Gamefreak: Mainline Pokemon Games Output/Discussion Thread

[Digikiki]

- no remakes, or holiday game
- unexpected reveal that couldn't be guessed by Install Base user Digikiki
- no gameplay footage + vague 2025 release date, suggesting the game's coming out later in 2025
I'm so happy, this was the absolute best presentation they could've shown me. Obviously the game could still come out on 1st January 2025 but they've given me some hope to latch onto. It feels like they're actually making SOME attempt to prioritise quality here. Future seems...at least, a little bit bright!

 

[Richter Belmont]

Both Legends Arceus en Gen 9 Scarlet and Violet came out in the same year with diamond and pearl remakes months before legends arceus. This isn’t a confirmation yet that they will do a 4 year cicle now. There is still a possibility that the new announced game could release early/spring 2025 and gen 10 November 2025.

 

[ILikeFeet]

Timing is very curious. This will launch after Drake or alongside it. I know people say they like to skip early new gen, but this is the first time since the Gameboy Color that they can do enhanced versions for new systems

 

[fiendcode]

Timing is very curious. This will launch after Drake or alongside it. I know people say they like to skip early new gen, but this is the first time since the Gameboy Color that they can do enhanced versions for new systems

Internally GBC wasn't a new system but an upgrade. Also their first actual GBC title didn't come until end of 1999/2000 with G/S, Gen 1 was all DMG.

 

[awng782]

Both Legends Arceus en Gen 9 Scarlet and Violet came out in the same year with diamond and pearl remakes months before legends arceus. This isn’t a confirmation yet that they will do a 4 year cicle now. There is still a possibility that the new announced game could release early/spring 2025 and gen 10 November 2025.

This could be true, but Legends Arceus was announced for an early 2022 release (actual release date was Jan 2022) back in the Feb 2021 Pokemon Presents, whereas ZA has no such release window specified now. This implies to me that ZA will release much later in the year than Arceus did, which greatly decreases the possibility that Gen 10 will release in 2025 as well.

 

[AruanaRiva]

@Koni At least you are happy that no GF mainline this year haha. So they can slow down a bit lol.

 

[ILikeFeet]

Internally GBC wasn't a new system but an upgrade. Also their first actual GBC title didn't come until end of 1999/2000 with G/S, Gen 1 was all DMG.

In a year case, they have means to have a next gen mode, even if it's not explicit. A boost mode that ups the framerate cap to 60 and have 1080p rendering in both handheld and docked mode (or higher if applicable) would be enough

 

[Luke88]

This could be true, but Legends Arceus was announced for an early 2022 release (actual release date was Jan 2022) back in the Feb 2021 Pokemon Presents, whereas ZA has no such release window specified now. This implies to me that ZA will release much later in the year than Arceus did, which greatly decreases the possibility that Gen 10 will release in 2025 as well.

I think saving Gen 10 for 2026 is the safest option, gives them more time to cook it/get used to Switch 2 and coincide with the anniversary. My one concern is that they'll try to drop remakes next year. I'd much prefer those to be saved for 2027. I hope that Legends coming the same year as S/V was due to them being uncertain of the appeal of Arceus, now that they know it's a 10M+ seller and it can provide new designs to satiate the merch machine it should be enough to sustain a year on its own.

 

[Koni]

This could be true, but Legends Arceus was announced for an early 2022 release (actual release date was Jan 2022) back in the Feb 2021 Pokemon Presents, whereas ZA has no such release window specified now. This implies to me that ZA will release much later in the year than Arceus did, which greatly decreases the possibility that Gen 10 will release in 2025 as well.

I checked, and... yeah, Legends Arceus was initially announced for early 2022.

@Koni At least you are happy that no GF mainline this year haha. So they can slow down a bit lol.

I'm glad, partially because now I can catch up on Pokemon games I havent finished, but yeah also because Game Freak is obviously trying and has been through the entire Switch era. Their CEDEC presentation shows that they have improved their production pipeline in various ways to the point where they were able develop two games simultaneously instead of just one.

Now they have some more time, at least. The later in the year, the better. I'm curious to see what Legends Z-A is about and how it'll look. The fact that we got no footage at all and a vague 2025 release date at least hints they wanna show it when it's in a good enough state, which is a wise move.

