This Week in Games

Pokémon Presents 2025

Welcome back, folks! I was feeling punchy last week, and I noticed I had omitted my closer after last week's column was published. Imagine I spent all weekend in a corner of your room, occasionally repeating vocal stims under my breath. Being a vtuber fan: woof, the news going around about VShojo was harrowing. I've been a longtime fan of a former founding member of VShojo, and the decisions on the agency's behalf always felt off. I'm not happy about anything that went down, nor how they did. It's rough out there for folks who work in creative fields...

Last year, Nintendo held a mysterious Playtest Program. There was little word about what the program was for; I had heard rumors that it might have been testing for Xenoblade Chronicles X's multiplayer functions, but the test itself was something completely unrelated. Nintendo had made people sign NDAs about the matter, but participants allege that the test was for some manner of massively multiplayer crafting game. The test was only open to 10,000 applicants, and any information that leaked out was quickly removed after Nintendo filed DMCA claims against them.

Well, they'll have to cast a wider net this time: Nintendo is bringing the test back, and they're quadrupling the testing pool.

Nintendo is still quite secretive about their new playtest, but the requirements to participate remain the same: you need to be enlisted with Nintendo Switch Online+'s service, and you need to have a Nintendo account that was registered to the appropriate territory. I tried to apply, but I don't have an NSO+ account. They also underline that the playtest is for the same service they tested back in October.

People who've taken part in the playtest allege that the tests are in service of some manner of MMO, something along the lines of Minecraft crossed with Death Stranding. Nintendo hasn't confirmed anything, and whatever these tests are in service of is likely early enough that the actual project could completely change its look or aesthetic.

The enlistment for the playtest is available now on Nintendo's website. If you're keen on joining, best be quick: the playtest runs from July 28 to August 10.

The Atelier games tend to get a lot of cute outfits as DLC. Understandable; people love seeing Ryza in swimsuits or what have you. (Also, I won't lie, the oversized Puni graphic t-shirts are adorable.) The latest in the current line of cameo goodies is, of all things, a Tekken crossover!

The offerings are pretty simple: Yumia herself gets a copy of Reina's outfit from Tekken 8, along with two new attacks based on Tekken moves (this lets Reina use an Electric God Fist). You also get a handful of quests based on Tekken—as well as a wig for Reina that gives her Heihachi Mishima's famous hairline. (It's specifically a wig—you can see the wrinkles in the bald cap and everything, it's hilarious.) It's also possible to give Punis Heihachi's hair and mustache—no dropping them off of cliffs, sadly. All of this is added for free, along with a few DLC packs that offer extra missions and recipes.

Famously, this is a lot better than what Tekken 8 got. It's not like Atelier Yumia's DLC is bad, it's that the Atelier Yumia DLC in Tekken was that bad—besides a plain t-shirt with some Atelier Yumia art and a Puni plushie, the big addition was... Yumia's ahoge. That's it. (They couldn't even spring for Yumia's magic matchlock-staff? Seriously?)

At any rate, if you want to pretend Reina Mishima is some placid woman having an RPG adventure in a fantasy land, Atelier Yumia is a fun time and worth looking into. It's fun even without the Tekken DLC. I reviewed Atelier Yumia this past spring; check it out!

It's that time of year again for The Pokémon Company International to show off what they have in store for fans! With Nintendo's Switch 2 finally out (and Scarlet/Violet being playable on it), there's likely no shortage of stuff TPCI has in store for folks. Also, it's nice that we got a heads-up on this one! All too often, we only get a two-day head start. I appreciate being able to plan for this one in advance.

The Pokémon World Championships are coming soon! Trainers from all over the globe come together to compete in various games, from the Pokémon Trading Card Game to Pokémon Unite (the official Pokémon MOBA, which is still going strong!), to even fighting in the mainline Pokémon games. And this year, the World Championship is held in... Anaheim, California.

I don't have the same weird knee-jerk hatred towards California that a lot of people online seem to have. Still, I don't think this was the best year for the Pokémon World Championships to be held there. International travel is rather fraught currently, with ICE raids and visa checks being intense. They're quite indiscriminate; tourists from Germany and Canada have been seized and detained, leading to standing travel warnings being issued in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. I don't know how likely it is that Border Patrol will accept "I'm here to take part in the Pokémon World Championship" as an excuse in this day and age. I'm willing to assume that there were just too many wheels in motion for The Pokémon Company International to change the tournament's location at this stage of the game.

But let's talk about some of the shows! We had a cute trailer for the new Pokémon Concierge season. Poor Haru is still up to her neck in wrangling the adorable stop-motion animated Pokémon at her hotel, while also bumping into her old ex, Kent. The good vibes seem to continue nevertheless, with Pokémon Concierge giving us a nice look into life with Pokémon that doesn't revolve around training, battles, or even dealing with criminals. Also, in a very cute twist, Season 2 features a soothing intro performed by city pop legend Tatsuro Yamashita (you might know him through Ride on Time, I also know him from the amazing Christmas song, Christmas Eve). The fun link here was that the first season featured a song from the other city pop legend, Mariya Takeuchi (whom we all know from that time Plastic Love flooded everyone's Recommended list). Takeuchi and Yamashita, famously, are married; the only course of action, of course, is for both of them to collaborate on a song for Pokémon Concierge third season.

