2025-10-15
So that puts it at an M, right?
I honestly never thought I’d fall in love with Pokémon battles. That’s not why I play Pokémon – I don't play competitively either – because I play a ton of RPGs where combat is the draw. I can get my fix elsewhere. But Pokémon Legends: Z-A may have done the impossible; in Kalos, I can't wait to get into a fight.
Taking the basic framework for 2022’s Legends: Arceus, Z-A transplants the frictionless catching and larger environments to the streets of Lumiose City and switches things up by placing battles at the forefront, rather than the exploration. Arceus is one of my favourite Pokémon games ever, so I had concerns, but the shift here mostly works.
When a Pokémon spots me from a distance or I lock eyes with a trainer, no longer am I simply going for the same attacks, nor am I stressing about PP in a long Elite Four rush. Everything is real time with Xenoblade-style cooldowns and full movement to boot.
This is the best Pokémon battles have ever felt. Your Pokémon are no longer just static sprites and polygons with repetitive animations: they move in accordance with your own movements. And you have to use that to your advantage to both attack and avoid opponents.
Suddenly, I’m not just thinking about type match-ups (still important, of course) but attack distance, Pokémon speed, the battle space around me, and when to use each move. Totodile’s Bubble Beam can hit from a further distance than, say, Bite, but it has a longer charge-up time and it gives the opponent the chance to run away. Bite, however, might put Totodile in harm’s way. What if this Sandile has Absorb and gets it off as my little croc is running up to attack?
I’m even using attacks like Fire Spin and Toxic Spikes to set up traps and lure my opponent. These are all things that I know are used competitively, but I, even casually, feel like I have to utilise status effects and stat boosts and everything else in my Pokémon’s arsenal to win. And things can get particularly dicey when Alpha Pokémon get involved.
Even Mega Evolution feels like it’s been massively improved, with snappy and dramatic transformations that in many story-focused battles are essentially mandatory. It’s beautiful to see the bones of the series’ combat be fully realised in this new system, and I’ll be sad to lose this system outside of Z-A.
Thankfully, as you can probably gather so far, there is a lot of that combat thanks to the Z-A Royale, which makes up one half of the game’s narrative progression. By day, Lumiose is a place for coffee and couture — and I must say, the fashion available is très chic — but by night, a battle zone opens up where trainers lurk and aim to duke it out and gain ranking points to reach the next promotional match. You can pick up Bonus Cards to help boost those rewards by fulfilling certain conditions, such as defeating foes with Plus Moves or putting them to sleep.
It’s another excuse to get into battle, which is absolutely a good thing. Especially as you progress through the game and higher-levelled trainers join the ranks. I never got bored sneaking into a new battle zone, picking up the nearest Bonus Card that fit my Pokémon team’s skillset, and then destroying a foe five levels above me with a crafty super-effective back attack. It’s extremely satisfying to pull off and frustrating when the trainer turns at the last minute to spot you, in a good way.
When you’re not spending time in the Z-A Royale, you’ll be helping Team MZ to quell the Rogue Mega Evolution threat popping up all over the city. These are basically the Frenzied Fights from Arceus, but much better. To me, they’re like MMORPG raid battles – watch the attack patterns, try to dodge, expose the ‘mons’ weaknesses, then Mega Evolve for some big damage numbers.
Because I was actually battling the Rogue Mega and not just running and throwing things, I felt engaged in these fights. They weren't just an obstacle, but they helped me understand the importance of space and movement in combat. There were even times where I had to recall my Pokémon and hide behind an obstacle to avoid taking damage. It’s another layer of strategy that I wasn't expecting from Pokémon that I really appreciate – even if those fights can get a little too chaotic and hard to track.
Something I hope Game Freak and The Pokémon Company can keep up on Switch 2 is smooth performance. I wish I wasn't so shocked here, but they’ve managed it in Legends: Z-A. Running at a very consistent 60fps in both handheld and docked, with only a few slight dips in extremely busy, late-game battles and some fast menu cycling, it’s honestly a relief. Load times are also relatively snappy in both formats. I wasn't able to test out the Switch 1 version for review, so we'll have some thoughts on that post-launch, but on the newer console at least, it's a success. If only the visuals were as consistent.
