Pokémon Presents - Pokémon Day 2025 - Pokemon ZA Info & Pokemon Champions Announced

[Esserise]

IIRC most Pokémon (except for stuff that always floats, like Gastly and whatnot) have always had a grounded pose, it just wasn’t viewable in battle — you’d have to interact with it in Amie/Refresh to see it. Which is what I was sort of getting at when I talked on a previous page about opportunities for showcasing animation, and how Z-A, by virtue of having Pokémon that roam around in the world and by having them as more active participants in battle, creates a lot more of those opportunities than the classic turn-based battles.

Trading was shown off, which might mean the game does not have the Link Cable evo item

View attachment 775890

I suppose it really depends on what their reason for including the Linking Cord was. Legends: Arceus had trading too, but I think the question is, was the reason they made trade evos optional because it was a standalone single-player game instead of a paired version (in which case, chances would look good for the Linking Cord being in Z-A), or was it because the game was so heavily designed around completing the Pokédex (which will probably be less of a factor in Z-A)?

 

[Worldie]

I suppose it really depends on what their reason for including the Linking Cord was. Legends: Arceus had trading too, but I think the question is, was the reason they made trade evos optional because it was a standalone single-player game instead of a paired version (in which case, chances would look good for the Linking Cord being in Z-A), or was it because the game was so heavily designed around completing the Pokédex (which will probably be less of a factor in Z-A)?

To be honest, a bit of both.

It was mainly designed as single player, there was no paired version so nothing really to "trade with your friends for" AND the pokedex completion was actually a key part of the game.

I think there's a pretty solid chance ZA will also have something equivalent. While it has PvP, I don't think that's anywhere close to something core for the game and probably more them experimenting with "what if we add PvP" since there was (some) demand for it in ZA.

In the end, the main point of trade evos and trading in general in mainline games is due to the paired versions and encouraging kids to go out or something (let's be honest it may have been that at start, nowadays it's just about forcing you to buy both versions). But those games don't have any paired version so there's no real point in forcing you to trade with others.

 

[Yung Dramps]

Well seeing as we're in the home stretch now with leaks potentially coming any day now, any last-minute hopes for the game?

I might think of more later but right now I'm hoping for a Reflection Cave expy (note how we have yet to see Carbink) and decrepit abandoned Lysandre Labs as dungeons

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

Oh yeah, a bit late, but K-Pop girl group Hearts2Hearts released this single in collaboration with Pokemon, particularly for Legends: Z-A.

I wonder what this is for in relation to the game. Maybe another credits song like Celestial?

If it is, it's funny on one hand that both Gen 9 games have a full blown pop song as a credits theme but on the other hand we went from Ed Sheeran to a K-Pop girl group.

(That said, the K-Pop stan in me approves of this)

 

[bdt2002]

Well seeing as we're in the home stretch now with leaks potentially coming any day now, any last-minute hopes for the game?

I might think of more later but right now I'm hoping for a Reflection Cave expy (note how we have yet to see Carbink) and decrepit abandoned Lysandre Labs as dungeons

I bet they’re saving Carbink for some kind of Diancie sidequest. Legends Arceus had a record breaking number of Mythicals in it, and while I don’t think we’ll get anything beyond the Kalos Mythicals- do note that all three are treated as “from Central Kalos” in X & Y which could just be a nothing burger but still- Diancie already has a Mega and Hoopa’s practically a lock for that DLC, so I could see Diancie and also Volcanion getting something, especially since it’s only one without some kind of alternate form.

 

[Worldie]

If it is, it's funny on one hand that both Gen 9 games have a full blown pop song as a credits theme but on the other hand we went from Ed Sheeran to a K-Pop girl group.

And amongst all this, we still don't have actual voicing in pokemon games

*sighs*

Maybe in 2090 when gen 100 releases...

 

[bdt2002]

And amongst all this, we still don't have actual voicing in pokemon games

*sighs*

Maybe in 2090 when gen 100 releases...

