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Dogasu's Backpack
| Rants
| Happy Anniversary! (Year Twenty-Three)
By Dogasu
Posted January
8th, 2023
Every year I make an attempt to predict
what will happen in the World of Pokémon and then post those
predictions on my website as a sort of fun little game. Part of that
game is to then check back on those predictions a year later to see how
I did. So let's take a look to see if any
of the
stuff I thought would happen in 2023 ended up coming true!
I
think we'll get word of a Pocket
Monsters Scarlet & Violet DLC on
Pokémon Day, with a Part 1 coming in Summer and Part 2 coming
before the holiday 2023 season. |
The
Hidden Treasure of Area Zero was announced on February 27th, 2023
during a Pokémon Presents, and we did indeed get the DLC
delivered to us in two parts. Part
1 was released in the summer (September 13th, 2023, about a week before
the autumnal equinox) and Part 2 was technically released in the autumn
(December 14th, 2023) but close enough, I guess.
What
will the new DLC-exclusive Paradox Pokémon be? I think we'll see
"Iron Fangs" (based on Onvern), "Flowing Dragon" (based on Jijilong),
and "Iron Sweets" (based on Mawhip); in other words, at least one new
Paradox Pokémon for each of the three generations who currently
do not have any. |
Nope! We just got Paradox Pokémon based on the rest of the Johto
/ Isshu beasts instead.
I
don't see us getting any sort of performance patches for Scarlet &
Violet unless it's
bundled in with a larger update. Like, maybe they'll
throw in some bug fixes during a routine security-related patch, or
maybe a few fixes when they add Pokémon Home compatibility, but
I don't think we'll get any updates that exist solely to fix its many,
many performance issues. The games have already sold a gajillion copies
already; Game Freak isn't going to spend any more time / money / effort
on these games than they absolutely have to.
|
There were a few updates that seemed to be primarily performance-based
(1.3.0, 1.3.1, 1.3.2)
so I guess I technically got this one wrong. The games still run like
hot trash, though, so while Game Freak did put out a few tiny
little fires here and there they never got around to doing the big "if
you install
this update your game will run so much better" type update the games so
desperately need.
We'll
continue to see new Pokémon added to the games via raids, with
all the starters coming out by the end of 2023.
|
We did end up getting all the starters, though the majority of them
came through the DLC, not raid events.
The
Pokémon Stadium
games will come and go on the Switch Online
service, but since we'll be forced to use Rental Pokémon most
people probably won't play it for very long before running online to
complain about how poorly those games have aged. Also, Rougela will be
recolored purple and have its fainting animation altered because
disappearing into a purple "void" would just look too awkward.
|
Right on most of those, though Rougela's fainting animation wasn't
really altered any other than the expected color swap.
Anyway, um...when was the last time any of you played the Stadium games on the Switch Virtual
Console?
I
do not
think the Nintendo Switch is getting a Game Boy Virtual Console.
A few years ago I would have said sure, throw a Game Boy emulator and
the Gen 1 / Gen 2 Pokémon games up there, but let's be honest;
the system is probably closer to the end of its lifespan than it is its
beginning. I don't see Nintendo putting in the resources needed to port
a bunch of ROMS over to their Switch when chances are very high they'll
be announcing something new at some point within the next twelve months.
|
We did get a Game Boy / Game Boy Color Virtual Console last year but
it didn't end up having any mainline Pokémon games. I don't
expect that to change in 2024.
At
the risk of repeating myself from last year: I think Pokémon Go
will bring us Z-Moves at some point in 2023.
|
We're now at the point
in Pokémon Go's life where they're able to add current gen
Pokémon to the game and yet we still haven't gotten any Z-Moves yet. I feel
like if they were going to add them they probably would've done so
already.
The
current series, Pocket Monsters
Mezase Pokémon Master, will end
without really wrapping anything up. I've seen a lot of fans make a
laundry list of items the series absolutely has to do
before it's
allowed to end -- Satoshi finds his dad, Satoshi defeats Sakaki
and
causes the Rocket-Dan organization as a whole to disband, Satoshi
confesses his love to Kasumi/Serena/whoever, Satoshi is declared a
Pokémon Master -- but I don't think any of that is going to
happen. I think the show will end with Satoshi and Pikachu running
across a field while a very open-ended narration, something like
"Pocket Monsters, or 'Pokémon' for short. The adventures of
Satoshi, a ten-year-old boy from Masara Town, and his partner Pikachu
will continue. What kinds of new Pokémon will he encounter? His
journey continues!!" closes out the final episode.
|
Yup, this is pretty much exactly
what happened. It's amazing to me that there are people who thought
this last batch of episodes would go any other way.
I
would be absolutely shocked if Mezase
Pokémon Master - 20th
Anniversary Ballad vers. - isn't used in some capacity in the
final
episode of Pocket Monsters Mezase Pokémon Master.
|
It wasn't, making it one of the few versions of the song to never be
used in the TV series.
