Like a Snorlax mired in the sand-blasted desert of Route 111, Pokémon fans had been starving for news about the highly anticipated sequel to Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Since it was officially announced a year ago, we haven’t heard so much as a Whismur about it until two trailers during Pokémon Day yesterday revealed hints at what’s to come in Pokémon Legends: Z-A.
Set in the Paris-inspired Lumiose City in Pokémon X & Y‘s Kalos region, Pokémon Legends: Z-A takes place during the city’s large-scale urban redevelopment. Let’s take a closer look at what the trailers unveiled and cover some secrets you might have missed.
The Starters
Pokémon Legends: Z-A features a strange but not unwelcome mix of starter Pokémon. People who like to cause a fuss about things are upset that there’s two starter Pokémon from the Johto region available versus the one from Unova, but it makes sense.
Cyndaquil, the third Johto starter, was available to pick at the beginning of Legends: Arceus and now his buddies Chikorita and Totodile are available to pick in Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Before these games, none of them had been made available as starter Pokémon since 2009’s HeartGold & SoulSilver, so it’s nice to see them all available once again. As to Tepig, Z-A‘s Fire-Type starter from the Unova region: Welcome back, cutie.
New Battle System
It looks like the Strong/Agile move system that made battles so distinctive in Pokémon Legends: Arceus are being replaced with a new real-time battle system — a first in the history of Pokémon RPGs. The player leads their Pokémon around the battle arena to find the best angle of attack and defense, commanding moves on the go. It looks like the moves replenish on a timer — likely stronger moves taking more time to recover to avoid spamming — and different moves have longer and shorter reaches.
This is a huge evolution for the Pokémon series. Pokémon Legends: Arceus didn’t feature player-versus-player battles, and it’s unclear if Z-A will either, but this is the kind of revolutionary change to Pokémon’s same-ol’ battle mechanics that could alter the trajectory of future games in the series if it proves successful.
Battle Tournament
Both Pokémon Legends: Z-A trailers end with a teaser of some sort of “Promotion Match” happening in Prism Tower. This was the location of a Pokémon Gym in X & Y, but it looks like there’s been an overhaul of some kind. Details are murky, but some kind of ranked Battle Tower-style gauntlet doesn’t seem too Farfetch’d.
Dodging
It looks like once again the player character will have to watch out while traversing the game’s Wild Zones. Ducking and dodging out of the way of wild Pokémon’s attacks was an exciting and welcome addition to the Pokémon series in Arceus, and it’s nice to see it making a return. Being able to “lose” the game while out exploring added a real sense of stakes and tension to the gameplay.
Concrete Jungle
Speaking of exploring, Z-A looks to be adding a new dimension to the exploration of Lumiose City: height. We see the player character taking a zippy teleportation-style elevator to the rooftops where it looks like they’ll be able to engage in a variety of activities from Pokémon battling to leaping between buildings with the aid of their gravity-suspending Rotom phone.
At the very end of the first trailer, we also see the player standing in a small rooftop lounge, which brings to mind the Secret Bases of Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, & Emerald. Decoration and fashion are nearly always present in some way in Pokémon games—might we see the ability to furnish a rooftop base of some sort?
Wild Zones
It looks like Lumiose City is sharing some of its turf with wild Pokémon. They seem to exist across multiple numbered Wild Zones in the city. The zones seem to be gated, flanked by statues that will be familiar to anyone who’s entered an old-school Pokémon Gym before.
Will Wild Zones need to be beaten like Gyms before being able to move onto the next one in the sequence? It remains to be seen, but there needs to be some progression system for the game given that there isn’t likely to be any Pokémon Gyms to challenge.
Mega Evolution
Something that we have known for a while was the return of Mega Evolutions. Pokémon X & Y and the Kalos region were what initially introduced the concept back in 2013, so it made sense that they’d be making a return (that, and the fact that Mega Evolution has been sorely missed by fans and seen by many to be the best generation-specific battle gimmick introduced to the series).
One interesting line from the trailer mentions that Pokémon must “hold” their Mega Stones in order to evolve. While this seems obvious to anyone who’s played X & Y, held items were oddly absent from Legends: Arceus. As fans will know, held items provide Pokémon with a variety of boosts and buffs, and their absence in that game simplified battling — but not necessarily for the better. The idea that held items of all kinds are making a return in this Legends game is exciting; the new real-time battle system could fundamentally change how even familiar held items could work.
