Pokémon Legends: Z-A feels like a tribute to everything that has made the franchise a favourite among young and old players, even if some of the finer details feel like they need a bit more refinement.
When I first booted up Pokémon Legends: Z-A, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. Having not played Pokémon Legends: Arceus (despite having been a day-one player of almost every title since Emerald), the Legends format is entirely new to me, and perhaps that’s why my initial couple of hours in the city of Lumiose felt like a bit of a slog.
I’m not sure if it was the amount of cutscenes, or inability to roam around the city beyond some pretty restrictively defined ‘boundaries’ while on those initial quests, or just the shift in gameplay approach from a typical Pokémon title, but I found myself struggling. The tutorials and teaching moments the game opens with are vital to understanding how Pokémon Legends: Z-A works, and setting up the story, but after decades of being taught how to catch Pokémon, what a Pokémon Center is, and the like – I found myself yearning for a bit more freedom. Maybe it’s the open-world RPG player in me being spoilt, but I love being given a brief amount of setup and then being let loose on the world to tackle it however I see fit.
Luckily, this feeling didn’t last forever. Pokémon Legends: Z-A takes what works from mainline titles (and what players love) and wraps it up in the sprawling metropolis of Lumiose, with engaging combat that feels satisfying – even if I still personally will always prefer a more turn-based approach. As the city opens up to you, and Urbain stops railroading you away from alleyways, restaurants, and just about anything that catches your eye, it becomes clear that a lot of love has gone into the title – both for the franchise as a whole, but especially X and Y.
A Thrilling Tournament
Pokémon Legends: Z-A takes a hard shift when it comes to battles, leaning into real time combat with cooldowns that vary depending on moves and other factors. While on first glance, this could quite quickly devolve into chaotic button mashing, the move cooldowns and positioning / long-range versus short-range tactics make battles feel just as strategised and calculated as other titles – perhaps even more so. Battles are more dynamic, and in some cases frantic in a way that has you locked in to every movement, every attack.
Players can no longer spam one particular move to exploit a Pokémon’s weakness until their PP runs out (in fact, they don’t need to worry about PP at all) – and unlike in traditional Pokémon title battles, the placement of your party on the battlefield is vitally important. Sending your Pokémon into a floor full of spikes will incur damage, being close range to use moves like Bite could mean you risk being hit by the opponent’s close range moves. On the flip side, being on a ledge in comparable safety might mean your moves don’t hit, either.
If you still battle like you did when you were six years old like me, this reworked combat system also encourages another big shift: actually keeping and using moves that don’t just do damage. Pokémon Legends: Z-A makes those moves feel like they’re actually doing something (even if they were before), and with cooldowns on all four abilities, you’re less inclined to just stick to dealing damage and actually use things like Leer or Protect. Whether that was an intentional move, or an unintended consequence, isn’t quite clear.
There’s also a keen sense of satisfaction gained from sneaking up on your opponents, seeing what type of Pokémon they have out, shifting your party around to exploit a weakness, and hitting them for a surprise attack that takes out theirs before combat has even technically started. The less static nature of battles makes them feel less like a chore stopping you on your quest, and more like an opportunity to try out something new.
My one complaint with the Pokémon Legends: Z-A battle system comes down to perhaps being an old dog that fumbles when learning new tricks: the controls. In order to attack, you need to hold down the ZL button to lock on. Without doing so, you won’t be able to throw out any moves. A toggle on/off system might have been better served here to avoid hand cramping, and when battling Rogue Mega Evolved Pokémon where dodging and dashing is vital, you’ll need to ‘unlock’ and pause combat to access those controls (and your satchel for any Potions or Revives).
While theoretically, it makes sense that you can’t still attack while dodging a massive creature throwing whirlpools your way, it does feel somewhat awkward and takes away from the otherwise very streamlined-feeling battle systems to unclick and then re-use the same buttons for an equally vital set of controls. This is something I struggled with in the demo at PAX Aus, and even after hours in the game it’s taking some time to get used to and still takes me out of the moment. Maybe that’s my one-track mind being unable to quickly switch tasks, though.
Shifting from the combat itself to your raison d’être (excuse the French, it feels right given the setting) for battling in the first place, there is no Elite Four to defeat, or gym trainers to overcome. Instead, it’s the Z-A Royale – complete with shifting nightly battle zones, sub-goals in combat (such as using certain move Types), and a whole lot of sneaking around to get the upper hand on your opponent.
It’s a novel approach to one of the core tenets of Pokémon in a fresh new way, and with ‘promotion matches’ to climb the ranks, there still feels like a sense of achievement against milestone enemies, even without gyms to tackle.
There is so much to Pokémon Legends: Z-A‘s combat system that I would simply never finish this review if I continued, but suffice to say: it’s a major highlight and success, even if there is some minor awkwardness when it comes to the controls.
A Belle Ville
Why all the vague French terms, Emily? Well, if you haven’t cottoned on, Lumiose City, where the entirety of Pokémon Legends: Z-A takes place, is very obviously and deeply inspired by Paris. The inhabitants even sprinkle their own French phrases into conversation, the Prism Tower is Eiffel Tower-esque, and the architecture is about as French as the Champs Élysées.
