Pokémon games are notoriously conservative in their design. Although I’m a fan of the series, I regularly skip entire generations because playing the titles in quick succession highlights how similar they are. But in the Nintendo Switch era, as the series transitioned from handheld devices to a handheld-console hybrid, something funny happened to the beloved monster-catching RPG: Pokémon finally evolved.
Unfortunately, this evolution is still incomplete. Modern Pokémon games contain some of the franchise’s most ambitious highs and its most baffling lows. But over the past few entries, beleaguered developer Game Freak has shown that it at least knows what individual innovations are required to make the epic and immersive Pokémon game I’ve always dreamed of. With the tenth generation presumably coming to Nintendo Switch 2, perhaps to celebrate Pokémon’s 30th anniversary in 2026, the time has come to bring all those innovations together and execute at last.
The Dream
Ironically, the first Pokémon game on Switch was also its most modest. Pokémon: Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee were pleasant enough remakes of the original Kanto-era Pokémon titles that had already been remade before, now with added connection to the wildly popular Pokémon Go. In retrospect, their small scope allowed for some of the most polished visuals in a Pokémon game. They were fun, but they didn’t exactly promise a bold future.
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But in 2019, that future started to peek through with Pokémon Sword and Shield. Again, the bulk of the gameplay was very familiar, this time building off the style of the previous generation Pokémon Sun and Moon. However, one of its biggest changes (besides the Pokémon themselves growing to kaiju size) provided a tantalizing tease of how these games could level up. Between gym battles, Sword and Shield let you explore the Wild Area, a little open world full of creatures both cute and dangerous for you to freely encounter. Although the game was still rooted in handheld design, here was a Pokémon experience that truly belonged on a console. For the first time, you could even move the camera.
Unfortunately, the Wild Area was riddled with issues. It felt like the game was only tepidly committed to this experimental proof of concept. The performance was bad, with pop-in and primitive textures. It seemed empty, unfinished, and cheap. But I still got excited realizing that Game Freak saw the vision for what Pokémon needed to become, even if this attempt was underbaked. It was a crude version of the ultimate Pokémon fantasy: just you as a trainer out in the untamed wilderness, dealing with monsters however you choose. The game’s DLC doubled down on this even further, introducing new campaigns that took place entirely within new Wild Areas, and I remember them far more fondly than the straightforward main game.
With this promise, it finally seemed like the dream of a blockbuster, uncompromised open-world Pokémon title would finally come true. We just had to be patient. However, while we have gotten closer, we still aren’t there, and my patience is wearing thin.
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
On paper, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet were this bold leap into the future. Released in 2022, the next mainline Pokémon titles didn’t inch toward freedom but embraced it wholeheartedly as true expansive open-world games. You could go anywhere, catch any Pokémon, and complete challenges in any order you liked. Although battles themselves were still rigid, turn-based affairs, now they happened right in front of you, like you actually existed in the Pokémon world. It sounded like the dream.
Then we faced reality. Although the Nintendo Switch isn’t the most powerful system in the world, Scarlet and Violet’s dated visuals and uneven technical performance did not stack up against other open-world titles on the system, like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Even when a free Switch 2 upgrade significantly boosted stability, for me there was still something unappealing about the art style in this vaguely Spain-inspired Paldea region. As for the gameplay, the open-world format was a novel way to approach familiar Pokémon tasks, such as tackling gym leaders, battling evil teams, and hunting legendary beasts. But the map itself was bland and generic, just like countless other examples of the genre. Millions of players still found tons of fun in Paldea despite these issues. Even I admired the ambition; it got us closer to the dream. However, we still weren’t there.
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Scarlet and Violet’s failings were especially frustrating because earlier that same year, Game Freak released a different Pokémon game that arguably did even more to push us closer to the ideal experience. Pokémon Legends: Arceus leveraged its status as a pseudo spin-off to reinvigorate the Pokémon RPG, incorporating action mechanics and enhanced exploration. It wasn’t a true open-world game. Building off of Sword and Shield’s Wild Areas, Arceus’s open zones were closer to arenas in a Monster Hunter game. But it was full of distinct large biomes ripe for adventure.
