I have to admit, I was really skeptical of Pokémon Legends: Z-A leading up to its release. Being set solely in Lumiose City, a totally new battle system, and Game Freak’s mixed record with the series on Switch and overall technical shoddiness all gave me pause. But, it’s Pokémon – of course I was going to cave and pick it up anyway. And wouldn’t you know it, I wound up being pleasantly surprised when I started playing the game.
To be fair, I had a lot of skepticism about Pokémon Legends: Arceus as well – it’s too much of a change, it’s too big and empty (the opposite of my concerns about Lumiose), it’s going to be nothing but grindy busywork, it’s Breath of the Wild but Pokémon (and we all know how I feel about BotW). But when I finally played it, I quite enjoyed it and found it relaxing to just wander around and catch Pokémon to fill up my Dex research.
After Arceus and especially now after Z-A, I’ve come to accept and even look forward to the Legends games as a way to have new experiences in the world of Pokémon. The Legends games have given Game Freak a chance to stretch their creative muscle and try new things, and I’ve grown to enjoy them as their own unique, separate experiences from the main series. And there are even some aspects of them that I’d love to see transferred over into the core games.
Before getting to the good parts of Z-A, let’s get the obvious elephant in the room out of the way: yes, it’s ugly. Lumiose City is graphically bland, full of copy-paste buildings in a generic art style. And yes, it’s full of the now-infamous painted-on balconies. Especially with the game being set in such a confined space, it should look way better. A lot of the NPCs are also largely lifeless, just walking back and forth spouting generic dialogue and acting…well, like NPCs. There’s not really a sense of people living their lives in a booming metropolis.
The smaller setting does have its advantages though. By focusing solely on Lumiose and the characters within, the game gets to explore those characters and their relationships with you, as well as the secrets of Lumiose City, in much more detail. There’s also the obvious bonus of it allowing for a pretty packed density of many side quests and the ability to travel between objectives quickly (even though the game has fast travel as well). Lumiose is also impressively vertical, with scaffolding platforming challenges, lots of rooftop traversal, and even a sewer system underneath.
Since I just mentioned the characters, Z-A features a charming, quirky, and relatable cast. You arrive in the city and immediately get involved with a group of friends going by the name Team MZ, who hang out at the hotel, compete in the Z-A Royale, and go on missions with you. They’re charming, quirky, and likable, unlike the cardboard cutouts of the X & Y friend group. The rest of the main and supporting cast is delightful too, from fan favorite Corbeau to the over-the-top Jacinthe. Some of the NPCs scattered around Lumiose are delightfully weird and unhinged as well.
It also helps that the plot and writing are actually top-notch, especially by Pokémon standards. I do have to offer the obligatory “lack of voice acting” complaint – it’s especially awkward in cutscenes, and it’s a shame that such memorable characters aren’t brought more to life with their own voices and inflections.
It’s fitting to mention X & Y, because Z-A goes a long way to give those games the fleshing-out that they desperately needed. Up until the Switch, most generations of Pokémon had received a third version or sequel that fixed issues, rebalanced some things, and built upon the original games. The sixth generation notably never received a Z version, and many mysteries were left unexplored. Z-A gives us a much-welcome opportunity to explore some of the implications of the events of X & Y, and dives deeper into some key characters that didn’t get satisfying development in the original games.
But that’s enough about that – it’s time to talk about the gameplay, and that’s where Z-A really shines. Whereas Arceus focused on catching Pokémon, Z-A is all about the battles, and with that focus comes a new quasi-real-time combat system. Each of your Pokémon’s four attacks is assigned to a different face button and has its own cooldown time, with the left trigger being used to lock on to specific targets. Positioning and timing are important in both launching and dodging attacks – there’s no waiting around having Pokémon staring at each other while you decide which move to use. You need to be on your toes. It’s the closest thing we’ve ever gotten to anime-style battles in the games; it’s frantic in the best way, and it allows battles to be a snappy, fast-paced affair.
