The story of Ash Ketchum and his loyal Pikachu’s story finally ended earlier this year – without them ever giving Misty a single penny towards a new bike. But, since the Pokémon franchise is an unstoppable force, fans already knew a new series was on its way in the form of Pokémon Horizons. Set in Paldea to tie in with the latest mainline series games Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Horizons follows two new Pokémon Trainers – Liko and Roy – on their journeys. Eurogamer attended a screening of the first four episodes of Pokémon Horizons this week to take a look.
Despite primarily taking place in Paldea, Pokémon Horizons evokes the original anime straight away by beginning in the Kanto region – as Liko has moved to Viridian City in order to attend a Pokémon academy. It’s here she meets her first Pokemon partner Sprigatitio, the cat-like Grass-type starter from Gen 9, who meets all of her bonding attempts with the kind of indignation only a cat can possess. School life comes to a halt, however, when members of a mysterious organisation known as The Explorers – the villains of Horizons – arrive to steal the gem pendant her grandmother gifted Liko as a good luck charm.
Thankfully, a group of Trainers known as the Rising Volt Tacklers arrive in time to help Liko escape back to Paldea. Led by Friede and Captain Pikachu, the Volt Tacklers allow her to join their group so she can discover why The Explorers desire her pendant and what secrets it holds. Along the way, Liko ends up encountering Roy – owner of an Ancient Poké Ball and the most unimaginative name in the series. While Roy only made his first appearance in the fourth episode, he is the dual protagonist of the series so I wouldn’t be surprised if he joins the Volt Tacklers too in future episodes.
The first four episodes of Pokémon Horizons certainly create the feeling it will be a far more plot driven adventure than the original anime series, which often followed a formulaic structure I like to call The Ketchum Cycle. A typical episode usually involves Ash and crew arriving in a new location, meeting a new Trainer and / or Pokémon experiencing an inconvenience, before Team Rocket arrives to capture Pikachu (and are defeated, blasting off again) before the episode concludes with the initial problem being resolved. This was trapped within a larger cycle of Ash’s constant failure to become a Pokémon Master to ensure his journey continued to the next region, though not without revisiting his Mum and her ‘good friend’ Mr. Mime, because a new generation of Pokémon was about to be released. All the while, Ash would never age a single day. (And in my view, the various changes in art style actually make him look younger in 2023 than he did in 1997…)