But there were signs.
I don't particularly remember Chikorita getting Disarming Voice that early. My money is on a Grass/Fairy Regional Form.
-
Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
Pokémon Presents - Pokémon Day 2025 - Pokemon ZA Info & Pokemon Champions Announced
- Thread starter DHR-107
- Start date
I don't particularly remember Chikorita getting Disarming Voice that early. My money is on a Grass/Fairy Regional Form.
I would hold my judgement about the exploration part for now.
Despite everything, they've shown... basically nothing of the gameplay. 90% of the trailer was prerecorded non-gameplay footage. The only focus was on the in-battle mechanic. Even on the whole Pokemon catching thing they've been very brief.
I would expect the exploration / pokemon catching shenenigans to be exploded (he he) in a separate trailer later on when we get the real release date.
Despite everything, they've shown... basically nothing of the gameplay. 90% of the trailer was prerecorded non-gameplay footage. The only focus was on the in-battle mechanic. Even on the whole Pokemon catching thing they've been very brief.
I would expect the exploration / pokemon catching shenenigans to be exploded (he he) in a separate trailer later on when we get the real release date.
Considering the game, I feel less a regional form and more a Grass/Fairy mega.
Oh i'm 100% sure there'll be some. They're just saving them for later.
To be fair, half of why NatDex is a shitshow is because it's a subjective ROM hack pretending to be objective and smarter than it actually is.
"Hmm yes, Galarian Slowbro can mega evolve into Mega Slowbro because if you hack Mewtwonite Y onto Mega Mewtwo X, it can mega evolve into Mega Mewtwo Y. There is no disputing that this is how this interaction should work."
Much less depressing and much more likely explanation: Mimi has evolved into Meowstic
Honestly I thought it looked fine. I mean certainly could look better but nothing super egregious, seemed like a decent step from SV.
It's "le gamers forget this is 1) Gamefreaks 2) the Switch".
I'll be happy if the game keeps a stable 20 personally. But 30 shouldn't be impossible in closed areas.
if you are good at spotting framerates (like me) you'd notice it immediately
if you don't have those standards you probably won't see it
i saw it chugging and said as much in my discord
As soon as I saw no release date I just mentally tacked on "have to wait for the Switch 2 to announce its release date"
Hoping you're right, but Mimi passing gives another parallel to Looker and his Croagunk and I wouldn't be surprised to see them take that angle with her
What really matters is that Emma is back to begin with, really looking forward to whatever role she has. The Looker Episode is one of the highlights of X and Y for me so I'm really excited to see her return
to me I'm full on "they want it close to switch 2" so the continued slow lumbering of the console just tickles me.
The choice of two Johto starters and the one Unova starter is a real head scratcher. That rounds out Johto starters for no further legends games, two games in, and breaks last games one from three different regions rule.
The game is obviously built on the SV engine and frustratingly no sense of whether that big city has any buildings we can go in other than the important ones we’ve seen.
There don’t appear to be any indications of ride Pokémon, and there’s no indication of anything other than the city scape (so no flying or underground tunnel exploring) at this point.
No new megas shown at all. No new Pokémon of any kind, not even regionals.
TPC either have something big cooking for future trailers or are holding everything back in terms of exposure as it’s either not fully finished or the wild expectations we’ve been all having were…just wild.
Honestly, Pokemon Champions excited me but ZA killed the hype a bit. The only thing which stood out was the return to the catching mechanics of PLA and the development of that battling style, which looks great.
I feel deflated after that but I’ll probably rewatch it later and cheer up.
The game is obviously built on the SV engine and frustratingly no sense of whether that big city has any buildings we can go in other than the important ones we’ve seen.
There don’t appear to be any indications of ride Pokémon, and there’s no indication of anything other than the city scape (so no flying or underground tunnel exploring) at this point.
No new megas shown at all. No new Pokémon of any kind, not even regionals.
TPC either have something big cooking for future trailers or are holding everything back in terms of exposure as it’s either not fully finished or the wild expectations we’ve been all having were…just wild.
Honestly, Pokemon Champions excited me but ZA killed the hype a bit. The only thing which stood out was the return to the catching mechanics of PLA and the development of that battling style, which looks great.
I feel deflated after that but I’ll probably rewatch it later and cheer up.
For me, the game releasing at all is enough. Before the Presents, I was mentally preparing myself for the nightmare scenario: "Unfortunately, we have ceased development of Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Have Pokémon Black and White remakes instead".
Champions definitely has an uphill battle for me as a disillusioned natdex player. The ability to actually use every mon is severely limited by me not having anything to transfer in from the games linked to Home, which isn't that likely to change since I'm not interested in Z-A. Then there's the potential of preferring Showdown's speed over flashier animations.
