Pokémon Legends: Z-A (Switch 2) review

The story of Pokémon Legends: Z-A starts 13 years ago with the release of Pokémon X and Y. It was a pretty big deal at the time — the first fully 3D Pokémon game had big expectations around it, and it was vital that Game Freak get it right to set the tone for future games. Whether or not that was successful depends on who you ask, but it nevertheless set in motion a new phase of Pokémon games that saw the series settle into a safe and comfortable position. 

In recent years, we’ve seen that safety dwindle, somewhat. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet took a small swing with its massive open world, but the biggest departure from the comfort of familiarity was in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. It turned the structure of Pokémon on its head, focusing heavily on catching and exploration while battling took a back seat. Pokémon Legends: Z-A takes an even bigger swing – arguably the largest departure for main series Pokémon to date – and it’s better for it. 

The actual story of Pokémon Legends: Z-A starts five years ago, with the events of Pokémon X and Y. In it, a group of scrappy kids teamed up to unlock the power of Mega Evolution and stop the Ultimate Weapon from killing everyone in Kalos. Along the way they met AZ, a 3000-year-old former king whose meddling with the Ultimate Weapon in the past cursed him with eternal life. When the credits roll in X and Y, AZ is reunited with his partner Pokémon, Floette, and looks to the future of Kalos and what it might hold. 

Legends: Z-A answers that question — it’s set five years after the events of Pokémon X and Y, in a massively improved and expanded Lumiose, the biggest city in Kalos. Everything takes place within the city’s boundaries, and that’s a really fascinating concept for a Pokémon game. Put a pin in that, though, we’ll come back to it later. 

As a new trainer, you arrive in this newly expanded Lumiose, and before long you’ve acquainted yourself with a new partner Pokémon, signed up to be a part of Team MZ – a group of scrappy kids with lofty ambitions – and found lodging in a hotel managed by none other than AZ himself. It’s not long before he and Team MZ put you to work investigating a strange phenomena called Rogue Mega Evolution, which sees Pokémon Mega Evolving without a trainer and without a Mega Stone. It’s kind of like that part in Sword and Shield where Pokémon just start Dynamaxing randomly, except it happens on-screen and you’re a part of the action. 

You also sign up to compete in the Z-A Royale, a city-wide competition to find the best battler in the city. This, too, is another thing we’ll come back to, but from a story perspective it’s mostly a way to introduce you to strong trainers and make sure your skills are up to snuff. 

Legends: Z-A’s story bubbles away slowly for most of the game, a slow, escalating buildup rather than big ebbs and flows. Pokémon has been killing it with the story in recent games, with Scarlet and Violet in particular doing incredible things with a fantastic cast of characters. Legends: Z-A doesn’t quite hit those heights, but what it does do, it does with incredible confidence. Characters are well-written and likeable, with your allies on Team MZ in particular putting in a lot of work to charm you. When big things happen, the team converges to have a cute little team strategy meeting, for example, and those meetings are a delightful mix of fun character moments and a fun, in-universe way to convey information to the player. 

Even parts of the story I was initially not too fond of turned around in the end. One section about halfway through the game – right before a promotion match in the Z-A Royale – felt like it was going to drag things out far too much. I just wanted to get on with it and do my promotion match, but by the time that particular detour was done I thought it was one of the most enjoyable parts of the game. A lot of that is down to the character work, but I think Game Freak showed a lot of self-awareness developing the story here — the developer knows exactly when players are getting sick of a particular story beat, and changes things up accordingly. 

It’s not just the main cast on Team MZ that make a stellar impact, either. There’s an extended cast of characters that pop into the story as needed throughout the game’s runtime, and all of them are fantastic. Everyone in Lumiose is working towards similar goals, they want the city to be the best it can be, but rarely do they agree on what “the best it can be” looks like. So there are times where you’re working alongside a set of characters, because you align on some goals, and others where you’re working against the same set of characters, because your ideals diverge in places too. It helps to make Lumiose feel like a living, breathing city, with politically diverse residents and ideals. 

