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

DHR-107

DHR-107

Robot from the Future
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Orange Islands
Hi All,

Looks like we have finally had official confirmation of the Pokémon Day broadcast.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1892484335715880979

https://bsky.app/profile/serebii.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3liltetqilk2r

1400 UTC likely on all their normal channels.

I will leave this open for about ~24 hours now, unless it gets wildly off topic.

Please do not talk about any leaks which may happen prior to or after the Presents has been aired. I am aware there may be aspects about Pokémon Legends Z-A from within the Tera Leak. Please join the Orange Islands Discord to discuss those.


The Presents!


Extended look at Legends Z-A


Pokémon Champions Announcement Trailer
 
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Off the top thoughts:
  • I dont care about Pokemon Masters or Cafe Remix at all
  • Pokemon Go will probably have a very minor event that day with party hats.
  • If Go announces anything "major" beyond Go Fest dates or something, I will guess finally teasing the introduction Paradoxes/the raidons to the game.
  • We know there's meant to be a new set in Pocket, so if they don't announce it ahead of time they could do it here as a "and it drops...now!!" Otherwise they'll just mention it here and thank us for playing. I think the set in question'll probably either be an Eevee-focus (Sylveon in particular isn't in the game yet and it'd double as Kalos focus to tie in to Z-A) or a more general "Anniversary" celebration miniset. There will also be some new gift packs to celebrate, that we also know from datamines.
  • I don't think there'll be any new spin offs announced, though it'd be nice to see something.
  • Worlds details. Nothing particularly interesting, I imagine, but exact dates, ruleset, logo reveal, etc.
  • Scarlet & Violet will either re-run some older Mighty Mark pokemon here-Pikachu or Eevee maybe- or will run Mighty Mark SV Starters.
  • Z-A will take the lion's share of the back chunk. I've talked about what kind of structure I think it'll have before, but we literally only have a teaser trailer to go off of so like. Anything could be here. It could be in The Past and set entirely in Lumiose exclusively and maybe we dont even ride Pokemon anymore for all we know. It's the wild west. In france!
  • I don't think Flying Eeveelution in Z-A is happening. I think they released Flying Eevee event to parallel the iconic Flying Pikachu.
  • I think it'll release around the summer time, but they won't announce an actual release date beyond that because I bet that it's meant to drop very close to the Switch 2, which I also think might be around summer time.
  • Related to this, I think the footage we'll see will not blow anyone away and in fact I bet the reason the game didn't launch last year was specifically so it could be closer to Switch 2 so there's a new Pokemon game to "go" with it (despite not being Switch 2 exclusive). It would not surprise me to learn that it was very close to the leaked build and only had minimal changes, with the game primarily being done for a while now
  • I wont rule out an ILCA Pokemon Works game being shown here. If it is here and Z-A is the summer game then this one will be the winter game, which I personally think would be very funny considering the general conversations had over the last few years. If it's a Unova ILCA game in particular I will laugh forever
  • Gen 10....I go back & forth on being teased. On one hand I still think it'd be next year and would probably take a little wind out of Z-A's sails but on the other hand I think they might like the idea of announcing & teasing a new title ahead of time now. Like they did with Z-A. Maybe it'd be a low-key teaser that only gives glimpses of the legends or something, just to say "it's coming next year" and "also coming to switch 2"
  • So honestly I don't believe any of the thoughts about SV getting any content update or performance update or any of that. But, even if that is in the cards, I think that'll be shown in the April Switch 2 direct and not here. Seems more relevant there.
 
R_N said:
I wont rule out an ILCA Pokemon Works game being shown here. If it is here and Z-A is the summer game then this one will be the winter game, which I personally think would be very funny considering the general conversations had over the last few years. If it's a Unova ILCA game in particular I will laugh forever
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This would make sense. It's somewhat uncertain if Gen 10 is already in the horizon, so I could see Game Freak taking another year with it, and let PLZA have more room for itself.

Whatever ILCA remake we might get, having it as a holiday title would be logical. I think having a simple remake of X and Y could make sense to go along with PLZA, especially since X and Y are modern enough to not need a major overhaul.
 
Terimas said:
This would make sense. It's somewhat uncertain if Gen 10 is already in the horizon, so I could see Game Freak taking another year with it, and let PLZA have more room for itself.

Whatever ILCA remake we might get, having it as a holiday title would be logical. I think having a simple remake of X and Y could make sense to go along with PLZA, especially since X and Y are modern enough to not need a major overhaul.
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If a simple X and Y remake comes, that would be even funnier with Gen 5 not even having their own remake or Legends-styled game as of this writing.