And that’s a good thing, because you’re going to be doing a lot of battling. Every night, the streets of Lumiose turn into Battle Zones as trainers compete in the Z-A Royale. You’ll want to complete as many battles as possible each night to maximize your rewards, rank up, and unlock your promotion matches. The best way to get an advantage is to catch your opponents off-guard by launching an attack when they can’t see you – but they can do the same to you. This turns the Battle Zones into a bit of a stealth game, where you need to figure out the best way to approach and surprise each trainer without being spotted yourself. Navigating the Battle Zones also makes great use of the geography and verticality of Lumiose City.
The other major spotlight of Z-A comes in the form of Rogue Mega Battles. A little bit into the story, you’ll be tasked with quelling wild Pokémon that have gone berserk and Mega Evolved due to exposure to unstable Mega Energy. These battles are incredibly fun, putting you and your Pokémon in the middle of the fray, dodging attacks, and ordering your Pokémon to launch its own powered-up attacks to quell the Rogue Megas. It’s obviously built upon the Noble Pokémon battles from Arceus, but much more fleshed out and more engaging than just throwing balms and dodging attacks.
The Rogue Mega Battles are one of the biggest highlights of Z-A, and it’s great to see both new and returning Mega Evolutions. The new Mega designs are mostly solid – though there are a couple duds here and there.
Of course, despite battling being the main focus, there’s still a lot of catching to be done in Z-A. A megacorporation has taken it upon themselves to revitalize Lumiose by trying to integrate people and Pokémon and having them live together in harmony. They have done so by creating Wild Zones throughout the city. As you progress through your journey, you’ll unlock more and more of these areas where wild Pokémon roam free – within contained energy fields, of course. While there’s some discussion of the effects this is having on the city and its residents (as well as the wild Pokémon themselves), it never becomes a major plot point despite one of the secondary characters actively opposing the Wild Zones, and I feel like there’s a bit of missed potential there.
Since we’re in the Kalos region, trainer customization and fashion plays a huge role. There’s a veritable treasure trove of hairstyles, clothes, and accessories, and they’re all gender-neutral – a welcome step forward from the gender-locked limits of previous games. I spent I-don’t-want-to-know-how-much time just browsing the dozens of shops located around Lumiose – buying and swapping outfits throughout the entire game – and more of my in-game money than I’d care to admit went toward acquiring new clothes.
The sense of fashion extends to the NPCs, who are universally fantastically designed, and the character models actually look really good. The Pokémon models, as usual, are also a graphical high point, and it’s clear Game Freak also took some extra time to improve the attack animations. And despite the fact that the outdoor environment of Lumiose itself looks rough, the indoor environments are actually quite nice. Z-A is actually a lovely game in some ways – it’s just sad that the main environment that you’re interacting with the majority of the time is so shoddy.
It also runs way better than any other modern Pokémon game. I played through the majority of the game on the original Switch and never once had any major performance issues. I got my Switch 2 while playing the postgame and bought the $10 upgrade, and, while the Switch 2’s locked 60 FPS and higher resolution are immediately noticeable and welcome, the game runs and looks just fine on the OG Switch – just at a lower resolution and (a quite stable) 30 FPS.
Even though I was originally a skeptic, I’ve grown to enjoy the Legends sub-series. It’s a great opportunity to explore new gameplay experiences with the game series I’ve loved the longest. Z-A is a slam dunk in that regard – an immensely fun romp that I enjoyed even more than Arceus – and it’s some of the most fun I’ve had with the Pokémon series on Switch. And while I still would prefer to keep the “main” games a bit more traditional, there are a lot of things here that I hope carry into future Pokémon titles.
I just wish that Game Freak would put more care into their production values. After having such a rocky transition into HD development, they pulled back, took their time, and wound up doing so much right in Pokémon Legends: Z-A. But the game’s reputation is always going to be marred by the noticeably shoddy city environment (along with all the balcony paint memes).
The rest of Z-A, though, is a slam dunk, and hopefully it proves to them that, hey, maybe giving their games enough time in the oven is a good thing, actually. We’ll just have to see what awaits us in the 10th generation of Pokémon – which may not be too far away.
