I honestly never thought I’d fall in love with Pokémon battles. That’s not why I play Pokémon – I don’t play competitively either – because I play a ton of RPGs where combat is the draw. I can get my fix elsewhere. But Pokémon Legends: Z-A may have done the impossible; in Kalos, I can’t wait to get into a fight.
Taking the basic framework for 2022’s Legends: Arceus, Z-A transplants the frictionless catching and larger environments to the streets of Lumiose City and switches things up by placing battles at the forefront, rather than the exploration. Arceus is one of my favourite Pokémon games ever, so I had concerns, but the shift here mostly works.
When a Pokémon spots me from a distance or I lock eyes with a trainer, no longer am I simply going for the same attacks, nor am I stressing about PP in a long Elite Four rush. Everything is real time with Xenoblade-style cooldowns and full movement to boot.
This is the best Pokémon battles have ever felt. Your Pokémon are no longer just static sprites and polygons with repetitive animations: they move in accordance with your own movements. And you have to use that to your advantage to both attack and avoid opponents.
Suddenly, I’m not just thinking about type match-ups (still important, of course) but attack distance, Pokémon speed, the battle space around me, and when to use each move. Totodile’s Bubble Beam can hit from a further distance than, say, Bite, but it has a longer charge-up time and it gives the opponent the chance to run away. Bite, however, might put Totodile in harm’s way. What if this Sandile has Absorb and gets it off as my little croc is running up to attack?
I’m even using attacks like Fire Spin and Toxic Spikes to set up traps and lure my opponent. These are all things that I know are used competitively, but I, even casually, feel like I have to utilise status effects and stat boosts and everything else in my Pokémon’s arsenal to win. And things can get particularly dicey when Alpha Pokémon get involved.
Even Mega Evolution feels like it’s been massively improved, with snappy and dramatic transformations that in many story-focused battles are essentially mandatory. It’s beautiful to see the bones of the series’ combat be fully realised in this new system, and I’ll be sad to lose this system outside of Z-A.
Thankfully, as you can probably gather so far, there is a lot of that combat thanks to the Z-A Royale, which makes up one half of the game’s narrative progression. By day, Lumiose is a place for coffee and couture — and I must say, the fashion available is très chic — but by night, a battle zone opens up where trainers lurk and aim to duke it out and gain ranking points to reach the next promotional match. You can pick up Bonus Cards to help boost those rewards by fulfilling certain conditions, such as defeating foes with Plus Moves or putting them to sleep.
It’s another excuse to get into battle, which is absolutely a good thing. Especially as you progress through the game and higher-levelled trainers join the ranks. I never got bored sneaking into a new battle zone, picking up the nearest Bonus Card that fit my Pokémon team’s skillset, and then destroying a foe five levels above me with a crafty super-effective back attack. It’s extremely satisfying to pull off and frustrating when the trainer turns at the last minute to spot you, in a good way.
When you’re not spending time in the Z-A Royale, you’ll be helping Team MZ to quell the Rogue Mega Evolution threat popping up all over the city. These are basically the Frenzied Fights from Arceus, but much better. To me, they’re like MMORPG raid battles – watch the attack patterns, try to dodge, expose the ‘mons’ weaknesses, then Mega Evolve for some big damage numbers.
Because I was actually battling the Rogue Mega and not just running and throwing things, I felt engaged in these fights. They weren’t just an obstacle, but they helped me understand the importance of space and movement in combat. There were even times where I had to recall my Pokémon and hide behind an obstacle to avoid taking damage. It’s another layer of strategy that I wasn’t expecting from Pokémon that I really appreciate – even if those fights can get a little too chaotic and hard to track.
Something I hope Game Freak and The Pokémon Company can keep up on Switch 2 is smooth performance. I wish I wasn’t so shocked here, but they’ve managed it in Legends: Z-A. Running at a very consistent 60fps in both handheld and docked, with only a few slight dips in extremely busy, late-game battles and some fast menu cycling, it’s honestly a relief. Load times are also relatively snappy in both formats. I wasn't able to test out the Switch 1 version for review, so we'll have some thoughts on that post-launch, but on the newer console at least, it's a success. If only the visuals were as consistent. [Update: My Switch 1 impressions are now live.]