The latest Tera Raid event for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet features Chest Form Gimmighoul, and for the first time players are able to obtain a shiny variant of this Gen 9 mon. While this is great news for dedicated shiny hunters looking to complete their collection, the average Pokemon Scarlet and Violet player might not even realize they've captured a shiny Gimmighoul after completing a raid. Unfortunately, Gimmighoul's shiny color palette is barely distinguishable from its normal form, highlighting an overarching problem the series has with how certain shinies continue to be handled.
Shiny hunting is popular among many Pokemon players, and the series has made this activity more accessible with each new entry. It's a special feeling when encountering a rare, uniquely colored variant of a creature while exploring the games' map, but often times it can be hard to tell if a suspected mon is actually shiny because the alternate color palette for some critters is too close to their original to be able to tell the difference at a glance. This has been an ongoing criticism of the series for some time now, and it's a shame newly accessible shiny mons like Gimmighoul are still falling into this pattern.
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The Pokemon Series Needs to Make Significant Changes to How it Handles Shiny Coloring
Prior to the current Gimmighoul raid event, it wasn't possible to find a wild shiny Gimmighoul due to this mon being shiny locked initially. Certain mons are shiny-locked, meaning they can't be shiny on the initial encounter as they are usually a scripted, static encounter as part of the game's story. Critters like the starter trio, gift mon from NPCs, and the legendaries Koraidon and Miraidon are all examples of mons that are shiny-locked, though shinies of the starters can be obtained by breeding, but Gimmighoul is in the unique position of being a shiny-locked mon gaining the possibility of being shiny from a post-launch event.
However, despite the fanfare around Gimmighoul and its evolution Gholdengo being Pokedex #999 and #1000 respectively, their shiny debut is undercut by the fact that their shiny coloring is very underwhelming. Fans awaiting Gimmighoul and Gholdengo's shiny variants finally becoming unlocked were greeted by two mons who gain a slightly lighter hue on their body when shiny, a huge missed opportunity to give these coin-based creatures a coloration that swaps their body colors, making Gimmighoul gold and Gholdengo silver. This mediocre shiny color is nothing new for the Pokemon series, with some of the most popular mons having similarly disappointing shinies.
Fan favorites from across the series' history like Gengar, Garchomp, and Blaziken are all awesome monsters with awful shinies that are basically indistinguishable from their base form. With how popular shiny hunting has become, and how clear it is that developer Game Freak has been supporting the activity by making it more accessible, it's bizarre that it would continue to design shiny variants for new mons that barely change the original's look. Gimmighoul and Gholdengo aren't the only Gen 9 mons with minimal changes to their shinies as creatures like Tandemaus, Armarouge, and Ceruledge also share the same fate.
Future entries in the series should take note of some of the best shiny designs and adhere to a philosophy of making shiny Pokemon more desirable for their appearance rather than just their rarity. Arguably one of the best shinies in the series is Sylveon's and all it does is swap the blue and pink portions of its body while maintaining its same color palette. This coloring makes Sylveon's shiny stand out remarkably well while staying true to the original's design, and with minimal effort, more creatures could follow this style of shiny in the future.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available for Nintendo Switch.
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