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Pokémon

Pokémon news and guides, the Nintendo and Game Freak franchise and global media phenomenon.

Written by Total Apex Entertainment Staff · Editorial Policy · Updated

Total Apex Take

Pushing 30 years old and still the top-grossing media franchise in the world — the challenge now is managing scale without diluting the games.

“Pokémon Legends: Z-A” represents the series' most structurally ambitious mainline entry in years, moving toward real-time, more open-world-style exploration after “Legends: Arceus” proved players wanted more than the traditional turn-based overworld formula. That's a meaningful risk for a franchise that's historically been conservative about changing its core gameplay loop.

The anime made its biggest structural change in decades when Ash Ketchum stepped down as protagonist after 25-plus years, handing the lead role to new characters — a bigger symbolic shift for the brand's identity than most casual fans registered at the time.

Our take: the trading card game's scalping and shortage problems have done more recent damage to goodwill among adult collectors than any game or show decision, and it's the part of the ecosystem The Pokémon Company has been slowest to visibly address.

About Pokémon

Pokémon is a media franchise built around creature-collecting video games created by Satoshi Tajiri and developed by Game Freak, first released in Japan in 1996. Jointly owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures Inc. through The Pokémon Company, the franchise has grown into one of the highest-grossing media franchises in the world, spanning games, a long-running anime series, a trading card game, and films.

Each core generation of Pokémon games introduces a new region, story, and roster of creatures to catch and battle, while the games' core loop of exploration, collection, and strategic battling has remained consistent across nearly three decades.

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