Pokemon Presents February 2023 recap: Announcements and reveals

Well, it’s Pokemon Day, the day when Pokemon Red and Green first dropped in Japan. It’s a day that’s normally saved for the biggest Pokemon news drops of the year. So why don’t we just hop right in and see what they got in store? If you have it almost 30 minutes, you can always watch here as well.

But if you just want a quick recap, we got you. Let’s dig in.

00:00 – Tsunekazu Ishihara, the President and CEO of The Pokemon Company started the presentation off alongside a Pikachu that I couldn’t entirely tell if it was animatronic or CG. If it’s the first one though, I WANT IT. The CEO went on to talk about the history of Pokemon Day and how it went from 150 to the over 1000 Pokemon there are today.
00:54 – The CEO went on to talk about the Pokemon World Championships where it was passed over to Chris Brown (not that one), the head of the Pokemon Company’s Global Esports division where they talked about various things.
- How this is the first ever to be held in Japan.
- About how over 10,000 people were at last years in London (despite it being a pandemic, tsk tsk).
- There will be a heavy focus on the Scarlet and Violet games, the Pokemon Trading Card game, Pokemon GO, and Pokemon Unite.
- It will be from August 11th – 13th at the PACIFICO Yokohama.
- They showed the key art work for the first time which featured Pikachu and the starters from Scarlet and Violet in an art style that looks like they came out of Legends Arceus.
- They are going to be broadcasting the events live all weekend long.

02:48 – Cutting back to the CEO, they then went on to show a new video for something called Pokemon Trading Card Classic.
- It’s a high end game board with very nice looking game pieces for the trading card game. Stacking damage counters, a roulette style wheel to handle certain dice rolls and coin tossed, special card sleeves and what looks like recreations of many of the original Pokemon cards including that damned Charizard people keep spending the price of a small country for.
- Information on it can be found at tcg.pokemon.com/classic and you should look because it looks gorgeous.
- Created by the design team nendo, Creatures, and the Pokemon Company.
- It will be unveiled at the aforementioned Pokemon World Championships as a sneak peak.
04:55 – The CEO announced a new Pokemon venture and introduced Ms. Mingyun Kim from Netflix.
- She introduced a new series titled “Pokemon Concierge”.
- It will be done in stop-motion animation from Dwarf Studio.
- The series will be set at a Pokemon resort and follow the concierge named “Haru”.
- They then show a “sneak peek” that is honestly just a Psyduck walking through the sand before looking at the camera so don’t expect too much info just yet.
7:04 – The video goes back to the CEO who states they’re going to go into the video games before passing it over to COO of the Pokemon Company, Takato Utsonomiya, who seems to have aged 10 years since last years direct.
7:46 – Normally these directs bury the lead by going into things like Pokemon Cafe and Pokemon Unite, but Takato dives right in to talk about an update to Scarlet and Violet. Just kidding, he’s going to talk about minor updates to EVERYTHING else Pokemon related first. Sit tight.
7:59 – Pokemon Unite news.
- Zacian will be joining the battle.
  - Has a very powerful move called Sovereign Sword which does high damage to enemies in a small half circle in front of it. This move can be charged up as well.
  - It will also have Halowear that puts it in a tuxedo with a top hat because why not.
- New events:
  - The Adventure in Zacian’s Wield
    - Complete missions to receive rewards with the final one the license to unlock Zacian for free.
  - Boss rush
    - A mode where you and some friends can battle against the randomly appearing “boss” Pokemon for a chance at rewards.
  - A gift code for Pokemon Day
    - Enter the code “POKEMONDAY” to get a golden Zacian boost emblem.
    - The code expires March 26th, 2023.
  - On March 18th and 19th they will stream the invite-only Asia Champions League events.

9:41 – After an alarmingly long video displaying fruit being washed they talk about Pokemon from the Scarlet and Violet game being brought into the Pokemon Cafe game.
- The starters (Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly) will start visiting your cafe.
- It introduces a new Paldean dish that is odd for two reasons.
  - One, it seems to be a massive tray with different food making me wonder why they didn’t add MULTIPLE new foods.
  - Two, there aren’t any sandwiches and last I checked, Paldea runs off sandwiches.
- You can choose one of the three starters at the beginning of the event to join your staff.
- If you log in before March 17th, 2023, you’ll also get the character Greninja with a Great chef costume.
- Many of the other five-star chefs will be returning for a chance to capture them again including Victini, Celebi, and the Halloween Mimikyu.
- If you log in before March 17th, 2023, you’ll also get 11x express delivery for free.

11:16 – Pokemon Masters EX (which is somehow still around) is celebrating their 3.5 year anniversary which is not an anniversary I thought existed.
- A special rally will be added bringing back many of the earlier trainers.
- New characters will be added like:
  - Champion Hop (he wishes) with a Galarian Zapdos (from March 2 to April 9)
  - Champion Bede with a Galarian Articuno (from March 4 to April 9)
  - Champion Marnie with a Galarian Moltra (from Feb 28 to April 9)
- Leon and Charizard will also be returning with Max Moves unlocked.
- If you log in before March 18th you’ll get 100 free summons, 10 a day. As well as 3,000 gems.

