You can see the official trailer here
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On April 9, 2023, a web series called Cube-Shaped Pokémon on Cubie Island premiered focusing on a Pikachu as he arrives on Cubie Island and makes his way around.
Pokémon Quest contains examples of:
- Action Bomb: Some levels will have Pokéxel like Voltorb or Koffing pop up and (usually) Self-Destruct in your Pokemon's faces; you have to either take them out quickly or use the 'Scatter' command to get them to escape the blast. Later levels even have groups of these. And, of course, your own Pokéxel can get in on the action if they have the Self-Destruct or Explosion move available, albeit with the expected effect of fainting afterward.
- Adaptational Name Change: The web series changes the island's name from Tumblecube Island to Cubie Island and changes Pokéxel to Cube-shaped Pokémon.
- Artificial Stupidity: The game would be significantly easier if you had the freedom to control the movement of your party Pokemon. But since you don't, they can end up taking damage and getting KO'd from attacks that would've been disappointingly easy to anticipate and dodge.
- Call-Forward: In addition to Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, and Pikachu, Eevee is a starter Pokémon.
- Competitive Balance: The Power Stone mechanic uses the Offense/Defense variant, as an Attack stone means one less HP stone, and vise-versa.
- Consolation Prize: Your party still gains experience even when they fail an expedition with the exception of the Mewtwo battle, and failed expeditions still count toward the countdowns of any unfinished cooking pots you have back at base camp. You also have a chance to collect loot gained, but you have to pay with PM tickets to do so.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: Downplayed. Boss Pokemon are designated to be highly resistant to status effects, but usually not outright immune to it. If you're lucky, you can, say, inflict the confusion status effect on the Final Boss with Flatter. It'll even significantly damage itself ocassionally instead of attacking!
- Cooldown Manipulation: The purpose of the 'Wait Less Stone'. When applied to a move, it reduces the cooldown invoked by the Pokéxel using that move.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!:
- Unlike many other Pokémon games, type matchups, including weaknesses, are nonexistent in Quest.
- This also applies to status effects. Poison and Steel-types, Electric-types, Fire-types, and Ice-types are no longer immune to poison, paralysis, being burned, and being frozen respectively.
- For the case of Ground-types, they are affected by Thunder Wave.
- Grass-types are also affected by spore-based moves and Leech Seed.
- Death Mountain: Backforth Brook is the third area of the game and is a mountainous oasis with a brook.
- Degraded Boss: Enemies that appear as boss fights in most of Happenstance Island are regular enemies in the final area. This can include the legendary birds, which attack you all at once.
- Disc-One Nuke: Single-stage Pokemon have higher stats than unevolved Pokemon that can evolve, and can be this if you can attract them to join your camp early. The best example of this is Onix, which is attracted by a Good-rank Stone Soup à la Cube, which if you make one early, you can get a Pokemon that can breeze through the first three stages of the game.
- Dual Boss:
- The Boss of Stage 7-2 is a pair of Weezing.
- The final boss of Hushed Highlands is a Nidoking and Nidoqueen working together.
- There are several possible boss and mid-boss fights on Happenstance Island that involve these, including the pairings of:
- Mr. Mime and Jynx.
- Vileplume and Victreebel.
- Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan.
- Kabutops and Omastar.
- Beedrill and Butterfree.
- Everything-Is-Smashable Area: The levels contain trees and rocks that can be destroyed by some moves. You usually only get open space from doing this, though you may occasionally find extra ingredients as well.
- Excuse Plot: You are observing an island of cube shaped Pokèmon, there's not much to it until the final battle.
- Flunky Boss: Most bosses start off accompanied by a group of less powerful Pokémon; most of the rest call in reinforcements partway through the fight.
- Geo Effects: This is how the game implements the Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors mechanics from the main series. Each world gives a boost in power to Pokéxel of a specific type. Usually, but not always, the Pokéxel found in that area will be ones that are weak to that type in the main games.
- Green Hill Zone: First Steppe, the first level you play in. It's filled with greeneries and Pokéxel based on Pokémon encountered in the first part of the game.
- Herd-Hitting Attack: The purpose of the 'Broadburst Stone'. When applied to a move that hits in an area of effect, it increases the area in which said attack hits.
- An Interior Designer Is You: You can buy decorations to fill your camp with.
