Nintendo has just revealed the next major Pokémon game, Pokémon Legends Z-A, in a new trailer, which can be seen below.
The game will feature the return of Mega Evolutions, and many fans are celebrating that it’s going to be another installment in the Legends series, following Pokémon Legends: Arceus, released in 2022. The game will be set in Kalos from Pokémon X and Y.
However, the catch here is that the game appears to be pretty far off. It’s being advertised as not arriving in 2025, when it will be released “simultaneously” on multiple systems, strongly implying that it may be a Switch 2 launch title, which is now also supposed to be out in 2025, according to recent reports. It will be released on Switch “systems” and there are of course multiple versions of the Switch, which Nintendo calls its family of Switch systems. However, the timeline seems to add up for a launch on its next platform. Of course, this is not yet confirmed, whatever the teaser may imply.
Fans appear to be extremely excited about the news, though what this means for say, next holiday season for Nintendo is unclear, as that might have been a big launch during that important window. But it being February 2024 and the game already having a 2025 release date indicated it’s going to be at least a solid year, year and a half, and Nintendo may have to fill that gap with something else major, if they do so at all. Between this and the Switch 2 not arriving until 2025, it may be an odd final year for the Switch as the only Nintendo console.
The hope is that with the game this far off, it will allow for more polishing and a higher quality final product than the last few Pokémon games have been. And even one fans generally liked like Arceus has led to accusations that Game Freak is cutting corners with recent Pokémon games looking and running quite badly, even compared to other Switch titles. But this will be an entirely different conversation if Pokémon Z-A actually does launch on the next Switch generation, which is reportedly mean to have PS4 levels of power. What would Pokémon game look like with those capabilities (Palworld, perhaps?).
Regardless, this is big news for Pokémon fans, even if it’s going to be quite a wait until it arrives. Hopefully it’s going to be worth it.
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