 

[fiendcode]

In a year case, they have means to have a next gen mode, even if it's not explicit. A boost mode that ups the framerate cap to 60 and have 1080p rendering in both handheld and docked mode (or higher if applicable) would be enough

Oh sure, and I could see an "enhanced on Drake" equivalent sticker on the box or something. But they also did that DSi and n3DS iirc.

 

[Koti]

Interestingly they didn't show any gameplay or what platform it's going to release on. Is Legends Z one of the first titles announced for the "Switch 2" consequentially?

 

[Koni]

Interestingly they didn't show any gameplay or what platform it's going to release on. Is Legends Z one of the first titles announced for the "Switch 2" consequentially?

It's releasing on Switch:


But it'll probably get a next-gen patch or be cross-gen with the Switch 2 considering we don't have... any gameplay footage, which Pokemon usually shows in a game's initial reveal. They've done it with every previous mainline game in the Switch era, but not here for some reason.

 

[Stranger]

Interestingly they didn't show any gameplay or what platform it's going to release on. Is Legends Z one of the first titles announced for the "Switch 2" consequentially?

At the end of the trailer where the title and release period are revealed you see the Nintendo Switch logo on the top right.

 

[Quinton]

I don't think it's particularly logical to assume Legends ZA means there won't be Unovan remakes and/or Legends titles in the next few years. They had an idea for this game, and so they ran with it.

BDSP is only a little over two years old. ORAS and BDSP had a seven-year gap. And, frankly, I'd be pretty skeptical toward any relatively swift fifth-generation follow-up to BDSP, besides. I'm not exactly alone in saying those games aren't stellar.

This is in response to a post I saw in this thread, but I'm speaking more generally here - it's something that I'm seeing all over the net today.

 

[Remolino]

Luckily no gameplay yet...

The tearing up of the game has been postponed.

 

[Tbone5189]

I'm not going to get over seeing the generation of my childhood being skipped like that...

As a genwunner, BW and BW2 was special, my favorite generation (ironically my 2nd/3rd most dislike overall pokemon designs) it was so good from a gameplay perspective.

But I'll gladly take a surprise BW3 for NSW2 in 2027

 

[ILikeFeet]

Remakes have traditionally been one per gen, so no gen 5 remakes until after gen 10 would be fitting. If it releases in 2028, then it could be in planning now if they want to increase the scope

 

[Joseki]

Interestingly they didn't show any gameplay or what platform it's going to release on. Is Legends Z one of the first titles announced for the "Switch 2" consequentially?

トップページ

『Pokémon LEGENDS Z-A』公式サイト。『ポケットモンスター』シリーズの新たな挑戦作！ 2025年世界同時発売！

www.pokemon.co.jp

Nintendo Switch

 

[Koni]

Reception seems mostly positive, at least from what I’ve seen. There’s grumbling about the game taking place entirely in Lumiose City but that’s really all the negativity I’ve seen… well the ones that I think are in good faith, anyways.

 

[Koti]

It's releasing on Switch:


But it'll probably get a next-gen patch or be cross-gen with the Switch 2 considering we don't have... any gameplay footage, which Pokemon usually shows in a game's initial reveal. They've done it with every previous mainline game in the Switch era, but not here for some reason.

At the end of the trailer where the title and release period are revealed you see the Nintendo Switch logo on the top right.

トップページ

『Pokémon LEGENDS Z-A』公式サイト。『ポケットモンスター』シリーズの新たな挑戦作！ 2025年世界同時発売！

www.pokemon.co.jp

Nintendo Switch

Nvm, F

 

[Digikiki]

I wish they'd given us a bit more info about what this game is actually going to end up being. We don't know for sure if the game's set in the past, present or future, or how developed the city in the game will actually be. There's hints but nothing really concrete. People seem to have gotten some mixed ideas about the setting and I feel like it's going to lead to quite a bit of disappointment for some people.

 

[Joseki]

I wish they'd given us a bit more info about what this game is actually going to end up being. We don't know for sure if the game's set in the past, present or future, or how developed the city in the game will actually be. There's hints but nothing really concrete. People seem to have gotten some mixed ideas about the setting and I feel like it's going to lead to quite a bit of disappointment for some people.

