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Pokémon Presents - Pokémon Day 2025 - Pokemon ZA Info & Pokemon Champions Announced
- Thread starter DHR-107
- Start date
https://championships.pokemon.com/en-us/about/2026-season-changes#pokemon-champions
The official Championships website says, "On a date to be announced in the future, Pokémon VGC events will operate solely on Pokémon Champions."
Is anyone else dismayed that future Worlds will consist only of mobile apps (and the TCG)?
The full context of that quote is that statement follows this one
And it's all about the 2026 season. Now again I do think it's a reasonable assumption that yeah moving forward even amid Gen 10 in full swing, everything will be through Champions. But strictly speaking they are only talking about 2026; which makes sense, there is no Gen 10 and they proabbly don't want to overcommit in case something goes wrong or if they want to have ways to earn points in the future.
Going to answer this question and springboard into some of my own thoughts.
For a while it wasn't, but it seems to be up to date now. IGN's most recent preview last week revealed that Cleffa was in the game, and that's finally been added in, so I assume that it's up to date with everything that's been shown off in official materials.
Since Mega Evolutions are a necessary mechanical component for teams to win Rogue Mega Evolution battles, I'm intuiting that the dex is overwhelmingly going to be Pokemon that have Mega Evolutions in their families. It wouldn't make sense to distribute too many options that have to be benched for repeated challenges - imagine if you could only bring a small pool of Pokemon to max raids.
From there, I'm predicting that Legends ZA will follow Arceus's lead of having all newly introduced Pokemon (and their families) from the generation it's "remaking", so I wouldn't be surprised to see Gen 6's fossil Pokemon, Carbink, Xerneas, and Yveltal pop up in the game even though they haven't been shown in pre-release materials.
There's also a handful of Pokemon that I think are picked for the game for different reasons. Pikachu is always going to be an easy addition, and the DLC Mega Raichus further justify its place in the base-game. Then, you have Pokemon that just haven't been available in a core series game since 2017. Watchog and the Simis are the only Pokemon that fall into this category, so it makes sense that they'd get squeezed in the last Switch title.
With what I've stated above about Mega Evolutions being mandatory to progress through certain challenges, the Pokemon revealed in pre-release materials that lack Mega Evolutions seem to be the most likely candidates for getting new Mega Evolutions. Even though Generation 6 introduced starter Pokemon and didn't give them Mega Evolutions in their debut, I think it would make more sense for Feraligatr and company to get some so that you aren't locked out of using your starter during climactic moments.
Trailers have shown that there's several story-relevant and named NPCs that can use Mega Evolution, so these are pretty good hints that the Pokemon they're seen using (Staryu, Scraggy) are pretty poised to get new Mega Evolutions in their families. Maybe there's some hope then for ones like Arbok, Clefable, Ariados, Roserade, Hippowdon, the Simis, Watchog, Krookodile, Garbodor, Emolga, and Chandelure. Getting a new form between Gen 7-9 isn't exclusive from having a Mega Evolution as seen in the case of the Generation 1 starters, Pikachu, Eevee, and Slowbro, but I think GMaxxers like Machamp and Garbodor will probably get skipped for the Mega treatment. Slowking and Froslass could also be up in the air with one member of their family having a Mega. With the confirmation that a base-game Pokemon like Raichu would be getting a Mega Evolution, it's also not out of the question that more of these Pokemon will get DLC Megas.
One thing I haven't seen much discussion of is how Rotom is in the game as your phone... but it hasn't been shown in the wild! XY did have Rotom available in its base game, and I think it would be pretty funny to have Rotom as part of your Dex without having it be catchable.
Some of the things I'm less certain about are legendary and mythical Pokemon. Legends Arceus was very generous with distributing all of the Generation 4 legendary and mythical Pokemon, and it threw in a few more just for good measure. ZA's focus on Mega Evolutions and remaking parts of Generation 6 probably indicates that Diancie, Mewtwo, the Latis, Rayquaza, and related Pokemon will be in the game. I would be surprised if Mew didn't appear then in a game Mewtwo is pretty likely to be in, and the same goes for Kyogre and Groudon wrt Rayquaza. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the ORAS content gets incorporated into the Mega Dimensions DLC, especially considering that Hoopa is set to be prominent in that. Volcanion is the oddest one out of anything, but its inclusion as post-game content would make a lot of sense given the way Legends Arceus handled Manaphy, Darkrai, and Shaymin.
