Topic: Pokémon Legends Z-A

The thread for discussing Pokémon Legends Z-A, coming to Nintendo Switch (and maybe its successor) in 2025.
First to say “It’s been 3000 years” loses.

it's been 11 years

It was an interesting choice, they really seemed to be pushing Johto and Unova more recently. And the presentation itself was definitely Johto-themed.

Personally, I'm going to wait and see. I did play X when it came out...but I can't say I know Kalos as well as other regions. It only had one game and the region seemed full of missed opportunities.
Maybe they'll right those wrongs in this time around

Wow, I did not see this one coming at all. I thought we might see a new Legends game, but I thought for sure it would be either Johto or Unova, not Kalos. What a shocker, especially when none of the leakers knew about this game, it came totally out of left field.

I did see NoA's tweet that this game will only take place in Lumiose City, which is disappointing, but this game could still be fun. They might be able to squeeze out enough environmental diversity to sustain a full game with sub-biomes in Lumiose City. Stuff like parks for Grass types, sewers for Poison types, Power Plants for Fire and Electric types, the catacombs for Ghost types, etc. It'd need to be fairly smartly designed, but it's doable.

I don't think this game takes place in the past like LA. The architecture seems too modern. I actually think this might take place in the present day or near future actually.

I am firmly in the camp of people thinking this is a Switch 2 title, or at least a cross-gen title. It looks like they might be going for a much more detailed artstyle, and the 2025 release date lines up far too neatly with the rumors of the Switch 2 being internally delayed to 2025. That would explain why there's no 2024 game, if they were developing something for Switch 2 that would be out of Game Freak's hands and they would HAVE to delay it to 2025.

I was actually just thinking about this some more and I think the name could also be a hint that it's cross gen, Z-A would be SUCH a fitting name for a cross gen title. With Z being the end of the alphabet, A being the beginning of an alphabet, and - sometimes being used for ranges/transitions, this game might have a strong theme of ends, beginnings, and transitions. We might be seeing that to some degree with the premise of this game being a Lumiose City redevelopment project, this game might take place in the midst of that project as the city turns into something new. Now wouldn't that be appropriate for a cross-gen title? It would represent the last game on the Switch, the first game on Switch 2, and the transition to the next console generation. If they decided early on that this game was going to be cross-gen, they couldn't have picked a better name.

Also, if it is just in Lumiose City like the tweet claims, that might indicate that this game is in a way, a Switch 2 tech demo (if I'm right about this being cross-gen they can't get too crazy but they might be trying to experiment with new things they might be doing in Gen 10 on Switch 2). So I wouldn't expect this to be a particularly large or lengthy adventure. But hopefully it at least tides us over until Gen 10, since it seems like that's going to be next after this game. And if a 2025 release does mean Gen 10 in 2026, that might ultimately be for the best since Gen 10 would get a little more time. Everyone in the world and now pretty much fate as a whole feels like it's begging Game Freak to wait until 2026 for Gen 10, hopefully they take the opportunity the universe is presenting them to delay them into being better overall.

I for one am really excited. X and Y were the first Pokemon games i ever played, and it’s really exciting to revisit Kalos 10-ish years later. I do hope this isn’t just sticking on the Legends sub branding for no reason, I’m hoping we see a similar style of gameplay with the ball chucking, and the Pokédex tasks. Those two features alone made LA really engaging and my favorite Pokemon title in years.

I'm delighted that they announced something completely unexpected - Legends Arceus was brilliant and I'd always rather see a new spin on an old region than just another remake.

The only Pokemon RPG I've bought after SoulSilver is Sun, but if I were to buy a new one, it would easily be the first Legends game. It seems the most interesting and exciting and different and least pointlessly time wasting. So I'm more interested in this than most Pokemon games for that reason alone.

Also I appreciate using this region since I'm probably never playing Gen 6 even if for some reason I decide to go all in on Pokemon again like I did growing up.

What do you think the defining characteristics of the Legends series will end up being since this game is clearly not in the ancient past? Just the catching mechanics? Will Pokemon still be able to kill you like in Arceus? 🤔 Or maybe it will be in the future?

@Bolt_Strike I think it's still going to take place in the past and the redevelopment project will show how Lumiose became the Lumiose we see in X/Y, albeit a much more expanded version.

