Pokémon Presents Highlights - February 2022

Coinciding with Pokémon Day, the latest Pokémon Presents presentation celebrated the franchise’s 26th anniversary with updates on their current games and exciting announcements for the future. Here’s an overview of everything that was announced.

The first update was for the still immensely popular and immensely profitable Pokémon Go. Players can now start seeing and catching Pokémon from the Alolan region starting on March 1st.

Next was the two-and-a-half-year anniversary of Pokémon Masters EX. In addition to the new Victory Road feature that had already been live, new anniversary sync pairs are set to be available during March. New log-in rewards are also available from 3,000 gems and up to 100 sync pairs available to scout.

Pokémon Café Remix is being updated with a new delivery feature that sees a Pelipper deliver food to Pokémon outside of the café. Other new inclusions are Victini, new outfits, and three currently running events. A new puzzle mode is also set to come in early 2022.

Pokémon Unite is also adding new content through Pokémon Day events. A new mode called Full-Fury Battles has been added which reduces cooldowns and recovery times. Moves are also said to be easier to connect which is sure to make the overall pace a lot quicker. Hoopa can be unlocked during the event, while Duraludon is set to join in the future.

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl have both been updated with a new mystery gift item called Oak’s Letter. Players can use it to encounter the mythical Pokémon Shaymin and catch them.

A free update, titled Daybreak, is available for Pokémon Legends Arceus. It adds more outbreaks for Pokémon (including Alphas) and more battles at the training ground. It’s also possible to add characters when taking pictures at the photography studio now. For those who want even more of the Hisui region, an original story in the region will be adapted into an online animated series later in 2022.

Many were expecting there to be paid DLC for Pokémon Legends Arceus instead of a free update. Although it’s still possible that we’ll see that later on, it does seem unlikely with the final announcement of the presentation being for the next mainline entries in the series that’s due late this year, Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet.

Taking inspiration from the most recent game and expanding upon it, this new set of games will feature a true open world in a brand new region that seems to be based on Spain. The design of the default protagonists, as well as the region’s three starter Pokémon, were also revealed. Players have the choice between the grass cat Sprigatito, the fire crocodile Fuecoco, and the water duck Quaxly.

Even as someone who has only recently played Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Legends Arceus, I can’t deny that this was an exciting presentation to watch. Each game has some fun content that’s being added and of course, it’s always fun to see the announcement for something new. The incorporation of an actual open world in a proper main entry is crazy to think about and I’ll surely be checking the various Pokémon social media channels and their website for any tidbits about the new games throughout the year.