Pokémon Winds & Waves Gameplay Confirms Graphical Upgrade Players Have Begged For

Pokémon Winds and Waves leaks just keep on coming. This time around, early gameplay has allegedly leaked, showing a bit of the features fans can expect when the Gen 10 games arrive next year. Among the features, fans have spotted a Poké Ball being thrown without a menu in use, similar to how the mechanic worked in Pokémon Legends: Z-A. However, discourse soon turned toward graphics.

Now, the gameplay is admittedly early and can’t wholly be judged on its own. Most of what’s shown is a generic character model, but what fans can see is the way movement will presumably work in Pokémon Winds and Waves. The animation was compared to similar movements in Legends: Z-A by CentroLeaks on X, and you can check out the post below.

“Looks like Game Freak is taking character animations seriously for Pokémon Winds and Waves (finally!)” reads the original post, which then goes on to show a side-by-side comparison of the leaked footage and gameplay from Legends: Z-A. Although the difference may appear subtle at first, Pokémon fans were pretty ecstatic over the change and what it could mean for graphics in the Gen 10 games.

“Hallelujah! Please let this be the turning point Pokémon games need,” reads one of the top comments.

“It’s a small detail, but it makes a huge difference,” reads another comment on X. “The movement looks much more natural, and it’s nice to see Game Freak finally polishing the little animations that make the world feel more alive.”

Pokemon Winds and Waves Pikachu with sunglasses-1

Overall, fans seemed impressed enough with these Winds and Waves leaks. However, a number of fans still weren’t all that impressed with the graphical change for Pokémon Winds and Waves, especially considering that it’s not all that impressive compared to the movement in most modern games.

“There is no excuse for hardware limitations when you can see what Zelda does, for example,” reads a comment from one detractor.

“IS THIS SOME KIND OF JOKE???? Unity and Unreal have had this kind of feature for probably a decade by now,” reads another.

“The bar is so low that we actually have to praise this,” reads yet another harsh comment on X.

So, as with pretty much everything else related to Pokémon, including a possible new Sound-type in Gen 10, fans can’t really agree if this graphical improvement will save the Gen 10 games or if it’s a feature that should’ve been implemented generations ago. We should see fully fleshed-out gameplay soon, with more Pokémon Winds and Waves news expected in early 2027.