Pokemon is a franchise I have a complicated relationship with. I used to be borderline obsessed with it when I was younger; but the questionable quality of recent entries alongside my interests shifting more broadly have made me gradually lose interest in the games. These days, I mainly engage with Pokemon through the anime (I’ve been gradually re-watching the series since September), as well as through the OST.
I went into the Pokemon Presents with high hopes though, Game Freak seemed to slow down a lot in 2024, announcing Z-A near the start but otherwise hardly releasing anything; so I hoped they’d been investing that time into interesting projects. And overall, I was pretty happy with the event! They spent the first half on mobile game crap I really don’t care about; though it was nice to see Gen 5 get some love with a Pokemon GO event. The first thing that actually excited me was the reveal that Pokemon Concierge has been renewed for another season. I watched and loved the first batch of episodes back when they first came out in late 2023; and while I felt it ended on a good note, it’s great to see these smaller projects get some extra support. Moving on, when they started the nostalgia sequence with the kids playing Gameboy and all that, I figured they were about to announce “Pokemon Memories / Remembrance”, a compilation of Gens 1-3 on a Switch cart that some rumors were saying would be revealed. Turns out it was actually just an updated version of Stadium, “Pokemon Champions”; which is apparently coming to both Switch and mobile. Competitive battling isn’t my personal cup of tea, but it’s nice to see Nintendo listening to their fans, since I know a lot of people have been wanting a successor to Stadium / Colosseum / Battle Revolution. Speaking of that, it was also announced that LatAm Spanish is going to be supported going forward; I’ve heard that only European Spanish being available has been a bit of a sticking point for a lot of South American fans, and it’s good to see the Pokemon Company move to fix that.
Finally, the biggest news was getting new information about Z-A; we got to see gameplay for the first time, and it was definitively confirmed to be set in the future rather than the past. The three starters are also apparently Chikorita, Tepig and Totodile; I found it a bit odd how two of them are from Gen 2 while the 3rd is from Gen 5, it would’ve made more sense to have one from three separate generations in my opinion; but that’s Nintendo for you. The gameplay itself looked really intriguing, for one, Lumiose City looks HUGE. It was also really big in XY, but it looked like a proper metropolis in the trailer. I was a bit concerned about how they’d make an urban landscape work when it takes so much more effort to make a city fun to mess around in compared to an open field; but I suppose they’ve been taking their time to grind it out and really polish things. The “wild zones” where Pokemon congregate seem really small though, which makes me think it’s going to be more centered around battling and doing tasks around the city rather than catching. It’s really nice to see characters like AZ return though. I have a ton of nostalgia for XY, and it’s great to see the devs acknowledge its story / existence; especially considering how neglected it’s been since Gen 6 ended in 2016. It not releasing until late 2025 kinda sucks, but I’m totally OK waiting if they’re able to properly polish the game. Overall, it feels like Pokemon is heading in a positive direction for the first time in a long time; Z-A looks like it’s actually getting AAA-level resources and time put into it, Champions is a nice gesture to hardcore battling fans (though it makes me worry a bit about Showdown, considering Nintendo’s track record with fan games) and smaller projects like Concierge / the mobile games are receiving a healthy amount of support to boot. If Nintendo manages to not drop the ball with the actual release of this stuff, it may be enough to fully reignite my passion for the franchise.