It may be hard to believe this, but the next generation ofPokemongames is going to be the tenth one in the entire series. Following the disastrous launch of the last mainline entries in the franchise,Pokemon Scarletand Violet, many are hopeful that the series' next generation will be a lot better, especially since it is presumably going to be released on the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2. Since developer Game Freak has primarily been focusing onPokemon Legends Z-Aas of late, it hasn’t shared a lot of information aboutPokemonGen 10. Because of this, most of the known details about the games come from leaks and insider reports.
In October 2024,Game Freak suffered from a devastating hackthat resulted in the disclosure of tons of confidentialPokemon-related data, as well as private employee information. Within these leaked documents, there were a few details pertaining toPokemonGen 10, such as its planned release platforms and codenames. According to these leaks, the next set of mainlinePokemongames is being internally referred to asPokemon Gaia, and it is taking some inspiration from thePokemon Horizonsanime. The leaks don’t end there, though. If some reports are to be believed,PokemonGen 10 may have one major thing in common with Gen 3: a setting filled with water.
Pokemon Gen 10 is Reportedly Going to be Set on a Greek Archipelago
The New Region in Pokemon Gen 10 May Be Similar in Structure to Hoenn
The reputablePokemoninsider, Centro LEAKS,recently made a post on Twitteralleging that “PokemonGen 10, codenamedGaia, will take place in the Cyclades,” a group of real-life Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. Earlier this year, Centro LEAKS claimed in a previous tweet thatPokemon Gaiawill be a cross-generation title, but in their latest post, they instead state that the game will be released exclusively for the Switch 2 in 2026. It seems that thePokemonGen 10 port for the original Switch is no longer in development.
Like with mostPokemongames, it’s possible thatPokemonGen 10 will take place in a fictional region inspired by the Cyclades, rather than the literal Cyclades itself.
Despite being a real-world location, the Cyclades bear a faint resemblance to Hoenn, the primary setting for the Gen 3 titles,Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. The two locations aren’t exactly similar in terms of layout (Hoenn has a far larger main island), but they do share one thing in common: they’re filled with bodies of water.AlthoughPokemon Ruby and Sapphireweren’t the onlyPokemongames that took place on groups of islands, the Gen 3 titles were criticized by some for having “too much water.”
Pokemon Gen 10 Should Avoid Falling into the “Too Much Water” Pitfalls that Gen 3 Fell Into
In a 2014 review, the gaming publication IGN gavePokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, the 3DS remakes ofPokemon Ruby and Sapphire, a score of 7.8/10 and listed “too much water” as one of its complaints. Since many people found this criticism to be a bit silly, the term “7.8/10 too much water” becamea meme in thePokemoncommunityover the following years. The meme became so popular, in fact, that it was referenced by Game Freak itself inPokemon Sun and Moon.
Although the IGN review was derided by manyPokemonfans, there were some valid points to the “too much water” complaint. As was pointed out in the review itself, there weretoo many Water-type PokemoninORAS; so much so, in fact, that players could easily beat the games with just a few Electric-type Pokemon at their side. As if this problem wasn’t enough, there were also tons of surf areas inPokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, which were often dull in terms of level design and complexity. IfPokemonGen 10 does indeed take place on a Cyclades-inspired group of islands, then hopefully Game Freak will avoid repeating the same mistakes that it made with Hoenn.
