Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet came out in 2022, with the Teal Mask and Indigo Disk DLC coming out in 2023. Pokémon Winds and Waves is scheduled for release in 2027, meaning there will be about 5 years between one generation of Pokémon and the next. I hope this pays off, because I’ve been saying, as have many others, that development for Pokémon games have become increasingly rushed. It was doable early on when the games were relatively simple to make, but as game design has become increasingly laborious and the number of Pokémon steadily increasing every year (including alternate forms), what they needed most was more time. Even the best development team in the world cannot make a good game with too little time. (The most legendary case is E.T. for the Atari 2600, developed in less than a month. Though the makers of that game put that time restriction on themselves, it should be a lesson to all future game development teams.)
That, and having an incredibly low budget to make these games—remember how I said the Super Bowl commercial cost more than the development budget of Pokémon Legends: Z-A? Allow me to adjust that statement: the Super Bowl commercial cost more to make than the development budgets of Pokémon Legends: Z-A and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet combined. If the teaser trailer is any indication of how it’d look (no guarantee there, as Legends: Z-A was downscaled too, and you have fine print on the bottom saying that this is not final footage), the extra time needed to make this game should be a return to form. Bear in mind that most of the non live-action footage from Scarlet and Violet also used gameplay footage, which looked not much different from the final game too.
Type: Double Battle
Opponent: Arrie
Battle Court: Naranja Academy/Uva Academy
Music: Wild Pokémon
My Pokémon: Pyroar, Feraligatr, Hippowdon, Farigiraf
Opponent’s Pokémon: Flutter Mane, Tornadus (Incarnate), Landorus (Incarnate), Chi-Yu
What a lineup from my opponent. All four of my opponent’s selected Pokémon are Legendary or Paradox, meaning 570 is the minimum base stat total among them. (They also had Incineroar and Amoonguss, but they were not selected. It also means my opponent’s entire team is from only three generations: V, VII, and IX. Likely not intentional.)
That was also quite the insistence on Tornadus and Rain Dance. A sound strategy because it cannot be overridden by an Ability-generated weather condition on the most frequently seen Pokémon in Ranked (though it can still be overridden by Sand Spit if Sandaconda gets attacked), and makes sense when Pyroar is around to suppress damage from Fire-type attacks, but it does inhibit their own Chi-Yu, and they lost a couple of turns of Tornadus setting up or attacking in some other way. I am not a mind reader though, so I would have no idea what they were up to and if this is a core part of their strategy. My best guess for the second Rain Dance was to stop that sandstorm from Hippowdon at all costs, not accounting for the fact that Farigiraf is also an attacker. (Not that great of an attacker, as her effort points are based around resilience in order to still be standing when Trick Room comes up, but being able to also deal damage is quite helpful.)
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet came out in 2022, with the Teal Mask and Indigo Disk DLC coming out in 2023. Pokémon Winds and Waves is scheduled for release in 2027, meaning there will be about 5 years between one generation of Pokémon and the next. I hope this pays off, because I’ve been saying, as have many others, that development for Pokémon games have become increasingly rushed. It was doable early on when the games were relatively simple to make, but as game design has become increasingly laborious and the number of Pokémon steadily increasing every year (including alternate forms), what they needed most was more time. Even the best development team in the world cannot make a good game with too little time. (The most legendary case is E.T. for the Atari 2600, developed in less than a month. Though the makers of that game put that time restriction on themselves, it should be a lesson to all future game development teams.)
That, and having an incredibly low budget to make these games—remember how I said the Super Bowl commercial cost more than the development budget of Pokémon Legends: Z-A? Allow me to adjust that statement: the Super Bowl commercial cost more to make than the development budgets of Pokémon Legends: Z-A and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet combined. If the teaser trailer is any indication of how it’d look (no guarantee there, as Legends: Z-A was downscaled too, and you have fine print on the bottom saying that this is not final footage), the extra time needed to make this game should be a return to form. Bear in mind that most of the non live-action footage from Scarlet and Violet also used gameplay footage, which looked not much different from the final game too.
Type: Double Battle
Opponent: Arrie
Battle Court: Naranja Academy/Uva Academy
Music: Wild Pokémon
My Pokémon: Pyroar, Feraligatr, Hippowdon, Farigiraf
Opponent’s Pokémon: Flutter Mane, Tornadus (Incarnate), Landorus (Incarnate), Chi-Yu
What a lineup from my opponent. All four of my opponent’s selected Pokémon are Legendary or Paradox, meaning 570 is the minimum base stat total among them. (They also had Incineroar and Amoonguss, but they were not selected. It also means my opponent’s entire team is from only three generations: V, VII, and IX. Likely not intentional.)
That was also quite the insistence on Tornadus and Rain Dance. A sound strategy because it cannot be overridden by an Ability-generated weather condition on the most frequently seen Pokémon in Ranked (though it can still be overridden by Sand Spit if Sandaconda gets attacked), and makes sense when Pyroar is around to suppress damage from Fire-type attacks, but it does inhibit their own Chi-Yu, and they lost a couple of turns of Tornadus setting up or attacking in some other way. I am not a mind reader though, so I would have no idea what they were up to and if this is a core part of their strategy. My best guess for the second Rain Dance was to stop that sandstorm from Hippowdon at all costs, not accounting for the fact that Farigiraf is also an attacker. (Not that great of an attacker, as her effort points are based around resilience in order to still be standing when Trick Room comes up, but being able to also deal damage is quite helpful.)
