Let’s start with the announcement trailer I still think it is weird that we haven’t seen much about these games since the official announcement, but there is a lot to unpack even in this trailer with a 2027 release it is odd given this is the 30th aniversary that we don’t actually know that much about this game. Pokemon Day is usually at the begining of the year, but barely anything this year and no spinoff game either. I guess they expected a Mincraft clone with a Pokemon skin to do the heavy lifting, but I really don’t like Pokepia so more of it was never going to be for me.

So lets start with the first Pokemon you get seems fitting to start predictions with the starter Pokemon. This time we have a fire dog Pombon, a discount Rowlet in Browt, and Sobbles twin Geuqua. Overall the starters don’t seem interesting to me, but I want to guess their typing I think this time Pombon will be Fire Fairy because it looks like it may fit the friendlier look of the Pokemon and the fact there is nothing with that type combo yet, next Geuqua could be Water Poison judging by how it looks and still gives an advantage over Pombon, next Browt my two best guesses are Grass Psychic, Ground, Steel, or Dragon. Psychic because Poison would still be weak to it same with ground and real life owls do spend some time on the ground, Steel because still weak to fire earning a quad weakness but immune to poison, and Dragon while overpowered if limited to the final evolution at least won’t be too bad and weak to my prediction for Pombon.

Wind Pikachu and Wave Pikachu

These two seem to be references to Surfing Pikachu and Flying Pikachu. Wind Pikachu is male while Wave Pikachu is female referencing how the move they learned when given away at events was gender specific for awhile (though Pokemon Adventures swapped it.) To properly analyze them I decided to look up the special Pikachu’s that have shown up in the seires. First Flying and Surfing Pikachu were event Pokemon in Stadium after first showing up in minigames and during the opening of Pokemon Yellow, the next special Pikachu related thing was an item and move in Gen 3 with the debut of the Light Ball an item that when held by Pikachu would double its Attack and Special Attack, further when held and put in a day care the resulting Pichu would have an exclusive move: Volt Tackle. Next was the Cosplay Pikachu a contest Pikachu that had max stats in contest catagories and specific costumes to preform in each one and a move that matches with one of the catagories. One of these Pikachu forms would even be playable in Pokken and Smash Bros, Pikachu Libre though it acts as a skin for Pikachu in Smash. Lastly, we got Partner Pikachu a Pikachu who had special moves based on the HM moves. He had boosted stats and was the partner of the Player character.

Next, the region seems tropical given the shots we have seen so far. So quite different from the last two generations. I don’t hate this as it means they can add diferent enviorments depending on the island the player is at. A volcanic island can have tons of fire types and a colder island can have some ice and water types. I think the only problem I have is during the 20th anniversary for Sun and Moon they did the same thing. However, I am hopeful we have an island with challenges that represent each type similar to how Scarlet and Violet handeled their challenges.