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Disclaimer: these are not official sketches.
I had to opportunity to finally see this upcoming generation set of starters, and I am pretty intrigued. As the images shown to us are highly protected, and due to the no cellphones allowed policies, I chose to draw these sketches from memory so you can have an idea of how they look like and not fully compromise myself. As per the game, it was described as the most ambitious project to date. The protagonists were described as much older than previous protagonists; late teens. The intention behind this decision is to bring back the older fans, while rejoicing newcomers. A presentation was shown, to the shock of us all, the region was previously inspired by Japan, mainly the Chubu and Tohoku areas, but later reworked to Southeast Asia, excluding areas related to Oceanía. No further details on gimmicks, characters, and upcoming Pokémon were disclosed. As a plot summary, we were just told that the main protagonist is on a holiday from a distant region after their mother wins the prize. However, she also gets involved in key plots. Images from the region’s gameplay were shown and it is massive, tropical, vibrant, and diverse.
The inspirations behind the starters are:
> the Greater Short-Nosed Fruit Bat (Grass)
> the Malaysian Red Bamboo Snake (Fire)
> the Crab-Eating Macaque (Water)
On another note, as we celebrated the Andrew Yoon Legend Award last 18th of January, we also were provided information on the upcoming port releases for FireRed and LeafGreen for 2026. No word on other port releases or if these would require subscriptions to Nintendo Switch Online.
I had to opportunity to finally see this upcoming generation set of starters, and I am pretty intrigued. As the images shown to us are highly protected, and due to the no cellphones allowed policies, I chose to draw these sketches from memory so you can have an idea of how they look like and not fully compromise myself. As per the game, it was described as the most ambitious project to date. The protagonists were described as much older than previous protagonists; late teens. The intention behind this decision is to bring back the older fans, while rejoicing newcomers. A presentation was shown, to the shock of us all, the region was previously inspired by Japan, mainly the Chubu and Tohoku areas, but later reworked to Southeast Asia, excluding areas related to Oceanía. No further details on gimmicks, characters, and upcoming Pokémon were disclosed. As a plot summary, we were just told that the main protagonist is on a holiday from a distant region after their mother wins the prize. However, she also gets involved in key plots. Images from the region’s gameplay were shown and it is massive, tropical, vibrant, and diverse.
The inspirations behind the starters are:
> the Greater Short-Nosed Fruit Bat (Grass)
> the Malaysian Red Bamboo Snake (Fire)
> the Crab-Eating Macaque (Water)
On another note, as we celebrated the Andrew Yoon Legend Award last 18th of January, we also were provided information on the upcoming port releases for FireRed and LeafGreen for 2026. No word on other port releases or if these would require subscriptions to Nintendo Switch Online.
