After completing all that Pokémon Legends: Arceus had to offer and catching as many of the Pokémon I could to fill my Pastures (what other games in the series would call storage boxes) with, I was left infected, yearning for more of the catch-and-battle first approach explored by the adventure into Sinnoh’s origins.
While Legends: Arceus offered a peek into the past, when I was offered to get hands-on with the new Legends title, Pokémon Legends: Z-A, I jumped at the chance to look into the future of the series as a lifelong Pokémon fan. What Pokémon Legends: Z-A does is it revamps a tried-and-true battle system with real-time mechanics, streamlines catching and battling Pokémon, and offers an exciting new look at the origins of Lumiose City from the mainline Pokémon X and Y titles. Thankfully, Pokémon Legends: Z-A is back as the second instalment of Legends, and it looks good but plays even better.
You’re first introduced to a Lumiose City under redevelopment as a tourist. While my preview time didn’t expand fully on how or why the player-made protagonist is in Lumiose, the title first welcomes you to Kalos in Pokémon Legends: Z-A the same way a New Yorker trying to sell you something would. A local Hotel staff member, Urbain or Taunie (dependent on the selected character’s appearance in the beginning), is hunting tourists to help advertise. This advertisement is for the enigmatic Hotel Z.
While this does serve as a speedy entry into the workings of Lumiose City, it remains unclear if Pokémon Legends: Z-A follows its big brother, Arceus, and forces the isekai trope of being in a new world. All I know is you’re new to Lumiose City, and it serves as an excellent kick-off for adventure.
Before playing, one of my biggest worries surrounding Z-A’s development was how the new Legends title would feel like ‘true’ Pokémon, if it’s set entirely within the confines of Lumiose City. Especially when Pokémon Red and Blue introduced Pokémon themselves as native to tall grass. This worry was abruptly beaten down when I was sent to explore Wild Area 6 of Lumiose City. The entire cityscape is divided into clipped-off areas and zones that you can explore, each loaded with its own Pokémon to find and capture.
Like its older sibling, Pokémon Legends: Z-A avoids random encounters and shows each creature on screen, and players can choose to challenge(or avoid) them. After wandering the streets and beating a group of increasingly aggressive Houndour, I was able to face off against my first real challenge, an Alpha Pokémon! These are genuinely exciting encounters to find, and provide a huge challenge if you’re under-prepared, and I’d hate to admit I was outclassed entirely, even with a level 30 Gyarados in tow. What’s even more embarrassing is that the Alpha was the fire-type Houndoom.
Battle mechanics and FPS worked admirably on the Nintendo Switch 2, and while Game Freak has previously shown gameplay for Z-A, getting behind the sticks is a whole new beast. Instead of waiting for your turn like mainline Pokémon titles (or selecting moves from a list in real-time like in Pokémon Legends: Arceus), movement is every bit as important in a hard fight as move variance and strategy.
When I triggered Gyarados’ Twister attack, not only did it behave differently than Waterfall, it quite literally hits different and moves to the opponent instead of Gyarados making a wild charge. Game Freak took out all of the stops when it comes to move design this time around, making each battle decision key to being victorious. When using Whirlpool, in previous Pokémon titles, the move would trap your opponent and deal damage each turn. In Pokémon Legends: Z-A, it effectively tethers an opponent in place so you can unleash a beating on them (Fire Spin functions the same way).
“Like its older sibling, Pokémon Legends: Z-A avoids random encounters and shows each creature on screen, and players can choose to challenge(or avoid) them.”
Further, while facing the tremendous Houndoom, each move Gyarados can use has a cooldown, so Pokémon Legends: Z-A brings more ARPG to the equation than turn-based. Gyarados could use Bite, Waterfall, and Whirlpool very fast if the cooldown permits, making battling even more trainer-centered. If mainline Pokémon is like Final Fantasy with turn-based gameplay, Legends: Z-A brings a hybrid between turn-based and active battle systems similar to how the Tales or Star Ocean JRPG series functions, and it feels like you’re a real trainer instead of a starting Pokémon with a party of five. Legends Z-A makes you feel like a trainer, and a strong-bodied one at that.
After getting absolutely demolished by the Alpha Houndoom’s Crunch, I was sent back to the Pokémon Center to heal up. Despite the entire area being coated in urban development, Lumiose City is varied and contains a lot of biomes to explore. This makes the setting come alive, making it feel like a breathing urban city. Lumiose also teaches a class in nostalgia with its background music. The soundtrack is filled with remixes of classic Pokémon X and Y tracks, stacking the deck against fans with fond memories.
After rushing back into Wild Area 6, I faced off against yet another Alpha Pokémon, the mascot himself, Pikachu. At level 42, he was faster and stronger than my entire team and wiped all of them out except my remaining Watchog. I then desperately threw a Great Ball and watched in wonder as I caught this way too powerful creature early on. Pikachu had inflated stats as an Alpha, but he would not listen in fights like the beginning of the Pokémon anime. I now know how Ash felt when leaving Pallet Town. With Legends Z-A’s insistence on real-time battling, having an overpowered creature that doesn’t listen could very well end up costing you a win.
As Pikachu opted to ‘loaf around’ instead of using Thunder Bolt, the Alpha Houndoom beat me one more time. I was happy to discover that while trying to catch a Pokémon, trainers can cut the brakes and go all out with damage. After dropping its health, it will enter a stunned state, and a Poké Ball can be thrown to capture without worry of wiping out each creature. This is a worthy quality of life change that utterly eliminates the utility of False Swipe, and it’s a good choice. After losing against Houndoom and catching a small fleet of Houndour, I moved on to the next segment of Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the competition known as the Z-A Battle Royale.
