I realise that so far in this series it probably seems as though I dislike Scarlet and Violet, and that, in general, I have nothing positive to say about those games. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. While I am dubious of the insane release schedule for new Pokémon games, and the subsequent detriment that was caused due to the overambitious goal of creating the first fully open world Pokémon game, there are many redeeming qualities about the games themselves. Let’s start with the basics. I really love a lot of the characters introduced in these games. Standout characters for me are Nemona, Arven, Clavell, Hassel, and Larry, but there are plenty of other characters that I love as well. I could probably write an entire article for each character, just gushing about how much I like them, but I’ll settle for just doing a single article on them all together and just hit the highlights.

Pokémon Horizons has been great so far, but if I were name one glaring flaw for this series, it would be that scenes that should be considered important are shoved onto off-screen land. Frustrations aside, the rest of this episode was rather straightforward, but I liked it. Liko deduces that Galarian Moltres’s emotions are out of control as Hatenna was crying when it roared, and they manage to come up with a plan to calm it down.

The dates for Pokémon Sleep's second ever Good Sleep Day event have now been confirmed. The event will run from Thursday September 28th through to Saturday September 30th. These events are planned to be held in Pokémon Sleep once every lunar month, starting the day before the full moon, and ending the day after. Though no official confirmation has yet been given, it is presumed that this Good Sleep Day event will follow the exact same format as the previous event.

Rivals return this week in Pokémon Masters EX, with a rerun of the Revel in Rivalry Story Event, together with a Poké Fair scout featuring Bede, the focal character of this event. Also launching today is a new Flying-Type Gear event. These events and scout will all run through until October 5th, at 10:59pm (PDT).

Pre-orders for the upcoming Pokémon Trading Card Game Classic, first revealed during the Pokémon Day presentation in February this year, were shadow dropped earlier on the U.S. and Canadian Pokémon Center Online stores. While these pre-orders were rapidly sold out, eager fans can still get their hands on the set at participating retailers from November 17th, with sets retailing for an MSRP of $399.99 USD. Also revealed today were the new cards that will see their first release together with this classic set, including Lugia ex, Ho-Oh ex, and Suicune ex, as well as a Mr. Mime card that had previously only been available as part of the so-called Vending Machine Series in Japan in 1998.

The Pokémon Company’s collaborative project with the airline industry, Pokémon Air Adventures (called Flying Pikachu Project in Japan), has been thinking up themed jets, in-game events, and exclusive merchandise since 2021. The newest addition to the project, the “Pokémon Welcome Wall,” will greet international travelers arriving at Tokyo's Narita International Airport. Passengers arriving on international flights to Terminal 2 of the airport will be welcomed in English and Japanese by the three Kanto starters, Pikachu, and Mew.

Niantic has announced details regarding the next Pokémon GO Hatch Day, which features the Polka Dot Pokémon, Azurill. During this event, which will be held on September 30th, from 2:00pm to 5:00pm local time, Azurill will hatch more frequently from 2 km eggs, and Trainers will have an increased chance of hatching Shiny Azurill.

Niantic has announced details regarding the upcoming Out to Play event, coming to Pokémon GO from September 27th, at 10:00am to Monday, October 2nd, at 8:00pm local time. Shiny Hisuian Growlithe will be making its Pokémon GO debut as part of this event.

Buckle up, folks, because it’s about time for me to address the elephant in the room. In my previous article, I concluded that, given the limited development time, going for the open world gimmick was a detriment, and only ended up contributing to eating up a lot of dev time unnecessarily. So now let’s talk about the release schedule for new core series Pokémon games in more detail, as well as why I feel the release of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet was completely botched as a result of madcap deadlines and an overly zealous release schedule.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game Live this week received an update to Version 1.8.0 ahead of the digital release of the Scarlet & Violet - 151 expansion this Thursday. This latest update was intended to update several animations and visuals, along with fixing bugs with select cards, as well as the persistent error where empty collection pop-up windows would appear after matches. Unfortunately, this update appears to have introduced several bugs of its own, with numerous players finding themselves stuck on "Loading data from server 7/40", and unable to actually load the game.

Fans in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada can welcome the official start of the Fall season with cozy new releases available now online at The Pokémon Center. A new selection of sock sets and fleece socks are new to the site, with the Pokéball-themed fleece socks retailing for $14.99 USD. The three-sock sets, which include Electric-type and Ground-type versions, cost $29.99 USD, and the three-sock box sets with special Pokémon Center packaging, which come as a Pokéball-themed set or a Legendary birds set, will be $49.99 USD.

The fifth and final single from the Pokémon Company’s collaboration with Universal Music, the Pokémon Music Collective, a series of singles meant to reimagine music and sounds from Pokémon games, has now been released. "Ghost Dive", by Japanese Band Polkadot Stingray, is a fast-paced and high tension song overflowing with Polkadot Stingay vocalist Shizuku's love for Ghost-type Pokémon. The music video was illustrated by nekozemon, who is best known for their work on music videos together with noted Vocaloid producer 3.

The latest Pasio Special Stadium event has now launched in Pokémon Masters EX. The game's developers have also issues a notice regarding current iOS compatibility issues.

The version-exclusive Paradox Pokémon, Slither Wing and Iron Moth will be making their first appearance in a 5-star Tera Raid Battle event in Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet this weekend, starting September 22nd at midnight (UTC), and running through until September 24th at 11:59pm (UTC). Slither Wing will appear exclusively for players with Pokémon Scarlet, while Iron Moth will be appearing exclusively in Pokémon Violet. Slither Wing and Iron Moth will both be able to be encountered in a wide array of Tera Types, including rare Tera Types for both species.

Cyclizar SV3a 074/062 A new video on the Pokémon Trading Card Game's official Japanese YouTube channel, featuring the team opening a full booster box of cards from the upcoming Raging Surf subset, has revealed new Special Art Rare cards for Rika and Cyclizar. Raging Surf will be released in Japan at the end of this week on September 22nd, with cards from this set expected to be released internationally as part of the Scarlet & Violet: Paradox Rift expansion later this year.

As announced earlier this week, Argenta & Skarmory are making their Pokémon Masters EX debut as a playable sync pair today in a limited-time Argenta Poké Fair Scout, which runs alongside the Tower Tycoon & Hall Matron Story Event which began two days ago. This scout will continue through to October 5th, at 10:59pm (PDT).

Wow, Rayquaza sure looks different! Jokes aside, this week's episode was rather intense. Honestly, I quite enjoyed it a lot. I loved the twist of the Pokémon in the mine not being Rayquaza but Galarian Moltres; that it was also apparently one of Lucius’s companions was surprising too, given just how sinister its presence is compared to Arboliva, who despite being menacing at first was shown to be really quite kind.

Pokémon has been on a roll with interesting collaborations this year, lending their name to everything from skateboards to pop music, and even recently announcing a mysterious partnership with the Van Gogh Museum. This week, Japanese press releases have promoted two more unusual projects for highly limited merchandise available exclusively in Japan.

Palmer is making his Pokémon Masters EX debut today in a new Poké Fair Scout, together with his partner Regigigas. Alongside this scout, Palmer is taking center stage in a brand new Story Event, Tower Tycoon and Hall Matron. Argenta, who also features in this event, will debut in their own scout in two days time.

Pokémon Café ReMix's latest one-minute cooking event, Our Baker Greedent, is giving players the opportunity to get recruit Greedent in their Baker outfit to their staff! Drakloak is now also available through Special Delivery in Pelipper Delivery.