The
new protagonists in the Pocket
Monsters 2023 series will have no
relation to Satoshi. |
Right again! A lot of fans clung to theories about Pocket Monsters (2023) being a
timeskip series, and that Liko is the daughter of a grown up Satoshi
based on her hair clip sorta-kinda looking like the emblem on his
original baseball cap but of course none of that ever ended up meaning
anything. We've met both
Liko's parents and her
grandmother, and none of them are Satoshi.
In
fact, I think the new series will be a fresh start of sorts, kind of
like Best Wishes! was except
without even Satoshi / the Rocket trio
hanging around. I think the series will, at least for its first year or
so, be a brand new adventure based solely in the Paldea Region,
featuring only Pokémon that appear in Paldea.
|
Did we know that Pocket Monsters
(2023) was going to take place in all the regions, just like its
predecessor did, when I made this prediction back in January 2023? I'm not sure, but in any case this
prediction ended up not quite hitting the mark. The group did spend a
considerable amount of time in the Paldea Region (and are about to head
back soon, as of this writing) but our heroes also spent a considerable amount of
2023 in both Kanto and Galar so I can't claim I got this one right.
I
think Yuki Hayashi will be back to provide the background music for the
new Pocket Monsters series.
|
Nope; Conisch is the only person to work on the background music for
the new Pocket Monsters TV
series.
I
think it's likely we will see some kind of special standalone episode
that'll air before the end of the year that will feature the "return of
Satoshi and Pikachu." Maybe an episode that airs during Pocket Monsters
2023's regular timeslot, or maybe a web animation of some sort. I don't
think the return will last more than an episode or two, if that.
|
I have to hand it to OLM; they've shown a remarkable amount of
restraint when it comes to not bringing Satoshi and Pikachu back for a
quick little nostalgia burst. While it's still entirely possible we'll
see the
duo pop up again in the series' second or third year, so far the focus
has been entirely on Liko and the rest of the Rising Volteccers.
I
don't see there being a new movie in 2023 (they would've started
promoting it by now if we were), but I think we will see a teaser for a
new movie to come Summer 2024. |
We did not get a new movie in 2023, and at this point I'm thinking a
2024 movie is probably unlikely as well.
Both
the English dub of the animated series and the Pokémon Red &
Blue video games will celebrate their 25th anniversary in September of
this year. I think we'll see TPCi get Jason Paige to come in and record
Pokémon Theme ~
25th Anniversary Version ~ and release an AMV
for it, and maybe put all of Kanto on the Pokémon TV app, but
beyond that I don't see TPCi doing much else to commemorate the event.
TPCi made a big deal about the franchise as a whole celebrating its
25th anniversary back in 2021 and so it'd be a big awkward for them to
be like "Hey guys, it's Pokémon's 25th anniversary...again!"
|
We didn't get a "25th Anniversary Version," unless you count that
"Gotta Catch Em All" song TPCi used for its version of Pocket Monsters Mezase Pokémon
Master. I can't think of anything else TPCi did to celebrate,
unfortunately.
I
don't see TPCi abandoning Netflix for TV airings or another streaming
service (even though I really wish they would...) and so I think the Pocket Monsters 2023
dub will also go straight to Netflix in the U.S.
If we're lucky we might see the English version debut before the video
games' one year anniversary, maybe...?
|
The show is indeed
remaining on Netflix, but fans in the U.S. weren't lucky enough to get
the show in the same year as its Japanese counterpart. Pokémon Horizons isn't
appearing on
Netflix over in the country where the English dub is actually produced
until February of this year, a ridiculous ten whole months after the
series debuted
in Japan.
I
think we'll see a line of figures from the "old" series featuring
characters like Satoshi, Kasumi, Takeshi, the Rocket trio, etc. as a
kind of "last hurrah" for them. |
Nope, didn't get this.
We really should have, though.
I'm
going to dare to dream and say that we'll finally, finally get a proper
DVD / Blu-ray release of the original Pocket
Monsters TV series here in
Japan. None of this "random episodes on single DVDs" nonsense we've had
for years; actual boxsets with most of the episodes in order. If there
was ever a time for them to finally release the show then, well, now's
the time to do it. |
I wanted this to happen sooooo
bad but unfortunately this wasn't to be. The closest we got was that
massive
CD box set that included a single Blu-ray with random opening / ending
themes on it, but the actual TV episodes themselves are still stuck on
Japanese streaming services like Amazon Prime and Hulu.
I
think we'll get some sort of massive guide book to celebrate the end of
Satoshi's journey in the animated series.
|
Nope, never got this either..
...and
that's it for my 2023 predictions! I'll be posting my 2024
predictions when I do my website's anniversary write-up later this
month
|
|