Brief Initial Thoughts: Pokémon 30th Anniversary

We are roughly a month away from Pokémon day 2025 and with that the next news on Pokémon Legends Z-A and with that games release this year we will close the book on generation 9. What that means is that generation 10 in 2026 which coincides with the 30th anniversary of the release of Pokémon Red & Green in Japan. I expect this to lead to a big celebration year with the release of games and possible special show but I wanted to focus on the games that will come.

I think it will be interesting to see what route is taken with the core game following Scarlet and Violet. Previously I thought they would go back to a Japanese region but now I’m not so sure. Looking at what Generation 5 did with the Pokédex having a lot of Pokémon that served the same purposes as Generation 1 Pokémon. I think we may see similar with those who didn’t get a Gen 5 counterpart. The likes of Gyarados springs to mind as one that didn’t get a counterpart and it’d be nice to see another sea leviathan to go with them and Milotic. Even if this isn’t done I don’t think we can deny the generation 10 games will be filled with Kanto nostalgia bait. I would much prefer we focused on Hoenn but still it’s the 30 year anniversary of the first Kanto adventures. I think we will see a few older characters return maybe someone’s suddenly appearing cousin like Samson Oak in Generation 7.

The main thing I expect is if we get a Pokémon Legends game for Generation 10 it will be Kanto based. It does leave two options of it either being around Mew or you creating a new mythical/legendary hidden in Kanto not discovered in the modern day. I can see this being the only legends game to keep the regions first starters. I think with giving starters new final forms in these games all parties involved will want to give Charizard specifically a new form the big merch moves they are a new form opens chances to sell toys and cards as well. It would be interesting to see historical Kanto. I can see areas like Cycle Lane and the Safari Zone before they were built and set it further back in time it allows more then the 151 (I guess 150 since Mewtwo wouldn’t have been created at game time). I guess this game would start in Vermulion City as its closest one as a port.

Either way 2026 is a big year for celebration and remembrance for Pokémon. 30 years for a franchise to last and continue to move massive amounts of merchandise a year in all forms is an incredible feat.