Games like Pokemon Winds and Waves could start to move away from the classic turn-based combat that has been a staple for three decades, according to Pokemon Champions director Kazumasa Iwao. Pokemon Winds and Waves were announced earlier this year, and the twin games will represent the tenth generation in the franchise. This means they will serve as a direct follow-up to Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, which came out on Nintendo Switch in 2022.
Pokemon Winds and Waves will be released in 2027, and few concrete details have been announced about the games thus far. There have been several leaks, but The Pokemon Company and Game Freak have only revealed three of the new Pokemon that will be introduced: Browt, Pombon, and Gecqua. Those three will serve as the starters in Gen 10.
Game Freak Hints at Pokemon Combat System Changes
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In a new video released on Game Freak’s YouTube channel, Pokemon Champions director Kazumasa Iwao discussed how the game’s existence could help the developers experiment more with the combat system in mainline Pokemon games. Pokemon Champions has become the hub of competitive play for the franchise, and the free-to-play game now serves as an option for the type of battles fans have gotten used to since the days of Pokemon Red and Green. According to Iwao, having that classic battle system preserved in Pokemon Champions means Game Freak has more freedom to make changes “little by little” in future titles. However, he did not detail how much things could change.
“There are people who have battled for decades since Pokemon Red/Green or Pokemon Gold/Silver, so we didn’t want to say like ‘it’s changed now, so please buy and play the new games.’ That wouldn’t be good,” says Iwao. “However, at Game Freak, we always want to challenge ourselves by doing new things with the series, but we don’t want to throw away the battle system that we’ve built until now. Because of this, we thought it would be good to put the battle system we’ve constructed into one game that you can keep playing, and that’s where the development of Pokemon Champions began.”
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While the core battle system has largely remained the same since 1996, Game Freak has made a lot of adjustments with each subsequent Pokemon generation. From adding new types like Dark, Steel, and Fairy, to introducing held items, and even coming up with concepts such as Tera types. In one major change, Scarlet and Violet added the option for auto battles with Pokemon found in the game’s overworld. Game Freak has also been more experimental with the combat systems found in the Legends games, and Pokemon Legends: Z-A introduced a real-time battle system.
It’s unclear if the changes hinted at by Iwao will begin with Pokemon Winds and Waves, or if they might be implemented in later generations. Many RPG franchises have started to move away from turn-based combat in recent years, including Final Fantasy. The existence of Pokemon Champions gives Game Freak a situation where it can keep the elements that have worked so well over the years, while still building new elements to entertain players.
At this time, it’s unclear when more information will be revealed about Pokemon Winds and Waves. Since the Nintendo Switch 2 games won’t be released until 2027, The Pokemon Company seems to be focused on releasing information in small doses for the time being. Pokemon Winds and Waves got a behind-the-scenes video in May, but little else has been shown in the months since. That should start to change as 2027 gets closer, so hopefully, Game Freak won’t make fans wait too long before giving them an idea of what to expect from the combat system.
- Released
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2027
- Multiplayer
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Online Co-Op, Online Multiplayer
Source: GamesRadar+
