Pokemon Legends: Z-A may have been the star of the show for many fans during last week's Pokemon Presents, but one legendary competitive player thinks that the upcoming PvP game Pokemon Champions may end up changing the series as we know it forever.
From what we've seen so far, Pokemon Champions looks a bit like a modern Pokemon Stadium. The full focus is on PvP battles, and you'll be able to fight alongside your own old 'mons thanks to Pokemon Home compatibility. The game doesn't have a release date yet, but it's in development for both Switch and mobile devices, and, curiously, it includes at least two generational battle "gimmicks" – the Kalos region's Mega Evolution and the Paldea region's Terastalization – seemingly mixing together battle mechanics in a way we've never seen before.
All this is very exciting, and in a new video, former Pokemon world champion Wolfe "Wolfey" Glick explains why it has the potential to be the series' "biggest announcement in over a decade." In fact, he reckons it could "change the way that Pokemon operates forever."
The main reason for this is how closely tied the current mainline games have been to the competitive scene up to this point. For example, with each new generation's mechanic like Mega Evolution and Z-Moves, they "need to be fun for the single player, but they also have to be balanced around the competitive players," as tournaments have always been held in the latest main games (like how they're currently held in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet).
This linked approach, however, isn't perfect. "Beyond just balancing issues, the competitive battles and the single-player experience being tied together in the same game actually really limits what you can do with a single-player experience," Wolfey argues. He points to Legends: Arceus and the unique mechanics it introduced, such as the Strong and Agile-style moves. However, the game had no PvP elements, since "the battle system was optimized around making the single-player gameplay fun to experience, rather than being something that would actually work if you were to play against your friends."
Cutting to fresh Legends: Z-A gameplay footage of its new real-time combat system, Wolfey suggests: "Imagine Game Freak had found a new style of allowing players to experience the single-player gameplay, and everybody loved it, and it was pretty much just a strict upgrade, but it didn't work with the official competitive format. What would you do then?"
He continues: "The single-player experience and the competitive player experience are actually pretty different, and they require different things to be optimized and to feel good." This brings us to Pokemon Champions, a game that seemingly has the power to separate the two into different games, allowing the devs to "make changes independently" to each side.
Wolfey predicts that going forward, official VGC tournaments will take place in Pokemon Champions, which could have benefits for competitive players, like potentially improved rulesets or even balance patches that don't currently exist. Meanwhile, the mainline games could (in theory) be given that extra freedom to experiment with new ways to play without the fear of jeopardizing the thriving competitive scene.
Right now, of course, a lot of this is pure speculation, but Wolfey raises some really good points, like what a "missed opportunity" it'd be for Pokemon not to hold future tournaments in its purpose-built battling game. "Why are you doing it if that's the case?" he adds. We'll just have to wait and see what the future holds – right now, Pokemon Champions doesn't even have a release window, so it could be some time yet.
Be sure to check out our roundup of everything announced during Pokemon Presents last week.
