Pokemon's rumored non-Legends mainline game for 2025 could be history repeating itself

There are various ongoing projects for Pokémon franchise as a whole, between several live service mobile games, major expansions are coming to Pokemon TCGand more VGC support for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet ahead of the World Championships in 2025. On top of that, Pokemon Legends: ZA will make its debut this year, and it seems very likely that a second trailer for the game will appear online anytime between now and Pokemon Day, which falls on February 27th. However, this is not all, because the rumors of a new main line Pokémon game that will be released this year appeared after a post on social media by known leaker Riddler Khu.

Although Riddler Khu has not been as reliable as before in 2023 and 2024, they have a proven track record of correctly leaking and predicting Pokémon games or even details in them. Last year saw a hacker attack against Game Freak that resulted in the so-called TeraLeak, which consisted of approximately 1TB of documents from all Pokémon game, which includes some unreleased files and details about Gen 10. Recently, Khu took to Twitter to state that there is another major project coming in 2025 that was not mentioned in the TeraLeak. There are two more prominent theories as to what this could be, and one of them would be history repeating itself with the Nintendo Switch 2 which is supposedly coming this year.

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For starters, Khu said that this game is specifically intended for release on the Nintendo Switch 2, while that has been speculated and seemingly confirmed by leaks like Pokemon Legends: ZA will be available on both Switch and Switch 2. The image that Khu shared with the leak is of a black and white dolphin, which instantly brings to mind Pokemon black and white remakes, something long speculated to be coming for the series, but never confirmed.

But there is also a chance that this image is a reference to Pokemon Let's Go game, which was codenamed Project Beluga, and beluga whales are in the same cetacean family of dolphins. The reason why Pokemon Let's Go game would make a lot of sense is that the franchise hasn't been in the Johto region the longest, and a new set of Pokemon Let's Go Johto games would perfectly fill that void. In addition, Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu! and Eevee! were both released as the first new Pokémon games on Nintendo Switch 2018.

Why Pokemon Let's Go Johto Games Could Be Switch 2 Launch Titles

As such, Pokemon Let's Go Johto games may be the first Pokémon games on the Nintendo Switch 2 when it launches, doing exactly what their predecessors did all those years ago. This is a big if, but it would make sense, especially given Game Freak's alleged delay Pokemon Legends: ZA internally following TeraLeak, making these hypothetical titles the first new ones Pokémon games of the year and possible launch titles for the Nintendo Switch 2. There is no indication of that Pokemon Let's Go games other than Khus will leak, but given the current state of the franchise, it seems likely that those titles could be released.

Why new Pokémon Let's Go games will likely be set in Johto

It is not guaranteed Pokemon Let's Go games released in 2025 would be tied to Johto, but considering that the first and only setting of this series took place in Kanto, and seeing how Johto has been on the back burner the longest of all regions, it only makes sense to assume that very. It is also worth noting that Pokemon black and white remakes or a new set of Pokémon Gen 5 games may be more likely overall as there was no follow up to this tradition after Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearlbut that remains to be seen. Pokemon Let's Go Johto games would make many fans happy given the region's popularity, and would kill two birds with one stone by providing the Switch 2 with launch titles and bridging the gap between Gen 9 and Pokemon Legends: ZA.

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Pokemon Legends: ZA

Pokémon Legends: ZA is an ambitious new entry in the Pokémon video game series, releasing simultaneously worldwide in 2025. A new adventure awaits in Lumiose City, where an urban redevelopment plan is underway to shape the city into a place that belongs to both humans and Pokémon .

System

Franchise

Pokémon

Released

2025