It also works in the city’s favour as a setting. If you think about the residents of a city, it’s a big, connected web of people who know each other and each have their role to fill. Somebody you know might know a guy who can help you fix the power in your house, and that guy might know another person who’s a little bit shady but can help you navigate complex council matters. Even characters you meet through the Z-A Royale – connections you make by happenstance – have their place in the city beyond the interactions you have, and there might be a problem later in the story that you can solve by leaning on that character. 

None of this is particularly new in the Pokémon series, this web of connections has been present in past games, too, but it’s a lot more believable in a city rather than a whole region. Condensing the game down to one city makes it feel more grounded and real — of course the people here know each other, they live or work just a few blocks over. 

It helps, too, that there’s familiarity with Lumiose and Kalos as a whole. We already kind of know how this region ticks, what people like and how they interact with art and culture. That’s a lot of groundwork laid for a game like Legends: Z-A to build upon. That familiarity also serves a purpose when it comes to toying with expectations, adding a layer of depth underneath the familiar or subverting it entirely. Characters and story beats from X and Y are expanded upon, given more context and depth, and not everything is as simple as it once was 12 years ago when those games came out. I love this kind of expansion of the Pokémon world, and it works far more effectively in a modern setting, where characters and their influence from past games are still around, than in something like Legends: Arceus which is much more removed from its connections to other parts of the series. 

It’s also nice to get closure on a region like this, even if it’s just one small part of that region. X and Y were lovely games, in my opinion, but it’s clear that, had time and development goals allowed, a third game would have fleshed things out. Zygarde, for example, never really got to make its grand debut — it got a small spotlight in Sun and Moon, but it was just kind of present. Here, Zygarde takes centre stage, and it feels like we’re finally getting the “third game” we always thought we would. It’s on a smaller scale, given it’s just one city in a reasonably large region, but that’s not inherently a bad thing. Lumiose is the heart of Kalos, after all, and focusing on that beating heart means you can layer in a lot of depth that might otherwise be lost in a region-wide journey. 

I think there’s a really interesting approach to some of the themes that pop up in Legends: Z-A, too. It doesn’t hesitate to go into depth on some of the questions that Pokémon has been asking but never answering fully in the past. If Pokémon are sentient and sapient, then what does it mean when they share a space with humans? Do they get treated like pets, like citizens, or some combination of the two? And when problems do arise, be it Pokémon or human in nature, how do people react to that? Is there pushback on that shared space, or do people just accept Pokémon as an inevitable and unavoidable part of life? These questions have always been at the edges of Pokémon media, but they’re explored in depth in Legends: Z-A, and that’s exactly the kind of story that you can tell in a more focused setting. 

I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the story and the world, but it’s important to focus on that, because it lays groundwork to build upon in the rest of the game. Without that underlying foundation, gameplay systems and mechanics are lacking in context. So let’s talk about what’s built atop that foundation. 

Pokémon Legends: Z-A is the biggest gameplay departure for the series to date. Legends: Arceus toyed a little with more action-focused gameplay, but it still relied on a slight variant of the classic turn-based combat. Legends: Z-A does away with turn-based combat altogether, going all in on fast-paced action combat for the first time in the series’ history. 

Combat is fast, scrappy, and frenetic. It’s a little bit similar to Xenoblade Chronicles, with all of your moves having cooldowns depending on how powerful they are, but significantly faster-paced and much more chaotic. At any given moment in a battle, you have to be thinking about the positioning of yourself and your Pokémon, type matchups, areas of effect for each move, cooldowns, and so much more. All of this can change in a moment’s notice, so you have to be actively engaged with the combat — you can’t just put Flamethrower in the top spot and mash A through battles anymore. 

The way your Pokémon move and the attacks they have access to change how you use them in battle quite significantly. My starter Pokémon, for example, had access to Razor Leaf and Disarming Voice, which meant it could attack from afar without having to get too close to Pokémon that deal damage in a circle around them, like Earthquake, or moves that have a short range, like Thunder Wave. A Heracross I picked up, on the other hand, had to get up close and personal for all of its attacks, leaving it open to taking more damage, but it also had access to moves like Megahorn, which quickly dashes to close gaps from a distance. 

