The Pokemon development cycle is brutal. For years now, we have had a new main series entry or DLC release annually. The past eight years have gone as follows: Game, Game, Remake, Game, DLC, Remake, Game and R𓆏emake, DLC. The pace is unrelenting, and it was bound to become too much at some point.
Pokemon is about more than the games these days, and has been through these past eight years too. It’s one of the biggest IPs in the world, with designs that have transcended gaming and become household names in their own right. Your nan knows Pikachu, but she doesn’t have a clue who Solid Snake, Captain Price, or even (EA FC star) Kylian Mbappe are.
The games are just one part of the Pokemon machine. They have to align their release dates with the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Trading Card Game, the anime, and any merch being ⛎created to tie-in with their additions to the canon. Pokemon may have started out as a video game, but it’s now a behemoth. Frankenstein’s monster is walking the earth, and Satoshi Tajiri is crawling across the tundra after it, praying for a break.
This year, Pokemon developers may finally get one. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon Legends: Z-A has been announced for 2025𓆏, and for the first time since 2015 we seem to have a year without a major Pokemon game. While some players will undoubtedly be upset by this, I’m breathing a sigh of relief.
You may have noticed that the quality of Pokemon games has been declining of late. In the opposite trajectory to Nintendo’s other RPG powerhouse, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Legend of Zelda, Pokemon games are being churned out quicker, with more and more disappointing results𒅌. On the contrary, Zelda developers are afforded nearly half a decade to build the next entry, and come out of it with incredible results.
Things aren’t as simple as that, but I have no doubt that if 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Game Freak was allowed twice as long to make a Pokemon game, it would be twice as good. It wouldn’t be a broken mess, at the very le🏅ast.
It’s worth emphasising exactly what kind of a break the developers might get this year. Nobody’s getting a year-long holiday, that’s for sure. On the contrary, game delays (or breaks, or pauses, or whatever you’d like to call this) often lead to extended periods of crunch. The developers will be working harder than ever before on L🐬egends: Z-A, but they might just have that bit ♔more time to put the polish on that previous entries have been missing.
We stilꦆl don’t know for definite that no Pokemon game will release this year, but game🎃s are usually revealed chronologically so it’s a safe bet.
It’s worth noting that the vague 2025 release date will lead to suggestions that Legends Z-A will be a Switch 2 launch title. The official website already says that it will launch on the Nintendo Switch, but I suspect it will be a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Breath of the Wild situation, which was released on the Wii U while also being a flagship game for the new console. Even if Legends Z-A launches months before the Switch 2, it🎃 will be considered as a Switch 2 launch title if the release dates are within 𒊎striking distance of each other.
Don’t let this get your imaginations running away. I’ve already seen people imagining the unlimited power of the Switch 2, describing their perfect Assassin’s Creed: Lumiose game with realistic third-pers💛on graphics. The delay between games may increase expectations further🎃. I’m here to tell you not to get too excited.
An extra few months (remember this game, or rather a Black & White remake, was expected around November), would not turn Legends: Z-A into Ghost of Tsushima. However, it might reduce the pop-in or stabilise the frame rate. Too many times have I found myself playing a Pokemo﷽n game in recent years and saying, “this would be incredible if it looked good and ran competently.” The endgame of Scarlet & Violet in Area Zero. When flying above Hisui h🔜anging from Braviary. Pokemon games need polish, and this break could be just the chance to give Legends Z-A exactly that.
