Arceus / Z-A
Image: Nintendo Life

One year after its initial announcement, Pokémon Legends: Z-A has finally been showcased properly during the most recent Pokémon Presents, giving us a good look at the upcoming title's gameplay and features. It wasn't quite the deep dive many of us were hoping for, but it was certainly enough to whet our appetites for the 'late 2025' launch window.

We're generally quite pleased with what we saw, all told: the battle system looks neat; Mega Evolutions are back; you can jump between building rooftops, for goodness' sake. Lots of cool stuff. We can't help but feel like it's a bit lacking in the visual department, though ("Shocking", we hear you say). Granted, Pokémon games have never been graphical powerhouses – at least since the move into the 3D realm – but going from Pokémon Legends: Arceus to this is a bit of a blow, to be honest.

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Legends: Arceus, despite being quite rough around the edges (as we've almost come to expect from Pokémon games these days), had a wonderful painterly quality that hadn't been seen before in the series. Judging from this new trailer for Legends: Z-A, it's likely we won't see it again, either. It was beautiful, though; the clouds in the sky, the gorgeous, vibrant colours, the unique flora dotted around the environment.

Z-A, on the other hand, kind of just looks like a slightly more polished version of Scarlet and Violet. Looking at the setting for both games, it's easy to ascertain why one might look a bit more appealing than the other. Arceus was able to take full advantage of its rural environments, presenting us with vast landscapes that, while certainly not as pretty as, say, Breath of the Wild, nevertheless invited a sense of wonder boosted by its colourful art style.

Z-A 04
Image: Nintendo

With Z-A being set almost entirely within Lumiose City, the trailer showcased environments that, frankly, look dull. The buildings are extremely simple-looking and largely resemble one another, the terrain beneath them is lacking a sense of verticality that Arceus benefitted from, and the grey, concrete roads and pathways really highlight just how low-quality some of the textures are. It also suffers somewhat from bizarre, static NPCs, a problem that's plagued Pokémon in recent years, but one that Arceus largely managed to avoid thanks to its more open, rural setting.

There's no denying that Z-A looks a lot smoother and cleaner than Arceus in some respects; Game Freak has clearly gotten slightly more proficient in developing games for the Switch, and this particularly shows in the human and Pokémon models. They look nice! But we just can't shake the feeling that the game is missing something; a unique sense of style that Arceus, despite its many technical shortcomings, boasted with its visuals.

It's still early days, and this is merely the first of what will no doubt be many pre-release trailers, so we're going to maintain our current feeling of cautious optimism for the time being. Legends: Arceus was a genuinely great game, and we're hopeful that lightning will strike twice with Z-A.

What do you make of your first look at Pokémon Legends: Z-A? Do you think it looks better than Legends: Arceus, or a bit worse? Share your thoughts and feelings with a comment down below.