Pokemon Champions director Kazumasa Iwao says that the mainline Pokemon games could gradually move away from turn-based battles, as Champions is available for fans of the current combat system. Pokemon has a vibrant competitive scene, and having a battle-focused game allows Game Freak to experiment with different types of combat for the mainline games like Winds and Waves.
The Pokemon series has a large number of different battle systems from PokePark to Conquest, but the mainline series has stayed mostly the same, with each new generation making changes and building on existing mechanics. Both Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Pokemon Legends: Z-A had entirely new battle formats, but these are the exception rather than the rule.
Fans assumed that Winds and Waves would stick to the traditional turn-based formula, but Game Freak could be about to shake things up. In a video on Game Freak’s YouTube Channel, which has been translated by GamesRadar+, Iwao explains, “The Pokemon series has always used a turn-based battle system, but there is the possibility that this rule could change little by little.”
While this change might not be happening as soon as Winds and Waves, Game Freak’s desire to try out new systems is what led to the creation of Champions, which will preserve VGC-style turn-based battles. “There are people who have battled for decades since Pokemon Red/Green or Pokemon Gold/Silver, so we didn’t want to say like ‘it’s changed now, so please buy and play the new games,'” explains Iwao.
“That wouldn’t be good. However, at Game Freak we always want to challenge ourselves by doing new things with the series, but we don’t want to throw away the battle system that we’ve built until now,” he continues. “Because of this we thought it would be good to put the battle system we’ve constructed into one game that you can keep playing, and that’s where the development of Pokemon Champions began.”
The Pokemon World Championships take place this weekend (August 28 – 30) in San Francisco, and Pokemon Champions will be at the center of the video game battles. Going forward, it appears that the mainline games may no longer put competitive fighting at the center, as Champions becomes the focus of the battle arena.