The original Pokémon Legends: Arceus was a bold, necessary evolution for the franchise; with Pokémon Legends: Z-A, Game Freak is taking a confident second step, channeling the elegance and wonder of Kalos into a revolutionary vision of urban adventure. The blueprints for greatness are here, but does it execute these ideas well enough in action?
Pokémon Legends: Z-A is now available on the Switch and Switch 2, and the folks at Nintendo provided a review code for the Switch 2 version.
Going into Z-A, I was a little nervous. This is set in one location, Lumiose City, which we previously saw on the 3DS in Pokémon X and Y. Pokémon is built on grand adventures and exploring through many wildlands, cities, caves and more. To have it set in one singular city, I was shocked. I assumed it may become boring very quickly.
Luckily, that is not the case, for the most part anyway. Lumiose City has lots of side quests to keep players busy, some of which are genuinely amusing. Lumiose City looks good in its realisation, especially when looking back at the 3DS games in comparison. But that's about where it ends. Many of the buildings in the city don't really stand out and feel very much copied and pasted, and I eventually lost track of where I had and hadn't been because of this.
On top of that, many of the buildings are visual only, meaning you can't actually enter them, which kind of limits players again. I did like the urban setting, though, as it felt like a change of pace from the other games. But again, the city is just dead. You can't go into cafes, NPCs stand motionless, and if there are some walking around the city, there aren't many.
This game's biggest focus was changing the formula of the battles, as well as introducing Battle Zones. In this, Game Freak succeeded. Gone are the usual turn-based battles, with real-time battles in their place. These battles genuinely make you feel like you're in the Pokémon world and are finally experiencing something closer to the anime! I genuinely loved walking around catching Pokémon by day and battling people by night!
Also, I'd like to point out that this game has one of the most boring, hand-holding tutorials that seems to last forever. But once it opens up, Z-A becomes much more fun. I wish they gave us an option to skip the tutorials.
You can freely battle in real time, meaning you can move around while commanding your Pokémon. In each battle, you have to move to make sure your Pokémon follows suit and can get a clear hit. While locking onto an opposing Pokémon, you can give commands using the face buttons (A, B, X, Y). Each time you use a move, it needs to cool down, so use them wisely. If you're into the battling aspect of the games, you'll definitely enjoy Z-A, as it is a much-needed change for the series. Even switching Pokémon mid-battle on the fly felt fun and natural.
Catching wild Pokémon is fun like usual, but not perfect. Much like Arceus, they will also target you as well as your Pokémon! You can roll out of the way, but not if you are locked onto a Pokémon that is charging you. I wasn't a fan of this and felt like they could've just used a different button to roll and maintain the target lock. I can't stress enough how much I love just instantly finding a Pokémon and battling it, or knocking it out to catch it straight away - no loading screens or battle screens, just real-time goodness! The battles are great! But catching Pokémon also feels limited.
Wild Zones are areas in the city that have been redeveloped so that Pokémon and humans can co-exist. However, they are small, and I found that you can catch the main Pokémon types within 10ish minutes of exploring the zone. I guess I was just so used to exploring routes and wild open areas in previous entries that these zones felt really small, limited, and lacking variety.
Don't get me wrong, the act of catching the Pokémon is still fun and you can still shiny hunt, but it left me feeling it was a bit lackluster and more of a feature added on. The zones felt like all the wonder from finding Pokémon in the wild was missing. Why could the city not have a waterpark where you can find water Pokémon hiding? It feels like missed opportunities and left me wanting more. I will admit, in the zones, it was quite thrilling trying to catch one wild Pokémon, while also having to either avoid being attacked by other Pokémon at the same time, while also trying to battle some at the same time!
Other than battles feeling focused, the story here also feels more focused, with some returning faces from X and Y, like AZ, as well as having plenty of new characters to enjoy. This is because Z-A serves as a sequel to X and Y. But here, the story feels way more focused because, instead of playing the story through open worlds and routes with way more exploration like previous games, Z-A has you getting the story through mission-based gameplay around the city. The main structure of the story is set around leveling up from rank Z to rank A. This seems quite normal for Pokémon games, but given the fact that it's all in one city, it gave off a more linear feeling. And lastly, without spoiling anything, Z-A gives us some closure for some characters in Arceus. I won't go into further detail because I believe it's better experienced by finding it yourself, but it involves museum exhibits.
Mega Evolutions are back, and honestly, I can see a lot of potential... for memes. These are hit and miss, you have some really cool looking Mega Evolutions like Mega Emboar holding a flame spear, Mega Gyrados with some cool fins that almost look like wings and heaps more. But on the other hand...what the hell did they do to Mega Starmie?! Bro literally has legs and may as well be called Patrick Star. There shouldn't be a point in a series as long-running as this, where Mega Evolutions are mixed between looking cool and then looking like fan-mods.
Now the big question, especially after the controversial Scarlet/Violet release… how does the game run? I am super happy to report that it runs smoothly on the Switch 2. I haven't experienced any frame drops, with a consistent 60fps. I will say that when sprinting, characters in the distance still pop or fade in. I feel like this is just a draw distance issue or something happening with the rendering, as it feels different to the horrendous pop-in from Scarlet/Violet. But still, it should not be here at all, especially on the Switch 2.
As for graphics, I think they're great! When compared to Sword/Shield or Scarlet/Violet, this is definitely a big step up. I won't lie, some textures do need way more detail or love and effort, because they can be noticeable. Again, still not as bad as the previous Switch entries, but sheesh… this franchise is worth billions, so maybe spend some moolah on making it look pretty.
Every building I see has balconies, but they look like they've whacked a JPEG on and called it a day. They don't actually stick out, and as I said before, they look the same for the most part. Many windows are just coloured blue and you can't see through them. The world feels lived in to an extent, but I will say, even if we couldn't enter the buildings, why not make see-through windows on buildings to at least distinguish areas or businesses, or even give it more life?
Pokémon has always had strong music, and Z-A is no exception. The music here is atmospheric, exciting and relaxing at points. The only thing I was hoping for was some voice acting… yep, still no voice acting. Maybe on the Switch 27 it’ll happen. I guess we will get there one day.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A is a fun experience. It’s not perfect, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. I have many mixed feelings about it, with some awesome highs and some weird lows that felt like they could have been easily avoided. The battles are easily the biggest saving grace here. It does have a fun factor, and I loved that they tried new things here, but it hurts as a long time fan seeing how this game has been put together, and not living up to its full potential: especially with how many billions of dollars the franchise is worth.
