Soundtracks for Pokémon titles have been sparse of late, but we finally received news that soundtracks for the last three main series games primarily created by Game Freak (sorry, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl – you had a good soundtrack, but you aren’t being released yet). These are for Pokémon Sword and Shield, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

Thus far, they will release in physical format (CD) on the 27th of February, 2024 (also known as Pokémon Day, the anniversary of the series). Each CD, or ‘Super Music Collection’, comes with a colour booklet with illustrations and notes from the composers, and development material, which is a neat bonus. But it’s only available in Japan for now. Hopefully news of an overseas release will happen sooner than later!

It does beg the question: why now? The Isle of Armor DLC for Pokémon Sword and Shield released late October 2020, over three thousand years ago now. Granted, a little worldwide event called Covid did happen then, and they probably originally didn’t want to release the soundtrack until the DLC had released, after the pandemic well and truly had kicked in. Japan also only opened up its borders within the last year.

It’s nice to see an official way for fans to enjoy the music from the recent series titles, at any rate, even if it is later than one may have hoped for. Fingers crossed the next game’s soundtrack won’t be so far behind its full release, as we are seeing for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet – and that it’ll be available outside of Japan! It would be a weird and disappointing result if this is the extent of the release – previous offerings were at least available digitally as well.

Will you grab a soundtrack, or even three, when they release? Is that decision dependent on the country of release?