When Pokémon Legends: Arceus launched in 2022, it was a breath of fresh air. Where the series once pushed the envelope, post-Gameboy iterations slowly began to feel disappointingly iterative, with developer Game Freak finding a formula so winning in Red and Blue that they repeated it ad nauseam.
Thank Palkia, then for Legends Arceus. The intriguing Nintendo Switch spin-off allowed the franchise to break away from its well-cemented trappings, transporting players to a novel feudal Japan setting, where they threw ancient wooden Poké Balls and dodged wild Pokémon attacks.
Now, three years and 14 million sales later, Pokémon Legends is back - but not in the way fans might expect. Where Arceus offered a uniquely historical adventure, Z-A whisks trainers to a more modern - and familiar-looking - locale. Taking place in Pokémon X and Y’s Paris-inspired Lumoise City, the latest instalment is a contemporary-set, battle-focused extravaganza.
My hands-on kicked off with a nostalgia-tickling cutscene. I was swiftly introduced to the world of Z-A, Professor Oak style - with a mysterious woman talking about how humans and Pokémon live side by side in this sprawling city. Yet just as I was ready to get immersed in Z-A’s world, I soon discovered that my actual hands-on time was completely devoid of any narrative - instead split into four disparate gameplay sections. Thrown into the game midway through with a full party, my visit to Lumoise City saw me fighting both Pokémon and trainers - and left me with mixed feelings.
A new adventure is about to unfold…
The good news? The new battle system feels great. Swapping the hybrid turn-based showdowns of old for fully real-time rumbles, players control the trainer’s movements while issuing attacks with their Pokémon. Like in Arceus, Pokémon can hurt your trainer character during battles - and it’s up to you to keep well out of their way.
As you dodge and spring your way across the 3D environments with the analogue stick, your battling Pokémon are selected with the d-pad, their attacks issued using a combination of the bumper and face buttons. Locking on to your opponents while carefully choosing attacks and dodging blasts from attacking Pokémon feels refreshingly dynamic - like a welcome evolution from the half-turn-based Arceus.
It’s a good thing, too, because in Lumoise, battling is the name of the game. As night descends, wild Pokémon roam freely - and it’s here that you catch and train Pokémon. Much like in Arceus, these wild areas are also littered with a handful of stronger foes. There are no people to be found, leaving these gated-off zones empty aside from the sporadically scattered creatures.
With my party ranging from level 16 to level 28, I battled and caught my way across them with no issues… until I ran into this zone’s big bads. Much like Arceus’ terrifying overlevelled foes, this Wildzone was home to a hulking level 32 Houndoom - flanked by an adorable litter of Houndours.
After a couple of trips to the Pokecentre, I managed to defeat the Houndoom - but despite my efforts, I couldn't defeat a brutally powerful level 42 Pikachu perched on a nearby rooftop. After the cakewalk that was Scarlet and Violet, these encounters offered a welcome challenge, testing a combination of reflexes and classic rock-paper-scissors-style match-ups.
Not enough Porygons
Z-A is the first Pokémon release on Nintendo Switch 2, so let’s address the Phanpy in the room, shall we?
Despite Arceus’ compelling setting, it drew widespread criticism for looking pretty dated. While a free Switch 2 update for 2024’s even uglier Scarlet and Violet offered notable improvements, for the series’ first current-generation release, Z-A isn’t exactly a looker.
Pokémon scurry around the city’s picturesque streets convincingly, and attacks are brought to life in lavishly detailed animations, but distant buildings lack any form of anti-aliasing, and trainers' character models are static and lifeless. It’s all serviceable, if perfectly basic stuff - a disappointment considering what Nintendo achieved in 2017 with Breath of the Wild, let alone what developers like Ubisoft have already pulled off with Star Wars Outlaws on Switch 2. Here’s hoping that Game Freak can polish the visuals up a bit before launch.
Thankfully, the core concept underpinning Z-A’s loop is fairly strong. The second section of my Parisian outing saw me delving into Lumoise’s Battle zones. In these other partitioned off areas, instead of catching wild ‘mon, you’re challenging a series of trainers.
There was a simplistic stealth component to these battle zones, with sneaking up on a trainer and hitting them with a specific move, rewarding me with an attack advantage - Persona style. The overall goal of Z-A is to battle until you climb the ranks from Z to A, becoming the very best, like no one ever was. Once you defeat enough trainers in any given zone, you’ll earn enough points to rank up your trainer rank (which in this case was 5000) - allowing you to test your mettle in a promotion match.
Swapping those city streets for a dimly lit restaurant, this promotion match felt like it was ripped straight out of the anime. This indoor showdown saw me facing off against a desperate restaurateur. It was the closest to a traditional Pokémon gym battle that I saw, and without the distractions of empty environments, the core battling really shone.
The indoor environment let me focus on maneuvering around the battlefield as my trainer avatar, and healing and attacking with my chosen ‘mon. As I pummelled his team with Gyrados’ waterfall and countered his attacks with a bouncing Bayleef, the disgruntled restaurant owner soon watched me defeat his party one by one.
Mettle-testing mega Monstrosities
Another fun quirk of Luminoise City is that wild Pokémon are mysteriously undergoing mega evolutions all on their own. Where Mega evolutions were previously triggered by trainers, these ‘mon transform into hulking monstrosities in the middle of the street, sealing players inside an intense showdown. These fun-filled battles look to serve as Z-A’s equivalent of boss fights, feeling like a more enjoyable version of Scarlet and Violet’s Raids
My mega Pokémon scrap was against the horrifying Mega Victorybell. Much like in Arceus, this boss battle was a reflex-testing highlight, seeing me dodge massive torrents of sludge while gathering shards that allowed me to mega-evolve my Lucario, as a mystery trainer battled alongside me. It’s been revealed that you’ll be able to team up with three friends to take on these mega foes online in the Z-A Battle Club, which seems like a fun idea - but I was unable to test it during my demo.
With the story details still surrounded in mystery - and not a single cutscene shown in my demo - I was left with an hour of great battling in a fairly empty-looking world. While I saw flashes of forward-thinking brilliance and anime-esque spectacle that had my inner child grinning, the static non-player characters (NPCs) and small-scale environments once again felt disappointingly dated. While I could pop into a cafe for a stat-boosting coffee and take a selfie with my leading party Pokémon, the lack of story or other context resulted in a fairly charmless experience - which I’m hoping will be rounded out with a more lived-in city in the final release.
Promotion matches and Mega battles left me with plenty to get excited about, but without the intriguing historical setting or vast visual improvements, it remains to be seen whether Z-A will capture the imagination in quite the same way as Arceus.
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