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There goes the Zeraora theories, what was actually in the ball was Dragonite! (So the JN kids are rocking 1/2 of Ash's JN team, huh, tho at least there's a few things that set them apart. But is Liko gonna catch a Dracovish next? Or is Friede gonna show up with a new Gengar or Sirfetch'd? /jk, don't think this is an actual complaint or anything)

But it absolutely stomps Rubella and Indy's Darmanitan into the ground. And the episode more or ends off with Ult chasing down Indy and Rubella's truck as they wisely get the hell out of there.

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Good guy Grafaiai this episode leaving a trail to its owner when he stole Ult's Pokemon, and jumping in to defend its new friend.

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We actually see shortly before this scene Grafaiai marked up the whole surrounding area, presumably, it lead Ult right to where it and its Trainer were.

It's just that he got there seconds too late and Indy already took his Dusk Ball.

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Serebii posted some video of the demo, and revealed some information on the gameplay:

The demo seems to be covering some things from the early game, and came in two different parts.  The first covered the introduction into the Z-A Royale, and the second was a battle against a Rogue Mega Absol.

The battle system, as previously revealed, is different from past traditional main series games in that it's real-time. You can send a Pokémon out at any time and when locked on to a Pokémon, a display will appear in the bottom right, this will be your move selection.

The ABXY buttons correspond to a move the Pokémon has rather than selecting it off a menu, so the B Button will be one move, the X button another, etc.

Your Pokemon will also follow you as you walk around-- some moves can be used from a further distance while others will have the Pokémon move up to the opponent. (However that does mean that the Pokémon may not go where you want them to, but they will keep close to you where possible.)

He says there'll be need for more strategy than just mashing attacks like usual.

He wiped to a Trainer that snuck on him, their Pokemon were 10Lvs higher. It's brutal when it's turned back on you.

The Rogue Mega Evolution portion begins with chasing Zygarde 10% Forme thru-out Lumiose City until it takes you to a rooftop where an Absol was. It started to Mega Evolve on its own causing AZ to send a Lucario with a Mega Ring up to help.

There are natures and held items in this game, tho he was only given Berries. There's no abilities, tho.

Battle is reminiscent of the Noble Pokémon battles from Legends Arceus in that you're in an area with the Pokémon going for YOU more than your Pokémon. The Absol can knock the player out and lose the battle. It had moves of both close range and distance.

As moves land on the Absol, it starts to drop some energy orbs. These are picked up in order to charge your Mega Gauge which, once full enough, allows for you to Mega Evolve.

This allows for you to do even more damage but the gauge will gradually deplete so it is only for a limited time but Absol does drop more the more damage you inflict so in theory you could keep it Mega Evolved until defeating the Rogue Mega. Though Absol was a low level Rogue Mega Evolution, there was still more strategy involved.

He mentions the game ran super smooth but it was the Switch 2 version. Still kinda wary how the regular Switch is gonna do 😵‍💫

Article here.

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Ult shows of his Dusk Ball to Rayu, telling him about the super strong Pokemon inside, which was a mistake since Rayu steals it when he was asleep. It seems Grafaiai objected to what its trainer was doing tho, since it marked Ult's bag to confirm those suspicions.

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Two gremlins hitting it off :"D

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Seems Rayu is trying to earn money for a Strong Sphere but hasn't had much luck selling his Grafaiai's paintings.

(Honestly, that's probably better for his Grafaiai tho. 😵‍💫)

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Spoilers for what was actually in Ult's Dusk Ball, it was Dragonite. (Seems it's gonna Mega Evolve next week too.) But dang, not a Lucario focus episode like I was hoping, at least the battle looks cool. And Hamber and Diana getting some interaction 👀

Spinel getting some focus too, tho idk if he'll get in on the battle:

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Some Z-A mini trailers have been uploaded! I'm probably just not remembering atm, but is this a new shot of AZ?

Gramps has a nice smile 🙂

Also in our last piece of smaller news before we move on to covering the anime, we have the orange tag Holowear for Songstress Gardevoir now being available!

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The Pokemon Nyoro Nyoro Friends merch line, featuring serpent Pokemon, will come to Japanese Pokemon Centers starting Aug23!

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New PokePeace stationery comes out in late August via Sunstar Stationery!

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The October issue of Nintendo Dream's cover features Z-A, and releases Aug21! Tho I doubt we'll get really any new information from it, probably just a rundown of the July Presents info. (It also comes with a large postcard with the character art on it.)

Here's pics of the new Bandai gachapon keychains! (They really did tease those new captures lol) These release during the fourth week of August!

Our promo pics for tomorrow's episode! (In all honesty, I'm more excited for the one that comes after since they've kept everything but the title under wraps 😅)

And lastly for this morning, a new Wonder Pick event has begun, running until Aug22 at 2am, EST. The featured promo cards are Weavile and Marill, and new Tyranitar cosmetic items have been added to the shop!

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Kieran's friends coming to meet him. 😁 (Also, sorry this is late, they're a bit earlier than usual.)

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New Gengar-themed headphones will be available via RAZER starting Aug19!

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The Pikachu Diner plushies have made it over to the US Pokemon Center.

There's also some bundles available for Worlds!

You can get a bonus Pokémon World Championships 2025 Pikachu Coin with code "coin25us" on orders of $50 or more:

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Dondozo makes its debut in 3⭐ raids starting Aug25 at 10am till Aug31 at 8pm, local time!

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The Sanfrecce Hiroshima soccer merch line is available now via the Japanese Pokemon Center!

And lastly for this morning, we have the code to get the PWC 2025 shirt in Pokemon GO: Z3USC2JQS9LWN (You can redeem it from their web store!

Edit, the code was disabled since it was pushed early.