The game is about the redevelopment of Lumiose City.

Lumiose City is PokéParis.

Paris underwent a massive renovation in the mid '800s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann's_renovation_of_Paris

I think that's the most likely scenario.

 

[Drblitzk]

Yeah excited about the new game, Legends being more experimental is great news to me, wish they showed some of it, hopefully it's not just Arceus but on a different setting, I see this being Q1 2025 Switch exclusive, and maybe a Holidays 2025 Remake of B/W Switch and Succ game, then 2026 next gen, next gen exclusive.

 

[Dakota Joestar]

Comparing to Arceus's first trailer, is interesting. As Arceus's announcement trailer showed gameplay footage and gave us an early 2022 window. Where as this trailer was only pre-render CGI footage and an even vaguer 2025 release. At the very least, this game will have a three year development when it releases. But I feel like they would have shown or talked about it more if it was coming in January.

 

[awng782]

I don't think it's particularly logical to assume Legends ZA means there won't be Unovan remakes and/or Legends titles in the next few years. They had an idea for this game, and so they ran with it.

There will obviously be a Gen 5 remake in the future, it'll just release much later (i.e. 2027/2028) as a Switch 2 exclusive.

Comparing to Arceus's first trailer, is interesting. As Arceus's announcement trailer showed gameplay footage and gave us an early 2022 window. Where as this trailer was only pre-render CGI footage and an even vaguer 2025 release. At the very least, this game will have a three year development when it releases. But I feel like they would have shown or talked about it more if it was coming in January.

IMO I feel Legends Z-A is more likely to release in Holiday 2025 than in early 2025.

 

[Dakota Joestar]

IMO I feel Legends Z-A is more likely to release in Holiday 2025 than in early 2025.

What gives me pause on that, is why announce today? Its kinda unusual for TPC and by extension Nintendo to annouce a game two years in advance. While that was the case with Sword and Shield, that was mostly due to Lets Go. I suspect the game will be out by early summer at the absolute latest.

 

[mariodk18]

Honestly, revealing the game this early is probably the only way they were able to announce it without leaks. In recent years, basically every main Pokemon game has been leaked prior to the Pokemon Day Presents. No one saw this coming.

Though we have seen Nintendo "lean on" GF's Pokemon games when they are in a "slow year", so to speak. ORAS was revealed in an E3 Direct and the recent Directs have had Pokemon content as a middle part or opener (in the case of SV DLC). So it's entirely possible that we see ZA gameplay shown off for the first time either at this rumored April Direct or even at a NS2 showcase later this year. Hard to say.

 

[Koni]

Honestly, revealing the game this early is probably the only way they were able to announce it without leaks. In recent years, basically every main Pokemon game has been leaked prior to the Pokemon Day Presents. No one saw this coming.

Though we have seen Nintendo "lean on" GF's Pokemon games when they are in a "slow year", so to speak. ORAS was revealed in an E3 Direct and the recent Directs have had Pokemon content as a middle part or opener (in the case of SV DLC). So it's entirely possible that we see ZA gameplay shown off for the first time either at this rumored April Direct or even at a NS2 showcase later this year. Hard to say.

It really depends on when this is coming out. Normally we'd have a more concrete release date. (Legends Arceus revealed with an early 2022 release date and then came out in January.) But here we just have a nebulous "2025". Like it's coming out... sometime next year. Could be literally any time next year - the latter, the better, IMO.

I'm of the opinion that we're not getting gameplay of this game until after the Switch 2 reveal. It's VERY interesting that we got a Pokemon game reveal with no in-game footage. Every Switch-era mainline Pokemon game revealed in-game footage when they were annonuced. I think that after Scarlet and Violet, you're gonna want your next game to look the absolute best it can be, and if you're releasing in 2025, then you've also gotta take the Swtch 2 into consideration. Ideally, Game Freak either works on a Switch 2 version of Z-A or a next-gen patch for it with improved visuals and framerate, and it's that version of the game that we first see.

 

[Hartmann]

Everyone, including leakers, expected G/S or B/W remake.
Kudos to Pokémon for reversing that and announcing Legends ZA.
There is plenty of time for a release in 2025.

