Pokémon Winds and Waves Marks New Era as Ohmori Steps Back

If you've been keeping tabs on the Pokémon rumor mill, you're about to get a pretty significant update. Fresh details have surfaced about who's actually steering Pokémon Winds and Waves, and the answer marks a real turning point for the series.

There's also a small nugget about Generation 11, a project so early in development that even the smallest scrap of information feels significant right now. According to people close to the project, Pokémon Winds and Waves is being led by Hiroyuki Tani, who previously directed the Sword and Shield DLC, alongside co-director Katsuhiko Ichiraku, who worked on the Scarlet and Violet expansions.

Multiple sources naming the same two directors adds real credibility here.

Multiple people tracking the situation have echoed the same two names, which lends the claim some real weight rather than it being a one-off rumor. If accurate, this means Shigeru Ohmori's decade-long run as the guiding creative force behind new Pokémon generations has come to an end, at least for now.

You might remember Ohmori as the name attached to nearly every mainline release since Generation 7. His fingerprints are all over Sun and Moon, Sword and Shield, and Scarlet and Violet. That's a long stretch of leadership, and depending on who you ask, it's either a mark of consistency or a sign that the series has been stuck in a bit of a creative rut.

A lot of players online have been vocal about Scarlet and Violet in particular, often citing it as one of the rougher entries in the franchise's history when it comes to performance, polish, and overall ambition falling short of execution. That's not a universal opinion, and plenty of people still enjoyed those games, but it's a common enough sentiment that it's worth acknowledging here.

That's exactly why handing the reins of Pokémon Winds and Waves to someone new feels like a big deal for long-time fans. A new director at the helm doesn't automatically guarantee a better game, but it does open the door to a genuinely different creative approach, the same way swapping directors on a long-running movie franchise can shift the tone and pacing of a sequel without abandoning what made the original work.

Tani and Ichiraku aren't outsiders; both have deep series experience already.

Tani and Ichiraku have both spent years working inside the series in supporting capacities, which means Pokémon Winds and Waves is now in the hands of people who already understand what makes the games tick internally, while finally getting the chance to put their own stamp on a mainline entry after years of contributing behind the scenes.

There are a few specific areas where this shift could really matter for players. Gameplay systems, exploration design, and the overall visual direction are the obvious starting points. From what's been shown so far, the art style for Pokémon Winds and Waves looks fairly close to what you saw in Scarlet and Violet and Legends: Z-A, though it does appear noticeably cleaner and more refined in these early looks.

It's worth remembering that games often go through significant visual polish between early reveals and actual launch, so this could shift again before release, for better or worse. The franchise as a whole has been leaning harder into open-world design with each new release, adding bigger environments, updated encounter animations, and repeated attempts at online multiplayer features.

Multiplayer specifically has remained a consistent weak point for years across recent entries, and it's an area the series still badly needs to nail down, especially with rumors of a full Pokémon MMO reportedly in early development somewhere behind the scenes at Game Freak.

Ohmori isn't leaving Game Freak, just stepping away from this title.

Ohmori stepping back from directing Pokémon Winds and Waves doesn't mean he's leaving the company or the franchise altogether, so don't count him out just yet. What makes Tani and Ichiraku interesting picks is their direct hands-on experience running the DLC content for two of the most recent mainline titles.

Both expansions were generally well received by the community, and the Scarlet and Violet DLC in particular got a lot of praise for its distinct atmosphere and noticeably stronger pacing compared to the base game it was attached to.

If that experience carries over into the full project, there's a good chance the team behind Pokémon Winds and Waves already has a clear sense of what worked, what fell flat, and where past entries came up short when it came to world exploration and overall map design.

Exploration specifically is going to matter a lot here, since Generation 10 is expected to fully commit to an open-world structure from the ground up. Scarlet and Violet drew a fair amount of criticism for having stretches of empty, underused space scattered across its map, while Legends: Z-A mostly sidestepped that exact problem by leaning into a dense, city-based setting instead of wide open fields.

Learning from past mapping mistakes could make this entry feel complete.

If the people now working on Pokémon Winds and Waves take those lessons seriously from day one of development, the final product could end up feeling far more complete and intentional than what came before it. Director changes are common for this franchise and generally seen as healthy.

Pokémon Winds and Waves isn't expected to reinvent the wheel or throw out the franchise's core mechanics entirely. Instead, it sounds like the new leadership is meant to build on the existing foundation while improving things like technical performance, NPC behavior, town and settlement design, battle animations, and overall storytelling structure.

As for Ohmori himself, he hasn't disappeared from the picture entirely. Reports suggest he's currently attached to an unannounced internal project referred to internally as "P30," though nobody has officially confirmed what that name actually stands for.

It could be shorthand for "Project 30," possibly tied to the franchise's upcoming 30th anniversary celebrations, or it could point toward something else entirely, like a brand-new Legends title, a classic remaster collection, or the long-rumored Generation 3 remakes that have been circulating for quite a while now.

Ohmori's involvement hints P30 is a major project.

Whatever P30 turns out to be, the fact that Ohmori is personally attached to it suggests it's a fairly substantial production rather than a minor side release. Here's where things get more interesting for long-term fans. When people asked directly about Ohmori's current status, insiders pointed toward some level of involvement with Generation 11.

That's raised real questions about whether he's actually directing that future entry or simply attached to its production in some other capacity. The general read right now is that he's connected to Generation 11 in some form, even if the specifics of his exact role aren't locked down publicly.

It's also still unclear whether P30 and Generation 11 turn out to be the same project under a different codename, though early groundwork on Generation 11, including setting, tone, and broad conceptual themes, does appear to already be underway internally.

That raises a fair question worth sitting with: if Ohmori might be circling back around for Generation 11 eventually, why bring in entirely new leadership for Pokémon Winds and Waves right now instead of just waiting it out? The explanation floating around insider circles is that Ohmori is still involved internally at Game Freak, just not necessarily in a hands-on directing role for this particular title.

Ohmori may simply be moving into a supervisory, hands-off role now.

He may be shifting toward more of a producer or supervisory position going forward, which would track with how senior creative leads at other major studios often transition into oversight roles after years spent directly leading development.

On top of all this, there are separate reports suggesting longtime staff members are already prototyping something called "Seed," the internal codename tied to the rumored Pokémon MMO project. Between Winds and Waves, the MMO, Ohmori's P30, and possible Gen 3 remakes, Pokémon's lineup is shaping up to be one of its busiest stretches yet.

Whether that ambition actually translates into stronger, more polished games remains to be seen, but the sheer amount of movement happening behind the scenes right now is honestly hard to ignore for anyone following the series closely.