Having been announced last year on Pokémon Day, it’s been a long time waiting for the second Legends game to arrive. In fact, it took until Pokémon Day of this year to even find out what Pokémon Legends: Z-A would be like. How wild Pokémon would be encountered in a city environment. What battling against trainers would be like. And most importantly, what sort of a goal we’re working toward.
It seems some sort of energy is escaping from Lumiose Tower, as seen with the first cutscene in Legends: Z-A. This energy is what we’ll come to know as Mega Power, forcing wild Pokémon to undergo Mega Evolution. The team we join is part of a larger effort to help these Pokémon revert back from that, freeing them from the pain they experience when Rogue Mega Evolved.
In first arriving at the city, I immediately am introduced to Taunie, who is trying to promote a Hotel Z. When my travel bag is stolen, she helps by offering up one of her three Pokémon. This battle is the first introduction to the action-based combat of Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Though with these first few battles, it might not seem that in depth.
The Pokémon sent out will follow my movements around the battlefield until I command it to use a move. Moves are on A, B, X, and Y, with a cooldown meaning moves can’t be spammed over and over in this real-time battling. Weaker moves have a smaller cooldown limit than more powerful ones. As seen with these first few battles, stat changing moves will also only change those stats for a certain time. Meaning it is worthwhile to keep using them to extend that time.
The battling of Pokémon Legends: Z-A is mostly confined to the Z-A Royale. This tournament, held during nighttime, sees trainers fight each other to gain enough points to claim a challenger’s ticket which will be used in their promotion match. Each night, an area of the Lumiose is lit up in red, indicating the zone trainers appear. It’s a very fun time to be hunting down other trainers, sneaking up on them, then launching the first attack on their Pokémon before they can spot me.
Being real-time combat, the battles are absolutely a highlight. Even more so when it comes to wild encounters in the wild zones. Across Lumiose, lit up in green, are areas where wild Pokémon exist. Capturing them can be done without initiating a battle, simply locking on and throwing a ball. But should they not be captured, a battle will likely start. Being real-time combat, there’s no swapping to a separate battle screen. The action will immediately start.
Wild zones can be more chaotic than the Z-A Royale. Until trainer battling, where there’s just one on one battles, any wild Pokémon can join the fun at any time. And being real-time combat, attacks are all around me, meaning I can quickly become overwhelmed. Especially if an alpha – which will be several levels higher than other Pokémon of a wild zone – joins the fray. Many a time have I quickly had to run out of a wild zone with more than half my team battered.
But that’s the greatest thrill. Finally overcoming one of those alphas and capturing it. Especially in later wild zones when the levels of Pokémon are reaching the 50s. The only other great thrill comes from those Rogue Mega Evolution fights that occur at many points in the story. The first of these fights sees me introduced to Mega Evolution as a whole, forced into it by events that occur in the story.
In a contained arena, things are made somewhat easy thanks to being given a Lucario to fight off an Absol. But there’s still danger to this fight. Being a Mega Evolved Pokémon, its attacks hit harder, which could easily knock me out of the fight. And it’s not like I can Mega Evolve the Lucario straight away. Needing to land hits to release orbs that will charge the gauge. Fortunately, once I am Mega Evolved and the timer starts counting down, attacks will still release those orbs to allow me to extend the timer.
All of the battling is great. And so are the interactions with the people of this world. There’s been some great dialogue here, whether that be with the teammates of Team MZ or regular people around the city. In particular, there’s a few family dynamics that get explored which I enjoyed seeing play out. Even with side missions, there’s some fun interactions, especially with the ones teaching certain battle tactics.
The main core of the story, however… I just don’t really care about why the Rogue Mega Evolution is happening. For as great as the interactions are in the story, and as much as I like the characters of Team MZ, nothing in that story has really been sparking my interest in why it has started. It really feels like an excuse plot for the gameplay, especially when most missions so far have either been to rank up in the Z-A Royale or face off against the Rogue Megas.
Being restricted to just the city also means exploration is sparse. For as greatly designed as the city of Lumiose has been, there’s no escaping the fact the small amount of nature around is no substitute for the great expanses of nature we could have been exploring outside of the city. Even more so when wild Pokémon have such small and unnatural spaces to wander in these wild zones. A really feel for the Sandile that are stuck swimming through that outer loop of sand in one of the zones.
There’s definitely a fair bit to do in this city. Side missions I’ve mentioned already. Fitting with the theme of redevelopment, there’s a lot of scaffolding about. Scaffolding that the construction company has arranged into parkour courses with colourful screws found around them. Finding these screws can provide bonuses such as an increase in EXP and reducing the damage taken by Pokémon moves. Some will be impossible to do without an upgrade that comes during the story, so best not to worry about them too much to start with.
Overall, I do easily recommend Pokémon Legends: Z-A. I might not care about the main plot, but everything else is great. Interactions with the people, battling with the Pokémon, there’s a lot to be enjoying. Along with the music. There’s some great remixes of themes from X and Y, along with some new themes for certain battles. The fully real-time nature of the game is something I really hope continues with future Legends games. Hopefully with more exploration.
Images Taken From:
Pokémon Legends: Z-A | Nintendo Switch 2 [Handheld]
