As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases
So, generation 10 finally was announced and it looks pretty close to the leaks we all have seen. A generation surrounding islands and the ocean. The game looks to be open world just like (paid link) Scarlet & (paid link) Violet but better. Downs and I wanted to just give our individual thoughts on the announcement and what we are looking forward to.
Andrew
I wasn’t expecting too much going into the reveal. After seeing (paid link) Pokemon Legends Z-A and also what generation 9 looked like, I was worried we would get another half baked product. However, what we saw was not that. The reveal trailer actually looked really nice and you can tell the graphics are much improved. I’m curious to see what gameplay is like.
Will it be more like what we have had, turn based battle or will we get a mixture of Z-A’s combat and traditional? I know it was said long ago that Z-A’s combat is exclusive to that game but I wouldn’t be surprised of we saw something akin to it emerge. As for the Pokemon we saw…
The starters look alright to me. I am most interested in Pombon, but the others didn’t impress me. I’ll have to wait to see more before passing final judgements though.
Downs
After watching the trailer, my first thought was that we are revisiting familiar territory. If we do not count spin offs, is this not the third time Pokémon has used an island themed setting? Jokes aside, I am actually feeling pretty optimistic about this one.
The trailer focused heavily on in-engine locations. If so, it genuinely looks like The Pokémon Company listened to the criticism about how Scarlet and Violet looked. From what we have seen so far, this feels like a clear visual upgrade. The environments appear cleaner and sharper, without the blurry and smudged look that hurt the presentation of generation 9. There are still a few low resolution textures here and there, but overall the difference is dramatic.
It also seems like we might be moving closer to having a full National Dex again based on the variety of Pokémon shown, (Wailord, Krabby, Pikachu etc).
The new starters look promising as well. One thing I am especially curious about is whether we will finally be able to dress up our Pokémon. The pre render trailer showed stylized Pikachu variations, which may have only been marketing material, but it would be a cool feature if it made it into the game.
The biggest surprise is that the game is not launching this year. In some ways that is a positive, especially considering how rough Pokémon Legends ZA released. On the other hand, unless there are more plans for the 30th anniversary, it feels strange that there will not be a mainline Pokémon game this year outside of a garbage mobile title. Comes off like let’s celebrate the 30th anniversary by releasing crap nobody wants.
Predictions
My guess is that Winds and Waves will fall somewhere between the structured design of (paid link) Sword and (paid link) Shield and the more ambitious open world experimentation of Scarlet and Violet.
I don’t think Wind and Waves will feel as underwhelming as those entries did in certain areas. Instead, it feels like a course correction. It may take what worked in Scarlet and Violet while leaning back into the tighter structure and pacing that Sword and Shield handled more effectively.
I also would not be surprised if the world design takes inspiration from something similar to (paid link) Tears of the Kingdom, using a more vertical and layered approach that includes air, land, and possibly underwater or underground areas. Pokémon has not fully committed to that type of world design before, so it could make exploration feel fresh.
As for difficulty, I expect it to remain extremely low. The recent games have adjusted mechanics, but have not truly focused on increasing the core challenge. Unless they introduce smarter difficulty scaling, such as gym leaders having better coverage for their weaknesses or stronger team compositions, it will likely feel similar to the past two generations in terms of challenge. Prepare to be basically invincible.
Overall, I am cautiously optimistic. If this game truly refines what worked and corrects what did not, Wind and Waves could be exactly what the series needs.
Conclusion
What will this new adventure bring? We’ll just have to wait to see more. Make aure to come back for future articles and move on, Pokemon trainers!
Leave a Reply