Game Freak Signals 30-Year Pokémon Battle Shift as Champions Preserves Turn-Based Play
Updated
Updated · Kotaku · Aug 21
Game Freak Signals 30-Year Pokémon Battle Shift as Champions Preserves Turn-Based Play
3 articles · Updated · Kotaku · Aug 21
Summary
Game Freak said Pokémon Champions was built to keep the series’ long-running competitive battle rules playable indefinitely, even as future mainline games may move away from the traditional format.
In a new developer video, designer Shigeki Morimoto and co-director Kazumasa Iwao said the studio wanted one title to preserve decades of turn-based play while freeing the broader franchise to keep experimenting.
Last year’s Legends: Z-A already tested that direction with real-time battles, a divisive change that broke from the turn-based system used across roughly 30 years of Pokémon games.
Game Freak gave no specifics on what future battle systems will look like, leaving Champions positioned as the home for old-school competitive play if the series keeps evolving.