Pokemon Champions will soon bring the heat of Pokemon battles to Nintendo Switch 2 and mobile devices. If you’ve been planning your perfect team of Pokemon for the occasion, there’s a wrinkle you may not have considered, as development director and game producer Masaaki Hoshino has confirmed that Champions will only feature fully evolved forms of Pokemon with evolutionary lines at launch.
Speaking to a roundtable of journalists over Zoom, Hoshino confirmed the approach, though he did not dive into the specific reasons for the choice. “Yes, only final evolutions will be introduced at launch,” Hoshino said, “[…but] at some point they might consider earlier evolutions.”
The choice will have an impact on the competitive circuit, as Champions will become the featured game of the VGC (Video Game Championship) division as soon as it launches, replacing Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. This means the pool of Pokemon will feature fewer viable options, and competitive players will have to shift their strategies.