- The Lost Woods: The Gloomy Glade is the second level you play in is a forested area with Grass and Bug-type Pokéxel that would be found in a forested area.
- Microtransactions: It's possible to buy special decorations and move-enhancing stones from the Nintendo eShop. Unlike what one would expect from games of this type, it's not possible to directly buy PM Tickets (used to buy things in the in-game shop) with real-world money, but other purchases do come with tickets as a bonus, and some of the decorations increase the number of tickets that you can get for free once per day.
- Mythology Gag:
- The cries for the Pokéxel in this game were recycled from Pokémon Black and White and their sequels.
- This isn't the first time Eevee has been a starter in a spinoff game (and would not be the last).
- Some items like the Apricorn and the Icy Rock have different properties than in source games, being used as cooking materials similar to berries in core games.
- No Antagonist: Mewtwo bears no ill will towards you. It's just grateful to you for freeing it from the confines of the Chamber of Legends, and only fights your party as a warm-up for its body.
- Post-End Game Content: Happenstance Island is unlocked once you've beaten the game.
- Secret A.I. Moves: Some boss Pokemon can use moves that normally its species of Pokemon cannot learn. Such as an attack-boosting move that the Golem that is the final boss of Rock Belly Cave (Golem can't get Swords Dance or any attack-boosting moves otherwise), and the Magikarp that uses Hyper Beam when it Turns Red, which is an illegal move for it even in the mainline Pokemon games.
- Shifting Sand Land: The forth area of the game is Perched Peak, a desert area that surprisingly devoid of ground Pokéxel but has plenty of fire types.
- Spam Attack: The purpose of the 'Whack-Whack Stone'. Each one applied to a move causes the Pokéxel to use that move one extra time when the attack button is pressed, at the cost of slightly increasing the move's cooldown.
- Spread Shot: The purpose of the 'Scattershot Stone'. Each one applied to a move that launches projectiles causes that move to launch an additional projectile, at the cost of lowering the attack's damage.
- Starter Mon: For starters, you have your choice of the three Kanto starters, plus Pikachu and Eevee. Not long after, you receive a Ratatta and a Pidgey as your first allies.
- Status Effects: It's Pokémon, so it's to be expected. Burn, Poison, Freeze, Sleep, Paralysis, Confusion, Disable, and more are all present.
- Superboss: Occasionally, the usual boss of a stage will be replaced with a different, usually more dangerous, Pokémon. The Gyarados that is usually the boss of Farside Fjord will sometimes be replaced with a Dragonite, most stages of Happenstance Island have a chance of replacing the boss with one of the legendary birds, or on rarer occassions, Mewtwo, and the final battle on Happenstance Island against Mewtwo occasionally has Mew take over the fight instead.
- Support Party Member: The purpose of the 'Sharing Stone'. When applied to a self-buffing move, it causes a portion of said buff to apply to all teammates as well. It is also possible to have a Pokéxel that only know moves that apply status effects or stat drops on opponents, leaving only their auto-attack for offense.
- Tastes Like Friendship: Cooking dishes attract certain Pokémon.
- Timed Power-Up: The purpose of the 'Stay Strong Stone'. When applied to a move that applies a buff or a debuff, it increases the duration of said buff or debuff.
- Turns Red: Many bosses will switch from primarily using one particular move to a different, more dangerous, one when its HP is reduced to below half.
- When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Some Pokéxel arrive into your care only able to use one move. While these Pokéxel have less variety in their battle options than Pokéxel with two moves, this is offset by the fact that that one move can be augmented with up to three Move Stones, allowing for even shorter cooldowns, larger attack areas, larger percentages of a buff shared with teammates, an Alpha Strike consisting of even more attacks launched in succession, and so forth, or have several of those effects at once.
- Wolfpack Boss: The boss of the penultimate stage of Farside Fjord is a trio of Dodrio.
- You Have Researched Breathing: The Bingo Bonuses can be this in relation to the rest of the series. Sometimes they provide simple bonuses, like an increase to ATK or Movement Speed. However, some involve type-specific bonuses; for example, Fire-types can have access to a bonus that renders them immune to burns, and Poison- or Steel-types can be left immune to poisoning. There are also bonuses that grant increased damage or reduced cooldowns to attacks whose type matches one of that Pokéxel's types. All in all, giving that Pokéxel bonuses that they would have by default as a Pokémon in the main games.