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Meanwhile, Arceus made significant strides in reinventing Pokémon gameplay systems for the better. To catch creatures, you sneak up on them, manually aim and toss your Poké Ball, and dodge out of the way before they attack you. This more hands-on, primal gameplay paired well with a story set in the ancient past, when people feared these strange, wild beasts. I loved the mechanics, and seeing them removed in Scarlet and Violet in exchange for more traditional systems also made those titles feel like a step back. Arceus’ foundation was incredible; the only thing holding it back was a disappointing lack of content compared with a mainline release.
Not Quite A-Tier
Finally, that brings us to the latest title, Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the best French-themed and bizarrely subtitled 2025 RPG since Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I agree with many points in our review. While the single, large, open-world city is a cool, almost Yakuza-esque idea, it’s too visually repetitive. The game desperately needs some surrounding wilderness or bigger sewer systems to explore. The Nintendo Switch 2’s performance bump is nice, but it still has a low-budget feel, with stiff cutscenes and no voice acting. There’s more to do than in Arceus, with a more robust story, but it doesn’t feel like it got the full attention of a mainline game. We still aren’t there yet.
Recommended by Our Editors
But we’re so close. Surrounding issues aside, Z-A’s gameplay is the best Pokémon has ever been, thanks to even more dramatic changes to the formula. It retains Arceus’ excellent catching mechanics, making the hunt for new monsters tense and tactical. But it also ditches the slow, turn-based, abstract battle system for exhilarating real-time battles. Similar to a game like Xenoblade (or Palworld), you actively issue commands that operate on cooldowns, and consider your surroundings when making decisions. Now, factors like distance and timing matter as much as elemental effectiveness. Snipe your opponent with a flamethrower and fly into the sky to avoid their counterattack.
All these systems combined made my time with Legends Z-A the most “real” a Pokémon game has ever felt to me, like I was actually a Pokémon trainer doing these things straight out of the anime, not just playing a video game. Running on Paris rooftops, regrouping at my fancy yet welcoming hotel at night, and watching as the tournament overtook the city reminded me of my time at the Paris Olympics in 2024. Although Z-A isn’t as exploratory as Arceus, it has Wild Zones in the form of city blocks that have been sectioned off as wild Pokémon habitats, much to the chagrin of some inhabitants. It’s a cool examination of the industrial and natural worlds colliding, almost like a Miyazaki movie. Despite itself, Pokémon Legends: Z-A is one of my favorite games of the year. It just can, and should, be better.
“All these systems combined made my time with Legends: Z-A the most “real” a Pokémon game has ever felt to me, like I was actually a Pokémon trainer”
The Final Form
Evolution is a fun thing to observe in video games. The recent Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection shows the humble origins of the eventual fighting game juggernaut. Playing Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted made it even stranger to realize that this mobile tower defense game eventually evolved into a class-based shooter. Even indie hit Ball x Pit updates classic Breakout gameplay with new-school roguelike mechanics. Hardware evolves, too. Valve’s hardware failures led to the Steam Deck, which created a new handheld gaming PC category. We can all change for the better, including Pokémon.
So what do I want exactly—what is my dream Pokémon game? I want an open-world action-RPG with Z-A’s catching and battling mechanics, Arceus’ sense of exploration, the full scope of a mainline game, and the presentation and graphical quality befitting a PS4-tier device like the Nintendo Switch 2. It’s not too much to ask for a team that has already pulled off many of these ideas. I’m not a competitive player, and many of them would probably balk at such a drastic change to the core formula, but the upcoming Pokémon Champions should placate them. We can’t let that concern, or other silly controversies like only several hundred monsters making the cut instead of the full thousand, hold us back from the dream.
Pokémon is improving; its design is getting bigger and bolder within its breakneck production schedule. Pokémon Legends: Z-A has my favorite Pokémon gameplay to date. But I have to qualify that praise with so many asterisks, something I’ve done for years with this series. Pokémon is a huge financial success. It can be an unqualified critical success, too. If we can catch ‘em all, Pokémon can do it all.
About Our Expert
Jordan Minor
Senior Writer, Software
Experience
My PCMag career began in 2013 as an intern. Now, I’m a senior writer, using the skills I acquired at Northwestern University to write about dating apps, meal kits, programming software, website builders, video streaming services, and video games. I was previously a senior editor at Geek.com and have written for The A.V. Club, Kotaku, and Paste Magazine. I’m the author of the gaming history book Video Game of the Year: A Year-by-Year Guide to the Best, Boldest, and Most Bizarre Games from Every Year Since 1977, and the reason everything you know about Street Sharks is a lie.
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