1.) Maybe they wanted to introduce the game with a version of Lumiose that most people watching would recognize. This also applies to the music thing
For PLA's reveal, they had in-game footage and specified early 2022 off the bat. ZA otoh did a CGI trailer with barely anything besides a setting and vague premise, only having a non-specific 2025 as a release window.
There's no reason to believe it's even early 2025. Arceus was "early 2022" from the start
Accord to the Japanese Pokemon twitter it’s not the Lumiose we know though. And if it was and the game didn’t take place there that again begs the question of why would they make it the entire trailer? If they were just showing something we’d be familiar with they would have needed to follow it up with something different to actually establish that the game doesn’t take place in modern Lumiose.
Ultimately it’s all speculation, but PLA was announced at the same time of year and its announcement trailer specified “Early 2022” and even showed gameplay. The lack of “Early 2025” in this trailer says to me that at the very least if they are targeting that period they aren’t 100% committed to it and aren’t sure they can hit that. My money is on Summer/Fall though.
This sounds to me like it’s an early 2025 release, possibly held back to release closer to the launch of Switch 2.
I'm torn on this. Really, I kind of hope it's closer to holiday 2025 because Pokémon games need time in the oven. That said, give it to me cross gen at launch and I'm going to explode with excitement, that would be so ideal, so long as it got the love and attention it needed. Of course I WANT it sooner, but I also want it to have the development time it needs.
If there was a traditional remake coming this year, they would've announced it at that presents.I'm torn on this. Really, I kind of hope it's closer to holiday 2025 because Pokémon games need time in the oven. That said, give it to me cross gen at launch and I'm going to explode with excitement, that would be so ideal, so long as it got the love and attention it needed. Of course I WANT it sooner, but I also want it to have the development time it needs.
I very genuinely hope it's the only Pokémon game between now and 2026's Gen 10 to give it and LZA the time they need.
Given we seem to know the layout already, along with a (provisional) rating, it does seem like it's probably further along than they're letting on.
All this said, we could still get outsourced remakes between now and Gen 10, wouldn't everyone just LOVE that.
Also on the matter of PLZA, the official pronunciation of "Z-A" is apparently "Z to A", but I've been saying "PLZA" like "plaza", or just "za".
I'm not so certain, but I hope you're right.
Both the main gen and the secondary release team at GF are occupied atm, so if it exists it has to be outsourced
The only Pokemon games that were announced outside of their own presentations were spinoffs. So being outsourced wouldn't make a difference in this case.
I would love it, personally. I want the Gen 5 games to be preserved. Not to mention Gens 1-3.I'm torn on this. Really, I kind of hope it's closer to holiday 2025 because Pokémon games need time in the oven. That said, give it to me cross gen at launch and I'm going to explode with excitement, that would be so ideal, so long as it got the love and attention it needed. Of course I WANT it sooner, but I also want it to have the development time it needs.
I very genuinely hope it's the only Pokémon game between now and 2026's Gen 10 to give it and LZA the time they need.
Given we seem to know the layout already, along with a (provisional) rating, it does seem like it's probably further along than they're letting on.
All this said, we could still get outsourced remakes between now and Gen 10, wouldn't everyone just LOVE that.
Also on the matter of PLZA, the official pronunciation of "Z-A" is apparently "Z to A", but I've been saying "PLZA" like "plaza", or just "za".
But there's a summer Pokémon Presents to go yet.
Yes and no- not all games get them, they don't just go on 'vibes', they show actual in-progress work.
I could be wrong, but I think all mainline games only get announced in the beginning of the year
ORAS and LGPE were both announced later in the year
Huh, I stand corrected then. Still, I don't think we're getting a mainline game this year.
We'll probably get something. It would be pretty unusual to have a whole year with no Pokémon releases on Switch. Might not be mainline, though.
If there is one, it's most definitely a spinoff title.
I actually looked into this the other day: according to Bulbapedia's page on Pokemon Presents, ORAS and LGPE were in years without a Pokemon Day/January presentation. Ever since SwSh's announcement TPC has been using Pokemon Day (outside of SwSh's DLC, but that was still in January) to launch their plans for the year and announce the annual title. There's still a theoretical chance it exists, but if there's a 2024 game, it would've been announced by now.
really weird as it would mean that north is in the bottom left corner. and Prism Tower is rotated even when the rest of the city is aligned.Actually I noticed that the map of Lumiose is rotated. I inverted the colours and painted the channel/water in blue. If you rotate we can actually spot some important buildings on the map which are highlighted!
Fair. Still, we will probably see something this year. Remake, spinoff, NSO... I can't seem them going a whole year with nothing. Maybe some announcements got thrown off by the Switch 2 delay or something.
Games can have provisional PEGI ratings years in advance.
It would most definitely be a spinoff or something related to NSO since TPC from what I know only do one presentation a year and those type of games have a way higher chance of being announced in Nintendo Directs.
We should see them this summer/autumn. It is not unprecedented for pokemon games to be shown later in the year and TPC want to avoid any unnecessary backlash and make sure the remakes are as polished as possible. As opposed to BDSP which were criticised on reveal for the visuals.
They always do 2 a year. One in February and one in August. But most of the major announcements do happen in February.
It is vaguely possible that the only reason BDSP were revealed so early was because of the tie-in with Arceus. If ILCA are working on a remake, it'll probably be BW, not XY... so no need for a simultaneous release with Legends Z-A.
TPC wont say no to the money some outsourced remakes will make them this holiday. Do we need them? No. But Pokemon is one of the biggest franchises in the world, they wont miss out on selling us games this holiday.
It’s not like ILCA are bad devs, the game likely had a ridiculously short dev time and small budget, which would be TPC/GF’s fault. Give them a proper amount of time and resources and they’d probably make something that would please fans
My money is all on “A” representing a new Pokemon and the pattern on it is themed to it, just like the hexagons on Z for Zygarde.
Would’ve been announced on Pokémon Day. And it doesn’t make sense to release BW remakes so soon especially with Legend ZA happening
Next year at the earliest.
I wouldn't be surprised if it was XY remasters. It fits with the Legends game and it puts fans on edge if they're getting Gen 5 remakes/Legends games so when they finally do announce them, it'll be a big deal
There’s still the Summer Pokemon Presents
I feel like they'll want to do a Gen 5 remake while doing the Legends game for Unova. The promotional stuff plays into each other so they won't be doing Gen 5 until they have Gen6 legends out of the way.
Hasn’t Khu admitted to fucking with people? Like, apparently Khu did legitimately leak the code name for Legends: Z-A…but that’s it, and all the Unova stuff was just Khu fucking with everyone (or perhaps they only knew the code name and nothing else and had just assumed it would be Unova related, and after the reveal they tried to pass it all off as a “joke”).
No, it doesn't make sense actually. If a traditional remake was happening this year, they would've announced it.
Again... I feel like Game Freak are treating The Indigo Disk as their Unova game. They don't trust that Legends Unova will sell because the Gen 5 games sold so poorly at the time. Plus, Unova doesn't need a revamp nearly as much as Kalos does.