XY highlighted a handful of Pokemon in its experience that have yet to be featured in pre-release materials for ZA. Rhyhorn and Mamoswine were both used for exploration in sections of XY, while Snorlax and Lapras were available to the player in echoes of their encounters in RBY. These lines tend to be pretty popular, so they might still show up in the game.
Conveniently, the amount of revealed Pokemon, Pokemon in families with a revealed Mega Evolution, and Generation 6 Pokemon totals up to around 250ish, and Legends Arceus had 242 Pokemon in its game. I'm anticipating a pretty similar dex size, so I would say we've seen about 80% of what will be available in the game, and 90% of what will be available is pretty easy to predict.
The biggest things that I'm excited for are the surprises. Legends Arceus followed in the footsteps of Pokemon always iterating and breaking "rules". Thundurus, Tornadus, and Landorus showing up in Hisui and then introducing Enamorus and its own Therian form was pretty unexpected and a neat way to elaborate on SWSH's DLC adding Regieleki and Regidrago. Hisuian Goodra, Zoroark, the Hisuian regional forms and evolutions also fall into this category, but I think that ZA will mostly go the way of emphasizing Mega Evolutions since, like I keep repeating, they're critical to the game's challenges. I still think there's unknown unknowns though that will be fun surprises, like how Alolan Ninetales was hanging around Hisui with its regular form.
I call it natural progression of big franchises.
Mobile is, after all, the best way to reach as big of a market and audience as possible.
EXPECIALLY the asian audience.
Also Alolan Rat.
I believe with SM the demo snafu was they scrubbed the Pokemon Models... but missed the shinies, so people could still see what they all looked like for the most part.
Being "fair" this practice for demos isn't exclusive to GF, apparently even Sega/Sonic Team has done it for Sonic Racing Crossworlds (as in the Demo has all the systems and content, but gated off until release), but with Pokemon it stands out more since the leakable content includes something people will want to buzz about even without playing (i.e. the new Pokemon), so there's a lot more room for "hype burned early" on the product.
Surprisingly wouldn't be the first time! Despite how in your face the Rotom Dex was, Rotom itself wasn't in Sun & Moon outside of Transfers/Trades; it was added to the Island Scan in USUM. Same thing with Charmander despite the prominence of the Charizard pokeride.
Why do the shinies have their own seperate model anyways?
It's a loading thing. Pokemon's not the only game that does something like this, it's just more noticeable here since there's so many critters.
That said, I do not believe the models were actually in the game, otherwise they would have been ripped in full. The pokedex images were. And the...pokemon center preview iamges, maybes? The ones that show up on the big screen? I can't recall that.
Alolan Raticate did get to appear in LGPE, although I do agree it's kind of a forgettable appearance there. It would be sick if there are a couple regional variants of Pokemon available in ZA similar to how Alolan Ninetales got to be in PLA.
I never thought about that too much, but good point! I do think there's kind of a funny progression in the last 7 years of Rotom becoming integrated into cellphone technology in Pokemon media and becoming ubiquitous, coincidentally lining up with it being in the base-game experiences of SWSH and SV. Everyone is on their phones now, and Rotom is everywhere now. This is just a bit of my own speculation, but I think Rotom is also just easy to squeeze into a dex (haha) because it introduces a lot of type diversity, especially as a Ghost-type. I've thought that this is could be part of why Glalie and Froslass were in the base-game experiences of SWSH and SV, as there's just not a lot of other Ice-types to choose from when balancing the type diversity of a post-dexit dexlist. In ZA, there's only 2 existing Electric-types that have Mega Evolutions, so it might make sense that if there's not going to be a ton of Electric-type Mega Evolutions, you might as well get an Electric-type like Rotom that's super versatile and good.