Please, no. You know the voices are going to be AI generated by then, right?

 

[Fusion Flare]

Well seeing as we're in the home stretch now with leaks potentially coming any day now, any last-minute hopes for the game?

I might think of more later but right now I'm hoping for a Reflection Cave expy (note how we have yet to see Carbink) and decrepit abandoned Lysandre Labs as dungeons

i NEED more returning characters. that's something i'm really fixing for. emma and mable returning was really big for me.
if calem or serena don't show up i'll be disappointed but given the track record with returning protags, not surprised.
if clemont and bonnie don't show up i'll be very disappointed. it's LITERALLY their city. the tower's RIGHT THERE.

 

[reaverz]

To this day Im puzzled by what triggers the grounded or floating animations in battle. Some mons like metagross will either land or just hover, while im sure basically every bird will take flight during battle even if you encounter it grounded, like skarmory or bombirdier. Gholdengo in particular can hover on its board over water and gets a unique make it rain animation while doing so, so I wondered if theres a way to manipulate that.

I could have sworn that it depends on whether or not the Pokémon that was replaced was in a flying pose. For example, I’ve noticed that Scream Tail defaults to a grounded pose when it enters battle, but if you switch a Talonflame out into Scream Tail, the latter will enter battle in its flying/airborne pose. I could be wrong about that specifically being the trigger, though.

 

[R_N]

i NEED more returning characters. that's something i'm really fixing for. emma and mable returning was really big for me.
if calem or serena don't show up i'll be disappointed but given the track record with returning protags, not surprised.
if clemont and bonnie don't show up i'll be very disappointed. it's LITERALLY their city. the tower's RIGHT THERE.

I have a sneaking suspicion that there will be a lot of "ok but where is X" from me
Clemont & Bonnie should be right there even if they're not part of the gym challenge anymore since he's the one maintaining it
Alexa's office is in Lumiose and her sister is literally just right outside town, it's not even separated by that big a route.
There's mega rings being given out all over the place, that feels relevant to see Korrina and maybe her grandfather sort of...overseeing all that, surely?
As the effective capitol Diantha feels like she'd show up at some point, especially with all the going-ons. Or, just like, as a fashion model?
Dexio & Sina were studying Zygarde and seems like hey, that'd be relevant to the sightings of Zygarde back in Kalos

Sycamore SHOULD have been here but instead he, uh, retired in disgrace I guess.

Yeah you can handwave a lot of these to varying degrees of success but it is primed to be the character equivalent of "hey there's literally a route RIGHT outside this gate...." for me.

 

[Esserise]

There's mega rings being given out all over the place, that feels relevant to see Korrina and maybe her grandfather sort of...overseeing all that, surely?

I fully expect it to be the case that Quasartico is responsible for distributing Mega and Key Stones now and that the scarcity and sacred tradition stuff with Korrina’s family from XY will just be completely swept under the rug.

(To be fair, I think that particular part of the lore was always a bit of a hindrance — even in XY, they twice make a big point during the story about the player and the rival having to fight over the lone Mega Ring that the Tower of Mastery had to offer, but then in the post game, they just… luckily managed to find another one for them, I guess? And then ORAS gave Mega Rings to thrice as many characters as XY without invoking any of that stuff, replacing it all with meteorites and Draconids instead.)

 

[Karxrida]

yeah being part of NSO means having features that they hate included

NSO also has rewinds and save states and they probably super hate having basic features like that available because they have a stick up their ass.

Virtual Console games usually didn’t sell that well compared to full re-releases, and with how secretive Nintendo was with those sales figures, the only ones I could find that even topped a million were these and Super Mario Bros. 3. That’s it. That’s the list of officially confirmed Virtual Console games I was able to find that reached that mark. I would assume the numbers were higher for more games and we just didn’t know about them, but with the 3DS and Wii U both selling less than the Wii anyways, it’s hard to say how high their attachment rates may have been.

