An obscene amount of my childhood was spent trying to be the very best (like no one ever was) because I’m a child of the nineties who was the perfect age for the first big Pokémon boom. While many of my peers cowardly grew out of Pikachu and company, I have stayed a Pokémaniac for the entire history of the monster collecting series. As such I’ve been pretty damn excited for Pokémon Legends: Z-A since it was announced last year, albeit with a twinge of concern. With so much history with the series, I was worried a game that changes so much about Pokémon and its battling could disappoint me. That couldn’t be further from the truth though, and I’d even go as far as to say that Pokémon Legends: Z-A is the most fun I’ve had with the series in over a decade.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A takes place entirely in Lumiose City, the central metropolis of the X and Y games back on the 3DS. You play as a young tourist arriving in the city for the first time, and immediately gets dragged into some local drama when your bag is stolen. You’d better believe this leads to you getting your first Pokémon and doing some battles, and before you know it you’re taken in by a hotel that’s a sort of front for a team of vigilante city defenders.
Lumiose City is a bustling place that’s becoming more popular with both people and Pokémon, and it’s becoming a problem. To help the Pokémon of the city, wild zones have been implemented – which are basically portions of the city where wild Pokémon can run free and attack people who enter. There are those who oppose this idea though, and with dangerous rogue mega Pokémon appearing even outside of these zones it’s clear the city needs some help.
Before you can become a saviour of the city though you’ll need to learn how to battle with Pokémon. This isn’t Pokémon battling as you know it either, it’s real time combat with cooldowns on moves and the ability to dodge and weave around enemy attacks. All of the type matchups and moves that fans know and love still exist, but there’s a focus on action and thinking on your feet that really makes every fight a blast.
What’s really clever is how moves have been adapted to work in the 3D arena fight setting. Some attacks like Thunderbolt or Water Gun can be shot from afar, which keeps your Pokémon safe but makes them easier to dodge. There are also moves like Protect or Dig which, if you time right, can prevent attacks entirely, along with a whole host of status effects and stat changing moves that can turn battles in your favour. One of my favourite strategies was to place traps like Stealth Rocks and Toxic Spikes around the battlefield to deal damage over time as I just ran around dodging the enemy. It doesn’t reveal its depth immediately, but there’s a lot of nuance under the hood of battles in Pokémon Legends: Z-A.
The main reason you’ll be battling your Pokémon is the Z-A tournament, which is a ranked contest that pits trainers against each other when night falls. The overall goal of the game is to reach rank A, because the winner of the contest has been promised a wish of their choosing. This means everyone is desperate to climb the ranks, and is out at night trying to earn enough challenge tickets to rank up. Going to these competitive areas is a highlight of Pokémon Legends: Z-A, especially because there’s a stealth element in sneaking up on opponents to get the first strike.
When you aren’t fighting your rivals in Legends: Z-A, you’ll likely be exploring the sprawling utopia of Lumiose. This urban environment is full of alleys to investigate and rooftops to jump between, and the verticality of the exploration is delightful. Even outside of the wild areas you’ll find Pokémon hanging out across the city, from Trubbish chilling on wheelie bins to Pansage and Panpour peeking down from trees. Whether you’re hunting for collectibles, candy to level up your party or all new monsters, you’ll find it on every little journey to your next quest marker.
Catching Pokémon is just as action focused as the combat, with a cheeky sprinkle of stealth alongside. You’re more likely to succeed in catching if you throw a Pokeball at the back of a Pokémon, and often this means ducking behind bins and hiding in tall grass until you find the moment to pounce. When this inevitably goes wrong the Pokémon will be pretty annoyed and will aim to murder you with blasts of fire and ice, and you’ll need to dodge roll away to safety. In wild areas especially it’s a lot of fun trying to catch the list of Pokémon hiding around the environment, and that’s partially because you’ll be greatly rewarded for doing so.
To keep some Pokémon tradition in the game, Legends: Z-A features the tried and true background objective of researching all of the Pokémon by catching them. This and other objectives like catching specific types of Pokémon or evolving them will grant you points that raise your research level, and for levelling up you’ll be given a ton of powerful TMs you can use to teach moves to your favourite monsters. I was always compelled to catch every new creature I saw because of this, and in a lot of other games in the series I just don’t bother.
Other optional content includes side quests, which are ridiculously varied. Lots of these are used to introduce you to specific battle mechanics, while others have you leading smelly Pokémon away from cafés and other more novel tasks. My favourite took me around the city museum trying to find a couple’s missing bug Pokémon, with loads of adorable moments throughout. You’re welcome to avoid these missions if you’d rather focus on fighting and filling out the Pokédex, but they really flesh out the world and add a lot of joy to the game.
If you’d rather challenge yourself than enjoy cute distractions, then the ranked online multiplayer mode might be the one for you. I didn’t even realise this existed until I stumbled across it on a menu accidentally, and I assumed it would be a little bit throwaway. It’s anything but though, with exciting four way clashes where the trainer with the most knockouts wins the match. You’re even rewarded with bonus items as you rank up, including important things like Mega Stones.
I couldn’t talk about Pokémon Legends: Z-A without talking about the return of Mega Evolution. This fan favourite mechanic is back with a bang, transforming a whole host of your favourite Pokémon into new powerful forms. This almost broken ability is pretty much essential if you want to take on tougher opponents and Rogue Megas running wild, so thankfully there are a ludicrous number of new Mega Pokémon to obtain as you progress through the game. There are dozens and dozens of moments where a new Mega will appear as you fight through the game, and their designs are absolutely incredible.
I played through all of Pokémon Legends: Z-A on the Switch 2, and it’s worth mentioning quite how perfectly the game runs on the console. When fast traveling across the open world you’ll barely notice the load times, and the framerate is silky smooth from opening credits to post game. Hopefully this will be standard for the series going forward, because it feels great.
It’s probably clear that I’m madly in love with this new flagship Pokémon game already, but I have to admit it has a few problems. One of these is an underwhelming side activity, which involves climbing up metal structures to collect colourful screws using mad parkour skills. Initially I thought this sounded like a fun change of pace, but it’s just a chore to find your way to the top of these mazes of ladders with your incredibly limited movement abilities. It doesn’t help that there are unlockable movement abilities too, which the game is more than happy to keep a secret as you desperately try to clear massive gaps with your pathetic dodge roll.
My other complaint about Pokémon Legends: Z-A is regarding the first few hours of the game, which are pretty painfully slow. It takes so long for the game to let you off your tutorial lead and allow you to explore at your own pace, and constantly being told to turn around and follow an objective marker when you see a shiny item down an alleyway is beyond frustrating. Thankfully this issue is only temporary, and once you’re free to check out the city in full the real magic begins.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A propels the Pokémon series in a bold new direction, and does so while respecting the history of the series. This is one of the greatest Pokémon games ever made, and one of the best games you could be playing on your shiny new Switch 2. This mega evolution of the series cannot be overlooked, and might just convince another generation to obsess over Pocket Monsters.
