Pokemon Studio Releases New Game That's Not Pokemon

Highlights

Game Freak, known for Pokemon, released Pand Land, an adventure RPG.
Pand Land offers a laid-back exploration experience with combat encounters and multiplayer options for players.
Pand Land is currently only available in Japan.

While Game Freak is known by the masses almost exclusively for developing most of the Pokemon games, the studio has recently released its new title, Pand Land, in Japan, an adventure RPG which has players exploring an expansive and colorful world in search of hidden treasures. This isn’t Game Freak’s first time working on a project outside of the Pokemon series, and though this flagship franchise does soak up the vast majority of the attention, some of the studio’s other standalone titles such as Little Town Hero and HarmoKnight have appealed to plenty of gamers over the years as well.

With many of the more recent entries in the Pokemon franchise taking a lot of fire from the gaming community due to their relatively short development cycles ultimately impacting the quality of the games in various areas, many might be somewhat surprised to discover that the studio has been investing time and resources into the development of another separate project on the side. While development of the 2021 Gen 4 remakes, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, was handed over to ILCA, Game Freak itself has nonetheless released Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, and the Gen 9 games’ Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC since the beginning of 2022, with the next major Pokemon title currently in the works too.

Game Freak Intends to Develop New Games Outside of Pokemon

Game Freak, the company known primarily as the developer of the mainline Pokemon RPG series, discusses its plans to diversify.

Still, Game Freak having the freedom to stretch its creative muscles with the release of a totally new game is, overall, quite healthy, both for the studio itself as well as for gamers. The game in question, Pand Land, is an adventure RPG recently released exclusively for Android and iOS mobile devices in Japan, and has the player taking the role of an expedition captain who explores the vast and largely oceanic world of Pandoland in search of treasure. The game offers a laid-back experience where players can explore to the furthest corners of its charming world at their own leisure, while also presenting players with combat encounters and murky dungeons that can be plundered alone or with friends via multiplayer.

Pand Land Is Only Available in Japan For Now

There’s no international release date in sight for the time being, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the game will be beyond the reach of players outside Japan forever. Only time will tell whether the game will be brought to a worldwide audience in the future, but in any case, Pand Land seems to be a particularly proud project in Game Freak’s eyes. In the game’s official announcement from publisher WonderPlanet, Game Freak development director Yuji Saito stated, “We’ve been working hard to create a game that takes the scale of a console game and makes it easy and simple to play.”

Fans of the Pokemon series don’t need to worry about Pand Land detracting from development of the next entry in the franchise, however, as the highly-anticipated Pokemon Legends: Z-A remains set for release sometime next year. While not a lot is known about the upcoming title just yet, the popularity of its predecessor has led to a lot of excitement in itself.