For the past few years, developer Game Freak has been experimenting with the Pokemon formula. 2021’s Pokemon Legends: Arceus redefined what it meant to catch a Pokemon, and 2022’s Pokemon Scarlet and Violet broke from the linear structure to let you take on gyms in any order. With Pokemon Legends: Z-A, Game Freak sets its sights on rethinking the battle mechanics. For the first time, Pokemon battles are real-time, with attacks utilizing a cooldown system and positioning playing a key role. This fresh take on the battle system keeps Legends: Z-A engaging from start to finish, but a bland presentation leaves Legends: Z-A feeling like a relic of the past.
Pokemon Legends: Z-A exclusively takes place in Lumiose City, the crown jewel of the Kalos region that is heavily inspired by Paris, France. A canal bisects the city, cafes can be found on nearly every block, and the Prism Tower–modeled after the Eiffel Tower–sits directly in the center. It’s odd to play a Pokemon game set within the walls of a single town, but Lumiose City is probably one of the only places in the Pokemon universe that could support an entire game. That’s not only due to its size, but also thanks to its rich history, which was established in 2013’s Pokemon X and Y. Taking place only five years after the events of Pokemon X and Y means Legends: Z-A feels like a sequel rather than a spin-off.
By day, you’re tasked with uncovering the truth behind Rogue Mega Evolved Pokemon popping up all over the city, and by night, you’re climbing the Z-A Royale tournament ladder. Before long, these two goals become intertwined and missions alternate between hunting down Mega Evolved Pokemon and raising your rank in the Z-A Royale. Each rank introduces you to a new opponent who represents a different faction in Lumiose City. Over the course of the tournament, you’ll spend time with a martial arts club and a crime syndicate, as well as mingle in aristocratic society. As you’re getting to know these characters and their backstories, Rogue Mega Evolved Pokemon will threaten the city and you’ll need to defeat them before ranking up in the tournament. It’s a predictable structure, but one that affords Game Freak the opportunity to delve into the different sides of Lumiose City and its eccentric denizens. Ivor is a hulking man with long blond hair who wants to tear down the Wild Zones so Pokemon and people can live together in harmony. Corbeau is a sharply dressed mob boss who’s dedicated his life to making Lumiose City a safe place.
These characters and the people they represent give texture to Lumiose City and its inhabitants that most Pokemon games tend to lack, because of how quickly you move from one town to the next. It feels like Lumiose City is a melting pot of different ideas and beliefs regarding Pokemon and their value within society. The problem is that, visually, Pokemon Legends: Z-A doesn’t reflect that at all. Lumiose City is broken up into multiple districts, but they lack visual distinction from each other. Most buildings look identical, while streets and alleys all share a flat grey color that makes everything feel sterile. There are some exceptions, such as the Lumiose Museum and Galerie de la Lune, both of which take advantage of the setting, but these are outliers. You’d think the aristocratic class would spend their time in a fancier part of town, but aside from the hotel they congregate in, their neighborhood is indistinguishable from the many others that comprise Lumiose City.
This lackluster presentation extends to most aspects of Pokemon Legends: Z-A. There’s a cutscene early on where you get cornered by a few trainers ready to battle. It’s well choreographed and directed, but the lack of voice acting leaves the scene feeling empty; it’s like an audio track was accidentally turned off before the final release. This, in turn, gives the scene an incomplete feeling. I don’t think voice acting would necessarily fix this moment, but it’s emblematic of Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s presentation.
Legends: Z-A does take this opportunity to expand and reimagine the city far beyond the capabilities of the Nintendo 3DS, where it last appeared in its entirety. At a glance, the map reveals a dense city dotted with points of interest, winding alleyways, and parks neatly tucked between urban centers. Throughout the city, there are walled off areas known as Wild Zones that have been overrun with wild Pokemon, and as you progress through the story, more and more zones open up. You can still catch Pokemon outside of Wild Zones, but these areas have the highest density of wild Pokemon. However, because these Wild Zones are confined within the walls of Lumiose City, they are much smaller than the untamed wilderness of Hisiu or the rolling hills of Paldea. Most Wild Zones consist of a few city blocks or a small park, and the cramped nature of these zones limits your approach when catching Wild Pokemon. Stealth is less viable, and it’s very easy to aggro wild Pokemon while trying to sneakily approach a rare one. Worse, aside from Poke Balls, you aren’t given any catching tools such as Smoke Bombs, which would reduce the visibility of wild Pokemon or throwable berries that could distract them–items that would be even more useful here than in Legends: Arceus.
Across the board, catching Pokemon is less engaging than Legends: Arceus due to these cramped zones and limited tools. Fortunately, Game Freak seems to have been aware of this, so it has made completing the Pokedex less tedious. Now you only need to catch a Pokemon once to fill out an entry, and when you knock out a wild Pokemon, you get one free attempt at catching them. Whenever I unlocked a new Wild Zone, I’d pop in to catch the Pokemon I wanted and left when I had my fill. With minimal effort, I managed to 100% most Wild Zones on my first visit.
