Visual and cultural references to Spain in the video games Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet

Abstract

The video games combine programming and cultural creation, which serve as the basis for this new digital culture. The video game Pokémon is a great example of this because it has used different countries as inspiration for constructing spaces and other elements of its gameplay. Specifically, in Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet (Nintendo, 2022), the saga’s most recent instalments there are cultural references to Spain, an object of study that has received scant academic attention to date. Drawing from this premise, the research objective is to analyse the visual representation using a qualitative methodology, namely, content analysis for the purpose of identifying the visual and cultural references on the basis of an established set of variables: spaces (gaming-narrative, symbolic and psychological), characters (player and non-player character; main and secondary) and objects (action-oriented and environmental). The main results disclose that the Japanese company Game Freak has represented aspects of Spanish culture, with their nuances, to develop the ninth generation of this video game, borrowing architectural and artistic elements from cities located in different regions, plus typical foodstuffs and economic activities including agriculture and livestock breeding. We identified references to different Spanish regions, such as Andalusia (Granada, Cordova and Cadiz), the Basque Country, Catalonia, Castile-La Mancha, La Rioja, Murcia, Cantabria, Valencia and Majorca.