Today is the day! A new Pokémon Direct has debuted giving us new in-sight to the upcoming game. Here’s a recap of the event.
We were introduced to the video by Tsunekazu Ishihara, the President and CEO of the Pokémon Company.
After a short, and really exciting video, producer, Junichi Masuda, and director, Shigeru Ohmori, gave us some details about a new area of the Galar region called the “Wild Area,” which will have the most, and widest variety, of Pokémon in the game. It stretches between cities and will have different Pokémon depending on your location, what the weather is like (snow, rain, sun, etc), and time of day.
Some of the big new mechanics of the game if the amount of camera control you have, giving you the ability to search around you for Pokémon and items, as well as new multiplayer function that allows you to team up with three other players for a Max Raid Battle to challenge powerful Dynamax Pokémon. In a Max Raid Battle, the wild Dynamax Pokémon will stay giant and have unique, special powers, and only 1 player may Dynamax their Pokémon for the battle duration. Some Pokémon can only be caught freely after you beat them in a Max Raid Battle.
Similar to the idea of mega evolutions and z moves, you can now trigger, Dynamax in the Galar region, which causes a Pokémon to become increasingly powerful and giant, and also adds new battle animations and mechanics.
As Kazumasa Iwao, the planning director, detailed, Dynamax can be used once per battle, however, it only works with Pokémon from the Galar region and Pokémon revert to normal after 3 turns. As to be expected, gym leaders will have their own Dynamax Pokémon
I glimpsed 6 or 7 new Pokémon in the video, but art director James Turner spotlighted a few of them for us:
Wooloo, sheep Pokémon
Gossifleur, flowering Pokémon, which evolves into Eldegoss, cotton bloom Pokémon
Drednaw, bite Pokémon
Corviknight, raven Pokémon
Almost, but not quite as, important as new Pokémon are the new champions, gym leaders, and general NPCs you interact with. For starters, there is a new League champion named Leon, who has quite the inverted goatee beard going on. Your main rival is Leon’s younger brother, Hop, and our new Pokémon scientist buddies are Professor Magnolia and her grand-daughter/assistant, Sonia. The only gym leader we actually got to meet was the grass gym leader, Milo.
We also got to see our champions back to having customization when it comes to their appearance, such as skin tone, eye color, hair style/color, and most importantly, fashion. Because, personally, I LOVE playing dress up in these games.
And finally, our big finale, WE GOT TO SEE THE NEW LEGENDARIES!! 2 wolf-like Pokémon, 1 with a sword in its mouth, called Zacian, and the other with a shield covering the front of its body, called Zamazenta, though their big role in the plot was not revealed.