Most of Legends: Z-A consists of battling, and it’s better for it. The game lifts the essential mechanics from the turn-based combat system and successfully translates them to real-time combat. A Pokemon can have four moves equipped at a time, and each move is on a separate cooldown timer. Once you select a move, your Pokemon locks in place, leaving them vulnerable until the attack animation is complete. Attacks in Legends: Z-A don’t have an accuracy percentage, either. Instead, the attack needs to physically connect with the opposing Pokemon in order to inflict damage. This means that physical attacks like Bite and Slash require the attacking Pokemon to close the gap on combatants, while a move such as Ice Beam can hit a Pokemon from a distance.
This fundamentally changes how Pokemon battles work and recontextualizes nearly every single move in the game, some of which have been around for decades. Detect and Protect, for example, have been in Pokemon since Generation 2 and functionally do the same thing: protect your Pokemon for one turn. In Legends: Z-A, Detect has a shorter cooldown than Protect, but it doesn’t protect the user for as long, making timing slightly more crucial. Relearning how familiar moves work and implementing them in battle to form new strategies is wonderful. There’s so much to tinker with, and a ton of potential to create some interesting teams.
This fundamentally changes how Pokemon battles work and recontextualizes nearly every single move in the game, some of which have been around for decades.
The premiere mechanic of Legends: Z-A’s combat, though, are Mega Evolutions. Megas played a big role in Generation 6, but they’ve been on ice for the last 12 years. They have always been the flashiest of the battle gimmicks, and they make a lot of sense here. As you land attacks, a meter fills up. Once it’s full, you can click the right stick to Mega Evolve your Pokemon so long as they’re holding a corresponding Mega Stone. Megas get a stat boost and all their attacks become more powerful for a limited amount of time. A well-timed Mega Evolution can dramatically shift the tide of battle, but these Pokemon aren’t as powerful as you might think. A few poorly timed attacks can send it right back to its Poke Ball. Megas add an extra layer to the combat and give it a little extra visual flair.
The other half of the new battle formula is positioning. When your Pokemon isn’t attacking, it will follow you around the battlefield as best as it can. When you input an attack, it will reposition before winding up. By moving around the battlefield and issuing attacks at the right times, you might be able to narrowly avoid incoming attacks from opponents. Of course, there are more factors at play such as the size and speed of your Pokemon versus the range and speed of your opponents attack–all things that must be considered for tougher battles. In some cases, not attacking is the best play so you can dodge your opponent’s super-effective move in order to safely counter it. These changes to combat are substantial, and while I still prefer the standard turn-based combat from the mainline series, they are a joy to experiment with.
However, there’s a good chance you won’t need to experiment with all the new mechanics because Pokemon Legends: Z-A is fairly easy. There are a few challenges–one side mission in particular has you defeat 10 trainers in a row without using items–but in most cases you can be successful by adhering to the type chart and overleveling your Pokemon. While I don’t expect Pokemon games to be a gauntlet of challenges, I was hoping for a few battles throughout the story that might push me to really dig into this battle system and come up with new strategies that can only work in this format.
Most battles take place during the Z-A Royale, a tournament that takes over a random part of Lumiose City each night. Trainers in the tournament zone will challenge you on site, and after defeating enough of them, you’ll earn a Challenger Ticket that lets you participate in a Promotion Match. If you win your Promotion Match, you’ll move up a rank. There’s an element of stealth to these trainer battles. If you launch an attack before the opposing trainer spots, you’ll get a free hit on their first Pokemon, and your attack cooldown will reset immediately. It’s a nice touch that rewards pre-planning for each encounter. The stealth mechanics don’t always make sense though, as trainers will only engage if they see you, not your Pokemon. This means you can hide behind a wall and fire out a Hydro Pump right in front of them for an easy advantage. This doesn’t ruin the battling experience, but it does make already easy battles even easier.
Where Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s combat really comes together is during the Rogue Mega Evolution battles. These are boss fights that require you to chip away at a massive Mega Evolved Pokemon’s health bar while dodging area-of-effect attacks. Unlike most battles, victory isn’t guaranteed by launching super-effective attacks and overleveling your Pokemon. You need to strategically Mega Evolve your Pokemon, while managing your Pokemon’s health and your own, as these battles also allow you to take damage. Just because you’re safe from a huge attack, it doesn’t mean your Pokemon is and vice versa. Success requires quick thinking, strategic movement, and issuing attacks at the right time.
What makes these fights even more enjoyable are all the new Mega designs. These range from wacky and absurd to cool as heck. A few of them, like the previously announced Mega Dragonite, are sure to ruffle some feathers, but I think there’s a balanced roster of weirdos and hotshots that always had me eager to pursue Rogue Mega Evolution battles.
Pokemon Legends: Z-A is a fitting end to the Switch 1-era Pokemon games. Like Legends: Arceus and Scarlet and Violet, it takes some surprising risks, but it looks rough doing so. Game Freak’s decision to overhaul the battle mechanics for the first time since Pokemon’s inception is admirable, and it ultimately paid off. But after five 3D Pokemon games, it’s frustrating how far behind Pokemon is when it comes to its presentation. It feels like the last piece missing to really bring Pokemon into the future.