This was worth sitting through the whole Pokemon Presents IMO. Even if this was ultimately just a teaser and logo. I'm 50 hours into Pokemon Legends: Arceus and hope this game at least comes close to the enjoyment I'm currently experiencing. I also hope this gives me a new appreciation for Kalos. While I liked Gen 6 mechanically and gameplay-wise (fun areas like the Battle Subway and Lumiose City, Rotation and Triple battles, Mega Evolution), I still hold the overall plot and game flow in Pokemon X/Y to be the worst in the series.

It might just be mainline entries that re-explore previous regions in new ways?

This game's story has a lot to live up considering the predecessor had God creep into an underage child's bedroom to kidnap and human traffic them, even if you 100% the game and capture God the stolen child is never returned to the parents. More of this please!

I should probably get around to playing Arceus.

So with the Mega Evolution tease, it stands to reason that we'll get new Mega Evolutions. What new ones do people think we'll see?

How much do people wanna bet we'll get Mega Charizard Z?

It's been over a day since this got revealed and I'm still struggling to process that Pokemon Z is actually a real thing and no longer just some playground rumour I heard constantly as a kid XD

If it wasn't already obvious by how hard I freaked out in the comment section for the reveal, I'm absolutely ecstatic about Legends Z-A myself. Legends Arceus is easily my favourite Pokemon game of both the Switch era and the 'modern' era of Pokemon in general so to see it not only officially become a subseries, but have the next entry in said subseries be something that people have clamoured for for YEARS at this point? It genuinely makes me feel like I'm on cloud nine right now.

Also, as a fun bit of trivia, Legends Z-A releasing in 2025 marks the first time Pokemon has skipped a year in terms of mainline releases/content in almost a DECADE (the last time was 2015 if you can believe it 😅). Given how Gen 10 then is most likely going to come out 2026 to mark the 30th Anniversary of the series, maybe we'll finally get a slower release cadence now as a result? One can only hope I guess XD

Legends Arceus centered around time travel, as well as exploring people and Pokemon coexisting. It sounds like Legends Z-A will continue these themes with building up an entire city around co-habitation!

The fact that initial blueprints in the trailer are hand-drawn with pencil depicting older architecture, it seems clear you will be able to develop the city in an older time period. Whether you start the game in the present and get yanked back in time, or if you start the game in the past and find a way (or a Pokemon!) to send you forward in time to witness the fruition of your city planning, is anyone's guess.

Another detail that alludes to time travel is the title itself: Z-to-A. Going backwards, it could imply that you go from the present back to the past, perhaps even visiting multiple time periods of Lumiose City. Furthermore, the font of Z looks tech-y and digital, while the A contains green plant sprouts, indicating a more wild, natural habitat.

Given these small tidbits, it's possible the game will offer each player the choice to expand Lumiose City entirely as they please, building up each section of the city in different ways; perhaps one player expands the eastern quarter with a beautiful park, while another player builds a bustling shopping center in the same area. Pokemon Black/White already explored this idea, albeit in a much more limited capacity, where the same city was expressed in two different ways.

Based on the 3D half of the trailer, it's also possible some sort of Pokemon or device will allow you to view a simulation of your city planning. If Legends Z-A incorporates simulation elements, then I could imagine the game resembling Level 5's Decapolice, mixed with Astral Chain, perhaps even tossing in a few elements of Detective Pikachu while we're at it.

I agree with this interpretation. I've worked in CAD before, digital blueprints have been the preferred standard for decades. I'd imagine they would also be the standard in a world with handheld hologram communication devices.

Also, I'm not a history buff, but didn't Paris go through a renovation in the 19th Century? If this game is set in a vaguely similar era of history as Arceus, I can imagine that being a source of inspiration for this game.

On an unrelated topic, I find it very curious people are trying to grasp a Switch 2 announcement out of this game's announcement, considering Pokemon's history of sticking with old hardware even when a successor is out (B2/W2, USUM), and that Nintendo never really makes a launch title cross-gen unless the prior of those generations was a commercial flop. All that said, if the Switch successor does release close to this, I hope it will provide the inevitably needed performance boost.

While true, Game Freak has a history of breaking patterns from previous games to the point where you can't really say things like "Pokemon never does this". Pokemon also never did things like skip/change up third versions, launch on new hardware with a main game other than a new generation, or outsource their games to another studio, but all of those things happened. They could defy patterns yet again by being an early adopter to new hardware.

@IceClimbers if there was a way to bet on new Pokemon, I would put my life savings on that.