It’s been 29 years since Pokémon invaded our Game Boy consoles way back in 1998. For the majority of that time, the game has retained the tried-and-true formula that has made it a worldwide phenomenon and a billion-dollar franchise.
The gameplay has retained the turn-style battles with subtle variations and improvements made as each generation of the series moved forward, and as technology advances. Now with Pokémon Legends: Z-A, we see a radical departure from tradition in the gameplay style, to a more fluid one that attempts to propel the series forward.
It may take you some time to get behind this new style fully. You can see the attempt to make it more fluid, but it doesn’t quite stick the landing perfectly.
Pokémon & The City
This game serves as a direct sequel to Pokémon X and Y; while that game was set across the Kalos region, this game is set exclusively in its capital, Lumoise City. The game restricts you to this city and doesn’t let you explore any of the regions like previous titles.
This was my first concern with the setting: the restriction on visiting open fields and forests, and on travelling, was difficult to get my head around. Fortunately, though, the city map is quite large, and with ever-evolving spaces to capture wild Pokémon, it rarely runs out of things for you to do.
The city certainly feels inspired by Paris, complete with its own Eiffel Tower. The city is full of alleyways that lead to nowhere, back streets, and rooftops to explore. There are “wild zones” dedicated fenced-off areas that allow you to catch wild Pokémon. They are all levelled out so you can make sure that your current team are strong enough to battle in these zones and “catch them all.”
There are also a variety of wild Pokémon that are scattered across the city that are randomly doing the Mega Evolve move and need to be fought and caught. This is definitely the biggest challenge of the game, once you unlock the Mega Evolve for your own team and use these to take the huge Pokémon down. These serve as the “boss battles” popping up at different points as you progress through the missions and story. These are all done in real time, and while you can time your attacks, it can feel a little button-mashy at times.
There was also some serious input lag; I would press the buttons to perform an attack, and it wouldn’t register. This caused serious frustration, particularly when things got difficult in the Mega Evolve battle. The Mega Evolved Pokémon can not only hurt your team, but the trainer as well. You need to not only command your Pokémon, but also your character will need to dive and roll out of the way as you take on damage and pass out from the battle.
Choose Your Moves
Your Pokémon party is still limited to four moves at a time. These can be upgraded and changed from the settings menu, and I would highly recommend staying on top of this. While you do get a basic notification saying that your Pokémon has learnt a new move, there is no recommendation system or comparison, so you really need to try and go through your different moves to find the most effective ones.
What keeps the battles engaging is how your opponent uses their moves against you. Do you use a big move and wait for it to recharge? Or do you do two smaller ones while their move recharges? It is what keeps this free-form battle engaging and keeps you wanting to progress through the story and complete every side mission.
The three starter Pokémon in this title are Chikoria (Grass), Tepig (Fire) and Totodile (Water). It is also worth noting that by completing side missions, you can quickly find some other main Pokémon, including Charmander, Squirtle and Pikachu, so if these three starters don’t interest you, it isn’t long before you can easily nab your favourite.
While the battle mechanics are solid and all of our favourite Pokémon are here, ready to catch and explore, the limits of GameFreak’s graphical capacity are overwhelmingly evident, particularly in the Nintendo Switch 2 version.
The buildings are all bland with flat windows, the character models themselves haven’t been updated since the last few titles, so there isn’t any progression graphically, but realistically, we aren’t here for the latest graphics; it’s all about the gameplay. The previous game, Pokémon Scarlet, was plagued with frame rate issues when it launched back on the original Nintendo Switch in 2022. Fortunately, with the Nintendo Switch 2, everything ran buttery smooth during my play-through in both docked and handheld mode.
There were no great departures in geographic locations; it did manage to stay at a consistent frame rate during huge battles with Mega Evolved Pokémon, when there was so much happening on the screen.
Getting around the city is also quite restrictive, particularly compared to previous games. There are no Pokémon to ride around on, or even bikes to ride, it is all on foot, which can be quite monotonous, especially when everything looks the same in the city.
You can use the map menu, and you can unlock fast travel points at cafes and Pokémon centres, which does make things easier if you have a specific mission to get to. You can also fast travel to the wild zones’ entrances, which does make travelling around quicker in the early hours of the game.
Final Thoughts
With all of these changes to the game’s core mechanics, it is a bold step to get long-term Pokémon fans to try something new. Fortunately, it presents a new challenge for the company’s tried-and-true formula, making the franchise feel fresh again.
More time could have been spent decorating the city and updating character models, but this would have prevented the game from running on the original Switch system. Exploring Lumoise city is full of charm, and the wild zones that unlock as you level up through the story keep you following the main mission.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A ultimately propels the series forward, offering the best-looking and smoothest gameplay the series has ever produced.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Highlights: Flawless performance on the Switch 2; Great main story and progression system
Lowlights: Single location can feel restrictive; Open battle system can take a while to get used to
Developer: Game Freak
Publisher: Nintendo
Platforms: Nintendo Switch & Nintendo Switch 2
Available: Now
Review conducted on Nintendo Switch 2 with a release code provided by the publisher.
Featured header image also provided by the publisher.
