Pokémon Gen 10 Set To Majorly Shake Up Combat Yet Again

The Pokémon Company has been more experimental with the franchise in recent memory, looking for new and innovative ways to spice up the gameplay and give players something truly new to enjoy.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A felt like a mega-evolution for the Pokémon series in more ways than one, but its stand out feature had to have been the new battle mechanics.

The traditional turn-based battles were replaced with fast and fluid brawls similar to what you’d see in the TV series, making for a more engaging gameplay loop and one of the biggest shake-ups in the series yet.

However, leaks for Pokémon Gen 10 suggest the new battle mechanic in Pokémon Legends: Z-A is already getting ditched in favour of turn-based again.

Pokémon Wind & Waves is the title of Gen 10, and the games will apparently feature a more 'fluid version' of Pokémon Legends: Arceus’s combat.

The Pokémon Company

What this means is the battles will indeed be turn-based but the player won’t be locked into place, they can move around and direct their partner from different angles.

It’s not the same battle system seen in Pokémon Legends: Z-A but at least we’re not going entirely back to basics.

Reception to this idea from fans has been a bit mixed, as many believe Pokémon Legends: Z-A’s combat should remain part of the Legends series, still not believing that they’re mainline games and not spin-offs like many assume.

Others are fine with this change to more traditional Pokémon battles though, as many reckon the biggest problem the series had going for it wasn’t the turn-based battles themselves, it was how long you’d have to sit around doing nothing while the battle loaded in and your opponent did all of their moves.

Of course we need to take this with a pinch of salt as these are leaks we’re talking about, and The Pokémon Company still hasn’t officially acknowledged the existence of Pokémon Winds & Waves.



Game Freak

Other details regarding the game include the open-world, which will feature several islands and a vast ocean.

The islands will feature a wide variety of different Pokémon and the players will be able to explore the ocean’s depths.

It’s also said to be the biggest graphical improvements for the series in years, as the games are being developed solely for the Nintendo Switch 2 and as such can take advantage of the more advanced hardware.

Pokémon Wind & Waves sounds promising so far, but we’ll reserve our full judgement until we get a more complete picture of Gen 10.