Speaking of new shows! Longtime animation fans (especially those of us who grew up with the Cartoon Network in the 1990s) might know the name of Aardman Animation, courtesy of the much-beloved Wallace and Gromit shorts. Aardman has done a great deal more, going back to 1972, firmly planting them as respected legends in claymation and a major source of pride for the United Kingdom. So who better to make a goofy new series than Aardman? Now, I know what you're thinking: the answers are "yes." "Is it set in the Galar region?" Of course! How could Aardman resist? "Will there be sheep?" Yes! Aardman is also famous for the Shaun the Sheep animations. They're going to take advantage of Wooloo being cute, woolly, and sheep-y. The series is titled Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch'd and Pichu; going by the short, Sirfetch'd will play the role of a put-upon knight errant while his trusty squire, Pichu, gets him into trouble. I'm excited for this! It's a shame we won't see it until 2027; I think you could've put a lot of bugbears people had with Sword/Shield to bed if this aired alongside the release of those games.

Up next was the reveal of a new real-world project, PokéPark Kanto. Currently under construction at the Japanese theme park Yomiuri Land at Inagi, Tokyo, the park takes up a massive 26,000 square meters to serve as a "permanent" real-life Pokémon attraction. One half of the territory is "Sedge Town," a simulated town in the Pokémon world where you can visit a Pokémon Mart, a Gym, a Pokémon Center, as well as watch parades or interact with people. (Presumably, you'll also get to watch cute assemblies of those waddling Pikachu mascots wandering around.) The other half of the park is a forest, meant to serve as a "habitat" for 600 different varieties of Pokémon. They're just statues, but there's something about seeing a random Sudowoodo around the corner or a gaggle of Eevee statues frozen mid-frolic in the tall grass. (Though I do hope it doesn't disturb the habitats of any real-life animals in the area...)

The Pokémon universe emphasizes how much people live in harmony with nature, living with and learning from their Pokémon to lead happier lives. It's my hope that efforts like PokéPark Kanto inspire and encourage people to care about the environment around them and the creatures that we share it with. In the meantime: PokéPark Kanto opens in 2026.

Pokémon Go has its Max Festival starting this August 23 and 24, which will feature several Dynamax and Gigantomax Pokémon, as well as Eternatus. Carmine and Sinistcha join Pokémon Masters EX this July 29. Lapras in a cute ghost pirate-themed outfit will show up in Pokémon Café ReMix starting July 23. The Johto Trio (Entei, Suicune and Raikou) join Pokémon Sleep this September, along with a new area (Amber Canyon) debuting this November. Pokémon Unite will see Latios and Latias join the roster this July 18 and August 8, respectively. Finally, Pokémon Scarlet/Violet will get a free update for the Switch 2 that improves their framerate and performance. The games run well (also, amusingly, the game shows areas besides those blasted cliffs that everyone fixates on), and will also come with a quartet of Tera Raids featuring the four Treasures of Ruin Pokémon: Wo-Chien, Chien-Pao, Ting-Lu, and Chi-Yu. These Tera Raids also come with a quirk: each of the Treasures of Ruin can only be caught once they've been defeated one million times each!

I want to spend a moment talking about Pokémon Friends, the new Pokémon puzzle game for mobile devices and the Switch family that was shadow-dropped during the presentation. It's innocent enough; this one lets you solve daily puzzles in exchange for yarn that you can use in a gacha machine to earn virtual Pokémon plushies you can use to decorate a virtual room. It's harmless enough, but the game is very clearly designed for young children. It's also got some pretty nasty gacha trappings: daily yarn limitations, randomized plushies, and lots of DLC packs. The DLC packs add extra plushies and puzzles, while also removing play limitations (you can only finish one puzzle a day, otherwise). And all together, the game has $40 worth of DLC across three packs. This sucks! The last time a Pokémon game had monetization this bad, it was Pokémon Picross on the 3DS. Pokémon Picross should have been a smash hit, what with it being a cute take on Picross that allowed you to capture and use Pokémon to solve puzzles. But the game had a stamina system with a very slow refill speed. While Pokémon Picross was ostensibly free (sound familiar?), you could effectively remove the Stamina restriction by buying a $30-$40 premium pass. At that point, just sell it as a proper game—you're just giving folks a crappy product otherwise.

