Pokemon Winds and Waves Are Literally Too Big to Repeat the Switch 1 Games’ Biggest Mistake

If I had to describe my experience with Pokemon and my love for the series, I’d probably need a novel’s worth of words, as I have played Pokemon games for something in the ballpark of 10,000 to 11,000 hours. Pokemon Winds and Waves have me excited as if I were a kid all over again, even if I don’t really know much beyond some leaks and the 3-minute reveal trailer. But a new Pokemon adventure after so long since Gen 9 is something I long for even after pouring almost 700 hours into Pokemon Legends: Z-A alone. And yet, from what I’ve seen so far in the leaks and the announcement trailer for Pokemon Winds and Waves points to a massive world, which can be good and bad.

If you ask me, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet were amazing despite their performance issues and glitches, and the sheer size of Paldea helped with a sense of wonder when first exploring it. However, the world felt a bit too empty because trainers were few and far between, and only a handful of Pokemon would appear on the screen at once. Considering how ambitious Pokemon Winds and Waves‘ region seems to be, featuring land and underwater exploration, possibly with flight involved as well, it would be only fair to fix the infamous Dexit and bring back all Pokemon.

Pokemon Winds and Waves’ Leaked Map Could Be a Step Toward Fixing Dexit

With over 1,000 Pokemon overall, it can be a tall task to include them all in a single game, especially considering regional variants, gimmicks like Mega Evolution and G-Max forms, and so on. This was discussed all the way back when Pokemon Sword and Shield were revealed, and it was fan-named Dexit, meaning the exit of several Pokemon species from the National Pokedex. The reason was attributed to the challenge of animating all Pokemon, but with Pokemon Winds and Waves releasing in late 2027, according to recent rumors, and with them being so huge, it would make sense to return to a full Pokedex in Gen 10.

It wouldn’t necessarily have to be all in the base game either, as Pokemon Scarlet and Violet started with 400 Pokemon overall, but then got a lot more with each DLC. So, Pokemon Winds and Waves could bring back around 500 Pokemon in the base game, plus all the new ones, and then the rest with a DLC or two. Another option would be not to include Legendaries and Mythicals and add them later via events, for example.

Considering the leaked Pokemon Winds and Waves maps, and assuming the leak is legit, there would be 17 islands and several bodies of water with different Pokemon in them. With such a big map, it would be a waste to make the National Pokedex before the DLC feature just around 400 critters like Gen 8 and 9, especially if that’s counting Gen 10 Pokemon.

It’s Time to Bring Back a Full Pokedex in Gen 10

If the first island and its surrounding water areas already include all the returning Pokemon in Pokemon Winds and Waves so far, that’s a very small pool of critters for such a big place. Between the Pokemon Hotel, a wasteland, a magma area, the Woobat Tunnel, rice fields, the observation deck, the Grass Gym, a swamp area, the mangrove forest, buried ruins, a “spiky rocks” area, a place called Mt. Symbol Summit, and a research lab, there are plenty of biomes here to feature many species of critters.

Since there is a chance Pokemon Winds and Waves will have the biggest region yet, at least based on the leaks so far, it would be a waste of space not to feature as many returning Pokemon as possible. Plus, keeping the Dexit approach may backfire, considering that Gen 10 will allegedly launch in late 2027, and fans may be upset that only a small fraction of the series’ pocket monsters are in the game after five years since Gen 9. For now, it remains to be seen what will happen with returning Pokemon, but there would be reason to believe that a full Pokedex is possible.