Unlike previous Pokémon installments, Scarlet and Violet take place in the Paldea region, which is based on the Iberian Peninsula and features an open world.

[4][2] Players can use either Koraidon or Miraidon, depending on the games' version, as a mount in the overworld, allowing access to several tools that can be used to traverse Paldea's terrain.

[9] The second route, Path of Legends, involves players attempting to hunt down massive and powerful "Titan Pokémon" in order to defeat them and obtain Herba Mystica items.

[7] The third route, Starfall Street, has players attempt to defeat a villainous organization consisting of rebellious students called Team Star.

Players must defeat a set number of Team Star members within a time limit before proceeding to battle with their base leader.

Players can use a new "picnic" feature to play with their party of Pokémon and make sandwiches, which give a variety of in-game boons.

After encountering either the legendary Pokémon Koraidon or Miraidon, who joins and assists the player despite having lost its ability to battle, they are encouraged to participate in three stories: Victory Road, Starfall Street, and Path of Legends.

[22] In Victory Road, Nemona—a Champion-ranked trainer that rivals the player and frequently battles them throughout their journey—asks that they complete the Paldea region's eight Gyms.

Throughout the story, Arven reveals that he wishes to use the Herba Mystica to heal his pet Mabosstiff, who was injured by a Pokémon in Area Zero—the workplace of his parent, either Professor Sada (Scarlet) or Turo (Violet).

In Starfall Street, the player helps shy schoolgirl Penny stand up against Team Star, a group responsible for academy bullying.

They are assisted by academy director Clavell, who aims to discover Team Star's origins while disguised as a student named Clive, and Penny, who wants to monitor the player in-person and guide them as Cassiopeia.

After her defeat, Clavell reveals his disguise and offers peace with Team Star, though he subjects its members to community service as punishment for several violations.

The AI reveals that the original professor created a time machine to retrieve Paradox Pokémon and that they are to maintain it at all costs.

The AI urges the player to shut down the time machine to preserve Paldea's ecology, though its programming forces it to battle them.

Upon returning to the academy, Nemona, Clavell, and Geeta organize a Pokémon battling tournament between faculty and students.

They created a program called "PokeSynth" to accomplish this goal, which could be used to make a wide variety of sounds using a Pokémon species' in-game cry.

[27] The team paid careful attention to making each model in order to ensure they conveyed each species' core personalities while fitting in with the games' artistic style.

The developers wished to ensure the Pokémon appeared visually interesting and consistent across multiple in-game camera angles as well.

Teruo Taniguchi, who had previously worked on Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, composed the music associated with Team Star in the games.

[4] On 1 June 2022, a second trailer was released, officially revealing Koraidon and Miraidon, more gameplay footage, the Pokémon Smoliv, Lechonk, and Pawmi,[39] and the characters of Nemona, Sada, and Turo.

[44] On 6 October 2022, a 14-minute trailer was released, highlighting the unique gameplay between four different players, each going on a different "path" in the story, as well as Farigiraf, Girafarig's evolution.

[59] The games were released with numerous graphical and technical errors, including several bugs and glitches which impacted player performance.

[70][71] On 11 January 2024, the DLC's epilogue Mochi Mayhem released where the player goes back to the land of Kitakami to catch a new Mythical Pokémon, Pecharunt.

[74] Special tie-in promotional videos, depicting characters from both games discussing Gimmighoul and its lore were released prior to the official reveal of the compatibility announcement.

[77] Produced by Wit Studio, it is based on the Paldea region as a tie-in to Scarlet and Violet, although it's not part of the main anime series.

[80] On 16 November 2023, pop duo Yoasobi and The Pokémon Company announced a collaboration to celebrate the games' first anniversary with a song, titled "Biri-Biri".

[83] The story of the video primarily focuses on Nemona and a transfer student named Anna, who go on a quest involving finding their "treasure".

[112] Regarding the open-world design Joel Franey writing for GamesRadar+ criticized the games' "aimlessness" and "notable lack of stakes" without any end goal.

He additionally believed the games did not adequately tell the player in what order they were meant to approach its major story beats from, which he felt would leave them confused.

[112] Due to the performance issues, some players began requesting refunds of the games soon after launch, which Nintendo granted in most cases.