Presenting a Mid-August Pokémon Presents Riff (8-18-21 Presentation Reacton+Thoughts).

Hey everyone: now that I’m back from out of town, I offer my belated thoughts on this month’s “Pokémon Presents” livestream. After the dry spell of information in June and July; we finally have more details on upcoming games, and the highly-anticipated Sinnoh titles on Nintendo Switch in particular; so let’s get started.

The presentation was overseen by The Pokémon Company COO Takato Utsunomiya; and began by revealing info on updates for several spinoffs: in addition to the new events for Pokémon Go and Pokémon Masters EX; Pokémon Café Mix will receive a revamp with Pokémon Café Remix later this year.  The MOBA spinoff Pokémon UNITE will also see release on iOS and Android mobile devices on September 22, with bonuses granted to early adopters; and cross play with the Switch port enabled for those who connect the game to a Nintendo Account or Pokémon Trainer Club account.

Now, comes the details of the highly-anticipated Sinnoh titles: the remakes “Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl,” and the prequel “Pokémon Legends Arceus.” The remakes, which are releasing on November 19; have made considerable progress since their initial reveal this past February. On top of seeing the return of beloved characters and features from the original games on the Nintendo DS (the new Super Contests and updated Union Room look great), the game also includes a host of new ones such as character customization. As you can imagine; I’m very eager to play them.

The stream was capped off with key details on “Pokémon Legends Arceus,” Game Freak’s next major title releasing January 28, 2022. Taking place in the Hisui region (what the Sinnoh region was known as in ancient times); you are tasked with assembling the very first Pokédex under the guidance of Professor Laventon. On top of the title having made quite a bit of progress in development, I think this game could very well be the blueprint for future games in the series going forward. It has the potential to be the Pokémon series’ “Super Mario Odyssey,” “Metroid Prime” or “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.” That last title definitely has shown considerable influence on this game’s design. Perhaps it only makes sense to finally return to Sinnoh now. For the 25th anniversary, the future is in the past.

I will detail more on these games as their launch gets closer, but for now; something came up and I need time to process it. That will be all for now, take care everyone.