I’ve showered a lot of praise on Legends: Z-A so far; the music is excellent, and I enjoy the abundance of fashion shops and customisation you have access to throughout the whole game. But as I said earlier, it mostly works. Unfortunately, there’s a big thing holding the whole game back from being truly brilliant: Lumiose City.
I will say, I’m pleasantly surprised at how dense this Kalos staple feels: it’s full of alleyways to get lost in and packed with life. There’s always a cafe or a boutique or even just a few market stalls tucked around the corner, places where people and Pokémon hang out. Scaffolding is stacked along the side of buildings, presenting some finicky platforming challenges and item rewards. Even on the rooftops, you’ll find Bird ‘mons fluttering around and trainers gathering and chatting.
But while I was wandering around the cobbles of Lumiose, I realised it all felt very compact. The city is essentially one big open zone, with a fair amount of verticality. But that means I’d run through and explored the entire place within about five hours. Sure, more Wild Zones unlock as you progress, bringing more Pokémon to catch. But it left very few surprises for the entire game.
I also wish it looked better, too. Lumiose has a few lovely sights here and there, but on the whole, Legends: Z-A appears lifeless. Arceus wasn't a graphical showcase, but that watercolour-style aesthetic gave it a really unique feel. New Pokémon Snap looks so much better and more vibrant than this. If clothes can swish around and hair flow through the wind, why can't we have windows that aren't just flat textures or shadows that don't look like bleeding ink blotches on the floor? It's a little better docked, but not much.
I know this is controversial, too, but voices would help give this game character. I’m not even asking for full voice acting — though monologues and pre-rendered cutscenes feel utterly bizarre as just text on a screen — but I’d love a voice clip or two, along the lines of modern Zelda games. It’d also help give the story a little more oomph, which it needs when focusing on friendship, recovery, and forgiveness. Even with an explosive climax (which I urge you not to spoil yourself on), I felt... nothing.
Those aforementioned Wild Zones might be my biggest disappointment with Z-A; admittedly, this is less about exploration and catching Pokémon than Legends: Arceus is, but it restricts that sense of discovery and magic that even the mainline ‘Gen’ games have. No longer am I walking out into a field and seeing Magikarp in the rivers and Bellsprout in the grass; instead, they’re constrained to tiny pockets of land, most of which are just little parks, boxed-off little streets, or construction sites.
What makes the Wild Zones stick out more is that there are actually plenty of Pokémon that do just wander around Lumiose: I spotted the Unova monkey trio just hanging around in trees at various times; Fletchlings and Pidgeys sit on roofs or lampposts and fly away when you approach; when it was raining, I found a Goomy sitting waiting for the nighttime drizzle to stop underneath a bridge. I still love catching these little creatures, so let’s give them the love they deserve. You can't reasonably expect Pyroar to just prowl around the city streets, I get that, but sticking various 'pens' across the city doesn't feel like the right solution.
The monster-catching aspect of the series does feel like it’s been relegated to the back seat a little; I’m glad Arceus’ catching system is back and still snappy, and you still have to put yourself in danger to “catch ‘em allâ€, but in revisiting Lumiose, in being restricted to this city and these zones, and in a Pokédex that lacks variety, it all starts to add up. The return of Mega Evolutions does help to alleviate that somewhat, but I really miss the sense of discovery I get from going to a new place or finding Pokémon in unexpected places.
Instead of feeling like a fresh new spin on the Legends formula, Legend: Z-A squeezes it into an -shaped sequel. In many ways, it’s more focused, but Z-A loses a lot of charm and the smaller environs don't entice me to dig into every nook and cranny of the city. It’s so close to being a great Pokémon game thanks to that combat, which alone makes it worth picking up. But ultimately, it's just a good one.
Source: Nintendolife.com
