I'm going to go out on a limb here and say something crazy: I like the look of Pokémon Legends: Z-A. I reckon I have about five minutes before the torches are lit and an angry mob appears outside my house, so let me throw another bombshell out there. I think the series' turn-based battles have grown stale, and no amount of Mega Evolving, Gigantamaxing or Terrastilizing has done enough to move the needle. The series deserves a break from tradition, and I'm excited by the prospect of Z-A doing exactly that.
Like all Pokémon defenders, I have taught my brain to turn on a rose-tinted filter when I get a first look at visuals. In truth, the Z-A art style looks a bit naff to me too — a step up from Scarlet and Violet, but still a little more reminiscent of a Wii game than I'd like in 2025. With my brain fighting hard to resist writing the whole thing off as an ugly mess, two things stood out to me in last week's Pokémon Presents trailer: 1) that real-time battle system sure looks like a shake-up, and 2) has 10% Forme Zygarde's butt always glowed bright green when it barks?
That second point feels like a discussion for another day — at least, more research is needed — so I've decided to focus on the former observation. The brief snippets of combat shown in the reveal trailer somewhat passed me by at the time, but revisiting it now, I can't help but feel a little bit excited. It looks cool! And, perhaps more importantly, it looks Xenoblade-y!
Z-A seems to be doing away with the series' standard turn-based battles, and instead "Pokémon will unleash their moves when their Trainers command them to." We've seen encounters with trainers and wild Pokémon, both of which appear to adopt a real-time format where it's up to you to time your moves, dodge attacks and switch out team members on the fly. To all those kids who grew up watching Ash shout "Look out, Pikachu!" in the anime, it's our time to shine.
Maybe it's just because I have Mira on the mind thanks to Nintendo's deluge of Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition content, but the whole set-up feels very reminiscent of Monolith Soft's action. Naturally, there are no swords, guns or mechs to speak of here (let's not go into the concept of a Pokémon game with guns... *gulp*), but the UI placement, on-foot combat and diamond-shaped moveset complete with what looks like cool downs on moves, makes it difficult not to compare the two.
It's a combat style that suits Xenoblade down to the ground and it worked well in Legends: Arceus' 'boss battles' — when the game was brave enough to dip its toes into real-time waters — but this will be the first time that a Pokémon game has adopted it as its main battle style, I'm assuming, and we're all going to have to learn the ropes together.
When will be the right time to use stat buffs? Is there an advantage to spamming something fast like Quick Attack, or is it better to keep your distance until a big hitter like Magnitude or Rollout is ready? How much will physical distance play into the moves you can use? And, most importantly, what does "it hurt itself in its confusion" look like in a real-time setting?
I don't think I've ever had this many questions about Pokémon battles before (certainly not in recent memory, at least), and that gives the whole series a much-needed shot in the arm. Most Pokémon fans have their standard battle plan down to a T by this point, but we'll all be heading into this one blind. What a thrill!
I'm excited by the prospect of initially getting things wrong, of not dodging attacks properly or of accidentally using Leer when I meant to use Tackle. I'm excited to learn a whole new technical language for Pokémon battles, where Type advantages still exist, but I have to think more about speed and defence stats before barreling into a Trainer battle; something competitive players have had to consider for years, but a competitive player I ain't. And I'm excited by the thought of it all finally clicking, with me taking on the final battle and switching up my approach on the fly without giving it a second thought.
If nothing else, it should speed up the whole play experience so easy battles go by that bit faster, without the need to pass through reams of text boxes. Wait, will grinding actually be fun? I must be dreaming too big now.
Okay, perhaps optimism is getting the better of me here. This is Game Freak that we're talking about, and I have been let down in the past. But now is the time for optimism! We've only seen a small slice of combat, and until the game throws a damp flannel over my expectations with a footnote that each battle comes with a 20-second load screen or something of that ilk, I'm going to remain excited.
Based on how Legends: Arceus dipped its toes in all of this innovative stuff before it was all dropped in Scarlet and Violet, I'm confident in saying that the real-time strategy will not become a series standard in Gen 10 and beyond. But that's okay, the promise of traditional Pokémon is always right around the corner.
Legends: Z-A is going to give us a chance to see something new, and it feels like a long time since Game Freak has given me such a tantalising promise.
But what do you think? Is Legends: Z-A's real-time battle system a brave evolution for the series, or will it end up being nothing more than a minor blip? Let us know in the following poll and then take to the comments to share your thoughts.