I'm kind of low-key hoping for new signature moves for old Pokémon in the same vein of the Forces of Nature in PLA. Maybe something for Ampharos to buff its Mega, for instance.
afaik completely scrubbing demos of extraneous data is apparently kind of hard? Back during the PS1 days demos could contain a lot of stuff not meant for the players to ever encounter. Spyro 3 rather infamously had a demo for Crash Bash where you could access the full game because all the data was there and they accidentally left the debug menu in.
it is pretty funny that if anyone gets a switch 2 version early they won't be able to do anything with it since afaik the switch 2 isn't cracked yet
but yeah, since we are approaching datamine territory I hope people don't do the thing they do every single time (they will)
look at this model rip without lighting, animation, or proper context, I'm going to judge this as horrible immediately!
Thanks. Was referring to ZA. Really wondering if this will be all Pokemon up to Gen 6, plus new regional variants of types that were in Gen 6 such as Meowth and its Galar form. Or will it be more limited in number. I suppose we'll have to wait to find out more.
For Champions, I assume it will be all Pokemon. Maybe not on release, but I'm thinking it will have them gradually added in. And as Gen 10 comes they will add the new types to it. I don't really see why they would have Champions going and continue to make PvP turn based battles in future games. Seems like they would cannibalize each other's player base. I also am assuming Champions will be the work around for no longer having every single Pokemon in the new mainline games. You will still be able to battle and build teams with all types.
Though at the same time, how will the monetize Champions. If it is free to play and it pulls people away from the annual or semi annual $70-80 game, I can't seem them wanting that.
Or maybe Gen 10 is further away than we think and Champions is some type of stop gap.
I'd really like to see some extended videos of the combat system.
You can't put Alolan Raticate from Gen 7 into Let's Go, it doesn't really count. Also based on a screenshot they showed, it seems that like most games except PLA, ZA has every regional form of every Pokemon in it.
Problem with this is it essentially killed the idea that champions would reach battle revolution of graphics. If phone can’t handle it switch and even switch 2 won’t take advantage of their powerful hardware. I can hope for a Smash WiiU/3DS situation but I doubt it. 13 year old me dreamed of super duper battle revolution one day, but we will continue to get the lifeless 3D models with the occasional emote until the end of time.
I've been hoping that the Rattata line is included in LZ-A simply so that Alolan Rattata and Raticate transferred from Gen 7 can finally be moved into a game. That hope is mostly dashed at this point however, as I feel that they would have already been shown since there's no way they would be late game encounters. The Alolan variant in particular would even fit well with that Raticate's good reputation among restaurants, many of which appear in Lumiose City.
If they're not in the base game, I suppose there's still a chance they could be added in the DLC, but I still wouldn't hold my breath.
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I mean we only just now in the most recent trailer got the slightest glimpse of the sewers, which is probably where they'd be. Like in BW2.
That's a great point, actually. I think I spotted a Patrat in that glimpse though, which immediately leads me to thinking that GameFreak wouldn't double-up on regional rodents appearing in those sewers. That definitely doesn't rule it out, though, and the sewers are enough to raise the Rattata line's chances in my eyes.
Sir have you seen the shit that runs on phones?
Have you actually seen, i don't know, Genshin Impact or Zenless Zone Zero?
Just because GameFreaks can't do proper graphics to save themselves, doesn't mean it being a mobile game means it'll have bad graphics. Modern phones are probably MORE powerful than Switches...
fairly certain most of the animations in battle revolution were not made for it but were already made years before in the spinoff titles, Colosseum, Gale of Darkness, and Stadium 1-3 (1 and 2 outside of Japan were 2 and 3 respectively). the only actual new ones are for the Sinnoh pokemon and even then, just like the aforementioned titles most animations are like 1-2 attack responses, 1-2 getting hit responses, and mostly some vfx happening.
Revolution was just another economical use of previous work touched up a bit and repackaged. Champions is essentially Revolution 2.
They've been touching up and updating the models and animations over time, even in the switch era, it just takes a while because theres over a thousand pokemon lol. I would like them to do it faster but increasing the amount of people that work on the titles doesn't really translate into more profit since the games already sell insanely well anyway.
The Genius Sonority games feel melodramatic with how they have those grandiose animations but the textbox rythm of gens III and specially IV.