I got some predictions regarding Z-A:
  • Little to no traditional cross-gen evolutions akin to OG Kalos. The latter only has Sylveon, the Fairy-type Eeveelution to promote the once-new Fairy-type. Given that unlike Gen 5 to Gen 6, Scarlet and Violet brought some more traditional cross-gen evos, so at best that aspect may be downplayed but not entirely backlogged in favor of Mega Evolution.
  • That might comes off as cynical, but I can expect a history repeat with lot of popular Pokémon getting a Mega (thogh not exclsuively popular Pokémon), be it by general popularity or their success in 2023-2024 VGC successes. And knowing the recent history of excessive power creep, each newer Mega Evolution might either make the situation worse or unable to catch up with the better old ones.
  • Higher focus on Trainer battles compared to Legends: Arceus. With the latter’s engine and battle mechanics set in stone, we might see Legends: Z-A either expanding upon those or go for something a bit closer with traditional trainer battles.
  • At least some more lore regarding AZ and Eternal Floette, as well as the history of Mega Evolution.
  • Possibility of Gen 8 and 9 cross-gen evos “backported” to ol’ Kalos, given Sylveon is available in Legends: Arceus.
 
somethingemmahappens.jpg

I'm so ready to crash out at an "it's set in the past" reveal
 
Samtendo09 said:
Little to no traditional cross-gen evolutions akin to OG Kalos. The latter only has Sylveon, the Fairy-type Eeveelution to promote the once-new Fairy-type. Given that unlike Gen 5 to Gen 6, Scarlet and Violet brought some more traditional cross-gen evos, so at best that aspect may be downplayed but not entirely backlogged in favor of Mega Evolution.
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I somewhat disagree. It has been implied that A in Z-A could represent a new Pokémon, and I seriously doubt that Game Freak would introduce only one new species of Pokémon in this game.

While new Megas are cool and marketable, they would still benefit from having some regional forms and even new evolutions alongside them.
 
It has been one year since Z-A was first shown. Afterwards, we have heard absolutely nothing more about the game, and I'm having mixed feelings about that. One one hand, it was nice for them to basically say "no new Pokémon game in 2024". On the other hand, revealing the game last year just feels pointless when I look back at it. They could at least have shown some kind of gameplay video a few months after the reveal. Compare this to say, GTA VI, which was also announced very long before its release, but it did at least have a proper trailer in the announcement.

I'm hoping we'll see some gameplay this time around. There are so many things I want to know about the game, and getting the answers to some of them will be nice. As for the presents itself, I won't watch it live, I'll just catch up on the news afterwards.
 
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Terimas said:
I somewhat disagree. It has been implied that A in Z-A could represent a new Pokémon, and I seriously doubt that Game Freak would introduce only one new species of Pokémon in this game.

While new Megas are cool and marketable, they would still benefit from having some regional forms and even new evolutions alongside them.
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To be fair, Legends: Arceus did not have a regional gimmick except their own Move Styles, which even then it is not specific to any Pokémon unlike Mega Evolution. So Hisuian forms are expected, though less so traditional cross-gen evolutions.

The “A” of the Z-A could mean many things, but your argument that making the potential “A” Legendary Pokémon as the only new species hold water… even then, Game Freak might count Mega Evolution as their own species even if treated as forms mechanically.
 
Samtendo09 said:
If a simple X and Y remake comes, that would be even funnier with Gen 5 not even having their own remake or Legends-styled game as of this writing.

I got some predictions regarding Z-A:
  • Little to no traditional cross-gen evolutions akin to OG Kalos. The latter only has Sylveon, the Fairy-type Eeveelution to promote the once-new Fairy-type. Given that unlike Gen 5 to Gen 6, Scarlet and Violet brought some more traditional cross-gen evos, so at best that aspect may be downplayed but not entirely backlogged in favor of Mega Evolution.
Click to expand...

It's not like SWSH, L:A or SV had a lot of them to begin with to get THAT downplayed. Counting the regional evolutions, SWSH & L:A had 6 each and SV had 8 (5 in the base, 3 in the DLC)
They could knock it down to like 2 or 3 and it wouldn't be that steep a drop.
Samtendo09 said:
  • Possibility of Gen 8 and 9 cross-gen evos “backported” to ol’ Kalos, given Sylveon is available in Legends: Arceus.
Click to expand...
I will say this probably won't happen. All the SWSH evolutions are regionals. 3 of L:A's are also regionals and I doubt Hisuian Sneasel makes the jump. L:A didn't even include any galarian Pokemon, most notably Mime-G/Mr Rime. & the only Alolan Pokemon, Vulpix & ninetales, was there as a Hokkaido Pokemon Center reference (& its popular). So I doubt Z-A has ANY old regional Pokemon (mayyyyyyyyyyybe alolan rattata)
The other half of L:A...Wyrdeer isn't traditionally obtainable at all and requires transfer, Ursaluna's available only as a new form and otherwise needs a transfer sicne it still cant have Ursaring evolve into either one, Kleavor IS regularly available but only as a separate capture. If SV -the significantly more traditional game that goes out of its way to have all the "related" Pokemon at least available through transfer- didn't do this I can't see Z-A doing any of this.
So excising Clodsire...I doubt the Applin line is in this. Girafarig & Mankey weren't in Kalos outside the Friend Safari and I dunno if they bother putting it in when the dex will probably be smaller and has significantly more Pokemon to draw on with its dex before asking what other-gen Pokemon to include in one fashion or another.
Duraludon WOULD fit the Prism Tower aesthetic, but I can also see them avoid it just because it was "just" showcased in the DLC and maybe want to let it sit there until Gen 10. Arbitrary yes, but speaking of which