 

[AruanaRiva]

Everyone, including leakers, expected G/S or B/W remake.
Kudos to Pokémon for reversing that and announcing Legends ZA.
There is plenty of time for a release in 2025.

I mean. Even the Pokemon Present is filled with G/S Second gen stuff. Like all those Unown. But they not doing much is kinda shocking.

 

[Tialo]

January 2025 should be too early for Pokemon Legends ZA and its presence yesterday. Holiday 2025 seems too late, because I highly doubt that they would have announced it anyway yesterday if the release date will be so long in the future. So I think, it will be a Q2 release in 2025.

February 2025:
Switch 2 Launch
3D-Mario exclusiv
EPD 4 Casual game exclusiv
some AA-3rd-Party-Collaborationgame exclusiv (or at least long time exclusiv)

March:
MP4 (Crossgen)

April:
Pikmin 4 Special Edition (exclusiv)

May/June:
Pokemon Legends ZA (Crossgen)

Gen X will be holiday 2026 then. This sounds reasonable for me

 

[Luke88]

The game is about the redevelopment of Lumiose City.

Lumiose City is PokéParis.

Paris underwent a massive renovation in the mid '800s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann's_renovation_of_Paris

I think that's the most likely scenario.

I think this is the most likely option, but I wouldn't rule out that it could take place in actual X/Y age Lumiose and they're mirroring the current renovation of Paris where they're getting rid of cars to make the city more liveable. In general I think time travel is gonna play a big role in the game given AZ's origin and that Legends Arceus also dabbled with that. If you think about it legends are stories from the past so the fil rouge being time travel for this series is somewhat likely. It'd feel weird to see a conclusion to AZ's story in 200ish years ago Lumiose when it wasn't wrapped in modern day Lumiose in X/Y.

 

[Aostia82]

The game is about the redevelopment of Lumiose City.

Lumiose City is PokéParis.

Paris underwent a massive renovation in the mid '800s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann's_renovation_of_Paris

I think that's the most likely scenario.

sounds good, honestly

 

[mokuroh]

Man, the Legends Z-A social media metrics are pretty crazy. This is going to be enormous!

 

[Luke88]

I see a lot of people assuming Z-A had a 3 year dev cycle and is made by the same team that did Arceus but wasn't GameFreak on a 3 team/games rotation? If so this is made by the Sword/Shield core team.

 

[Lelouch0612]

I see a lot of people assuming Z-A had a 3 year dev cycle and is made by the same team that did Arceus but wasn't GameFreak on a 3 team/games rotation? If so this is made by the Sword/Shield core team.

2 Pokemon teams rotation. They have another team handling non-Pokemon stuff, as part of the Gear project.

Legends: Arceus started development after Let's Go (2018) while Gen 9 (2022) started development after Gen 8 (2019).

Pokémon Brillant Diamond/Shining Pearl (2021) was outsourced.

 

[Luke88]

2 Pokemon teams rotation. They have another team handling non-Pokemon stuff, as part of the Gear project.

Legends: Arceus started development after Let's Go (2018) while Gen 9 (2022) started development after Gen 8 (2019).

Pokémon Brillant Diamond/Shining Pearl (2021) was outsourced.

Oh wow that sucks, I was hoping them skipping 2024 would ripple in the next 3 games, this makes releasing PLA and S/V in the same year even more nonsensical. They should try and get one game from Creatures/Bandai into the cycle aswell to gain another year on top of the one gained by giving remakes to ILCA. Having one big MD/Snap/Pokkén should be enough for a slow year.

 

[ILikeFeet]

I see a lot of people assuming Z-A had a 3 year dev cycle and is made by the same team that did Arceus but wasn't GameFreak on a 3 team/games rotation? If so this is made by the Sword/Shield core team.

the new gen games are made by the same teams, while Legends is made by a different team. Legends 2 would have started development in 2021 (if we include pre-production) so that would be 4 years

 

[Koti]

I see a lot of people assuming Z-A had a 3 year dev cycle and is made by the same team that did Arceus but wasn't GameFreak on a 3 team/games rotation? If so this is made by the Sword/Shield core team.