There was also news about the upcoming Pokémon Champions. Champions is a stripped-down version of the mainline Pokémon games, mostly revolving around battles. Certain unofficial apps exist for this purpose, facilitating the acquisition of proper Pokémon for high-level play. Champions hopes to serve as that while also functioning as a modern-day equivalent to Pokémon Stadium, albeit without the extra mini-games. Players will be able to import their Pokémon from Pokémon Home for use in Champions, or recruit new Pokémon from a roster. The roster is where things get interesting: players can earn points to recruit new Pokémon (or, likely, pay real-world money for extra currency). Once recruited, you can automatically determine things like a Pokémon's move set (from a list of all moves they can learn—no word yet on weird oddities like exclusive Tutor Moves), or their stat-altering Natures. You can also automatically distribute Effort Values to the appropriate stats. So it's not a complete free-for-all when it comes to acquiring new Pokémon, and there's still a degree of variance. But if you want the actual nuts-and-bolts experience of raising a Pokémon, you'll have to play the mainline game.

There are some people concerned with what Pokémon Champions might mean for Pokémon Showdown, an unofficial app made by fans that serves as the unofficial means by which to simulate high-level battles between players online. I don't share these concerns. It's pretty obvious that Showdown exists to fulfill a niche that the mainline games weren't occupying, but we have official support in that regard now. This is the risk of playing with someone else's toys. I can understand folks having some minor grievances with Pokémon Champions for it lacking some detail or other, but this is a hill that isn't worth dying on.

Finally, we have some updates on Pokémon Legends: Z-A! The new trailer introduced us to Team MZ, a gaggle of teens you join early on who are working hard at protecting Lumiose City. I'm especially taken with Naveen's design! For a while now, Pokémon has done some phenomenal work with designing Black characters, and it's rather odd to me that they don't get more credit for it. Lenore, Grant, Olivia, and Nessa are all stellar designs (and those are just a few characters off the top of my head!). Pokémon does a great job leveraging its worldwide popularity by also reflecting the people and places worldwide, which I love. Pokémon is all about meeting new people and seeing new places, after all, and I appreciate Pokémon's efforts in reflecting that diversity with its characters.

That great sense of design is reflected with the player character. There was some apprehension when the playable characters Urbaine and Taunie debuted. And to be fair: they look kinda bland. The upside is that we have a pretty wide selection of options for customizing our trainers! There is a vast variety of outfits for sale, but more importantly, there is also a massive selection of skin tones, hair styles, and makeups. You can even get two-toned hair! Pokémon X/Y introduced character customization to the Pokémon games, given that the theme of the Kalos region is "beauty." It's great to see the feature so heavily expanded upon. There's also a photo mode so you can take all of the cute pictures of your trainer and your Pokémon.

There is also a great deal of fan service for long-time players. Emma, who you might remember from Pokémon X/Y's post-game story, is back, and she seems to have taken up Looker's position as Lumiose City's best detective. Also, she still has her Expansion Suit—and her adorable Espurr. Also, Mabel is back! You might remember Mabel as one of the five evil Team Flare scientists. This time around, Mabel is taking up position as the head of Lumiose City's Pokémon Research Lab. Yes, she's now the local Pokémon professor, apparently taking up shop in Professor Sycamore's old lab.

Another surprise was the introduction of a new Mega-Evolution: Mega-Dragonite. For a long time, there have been some criticisms towards Dragonite's design over it being too great a departure from Dratini and Dragonair's: different color scheme, the addition of limbs, no horn... Mega-Dragonite fixes that, giving Mega-Dragonite head-wings that evoke Dragonair's, along with Dragonair's tail gem. They also introduced Rogue Megas: fights against wild Pokémon who somehow manage to Mega-Evolve without a trainer's help. These seem to serve as boss battles wherein you can team up with Team MZ members to fight them.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A releases this October 16th on the Switch and Switch 2. Nintendo will also be releasing a Switch 2 bundle with a free digital download for the game, available on the same day.

Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road has been delayed again, this time to November 13. What's another delay, right?

Fate/Extra Record is also delayed to sometime in Spring of 2026. The team apologizes for the inconvenience.

Taisuke Kanasaki's Dear me, I was... is slated for release in Japan this July 31 for the Switch 2, with language options for English, Japanese, Spanish, French, Italian, and Traditional and Simplified Chinese. It'll also retail for 850 yen. No word on a United States release, however...

Success's new visual novel, GHOST TRAVELER: Portraits Before the Prologue, is due for release on Steam and Nintendo Switch this October 16th. You'll play as a young man sent back to the Edo period to solve a series of grisly murders at brothels. As per the game's Steam page, Ghost Traveler features AI-generated voicework and translations. Some backgrounds and characters were also generated in AI and later "modified" by proper artists.

That'll do it for this week. At the time of writing, Itch.io has shut off a wide swath of adult content from their storefront. It's a particularly rough time for creatives at large. I say it often, but this is a good time to support your favorite creators. Artists, writers, streamers, animators—do what you can to show them some support. Be good to each other. I'll see you in seven. (I didn't forget this time!)

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This Week In Games! is written from idyllic Portland by Jean-Karlo Lemus. When not collaborating with Anime News Network, Jean-Karlo can be found playing Japanese RPGs, eating popcorn, watching v-tubers, and tokusatsu. You can keep up with him at @ventcard.bsky.social.

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