Pokemon Scarlet & Violet are here!

And for once, I'm going in blind! Well, I know what Nintendo's officially shown off in their trailers. And I saw a few leaks by accident. But mostly, I have no idea what this Pokedex is gonna look like.

Which is a first, for me. For Gen 1-2, I was familiar with the anime & cards before I played the games. Then from Gen 3-5, I would look up the Pokemon from the Japanese release. And from Gen 6-8, I'd keep my ear to the ground for leaks. The point is, I've always known what to expect from a Pokemon game. And I like it that way - I enjoy planning my team beforehand. And as Sword/Shield proved, it's hard to get excited when I don't have anything to look forward to. But then the game released, and it turned out that Gamefreak only showed off the ugly stupid Pokemon and kept all the cool ones a secret!

But, I know a lot of people prefer to play blind. They say it helps keep things fresh, they enjoy the mystery, the childhood wonder, perhaps. And I've always pooh-poohed that nonsense, largely because I've never had that experience but enjoyed the games anyway.

and yet... this time, the release date kinda snuck up on me. I honestly wasn't even paying attention until last week, and then I decided - hey, I haven't been spoiled yet. I could probably just avoid my usual internet haunts and stay that way. Yeah, I'm not especially hype for the game, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised like with Gen 8? And maybe, just maybe, that surprise will be more meaningful if I actually get it in-game instead of browsing somebody's Pokedex leak?

So that's what I'm doing! Picked up the game today and got started. I chose Fuecoco, because without knowing any of the final evolutions of the starters, I figured Fire usually ends up decent. We'll see how it goes.