Greetings, internet! Back by popular^{[citation needed]} demand, I'm Lief Katano, and as per... usual? Does it count if it's been almost four years?

As per usual*, I'll be bringing the latest news about everything Pokémon related directly to you!

...what do you mean, this isn't a Pokémon Direct? Shut up. It's a livestream, it's about Pokémon, as a result it's Nintendo related, it's a Pokémon Direct.

It's probably a bit too late to speculate about what's to come, but there's no doubt in my mind that it'll be the main game that comes out this year. I mean, obviously, right? I'd personally lean towards it being Sinnoh-related, due to the conspicuous absence of Sinnoh-related Pokémon in the Crown Tundra (specifically, the lack of fossil Pokémon and starters). That said, I don't have a huge horse in this race. I'm a (overly, I'm sure people will tell you) simple man, I like going on adventures with little monster buddies. I'd definitely bet on it being a remake, at least - I don't think we're far enough in Gen VIII for it to come to a close.

Especially since we'll most likely be moving away from Galar, I also kinda think we'll see Mega Evolution make a comeback. Noticeably, despite Sword and Shield dropping the mechanics in favor of Dynamax and Gigantamax (a move I'm neutral on, though I remain adamant they're Better Than Z-Moves), Mega Evolution has still appeared in the anime and has arrived in GO. I'll admit that there's a non-negligible possibility I'm just being super hopeful, though - I do absolutely love Mega Evolution.

As for what I hope...? I hope that whoever's involved was able to take their time instead of having a fire lit under their ass, if nothing else. And if we get a mainline game (as stated, I'm pretty sure we will) I hope they keep up the trend they did with the DLC where they actually update older games to be able to work with new Pokémon (new old Pokémon, I guess) instead of what they did in the 3DS era and lock the new Pokémon to the games they were from. (Yes, that agitates me. Yes, I'm still agitated by it.)

That said, I absolutely know people are going to get upset no matter what is revealed. :V

come ON my dude it's 9:00 why are you throwing up a two minute timer NOW

is it to make me mad? because it's working >:1

(I'm pretty sure this is YouTube's fault, but)

Pretty standard retrospective stuff to start off. Weird that they're recounting all of the spin-off stuff too.

Oh and hey they even mentioned the mobile system! I think that's neat.

I think it's NEAT stuff for the record there's just... not a ton to mention right now.

The arcade cabinet stuff is SO COOL and I wish they came over here somehow :(

lmao they showed the keyboard game

AR stuff is ALSO really cool and I wish they did more with that.

The video's also buffing a bit, which is. annoying. if not too surprising.

detective pikachu was still the shit don't @ me

I thought this was cute. :3

Anyways, here's Ishihara! What's he got for us today?

Utsonomiya's here with some new New Pokémon Snap stuff.

The... lentil region?

There's not too much different from, uh, the original game, honestly. Well, you can customize your photos more, I suppose. And an online showcase. I think there's also more of a story, but... It's NEAT but.

GIGANTAMAX PIKACHU RAID!!

He's cute. I like him.

Ooooh, here's the Pokemon video game news we've all been waiting for!

It looks like it's Diamond and Pearl related. Not too surprising :V

CHIBI

SUPER CHIBI

I am, unironically, 100% down for this. It's CUTE and I ENJOY IT. Like Link's Awakening Switch.

Though I will admit, some of it does seem a bit TOO close to how the original games were... Mostly with multiplayer stuff and the lack of customization. (Though that's not NEW, at least... ORAS.)

Oh. They're not even letting it breathe. It looks like we're still getting Sinnoh stuff, though. More... ancient-y Sinnoh stuff, I suppose?

...Throwing Poke Balls on the overworld definitely looks strange.

Rowlett, Cyndaquil, and Oshawott are the starters???

Oh hey Arceus. You actually getting involved this time?

Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Huh. I'm... not sure how I feel about this.

Oh, so Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are outsourced. Sorta. Again, I think it looks cute, but it does look worryingly overly similar to the original games... and that a separate company is developing it doesn't help too much, honestly.

Legends takes place in an older Sinnoh, yeah.

"Certain professor" seems weird. Like... which professor? Is Oak a thousand year old entity??

...

The steam just cut out for me. Goddammit.

ANYWAYS, while I'm trying to get back to where I was... Legends honestly doesn't look super-interesting to me so far, presentation-wise if nothing else. I've always been skeptical of an open-world Pokémon game and this does NOT give me any confidence in the concept - tossing Poke Balls seems weird, and the battles feel... out of place, I guess? Maybe this is just me being an old curmudgeon, but.

"action RPG" i'm not entirely sure that's an accurate descriptor.

so tl;dr: I think the Diamond and Pearl remakes look cute but I'm worried they're just gonna be 3D (more 3D, I guess) Diamond and Pearl. Legends is an interesting concept but as presented thus far I feel like it's kinda lacking, at least presentation-wise.

That's it! I'm curious to y'all's thoughts but I know you're gonna be on Discord for that. So, uh. Ciao for now*!