Note: I will not be covering every single reveal in this trailer, only the ones that I have something to say about.

While I don't play romhacks because trying to fool around with an emulator without technically pirating anything isn't high on my list of things I want to mess with (for both technical and moral reasons), Project Steelheart immediately grabbed me. A White 2 romhack transformed into a new Orre game? I didn't even realize that was possible, but clearly someone did, and they did it, and it looks magnificent. Using Unova's desert to represent Orre's desert is absolutely perfect, and I'm curious as to how far they'll go with representing Orre's unique geography and architecture. It's kind of a shame that I personally don't like the Shadow Pokemon gimmick from a mechanical perspective (if they let you actually gain experience and level up before purification it'd be really cool, but this design decision makes Shadow Pokemon cumbersome to use), so I likely wouldn't be able to properly enjoy it even if I did get it set up right, but at the very least I plan on watching a playthrough so I can experience the story and visuals.

(We need a Legends Orre. Just saying. Or even an XD sequel set in a neighboring region based on another US state. Who said an XD sequel had to be set exclusively in Orre? Johto was a sequel, after all...)

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Halcyon looks... promising on paper, but without any knowledge of what the actual plot of the game entails (and anyone who thinks no one plays a Pokemon game for the plot is clearly unfamiliar with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon's reputation), I don't really see what the hook is besides "spiritual successor to Explorers of Sky with newer gen Pokemon added." Which isn't bad in and of itself, but a big part of why Explorers of Sky is widely considered the best Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game of all time is because of its story, so this trailer not even hinting at any overarching plot feels like a missed opportunity. I'm sure there's a plot, because IMO you can't really have a PMD game without a plot and have it still feel like a PMD game, but the trailer certainly doesn't show it. Hopefully they throw us a Cubone in the plot department with the demo.

I do like their clever trick with disguising monster houses as empty corridors, though -- the official games were kinda bad at hiding their monster houses, given that if an upcoming room had a ton of really good items in it, it was probably a monster house. Super Mystery Dungeon did have a thing where you'd go to visit a Pokemon as a mission and it may or may not be a monster house in disguise, but generally you could guess from the type of Pokemon involved and/or the mission description whether or not you'd be attacked.

The Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Origins engine, on the other hand, is exciting as hecc. The ability to not only create your own PMD games, but even design your own dungeons rather than randomly generate them? I have my own entire PMD-style nuzlocke universe and theoretically, if I ever wanted to create a fangame based on this world, I could do it with Origins. (Well, if I learned LUA, at least.) I'm not sure if that will ever happen because I most assuredly do not want to be hit by Nintendo's copyright ninjas (RIP Citra, taken from us too soon), but just knowing that if I wanted to, I could, feels amazing.

Pokemon: A Farfetch'd Story II draws my attention in two ways: it appears to be a PMD-based story built in the traditional main series 2D engine, and it stars a Farfetch'd. I learned to love this mon in my Y nuzlocke, where a female Farfetch'd named Goldie (yes, that was absolutely a DuckTales reference and I regret nothing) became the de facto main character, and while I'd heard of the original AFS previously, I have yet to play it for myself, and maybe I should.

Pokemon Legends Mew is an interesting concept, but the Gen 1 artstyle with the limited overworld sprites combined with the Legends-style catching mechanics concerns me. If you can't identify what species a Pokemon is in the overworld, then why use up your Poke Balls trying to catch it when it could be something you don't need or want?

Pokemon Legacy: When Two Worlds Meet has an intriguing sci-fi hook, but if I'm perfectly honest, I hope the voice acting was only added for the trailer and isn't in the game, because the voicework was only so-so and it felt kind of off-putting to have it in a sprite-based game. I guess I'm so used to the Pokemon games having no voice acting that it just feels weird when it's added? But the new starter variants are heccin' cool. Snivy was already one of my favorite Grass starters and now it's somehow even more awesome.

As near as I can tell, there was no big "wow" game closing out the trailer this year, as there was with the last Eevee Expo revealing the first chapter of Pokemon Flux. Personally, I think both Project Steelheart and the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Origins engine are pretty big in and of themselves, but they weren't billed the same way as "Oh, look, here's a high-quality game from the creator of Pokemon Uranium! Is this game legal?" I'm not saying that every Eevee Expo has to have a big "wow" game, just that Flux gave them a hard act to follow.

Also of note, I've played Tales of the Outskirt Stand, and if you like the Orre games and/or more story-driven games, you should like this short romp; however, if you're like me and don't really like the Shadow Pokemon gimmick from a mechanical perspective, this isn't gonna change your mind. The story is really cool though, even if it leaves more questions than answers in the end (which I hope means a sequel!)

Finally... yes, I am aware that one of the rapid-fire game announcements was a Sonic the Hedgehog/Pokemon crossover. And honestly, I don't really care. The game itself has nothing else to grab me and doesn't even look like something I'd enjoy. I'm not angry it exists or anything; if you're excited for it, power to ya. I'm just not interested in this one. Now, a Sonic/Pokemon crossover with a more respectful interpretation of the lore, worldbuilding, and characters of both franchises that addresses what would actually happen if these two universes met, that would get my attention. Kind of do what Pokemon Odyssey did with Pokemon and Etrian Odyssey, and then we'll talk.

And don't even think about incorporating Sonichu. That joke's done to death. (Although I have enjoyed SNT's redesigns of Sonichu characters as Pika-clones with DnD classes. Yes, that is a thing that has happened.)