12:51 – The COO then introduces the next video for…wait…WAIT…is this? Could it be? Oh my god, it’s Pokemon Sleep! Finally!
- Releases later this year in the summer.
- Described as something that helps you look forward to waking up in the morning.
- The “game” takes place on a small island where you’ll encounter a Snorlax and Professor Neroli, the researcher of Pokemon sleep.
- To “play” simply leave your smart phone by your bed with the app active and it will measure your sleep rhythm, time slept, etc.
- From there it categorizes your sleep type into one of three different types of sleep: Dozing, Snoozing, or Slumbering.
- As you sleep, more Pokemon gather around the sleeping Snorlax including what it says are “rare sleep-styles never before seen”.

16:42 – The COO then introduces us to something called Pokemon Go Plus +. (Is that Plus Plus?)
- The first thing they show is an accessory. A sleek, flat Pokeball themed disc.
  - It works with both Pokemon Sleep AND Pokemon Go.
    - For Pokemon Sleep, the device can be placed on the bed next to you instead of your phone.
      - Hold the button down to tell it you’re going to sleep and then again in the morning when you wake up and it will record your sleep data.
      - There’s a Pikachu in the device that can sing lullabies, grow friendly the more you share sleep with it, and unlock new alarm sounds over time.
    - For Pokemon GO, the device works much like the original Pokemon Go Plus.
      - It spins Pokestops automatically
      - Can be used to throw regular Pokeballs at near by Pokemon without having to take out your phone.
      - Can now be set to also use Great and Ultra Balls as well.
    - Weirdly there are also plans to tie your Pokemon Sleep and Pokemon Go data together for something unannounced.
    - It will be available on July 14th, 2023.
    - If you link it to Pokemon Go you also get a new research mission that will allow you to discover a Snorlax with a sleeping cap.

18:41 – Finally, they go into updates for Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet.
- Two new Paradox Pokemon will be added to the game.
  - Walking Wake, which looks like Suicune crossed with a raptor and is a Water/Dragon type which will appear in Pokemon Scarlet.
  - Iron Leaves, which looks like a robotic version of Virizon and is a Grass/Psychic type which will appear in Pokemon Violet.
  - They will be available, unfortunately, only through a Tera Raid battle which will be introduced to the game any moment now.
- The games will also soon be able to connect with Pokemon Go.
  - Sending one of your saved Postcards into the Scarlet/Violet games will allow you to unlock the Vivillon from that region.
  - Sending postcards also allows you to find and catch Roaming Form Gimmeghoul in Pokemon GO.
  - Collecting 999 Gimmeghoul coins will allow you to evolve it into Gholdengo in Pokemon GO.
- Pokemon Home support is also slated to be linked to Pokemon Scarlet and Violet early this year.
  - This will allow you to bring Roaming Form Gimmeghoul into Scarlet and Violet from Pokemon GO.

21:04 – It cuts back to the COO so he can do his now infamous “We’d like to share with you one last video.”
- The announcement shows two seperate videos. One of kids attending a Japanese lantern festival and another showing a mysterious facility in the middle of the ocean.
- It is titled “The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero” and will have two parts.
- Part 1 is titled “The Teal Mask”.
  - Slated for Fall 2023.
  - The story will have you take a school trip to the land of Kitikami.
  - It looks to feature four very interesting new Pokemon that seem to be styled after festival masks. The main one is named Ogerpon.
  - It will also feature several reoccuring Pokemon that weren’t in Scarlet and Violet. The ones shown include.
    - Chingling
    - Milotic
    - Vikavolt
    - Shiftry
    - Yanma
    - Ninetails (original)
- Part 2 is titled “The Indigo Disk”.
  - Slated for Winter 2023.
  - You become an exchange student at the mysterious Blueberry Academy. The aforementioned building in the middle of the ocean.
  - It will also feature several reoccuring Pokemon that weren’t in Scarlet and Violet. The ones shown include:
    - Zebstrika
    - Whimsicott
    - Dewgong
    - Alcremie
    - Metagross
    - Espurr
  - They also introduce a new legendary Pokemon. A turtle who’s shell is made out of shining tiles containing the various element types on them named Terapagos.
- Pre-ordering it (as soon as now) will allow you to unlock several new uniform types (finally) the moment you pre-order it.
- Another early purchase bonus, before October 31st, 2023, is that you get a special Hisuian Zoroark that cannot be obtained through regular means.
  - Knows the move Happy Hour
  - Tera Type is Dark
  - Has the Charismatic Mark

25:23 – It cuts back to the CEO for the Nintendo mainstay line of “Well? What did you think?”

Well? Tell us in the comments. What did you think?

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Pokemon Presents February 2023: Big announcements, reveals and more

By Eric Halliday | Feb 27, 2023