What were the highlights from Pokémon Presents Summer 2022? | Team Talk

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After getting excited about tiny fighting monsters earlier this year at the last Pokémon Presents, now we’ve got another update, it’s time to get hyped all over again.

This show brought us updates on upcoming in-person events, including the Pokémon World Championships in London, as well as a look at both new Pokémon and gaming mechanics from November’s Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

What are you most looking forward to in the pokéverse? Let us know in the comments, or join our Discord and chit chat there.

by Team PTC

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​@pass_controller

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Co-op adventures in Scarlet and Violet | James Parry

Ever since Pokémon first came out and we were talking about playing Red and Blue at school, swapping pokémon cards at lunch time (and hopefully not beating one another up for the rarest shinies) and eventually trading pokémon to complete our pokédexes, the game has been missing one thing – co-op.

In the anime, there’s always a bunch of pokémon trainers accompanying Ash on his travels, and now you’ll be able to team up with up to three friends at set points around the map called Union Circles.

Hopefully, contrary to Nintendo’s usual handling of online connectivity, exploring the Paldea region will be a cinch, teaming up to take on rare pokémon encounters and finding out what the illusive two other story threads outside the usual gym battles route to becoming Pokémon Champion might be.

Sharing items and even pokémon could be a really great way to boost your team, as well as collaborating with others will help you fill the weaknesses in your team. By the way it’s been described so far, it doesn’t seem like there’s any specific areas of the world map you’ll be limited to, but we’ll see how easy it is in practice to find a circle and jump in.

So, who’s picking which starter?

Tackle Gyms in any order | Liam Andrews

The ability to take on any gym you please at any time is quite an appealing idea. Pokémon Legends: Arceus gave us an open world to run around in, but the main missions happened in a set order, which is fine, as I don’t think linearity in games is necessarily a bad thing but being able to choose what to do next makes much more sense in an open world scenario.

It also just seems a bit more fun, and really helps solidify the trainer taking on the world vibe. Not only that, but without the need to follow a set path to the top it should help create a bit of variety between people’s playthroughs.

I’m intrigued to see if there will be any sort of difficulty spike with the gyms, or whether they’ll scale to match your current team’s abilities. While many players will certainly enjoy the challenge if the former scenario turns out to be true, it’s hard to see Game Freak promoting freedom of choice only for your ‘mon to be one-hit by much higher levelled opponents, so I think the latter is the more likely.​

Pokémon Go Fest 2022 | Chris Brand

The urge to finally pull the trigger and jump into Pokémon Go has been gestating in me for some time now and it only grows stronger with each bit of news we receive. Pokémon Go Fest 2022 could very well be what pushes me to make the leap.

As I lack the means to travel the world collecting adorable animals, I may never be able to complete my Pokédex (for the uninitiated, this is a catalogue of all the creatures you've abducted. We both learned a new word today), but Pokémon Go Fest 2022 offers something I wouldn't usually be able to acquire, in Ultra Beasts. An Ultra Beast has appeared at every live event this year, for those lucky enough to attend in person. During the finale at the back end of August, all four of these Ultra Beasts will be available to all players worldwide.

Aside from the, magnificently-named, Ultra Beasts there's also Daily Adventure Incense which has tipped the scales further. This can be used once a day, lasts fifteen minutes and attracts Pokémon (even legendary ones) that don't typically frequent your 'hood. This could enable me to actually complete my Pokédex. Possibly.

Although I know absolutely nothing about Pokémon Go, or any other Pokémon title for that matter, I'm armed with the knowledge that Grookey is definitely the best starter, so here's hoping I catch him first.