Choose a move, then we get pans, and a closeup of the 'mon in its idle position with a textbox saying it was a miss. And, of course, the models looked like ass at that point. It was apparent in Smash Brawl, where the trophies were Battle Revolution ones.
At least Stadium sped up the text and did misses in a more reasonable way. I still believe the NVE animation (with the mon standing in its idle animation while the attack hits) would have worked better for uneffective there tho.
Choose a move, then we get pans, and a closeup of the 'mon in its idle position with a textbox saying it was a miss. And, of course, the models looked like ass at that point. It was apparent in Smash Brawl, where the trophies were Battle Revolution ones.
At least Stadium sped up the text and did misses in a more reasonable way. I still believe the NVE animation (with the mon standing in its idle animation while the attack hits) would have worked better for uneffective there tho.
Champions being free to starts means there basically is no cannibalization. You can play Champions without touching a main series game, because it does have a way to obtain Pokémon within itself via Recruitment, but it’ll almost certainly be easier to just import your own Pokémon via Home, so I think it will still broadly favor interacting with the main series games.
More to the point, though, is the fact that bringing your Pokémon from a main series game over into Champions should be a smooth transition, especially if it continues to be the VGC platform beyond 2026, but playing a hypothetical Gen 10 game with real-time battles and then sending your Pokémon over to Champions for turn-based competitions isn’t smooth at all. You’d basically be forcing people to learn how to use any given Pokémon all over again, and a Pokémon that may perform well in real-time battles may not necessarily perform as well in turn-based battles, so you wouldn’t be to go into Champions with any kind of gameplan that would be rooted in your experience with Gen 10. There’d be no continuity of experience between Champions and the games it’s intended to import from.
It’s one thing to have a bit of disconnect between Z-A’s new Mega Evolutions and the regular competitive scene, because all that’s really missing is their Abilities. We know how Malamar performs in standard Pokémon battling; adding a Mega for it mostly just raises the question of whether that makes Malamar more viable. But introducing 80+ whole new Pokémon and moves and Abilities and then having none of how that all works in the main series be relevant to competitive is a whole different scenario.
On top of that, if the main series games were transitioning to real-time battles instead of turn-based… why would the platform game for official competitions not follow suit with that? Why would they not want the focus of official competitions to be the exciting, dynamic new vision for how Pokémon battling is going to be from then on? The point of Champions isn’t to be a mausoleum for Pokémon gameplay from Gens 1-9, it’s to be a dedicated competitive hub.
I think there’s also just kind of a fundamental limitation on opportunities for animation when it comes to games with a turn-based format. Pokémon-Amie and its successors have already demonstrated this to some extent as that’s always been where the livelier animations came out, and I think Z-A will make this even more sharply apparent with its real-time battles to serve as a contrast, as we’ll be able to actually see our Pokémon walk and run around in battle. The problem with turn-based, in comparison, is that the game has to wait for you to input your next move, so the Pokémon are going to be idling until both you and your opponent make up your minds.
Perhaps an ability that combines Sharpness and Inner Focus? Not that Inner Focus is worse than Sharpness-It’s insanely good in VGC because it blocks Intimidate and Fake Out- A shame that Mega Gallade was Dexited before the buff-Being able to take on Incineroar and OHKO it would be huge selling point, especially since it’s competition, Mega Metagross has both STABs resisted.
Mmm megas always have to deal with the one big issue of not being able to hold a item. Ogerpon needed a item that acts as no downside life orb to be viable. The dogs needed a massive stat bump.
I think it's fair to expect "bigger than usual" for megas abilities. Physical megas expecially have to deal with not being able to hold Clear Amulet in VGC and Lum Berry in BSS/Singles. They will need all help they can.
(In hindsight, i do feel Mega Lopunny is set for some serious success with it having gained intimidate immunity and 135 speed U-Turn with unresisted stab combo AND a fast fake out that can hit ghost types)
I think it's fair to expect "bigger than usual" for megas abilities. Physical megas expecially have to deal with not being able to hold Clear Amulet in VGC and Lum Berry in BSS/Singles. They will need all help they can.
(In hindsight, i do feel Mega Lopunny is set for some serious success with it having gained intimidate immunity and 135 speed U-Turn with unresisted stab combo AND a fast fake out that can hit ghost types)
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