While we didn't get sales figures, I'm pretty sure Nintendo was super happy with how well the VC release of EarthBound did on Wii U. I recall it kept topping the eShop's bestseller chart. It was definitely enough for them to dust off the nearly complete NES ROM for EarthBound Beginnings, polish it up, and start selling it for the first time.

 

[CynicalGiant]

A new overview trailer is out.

Nothing so incredibly new but a few nice things to see.

I watched it again, Mega Malamar's hyper beam knocks out multiple pokemon AND their trainers? lmao

is the pvp mode just going to be just trying to knock out the trianers themselves, they knock out the gyarados and ampharos along with their trainers Haru and Jessie, lol

there was another trailer that showed surf's animation, so pvp is just going to be spam the biggest aoe possible. maybe itll be a fun chaotic mess.

 

[Ear547]

Trading was shown off, which might mean the game does not have the Link Cable evo item

View attachment 775890

So it’s Scyther for Kadabra, which are both trade evos. I believe they showed trading in PLA’s pre-release but not the Link Cable so max copium engaged.

To be fair, you can catch all the trade evos in the wild in PLA through fixed alpha spawns and space-time distortions. So that may be the case here.

P.S. anyone notice these stairs to the left that probably lead underground? Someone in a Discord server I’m in pointed this out.

 

[Yung Dramps]

Damn... That Metagross be blue as fuck. Thank u more saturated color pallets

 

[R_N]

So it’s Scyther for Kadabra, which are both trade evos. I believe they showed trading in PLA’s pre-release but not the Link Cable so max copium engaged.

To be fair, you can catch all the trade evos in the wild in PLA through fixed alpha spawns and space-time distortions. So that may be the case here.

Regardless of the link cable I expect most trade evolutions will also be in the wild here too. SWSH, L:A & SV all either having them out and about in the wild or available in not-too-uncommon raids.
Handy for just filling in the dex.

 

[pkmfan]

Outside of the videos above, some people seem to have their hands on a copy and some leaks are coming out. Is there a dedicated leak/datamine thread yet?

 

[RocketSurgery]

Outside of the videos above, some people seem to have their hands on a copy and some leaks are coming out. Is there a dedicated leak/datamine thread yet?

There's no indication that recent images that have been shared have come from retail copies, it seems to just be tera leak images that are being spread more frequently as we get closer to release/actual leaks.

 

[a blue banana]

Some of the scaling on the fully evolved Pokemon feels a bit jarring. I understand that it needs to be done for cases like Gyarados and Steelix, but it feels weird to make Aurorus as tall as its Trainer, given its stated height.

 

[AztecCroc]

Some of the scaling on the fully evolved Pokemon feels a bit jarring. I understand that it needs to be done for cases like Gyarados and Steelix, but it feels weird to make Aurorus as tall as its Trainer, given its stated height.

Aurorus is only 8 feet tall though, a smaller one could easily be around 6 feet.

 

[a blue banana]

It's closer to 9 feet because it's 8'10". While what you say can be true, we don't know if the height of the Aurorus in the trailer is considered the average for Z-A.

 

[CynicalGiant]

View attachment 775949
Damn... That Metagross be blue as fuck. Thank u more saturated color pallets

what are they doing up there

 

[Karxrida]

what are they doing up there
View attachment 775981

 

[CynicalGiant]

if these down arrows correspond to Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, Speed then Malamar might be getting Close Combat (or some other move that does this). it does not currently learn Close Combat.

we already know from a while ago that Chikorita learned a move it never had before, so ZA giving the devs an excuse to update a bunch of pokemon's movepools would be cool. even if mega malamar doesn't keep contrary in champions this is still nice for regular malamar.

 

[doipy hooves]

View attachment 775987

if these down arrows correspond to Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, Speed then Malamar might be getting Close Combat (or some other move that does this). it does not currently learn Close Combat.

It also just has Close Combat in its moveset in the full picture.