That leaves Dunsparce & Bisharp, which are both Kalos-dex native and Dunsparce is even very close to Lumiose. Strictly speaking there's no reason to exclude Dudunsparce & Kingambit but I can easily envision a situation where one or both are included and you just can't evolve them. They simply cannot evolve in Kalos, for either no explained reason or a vaguely alluded to reason that is no-less-arbitrary because they're the ones writing the lore.

Until I see them show up totally normally I don't think it's off the table that Sylveon is the last truly normal cross-gen evolution, with all subsequent ones being either explicitly regional (must evolve from a regional variant) or implicitly regional (ie: the SV squad can technically be found outside the literal region of Paldea but for the purposes of inclsuion are all lumped as "only in Paldea")
 
R_N said:
It's not like SWSH, L:A or SV had a lot of them to begin with to get THAT downplayed. Counting the regional evolutions, SWSH & L:A had 6 each and SV had 8 (5 in the base, 3 in the DLC)
They could knock it down to like 2 or 3 and it wouldn't be that steep a drop.

I will say this probably won't happen. All the SWSH evolutions are regionals. 3 of L:A's are also regionals and I doubt Hisuian Sneasel makes the jump. L:A didn't even include any galarian Pokemon, most notably Mime-G/Mr Rime. & the only Alolan Pokemon, Vulpix & ninetales, was there as a Hokkaido Pokemon Center reference (& its popular). So I doubt Z-A has ANY old regional Pokemon (mayyyyyyyyyyybe alolan rattata)
The other half of L:A...Wyrdeer isn't traditionally obtainable at all and requires transfer, Ursaluna's available only as a new form and otherwise needs a transfer sicne it still cant have Ursaring evolve into either one, Kleavor IS regularly available but only as a separate capture. If SV -the significantly more traditional game that goes out of its way to have all the "related" Pokemon at least available through transfer- didn't do this I can't see Z-A doing any of this.
So excising Clodsire...I doubt the Applin line is in this. Girafarig & Mankey weren't in Kalos outside the Friend Safari and I dunno if they bother putting it in when the dex will probably be smaller and has significantly more Pokemon to draw on with its dex before asking what other-gen Pokemon to include in one fashion or another.
Duraludon WOULD fit the Prism Tower aesthetic, but I can also see them avoid it just because it was "just" showcased in the DLC and maybe want to let it sit there until Gen 10. Arbitrary yes, but speaking of which

That leaves Dunsparce & Bisharp, which are both Kalos-dex native and Dunsparce is even very close to Lumiose. Strictly speaking there's no reason to exclude Dudunsparce & Kingambit but I can easily envision a situation where one or both are included and you just can't evolve them. They simply cannot evolve in Kalos, for either no explained reason or a vaguely alluded to reason that is no-less-arbitrary because they're the ones writing the lore.

Until I see them show up totally normally I don't think it's off the table that Sylveon is the last truly normal cross-gen evolution, with all subsequent ones being either explicitly regional (must evolve from a regional variant) or implicitly regional (ie: the SV squad can technically be found outside the literal region of Paldea but for the purposes of inclsuion are all lumped as "only in Paldea")
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I understand most of the Gen 8-9 evos not available in Z-A due to original species not in XY’s Kalos, but at the same time, the cans of worms are already opened in a way regarding L:A Pokémon to SV, as almost all of them require transfer. Understandable for Hisuian forms of Pokémon, but then Calyrex, a legendary Pokémon still around modern day, is abritrarily still locked from Crown Tundra DLC so transfer is also required. Makes sense lore-wise as Calyrex was once one of the lords of Galar, but having the horses available with Indigo Disk downloaded in SV brings back to that can of worm.