To the many fans who had issues with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s lack of forced trainer battles, you’re in luck. When night falls over Lumiose City, Wild Areas become battle zones where you face off against trainers to rank up. Instead of a number system, each player starts at rank Z and works towards reaching a higher rank up to A. When you defeat other trainers in the Z-A Battle Royale, you gather points. With enough points, you can obtain a Challenger Ticket used for a promotion match.
Throughout the night, mini-objectives will pop up asking the player to perform certain actions to earn extra points in battle. My selections told me to surprise two opponents and hit an opponent with a Super Effective Grass-type attack. I was given a new team this time (I was sad I couldn’t keep the masochist Pikachu), and I was able to evolve my Croconaw from the menu just like in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. If you fulfill evolution requirements for your team, you will have to manually evolve them from the menu.
As a plus, you can even alter each monster’s moveset from the menus without headache, and you can replace the four moves from the menu screen at the drop of a hat at any time. This is a big quality of life change from the mainline series that sometimes required rare items like Heart Scales to relearn moves, but became a common feature in the Legends series (and more recently, Scarlet and Violet).
“Pokémon Legends: Z-A deploys possibly the best battle system in the series, while innovating everything else to fit the setting.”
After taking the streets of a nighttime Lumiose City, there’s a notifier on the top of the screen that lights up red when another trainer sees you, and if they do, it’s on like Nugget Bridge. These battles are mandatory and force you to use tactics to come out on top. I first did battle against a trainer’s Staryu, and promptly countered with Roselia.
After using Magical Leaf once, Staryu submitted, and I took Aymeric the Waiter’s points. After defeating the waiter, they offered to heal my Pokémon for free, and I obliged. Another trainer offered me items, and another offered me all of their victory points after winning. I functioned as either the resident bully in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, who doesn’t even need to demand lunch money, or a tourist everyone is trying to be nice to. Either way, other trainers are very helpful after losing.
After crushing a trainer’s Binacle with Croconaw’s Aqua Jet, I was ready for a promotion match. Promotion Matches are only required after you gather enough points to receive a Challenge Card, which you can then beat a higher-ranked opponent to elevate your rank. I met up with the next rank up trainer, Rintaro (who’s also a waiter), to fight in the middle of his restaurant—where a battle stadium is located (go figure—to determine who is greater. Diners continued on, not phased by our battle.
After smartly marching Croconaw around the arena and beating a trio of Simisage, Simipour, and Simisear by avoiding attacks, I was elevated to Rank V (the letter, not the roman numeral), and was ejected into the final part of the preview, a fight against a Rogue Mega Victreebel.
For the last segment (complete with yet another new team), I was put up against the Rogue menace afflicting Lumiose City. A strange phenomenon dubbed Rogue Mega Evolution—where wild Pokémon Mega Evolve on their own—has started, and it’s affecting redevelopment efforts of the City. The final battle had me face off against a particularly angry Victreebel, in its Mega form. First off, Mega Victreebel looks like a misplaced Legend of Zelda bomb bag that leaks poison juice, and packs a mighty punch in the arena you face off against it in.
More mechanics were introduced in this fight. Plus moves are attacks that allow the player to use some of the power from their Mega Ring to slam the opponent with extra damage. While Mega Evolved, all moves are considered Plus Moves. All a trainer has to do to deploy a + move is hit the ‘+’ button on the controller and select the move to fire away.
The boss fight against Rogue Mega Victreebel operates very similarly to the boss fights present in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. In Pokémon Legends: Z-A, you can mega evolve, and wherever you use your chosen Pokémon’s attack is where they will use it from. This is key in avoiding attacks in other battles, but most importantly, in the hard-hitting boss fights. Trainers will need to remain vigilant on where the trainer and their Pokémon is, at all times, to be victorious.
This emphasis on trainer and Pokémon makes each battle feel as if you’re working in tandem with both characters, making the role of the trainer more important than ever before. Like Pokémon Legends: Arceus, your trainer can take too much damage, and you can lose battles, so you have to remain out of harm’s way to secure the win.
Victreebel swarms the stage with errant Sludge Bomb attacks, Bullet Seed, and Vine Whips to try and make quick work of you and your team. But after doing enough damage to Mega Victreebel and collecting enough Mega energy, you can deploy your own Mega Evolution to combat the Poison Grass Mega boss. Luckily, I had Houndoom (not the one that beat me into oblivion), complete with its Mega Stone in waiting.
“After my time playing, it’s apparent Game Freak has made something special yet again with Pokémon Legends: Z-A.“
After Mega evolving Houndoom, I was able to slowly knock Mega Victreebel down. After being defeated, Victreebel dropped Victreebelite, so I was now able to Mega evolve my own Victreebel if I wanted to, giving players a reason to hunt these boss fights outside of it being just another challenge. After my time playing, it’s apparent Game Freak has made something special yet again with Pokémon Legends: Z-A.
I’ll admit, I was incredibly skeptical regarding Pokémon Legends: Z-A after it was announced to take place solely in Lumiose City, but after getting my hands on it, all of my worries have been erased. Pokémon Legends: Z-A innovates on everything that made the first instalment, Legends: Arceus, a good title and improves in nearly every aspect.
From what I played, Pokémon Legends: Z-A deploys possibly the best battle system in the series, while innovating everything else to fit the setting. Game Freak took customization a step further and has allowed full character customization on top of every active gameplay element innovation, allowing players to really immerse themselves and their style into the Kalos region alongside the new mechanics. While I was initially cautious regarding Pokémon Legends: Z-A, I can’t wait for October for the full release.