It was nice to see that Legends Z-A is in fact taking place in the present, with AZ suggesting that it is indeed after XY. I did get the starters wrong, but it's great that all three Johto starters might finally have something after this game, assuming Meganium and Feraligatr receive Megas...
I'm so glad that there was an overview after the trailer as well! The Kangaskhan that went Mega and used Bulldoze to simultaneously defeat a Garbodor and a couple Trubbish also knew Power-Up Punch. I think that suggests the inclusion of abilities...
As far as Pokémon Champions goes, there were a number of disclaimers on the screen when they showed off its connectivity with HOME. A key disclaimer is that not all Pokémon will be available in Champions at launch, confirming that we won't have the full National Dex available right off the bat. I do feel that it's the endgame plan, in any case. Interesting that you'll apparently be able to obtain Pokémon within Champions itself in order to use, but can't send those to HOME. Might Champions have simulator-like features where you can select moves and such?
Overall I found this Presents to be quite good, unlike some recent ones!
I'm so glad that there was an overview after the trailer as well! The Kangaskhan that went Mega and used Bulldoze to simultaneously defeat a Garbodor and a couple Trubbish also knew Power-Up Punch. I think that suggests the inclusion of abilities...
As far as Pokémon Champions goes, there were a number of disclaimers on the screen when they showed off its connectivity with HOME. A key disclaimer is that not all Pokémon will be available in Champions at launch, confirming that we won't have the full National Dex available right off the bat. I do feel that it's the endgame plan, in any case. Interesting that you'll apparently be able to obtain Pokémon within Champions itself in order to use, but can't send those to HOME. Might Champions have simulator-like features where you can select moves and such?
Overall I found this Presents to be quite good, unlike some recent ones!
Thoroughly, thoroughly underwhelmed as expected.
I was so, so hoping L:ZA would look like a game I might be interested in but it just looks like a ScVi reskin. And frankly what they showed off... wasn't inspiring. Lumiose City doesn't look vastly better than it did on the 3DS and perhaps it's just me but the lack of any truly large vistas or thoroughfares just makes it look... really small for what's to be the setting of a whole game. The battles looked janky - I noticed more than one instance where the foe was just standing completely still and almost nose-to-nose with the player's Pokemon - and visually unimpressive; the bit where the Mega Kangaskhan used Earthquake in the middle of the street with virtually zero impact just looked so stupid. Not even a shaking camera or a close-up or a dynamic angle. Seriously, this was what they thought would make for an engaging teaser?
I'm also actually way more bummed out by the use of Chikorita, Tepig, and Totodile as starters than I expected. Discounting the odd choice to use two Johto starters, it just feels like such a missed opportunity to not give the Kalos three another go. That doesn't rule out something interesting being done with them but just... well, let's hope the three they've picked get some sort of interesting new form or gimmick. Cool that they showed off Zygarde and AZ's Floette I guess, but no new Pokemon or even new forms at all feels like a miss.
Looks like we're back to me not particularly caring about the latest console release, but Pokemon Champions looks interesting I guess?
At least we're getting Kubfu in Pokemon Go soon.
I was so, so hoping L:ZA would look like a game I might be interested in but it just looks like a ScVi reskin. And frankly what they showed off... wasn't inspiring. Lumiose City doesn't look vastly better than it did on the 3DS and perhaps it's just me but the lack of any truly large vistas or thoroughfares just makes it look... really small for what's to be the setting of a whole game. The battles looked janky - I noticed more than one instance where the foe was just standing completely still and almost nose-to-nose with the player's Pokemon - and visually unimpressive; the bit where the Mega Kangaskhan used Earthquake in the middle of the street with virtually zero impact just looked so stupid. Not even a shaking camera or a close-up or a dynamic angle. Seriously, this was what they thought would make for an engaging teaser?
I'm also actually way more bummed out by the use of Chikorita, Tepig, and Totodile as starters than I expected. Discounting the odd choice to use two Johto starters, it just feels like such a missed opportunity to not give the Kalos three another go. That doesn't rule out something interesting being done with them but just... well, let's hope the three they've picked get some sort of interesting new form or gimmick. Cool that they showed off Zygarde and AZ's Floette I guess, but no new Pokemon or even new forms at all feels like a miss.
Looks like we're back to me not particularly caring about the latest console release, but Pokemon Champions looks interesting I guess?
At least we're getting Kubfu in Pokemon Go soon.
On one hand, one Legends game isn't a rule; on the other hand, I do think it's just kind of baffling they picked 2 different Johto starters without having all 3. Perfect sweet spot of being mildly annoying and incongruous. Totodile seems easy enough to drop for Popplio in terms of Kalos' aesthetics.