Do you have the source? I feel like you're mixing up the one team that is working on a project that doesn't have anything to do with Pokemon. I think it was a new IP action game or something. Only 2 teams is working on Pokemon from what I know, unless we count outsourcing.

Edit: My bad lelouch already made the same comment

 

[Wockio]

I geniunely think there's still a chance we get a Pokemon game this year. Not by GameFreak but outsourced.

A small scope Unova remake, like BDSP but with more time in the oven could very well be announced during the summer (or at the rumored April Direct?) and launch in November as usual.

Now the question is why would they not have announced it during the Presents, specially when Z-A isn't coming out until next year? And I think the answer to that is that by announcing a traditional Unova remake, they would have set the expectation of Legends Unova to go alongside it, souring many fans over the prospect of a Kalos revisit in its place. By revealing Z-A first, you avoid disappointing people while allowing BW to be as polished as possible for their reveal, something both BDSP and PLA would have greatly appreciated back then.

Also, Pyoro is always right. He didn't know anything about the Presents, but that doesn't matter because Unova was never gonna be in the Presents anyway.

 

[ILikeFeet]

I suspect that the BW remake is being held for Drake as a Gen 10 game, following the footsteps of previous remakes. looking at Legends 2, it's clear to me that they might not want to take the same approach as before regarding cadence since sales show they don't have to.

if we get a game this year, maybe a Mystery Dungeon game or some surprised collaboration. or TGC Pocket is meant to fill that roll

 

[Wockio]

I suspect that the BW remake is being held for Drake as a Gen 10 game, following the footsteps of previous remakes.

We already got two remakes on Switch though, so the pattern no longer holds up.

Personally, I think that they are pretty much done with remakes after BW/BW2 as anything beyond that gets increasingly complex and redundant, so might as well release this one on Switch and be done with it.

 

[awng782]

We already got two remakes on Switch though, so the pattern no longer holds up.

Personally, I think that they are pretty much done with remakes after BW/BW2 as anything beyond that gets increasingly complex and redundant, so might as well release this one on Switch and be done with it.

It's clear the path forward for remakes from BD/SP onward is to be extremely faithful in gameplay and content, rather than diverege from the originals like what the remakes on GBA/NDS/3DS.

Black/White will get its extremely faithful remake in a few years on Switch 2, I'll bet money on this.

 

[Luke88]

I wonder how they'll handle Black 2/White 2 considering they are completely different games. It'd be a shame if they just moved on to X/Y after B/W

 

[Lelouch0612]

I wonder how they'll handle Black 2/White 2 considering they are completely different games. It'd be a shame if they just moved on to X/Y after B/W

This is indeed a big question. Do you make two sets of remakes ?

A 2nd Gen 5 remake would have less impact / sell worse than a remake of another generation.

Could you bundle everything together ? Might not be worth the investment.

No trivial answer there.

 

[Tialo]

Pokemon BDSP was indeed outsourced, by I think these games took away some ressources from GF nevertheless, because they did supervision and consulting for these titles - which should also block some capacities and staff.

If we assume that Pokemon Gen X will be release for holiday 2026, then it would have one additional entire year of development time in comparison to Pokemon S/V, this should be enough to have at least some increased production value (and hopefully quality)

 

[Joseki]

I wonder how they'll handle Black 2/White 2 considering they are completely different games. It'd be a shame if they just moved on to X/Y after B/W

Obviously they just say "fuck it" and make B3/W3.

 

[Luke88]

Obviously they just say "fuck it" and make B3/W3.

Honestly if GF were still in charge I could totally see them doing something like that.

I also believe B2/W2 remakes would performe worse after B/W remakes, but they'd also have lower development costs for the portion of the game that is shared between the two. Perhaps B2/W2 campaign could be a DLC?

 

[Tialo]

I think they will simply ignore B2/W2. So only remakes for B1/W1 somewhen and thats it.

By the way: Did they ever provide DLC for remakes? I think not?!

 

[La Leganto]

I think that they will experiment further and Z-A will be totally different from Arceus. (Thus, the game will be divisive).

I am betting in a strong online and community based game with traditional battles back. Main Pokémon is not supposed to be solo experience anyway.