And given the VGC success of standard / Hisuian Ursaluna, Annihilape, Archaludon and especially Farigiraf, making the non-regional Gen 8-9 evos locked to transfer for the Gen 10 games would likely only worsen the “pay-to-play/win” situation and makes their potential absance in Gen 10 (if at least some of the respective OGs are around that is) even more abritrary than already was at the grand scheme of things. I rather have all or nothing when it comes to availability of a Pokémon line, after all.
 
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As for more sober analysis, my biggest potential concern if you wanna call it that would be that they still don't really show a whole lot. Y'know how when Legends Arceus was revealed it was basically just some overworld shots, the protags and the first form starters? Yeah I'm mildly worried they might just do that because in their minds the PD2024 trailer "didn't count" by virtue of being a prerendered cinematic, especially if this is gonna be a Holiday 2025 release.

I must emphasize that "concern" and "mildly worried" are still too strong for me because in the end there is literally one (1) thing I have truly been diligently waiting the past year for the status of (the time period) which'll immediately become clear once we get a single frame of in-game footage. I just think it'd be better for everyone to get a little more, like at least some new designs whether it be a human character besides the protags, a regional form, a Mega Evolution, whatever. Even some stinger like the final form Kalos starters huddling around their new Mega Stones or Complete Zygarde staring down the presumed A legendary obscured in shadow would be nice
 
I think there will be an update to SV announced, either right now or something that will be launched whenever the switch 2 launches. A new patch to maybe add a few Pokemon + maybe enhance graphics to regain some good will back from the average gamer. Graphics enhancement patch might be a switch 2 exclusive feature, but I think it will definitely happen.
 
Magcargo said:
I think there will be an update to SV announced, either right now or something that will be launched whenever the switch 2 launches. A new patch to maybe add a few Pokemon + maybe enhance graphics to regain some good will back from the average gamer. Graphics enhancement patch might be a switch 2 exclusive feature, but I think it will definitely happen.
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This kind of prediction has shown up every generation since patching games over the Internet became possible, and thus far it has not come to fruition once. After the DLC, I'm pretty dang sure that they consider SV a "sold and done" product, whose development cycle is now over. Improving the game's graphics is a pretty huge endeavor that won't sell a substantial number of new copies at this point, so I wouldn't expect it to happen. They will be focusing on selling you the next game, not making changes to one you've already bought from them.
 
They literally released an epilogue to SV idk why people think there could be an additional content patch coming.

Something to assist with overall playability on Switch 2? Possibly. But SV is a done deal. No more content patches.

At best there’s some sort of fun raid. But the shiny Ray raid was really them closing the book on SV IMO.
 
Just wanna throw some crazy predictions regarding Z-A.

Pokémon predictions:
- Every old mega in the game except for some legendaries
- No new regional Pokémon, but a bunch of new megas and maybe a couple of convergent mons and crossgen evos as mounts + the rumored A-legendary
- Flygon Mega among them
- At least a Gen 9 mon mega (think of Glimmora or Tinkaton)

Mechanics predictions:
- Zygarde cells will be the new Spiritomb wisps (yea this isn't a crazy one)
- Megas don't need items to evolve at all (mega stones will work as a key item)
- PLA's turn system is kept in order to balance them - once they megaevolve they get 'slower' but more powerful (like the strong style)
- Customizable Lumiose City to be a bigger feature of the game: you can actually change how the streets play out in some parts of the city, move some bussinesses around and level up them
- In order to do that you'll probably need to get a rise at Quasar Co., just like Galaxy Team in PLA, after calming down some bosses (mega mons prob)
- Lumiose will be open world-like but areas where bosses are located are locked behind certain parts which require a mount for you to unlock, and these mounts are given as you progress
- Pokémon will be catchable everywhere around - streets, roofs, channels, sewerage, catacombs, etc. - but the main place to do that will be parks
- Parks to be introduced where the different Lumiose Squares were located, and Pokémon which spawn there get better as story progresses, in a similar way to the Wild Area in SwSh

Story predictions:
- PLZA and SV set in the same time period (roughly 10 years after XY)
- Emma and Bonnie to have bigger roles in the story - maybe one of them introduces Zygarde to you
- AZ, Clemont, the XY gang, Sycamore and Diantha to make an appearence in some way, but not prominent characters
- Galarian / Paldean character cameo
- Prism Tower to be secretly transformed into a new Ultimate Weapon, this time around, powered by the A-legendary, which has been caught by the villain
- Lyssandre may have survived and is the actual Quasar leader, using Infinite Energy to experiment with Pokémon or some stuff like that, thus creating new megas which go wild and are the bosses
- Some obscure lore connects Infinite Energy (megas) and Terastal Energy, despite no tera in the game obviously
- Catchable AZ's Floette and UBs in post-game sidequests
 
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