Pokémon Winds and Waves leak changes everything about battle system

Pokémon Winds and Waves are games where players can explore tropical islands, dive into underwater depths, and fly toward the skies. They look and sound like open-world games — a prospect that should be thrilling now that hardware can support those ambitions. It’s hard to muster excitement, though, when it seems like Pokémon Winds and Waves will continue boxing in fans with old-school turn-based battles. But what if the upcoming monster collecting games are going to try something new?

Established Pokémon leakers are stoking the fires right now with claims that battles in Winds and Waves won’t unfold the way fans expect. The games, they claim, are still turn-based — but with a dynamic twist. Rather than being locked into a one-on-one or doubles fight, leakers suggest that the opposing team can change as you play.

Centro Leaks writes, “instead any amount of opposing Pokémon can join and exit the battle at any time, like in Z-A.”

Pokémon Legends: Z-A allows players to roam and fight enemies in the overworld. Rather than taking turns, players of the action RPG can move, attack, and defend in real time. Much like Pokémon Go, monsters can also be caught without being pulled into a turn-based battle. The gameplay experiment made Pokémon Legends: Z-A feel like a breath of fresh air.

The prospect of going back to straightforward turn-based battles, then, will be disappointing to some fans. If Centro is correct, then Winds and Waves might be a middle ground between the two battle systems. Skirmishes will still alternate between combatants, but the threat can theoretically change at any time.

Imagine being in a battle that’s coming down to the wire. Your monsters are almost dead. You’re one turn away from ending the nightmare … and then a roaming Pokémon joins the fray. Or perhaps, you’re in a nail-biting fight with someone when, suddenly, your rival jumps into battle as well.

A couple of months before the receent discussion, Centro described the new battle system as “mostly based on Legends Arceus with free roaming and multiple targets but also now has area of effect attacks similar to Legends Z-A.”

In that post, the Pokémon leaker reminds fans that plans can change throughout the course of development. To wit, early Pokémon Legends: Z-A leaks teased a game with MMO social features and third-person action battles. The end product did incorporate some of those early ideas, but some mechanics were pared back. The same could be true of Pokémon Winds and Waves, two games that will have the longest development time of any entry in the series.

The question is, how or where are these leakers sourcing their information? Claims of insider info seem dubious, but it’s worth remembering that Game Freak suffered a massive data breach a few years back. The files in that trove contained some apparent early development work on Pokémon Winds and Waves, like models, maps, concept art, and even water physics.

Another tidbit that supports the notion that upcoming Pokémon games might try something new hails from a totally different title. Earlier in 2026, Pokémon Champions producer Masaaki Hoshino said that the purpose of the competitive game was to separate the “core” of turn-based Pokémon battles into a separate platform. This comment was followed by a general acknowledgment that mainline games like Pokémon Legends: Z-A try to explore new gameplay ideas.

If Pokémon Winds and Waves deviate from the standard turn-based format, then that comment makes a lot of sense. The final product may not work exactly as Centro described, but given all of this anecdotal evidence, I won’t be shocked if Game Freak nudges Pokémon Winds and Waves in a new direction.