While Game Freak no doubt has its hands full working on Pokémon Legends ZA, it’s had the time to work on another project independent of its iconic monster-catching franchise. Although this one is distinctly smaller-scale, being a free-to-play mobile game titled Pand Land.
Game Freak is not the sole developer on this title, having partnered with another Japanese studio called WonderPlanet, which has primarily worked on other free-to-play mobile games. In a press release shared earlier today (translated by Gematsu), the two studios describe Pand Land as a “casual sailing adventure RPG… where you become the captain of an expedition team and set out on a journey in search of legendary treasure.”
At first, it sounded to me like an attempt at aping Rare’s hit live-service Sea of Thieves, albeit with a blocky art style reminiscent of Pokémon Quest (how many of you even remember Pokémon Quest?). Upon watching the trailer, though, it’s more of a dungeon crawler, with you sailing to and exploring various islands with a top-down perspective. That said, there is a multiplayer component like Sea of Thieves, where you can team up with other players and adventure together.
The game promises over 400 party members you can recruit, some of which appear to be blocky, colourful animals, while others are human crew members. The trailer also boasts some nice character art you could easily mistake for being from a Pokémon game since they’re clearly done by the same artists for that series.
Pand Land seems like a cute and harmless enough time, though it’s unclear how its monetisation will work, and how much of a grind it can be if you don’t want to fork over real money for its microtransactions. I would say you don’t have long to wait to try it out, since it’s launching on the App Store and the Google Play store on Monday, June 24, but Pand Land is so far only scheduled for a Japanese release. There’s no mention of it coming to the West, but WonderPlanet has made a couple of its previous mobile games available worldwide so there’s always a chance.
This is hardly the first Game Freak title to not be related to Pokémon. In the past, the studio’s put out games like RPG Little Town Hero and the free-to-play Pocket Card Jockey. It’s also meant to be teaming up with Private Division on a new action-adventure game, but considering Take-Two is reportedly shutting down Private Division in its entirety (according to IGN), who knows what’s happening with that project.