AZ
AZ is one of the most mysterious characters in all of Pokémon history, and is — perhaps unsurprisingly — making a return in Legends Z-A. Former King of Kalos, he created a weapon that (long story short) inadvertently granted both him and his beloved Floette eternal life around 3000 years ago.
Given that the player character will be staying in his hotel while in Lumiose City, it’s a good bet that AZ will play a significant role in the story. In Pokémon X & Y, he possessed the key to an ultimate weapon that could destroy all life, and while that plotline was resolved, there is no end to the secrets that AZ might be privy to.
Zygarde
Sixth generation Pokémon X & Y were unique in that they never received a follow-up. Back then, dual-release Pokémon games always got an updated version a few years later — such as Yellow, Crystal, Emerald, and Platinum. The missing game didn’t materialize for a variety of reasons, but some of the planned content for what would have been Pokémon Z (or even X 2 & Y 2) surrounding the Legendary Pokémon Zygarde wound up in the seventh generation of Pokémon games instead.
This content included collecting Zygarde Cells — the little green goopy thing seen at the very end of Z-A‘s second trailer. Zygarde is able to take a variety of forms depending on how many of its cells can combine. Despite being catchable in the game, Zygarde didn’t play a role in X & Y’s story at all. Pokémon Legends: Z-A, then, marks the first time that multiple versions of Zygarde will be available in the region that it originated it, and is likely to play a big role in the story.
Looker
This is one’s more speculation, but it’s an educated speculation. Seen for one brief moment in the second trailer — right when the voiceover hints at the mysterious experiences to come — we get a shot of an office littered with files, a busy corkboard, and trench coat hung on a wall.
New Pokémon fans might not know who Looker is, but this is a strong suggestion that he’s going to be a presence in Pokémon Legends: Z-A. An International Police agent, Looker is often found investigating the criminal teams of the Pokémon world, but he hasn’t had a presence in the games since the seventh generation. He’s a pretty zany guy, and a fan-favorite character, and his possible presence hints at a fun story to come.
Lumi Cabs
An early detail eagle-eyed viewers might notice is the presence of taxis — or Lumi Cabs — in Lumiose City. Previously, taxis were used in Pokémon X & Y for shuffling around the winding metropolis, but they’re likely to be even more useful in Z-A as the city map promises to be far larger and more detailed than Lumiose City was on the limited 3DS hardware.
Cafés and Restaurants
X & Y introduced eateries on a scale never before seen in a Pokémon game. Restaurants throughout the city offered battle gauntlets against the chefs and waiters of the establishments, with high-value prizes for the victors. It looks like they’re making a return in Pokémon Legends: Z-A — although this is just speculation backed by some snippets from the trailers.
A brief shot in the trailer does notably show the player character sitting outside a café with his partner Totodile on the seat beside him. The precise function of cafés has yet to be revealed, but stat boosts (à la Pokémon Scarlet & Violet’s meal system) or some kind of friendship boost with your partner Pokémon are some possible purposes.
The Pokémon
Pokémon X & Y originally left some fans disappointed when the game only included a mere 69 new Pokémon — the least amount of new ‘mons added in a new generation of Pokémon to date. While we can hope all of those original 69 Pokémon make a return in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, there’s bound to be a lot more than that if this game’s Pokédex is to come anywhere close to the 400 entries in Legends: Arceus
Many of these are bound to be Pokémon that can Mega Evolve. In fact, scanning through the trailer, you can see that there are only six Pokémon lines featured that aren’t either one of the 69 Pokémon native to Kalos, or a Pokémon that can Mega Evolve at some point in their evolution line.
They are:
- Bellsprout, Weepinbell, and Victreebell
- Budew, Roselia, and Roserade
- Hippopotas and Hippowdow
- Patrat and Watchog
- Sandile, Krokorok, and Krookodile
- Trubbish and Garbodor
Does this mean we’re getting a Mega Watchog? Hopefully not (that thing could be deleted from existence tomorrow and I’m sure nobody would remember it), but those other lines look more promising.
And that’s everything! It would’ve been nice to get a release date, but for now, we’ll have to settle for “Late 2025.” It can’t come soon enough.
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