Given there are no other towns or zones to explore, there’s a lot resting on the shoulders of this conveniently Pokéball-shaped city. Luckily, there is plenty to discover across the various districts, from restaurants, a museum, a whole lot of clothing stores (it’s so freeing to make a trainer that actually looks like you), and people wandering and yapping like there’s no tomorrow. Initially, the sense of discovery found in other Pokémon titles when exploring the world is well intact while roaming the streets of Lumiose City. If you grow tired of the alleyways, there’s scaffolding and Holovators to take you to the rooftops for a good bit of platforming and a whole other level to discover.
However, after freely exploring for around 4-5 hours, you’ve likely seen it all. This isn’t to say there isn’t still a lot to see and interact with, but the singular location can at times feel restrictive. Thankfully, the glut of side quests afforded to you do keep things interesting enough that I personally didn’t find myself banging on the gates to be set free, although I did look longingly at the view outside the city walls from rooftops on a few occasions.
Perhaps this wouldn’t have been the case, had there been a bit more polish to the textures in the city. This isn’t a particularly new thing for Pokémon titles, but when stuck in one location for an extended period, those flat windows and ironwork balustrades slapped onto cube buildings did feel disappointing in a city that otherwise feels alive and bustling. This is likely a symptom of struggling against the original Nintendo Switch hardware capabilities – playing on the Switch 2, there was no struggle (or technical issues like we saw in Scarlet and Violet), but it’s clear the title is held back by the handheld’s predecessor – which, it’s worth noting, I did not trial the game on to compare performance.
Throwing Balls (And Squeezing Them?)
Within Lumiose, there’s wild zones where Pokémon roam free to catch (and battle), and more crop up as the game progresses. Each features its own crop of creatures, but I don’t get the sense that you gotta catch ’em all in Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Even so, beyond the wild zones there are plenty to catch around the city on rooftops, in river canals, and beyond. If you find yourself mostly enjoying the Pokédex-filling aspect of other titles, you may find this setup doesn’t fully scratch that itch (even with research quests to complete), but enough of it is there to keep many Pokémon fans satisfied.
The introduction of Mega Evolutions, a central story focus, does keep things interesting – even if you think you know all the critters roaming Pokémon Legends: Z-A, their weird and wonderful new forms are there to surprise even the most seasoned Pokémon fan. Some Mega Evolutions are more janky than others, although I do think that’s part of the charm (why’d they make Mega Victreebel look like that?).
That’s a lot of talk about throwing balls, but now, let’s look at why exactly I mentioned squeezing them: the game writing, and by association, Pokémon Legends: Z-A‘s storyline.
Yes, one random NPC in Lumiose City talks about squeezing their partner’s Pokéballs when stressed. That’s what we’re using to keep this review moving forward. Why is that important? Well, dear reader, the inhabitants of the city all have something to say – and unlike other titles, where they mostly wax lyrical about something central to the player’s quest or a point of interest in town, these folks often have some pretty funny things to say.
There’s the usual conversations about which Pokémon is better still, of course, but there’s a lot more to it. The discussions had around town (and the story at large, which I won’t be delving into too much to avoid spoilers) carry a more mature tone that’s much-appreciated – despite Pokémon being a game often seen as aimed at kids, it’s pretty clear a large contingent of the fanbase are well and truly adults by this point, and it’s a breath of fresh air to have that acknowledged in some way. There’s talk of death and loss, a father’s questionable sudden source of money at a restaurant, and a whole lot more.
There’s also plenty of easter eggs referencing previous titles (namely Legends: Arceus and X/Y), memes (shocked Pikachu face and then some), and silly in-jokes and interactions that elicited more than a handful of quiet chuckles as I made my way through Pokémon Legends: Z-A.
Overall Verdict
Pokémon Legends: Z-A is simultaneously small and massive, restrictive and freeing. What it may lack in a world-spanning journey to the Elite Four players might be used to outside of the two Legends titles, it makes up for in the innovative ways it experiments with what some might call a tried and true format. With dynamic, genuinely engaging combat and a living world packed-full with references and little discoveries to make, the game really does feel like a title that pays homage to the longtime fans.
While Legends does feel like the place Pokémon gets to take more risks, I think many might feel disappointed that the bigger risks fans have wanted for some time now (voice acting and more visual fidelity) weren’t taken up. Whether we ever get a voice-acted Pokémon game is a mystery, but it does feel that the title could have majorly benefitted from it.
Even with the sometimes awkward combat controls and sometimes flat textures, Pokémon Legends: Z-A manages to hit it out of the ballpark in a city-sized package. It’s an exciting glance into what Pokémon games can be, and has me excited and hopeful for what comes next in the franchise. Let’s just make sure the next one has some turn-based combat to keep this gamer stuck in the past placated, yeah?
Pokémon Legends: Z-A
Score: 4/5
Console: Nintendo Switch 2
Overall verdict: A refreshing take on the Pokémon franchise that takes all of the best bits, reworks them in dynamic and exciting ways, and wraps them in a city-sized bow without skimping too much on the time-tested joy of discovery. While there could be some improvements to graphics and other minor refinements, Pokémon Legends: Z-A overall feels like a labour of love that sees its older and lifelong fans and rises to meet them.
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