Today saw a new video, Famitsu article, and official website update for Pokémon Masters. With this came recapping of information already known, and a slew of new information, including some new mechanics, Sync Pairs, and all-new characters.

By way of series protagonists, Hilda has been confirmed to be paired with Tepig, as seen above. While Kris did not receive official art just yet, she seems to have chosen Totodile as her partner, as seen in the in-game screenshot below. These both align with our predictions, based on the Kotobukiya Pokémon Figure Series.

The Kalos Water-type Elite Four Trainer, Siebold, appears with a Clawitzer as his partner, despite Barbaracle being his strongest Pokémon in X & Y.

Other Trainers spotted in the video whose partners aren’t as surprising include Whitney and her trusty Miltank, Marley and Arcanine, Phoebe and Dusknoir, Agatha and Gengar, Norman and Slaking, and Skyla and Swanna. A little more surprising is Pryce and Seel. In Gold, Silver, & Crystal as well as their remakes, HeartGold & SoulSilver, Seel is the weakest Pokémon in Pryce’s team, as he uses both an evolved Dewgong as well as his ace, Piloswine.

All-new characters appear in the region of Pasio. Introduced today include the artificial island’s professor, Bellis, who studies sync stones, which are needed to perform sync moves. We know that sync moves can cause certain Pokémon to Mega Evolve, so perhaps the sync stones are related to Mega Stones in a way.

Lear is described as a prince who once lost to a Trainer wearing a hat, indicative of the series protagonists. He built the island of Pasio and set up the Pokémon Masters League (or PML) to “conquer his own weakness.” It will be interesting to see how his desire to win, or perhaps even lust for revenge, will come into play in the story of Masters. By being a prince, his name draws possible reference to Shakespeare’s tragedy, King Lear.

Sawyer and Rachel both work for Lear. Sawyer is described as “loyal,” while Rachel respects Lear’s “single-minded seriousness” despite his arrogance.

Paulo is described as a “rival Trainer” who also wants to compete in the PML, similar to rival characters in the main-series games. He is an “exceptional student with a strong sense of justice.” It will be interesting to see how he interacts with villainous characters from the evil teams. Paulo is also said to be one step ahead of the main character, perhaps indicating he is a more serious Trainer than some rival characters of past. His Pokémon partner is Rockruff.

In addition to the information regarding characters was information about new mechanics. Announced today was a co-op mode, where you can play with friends. If all three players consecutively charge the Unity Gauge, they can unleash a Unity Attack. All three team members will attack at once, with the Type changing based on the Pokémon involved in the attack.

Also revealed was the Sygna Suit system. When the Trainer changes clothes, their partner Pokémon also changes. Shown is Brock in an all-new outfit, with his new partner, Tyranitar. How to obtain Sygna Suits, as well as what they will be based on, is still up in the air. It would certainly be a good opportunity to allow characters with multiple canonical outfits to have access to them all. Although Brock does not change into his FireRed & LeafGreen attire, we also do not know how many Sygna Suits any one character can have.

Although we still don’t know all the details, such as how to obtain new Trainers or the exhaustive list of the 65 launch Sync Pairs, Masters is shaping up to be a mobile game with a lot of depth.

Edited by ddrox13 and Zach.