am not a fan of making pokemon even more mechanic, because I guess it could result in making it easier as well. Like, it's not something I felt the need in a pokemon game. For example, having more character customization and setting a level of game difficulty are probably the first things I'd want in a pokemon game. I feel like this could be a thing if there was A LOT to explore around, but despite being overworld, I don't think it's the case.

Appreciated hearing more about the three paths.

Questions the need for autobattling. Mentioned items. Is this an easy way to grab more hold items? Or are the Team Star trainers so bad as to want to skip over them?

Spotted Girafarig in a cafe during the 25-screen collage. Looked normal.

Captured two map screenshots.


Understands the clothing, haircut, and Pokemon Center icons. What are the others? Vending machines and a Poke Mart?


Mashed together maps from multiple languages, interestingly. Sees a restaurant/cafe icon among the nine. Displays seven icons with clear, sunny skies and two with clear, moonlit skies. Is the sun icon in the upper-right of each map just for decoration, then?

Do not like the auto battle feature this is not a mobile game. I like that the three paths are now explained. Think I'll start with the treasure hunt tbh, looks fun.

I don't mind the auto-battle feature since it's optional, right? I'm sure a lot of people who get tired of grinding will end up using it to some extent haha, though I worry these games will be insanely easy. What I'm excited about is the fact you can have your Pokémon explore with you! I really wanted that in PLA rather than just have them stand around, so that's a big plus!

Also, the Mega Man inspired Pokémon look super cool to me!! They're not related to Bisharp are they? I thought they were at first because of how similar they are. Either way, awesome designs with great typings!

Loving the major NPC designs for this game as well (just not the generic school uniforms/the grunts).

Klawf's big goggle eyes are very endearing. Another Pokémon who I thought was a third evolution (to Kingler in this case). I'm not keeping up with the leaks so it's new to me!

I think I can live with having an auto battle system as long as it's optional. I kinda like the grind but I can understand if others don't or if they just don't have time to grind out things - life gets crazy sometimes.

"Auto Battle" definitely seems like a great feature, especially for my playstyle. I have always wanted the chance to experience an AI battle in Pokémon, where I can watch Pokémon battle without me having to call any moves. However, for this feature to work properly, the AI must be programmed well. The AI making bonehead moves could completely ruin the experience. For example, while my Pokémon are battling, I don't want my Pokémon to be spamming "Growl" like five times in a row when my Pokémon should be consistently using "Tackle" instead. This could be problematic if the wild Pokémon is constantly going on the offensive, which could lead to my Pokémon getting knocked out. This could be problematic for wild Pokémon battles that occur early in the game or against wild Pokémon of similar level, assuming that the AI is bad. Nonetheless, assuming that everything is programmed well, this should be a great feature. This, along with the Exp. Share, definitely slows down that long tedious grind, which only makes it quicker for me to level up my Pokémon get them read for competitive battling! These trailers and new features are definitely making me more excited for the game!

I would probably use it if it wouldn't be for the fear of fainting a wild shiny Pokémon 😂. Otherwise it's a really good improvement because it speeds up the process of battling.

The brilliant MMORPG logic of "let's add an auto-battle feature, might be good to save grinding"

Didn't any of the developers think that maybe, just maybe, the need for grinding in videogames is the problem and shouldn't exist to begin with?

I don't intend of using it. In fact I believe that if I'm using auto battle in a game, it's because the game fails at being fun, making me not really want to play it. But pretty sure this won't be needed for a regular playthrough, just for the usual gameplay "work".

Watched the trailer again. Arrived at a possible decent implementation for autobattling: a large-scale multibattle. Never specified how many Pokemon you could have on Auto.

Imagine a field of twelve enemy trainers. Sticks you under a harsh timer. Cannot fight all those individually in time. What do you do? Auto battle with your whole team.

Match up your Quaxly versus the enemy Geodude and walk away. Send in Fuecoco against that enemy Smoliv and walk away. Use Sprigatito for the enemy Frillish and walk away. Fights three battles simultaneously. Watches each battle progress and maybe step in, if necessary.

Encourages you to think about your whole team. May need to resort to an iffy match-up in the event of lots of Smolivs on the field. Keeps you on your toes with three (or more?) battles. Fits in with the real-time Terrestrial Battles too, thematically.

Normally autobattling is added to an RPG to cater to people who don't care so much about the gameplay and just want to enjoy the story, but Pokémon is not exactly known for its storylines so I'm not sure why this is here. Is this their solution to the problem of wild battles becoming effortless curbstomps because they're not scaling anything to the player? Hard to imagine that we already had a solution to that way back in the mid-nineties.

Actually I think this auto battle thing will help a lot with grinding and all that. I think this should be a main stay in future mainline games in the series.