Game Review: ‘Pokémon Legends: Z-A’
When you fire up Pokémon Legends: Z-A, you’re immediately stepping into a world full of potential that’s trying to bring back the good old vibes from your childhood. This time, Legends: Z-A is set once again in the region of Kalos, known from the 6th generation of Pokémon X&Y. However, instead of revisiting the entire region, our playground is the big and extremely detailed, yet unique and beautiful Lumiose City.
As a spin-off game from the Legends series, Z-A goes back to the roots of Generation 6 that made them iconic, and this means the return of Mega Evolutions. With a new story and new ideas come new, completely refreshed combat mechanics, an urban setting, and the easiest shiny hunting method ever created in Pokémon games.
[Warning: Light spoilers from Pokémon Legends: Z-A are below!]
The story in Pokémon Legends: Z-A
Our main story takes place in Lumiose City, once well known from the X&Y Pokémon 6th generation as the capital and largest city in the Kalos region. From the beginning of the story, it is revealed that Lumiose is now undergoing a large-scale renovation to make it more futuristic and Pokémon-friendly. A Quasartico Inc. corporation is responsible for this redevelopment plan to create a space where people and Pokémon live in harmony. They create wild zones, which start to appear more and more often with each main mission done.
As a player and a traveler, you arrive in the city and quickly find yourself involved with a group called the MZ Team, whose role is to keep Lumiose safe and balanced. Their leader, AZ, is the same character revealed in X&Y to be the former king of the Kalos region. He is immortal, and has wandered for 3000 years to bring back his unique Floette.
As soon as you get to the Hotel Z, you learn of a new disturbing phenomenon that causes wild Pokémon to spontaneously Mega-evolve and go rogue. You pick from 3 starter Pokémon, which are Chikorita, Totodile, and Tepig. After you make your decision, one of your main objectives, besides becoming the best Pokémon Trainer, is to stop the Rogue Mega Evolutions and keep the people and other Pokémon safe.
Without going into heavy spoilers, familiar faces are returning from the X&Y games. They have their own parts to play in Legends: Z-A. There are some obvious cameos, and there are some that no one expected to see, but they all work. They add the needed sense of danger and continuity to the story, which respects your playthrough of each game and doesn’t act like someone else is canonically the champion in the previous regions.
Gameplay & new mechanics
Gameplay in Legends: Z-A takes what was established in Pokémon Legends: Arceus and it changes it completely to fit more exciting and require constant focus on new combat mechanics. One of the most significant changes is the reintroduction of Mega Evolutions, which are now a part of the new battle system. They happen in real time, and you can Mega Evolve your Pokémon whenever you want for a certain time.
There is no more classical turn-based system that requires each player to move one by one and hope for a miracle when it gets tough. This time, you control each movement of your trainer, you move your Pokémon concurrently to avoid attacks. You manage cooldowns of your moves (they don’t have limited usage of PP in the game) and constantly change positions rather than simply deciding whether to heal your Pokémon now, calculate damage in the meantime, or wait for a bug to happen.
Lumiose City also becomes a playground for you to discover all of its secrets and hidden items you’ll need for the upgrades. Wild zones are part of the urban environment, and rooftops and alleys serve as grounds to hunt lost Pokémon during the day and to fight other trainers during the night.
Exploration is amazing, and each time you go into another district, you discover more secrets than before. If you progress further into the story, new Pokémon start to spawn. Either Alpha or even Rogue Mega ones.
What is worth noticing is that shiny hunting in Legends: Z-A is now easier than before (not through Dynamax Adventures in Pokémon Sword & Shield, where shiny odds are very low with Shiny Charm). When it comes to hunting Pokémon in nature, your shiny Pokémon that spawn will NOT disappear. Ever. Of course, unless you defeat them, catch them, or make them flee. This is thanks to the mechanics that allow players to save some shinies for later when we progress with the story, and we’ll be able to catch them.
You can restart wild zones by fast traveling to them, you can bench rest for hours, and you can even run around to spawn and despawn within a distance of 50 meters from the player. All of it, so you can get the shiny Pokémon you want.
The difficulty of the game is based on your style of play. If you decide to level up your Pokémon without progressing through the missions, it will get very easy for you to progress through the story.
But what I also have to mention is that I was playing Pokémon Legends: Z-A on a Nintendo Switch 1. I thought that the game would be stuttering or even lagging most of the time. I was pleasantly surprised when, in all of my hours of playing, I’ve NEVER had a crash, lag, or even a small stutter. This game is working really well on Switch 1, and if you were thinking of buying Switch 2 only because you’re afraid of optimization problems, don’t be. It works fine. There’s no need to buy a new console for a 5-second faster loading time.
Final thoughts on Pokémon Legends: Z-A
Pokémon Legends: Z-A is a meaningful and needed step forward for the Pokémon gaming franchise. Where many previous games played it safe, Legends: Z-A completely rewrites the iconic mechanics of the game. It changes the combat system, brings back Mega Evolutions and adds some new ones, and turns one city into a big territory filled with wild zones. With those additions only, Pokémon Legends: Z-A earns its place as one of the more interesting Pokémon titles not only recently, but from the beginning of the series.
That said, the experience is wild. The story starts slowly, but with each side and main mission, you learn more and discover a lot of hidden easter eggs from previous games. All of this, just to have a big ending in the finale. Lumiose City is really fun to navigate, and it’s not boring. It gives us more than we expected from the first reveal trailers.
If you’re a fan of Pokémon and their battles, if you enjoy exploring the world with your Pokémon companion by your side in new ways, and if you like the idea of revisiting a familiar region with a twist that makes it more interesting, then this game will delight you. For new players who decided to start playing Pokémon games with this one, it provides enough modern ideas and additions and fresh mechanics, so it is an excellent choice to start even if you don’t know much about Pokémon.
My rating for this game: 4.5/5
Pokémon Legends: Z-A takes everything people loved in previous games and connects it with the experience players always wanted to have; that is, to be a Pokémon trainer and fight in real-time battles where every move counts and you have to make time-sensitive decisions. It is not a perfect Pokémon game, but it comes impressively close to being one.
If you’re ready to experience a new chapter in the Pokémon gaming franchise, you’ll find Pokémon Legends: Z-A feels like a classic to the old-time veterans and fresh to players who started their journey with the game more recently.
Also check out Game Review: Pokémon Scarlet/Violet