But partway through the game, my starter Pokémon learned Leaf Blade, a significantly more powerful move than Razor Leaf, and Dazzling Gleam, a much more powerful Fairy-type move. Both of these moves, however, are close-range attacks, so the way I used my starter Pokémon changed significantly. I had previously been relying on attacking from afar and never getting hit, but now I had to think about how to effectively use it at close range. My solution was to add Giga Drain to the moveset, a close-range move which let it restore HP to offset the additional damage it was taking, and Bulldoze, which deals damage in a circle around my starter, as a bit of defensive backup against Pokémon that got a little too close for comfort. 

These kinds of decisions are what make Pokémon Legends: Z-A’s combat system so satisfying. It’s not just about the battles themselves, but about the team-building that goes into it. You have to consider so much more when battles are taking place in real time in a 3D space, so building a team feels more like building a deck in a TCG like Yu-Gi-Oh — you have thousands of possibilities and variables, and you have to figure out the best way to arrange those possibilities into something that’s ready to take on anything you come across. 

Complicating that equation considerably is the inclusion of Mega Evolution. I’m very much on the record as saying that Mega Evolution is the worst generational “gimmick”, at least compared to Dynamax and Terastalization, so I was a little bit surprised when I found myself actually enjoying it. Popping a Mega in battle changes all of its moves to powerful Plus moves, which increases their power and also deals extra damage to Rogue Mega Pokémon, and while you can Mega Evolve as many times as you like in a battle, and as many Pokémon as you like, there is a gauge that ticks down while you’re using one, and once it’s empty you have to build it up again by battling in close proximity to your Pokémon. 

You can’t un-Mega Evolve a Pokémon once it’s popped, though, so you really have to think about if it’s going to be the best choice in any given moment and commit to it. If you picked the wrong one, you can switch to another Pokémon, but you can’t Mega that one until the gauge on the first one is empty, or it faints. 

You can also use Plus moves outside of Mega Evolution, which uses up a section of the Mega gauge. These are earned by Pokémon as they level up and use their moves, much like Strong and Agile style moves in Legends: Arceus, and have all the same properties as the ones used by Mega Pokémon, but you have to manually activate them. This makes Pokémon that don’t have a Mega Evolution significantly more viable, and sometimes even preferable to those that do, although there are a lot of Mega Pokémon to choose from and it’s very easy to put together a team of six Mega-capable Pokémon. And that’s exactly what I did, because there are tonnes of incredible new Mega Pokémon to choose from — I think just about every new Mega barring maybe one is better than every prior Mega that existed before now. 

It helps, too, that some of the battles and Rogue Mega fights are quite challenging. I was wholly unprepared for Mega Hawlucha, and very few of my team members were able to last more than 30 seconds against the Rogue Mega Pokémon. There was a gap in my build, and I had to shuffle a lot of Pokémon around, catch more Pokémon, and splash some in-game cash on a Mega Stone to get to a manageable place. Even then, after all that work, I barely scraped through. 

Rogue Mega fights are a fascinating aspect of game design here. These fights act similarly to Legends: Arceus’ Noble Pokémon fights, but where that game had a clear separation between what you do as a trainer and what your Pokémon do in combat, Rogue Mega fights essentially have you doing both simultaneously. You have to direct your Pokémon to deal damage and avoid attacks, but you also have to avoid attacks yourself. If all of your Pokémon are knocked out, you lose, but you can also be knocked out yourself. These fights are tense and challenging, and you need to pay attention to every aspect of combat and what’s happening on the screen very closely. They’re also fun as heck, with each Rogue Mega having an entirely unique skill set and special moves to keep you on your toes. 

The trainer being knocked out is something that extends to wild Pokémon, too. While in Wild Zones, which are sectioned-off areas that are home to aggressive Pokémon, wild Pokémon will attack your trainer if you get too close or annoy them by throwing too many Poké Balls. For most Pokémon, you can just send out a Pokémon of your own and fight them, but Alphas – a welcome returning feature from Legends: Arceus – will often just keep attacking you, even when your own Pokémon are on the field and dealing damage to them. 

On that note, too, is that Pokémon can actually be found outside of Wild Zones. Wild Zones have a lot more Pokémon, and they can and will attack you freely, but various other Pokémon are scattered throughout the city, and you’re able to battle and catch those as well. Wild Zones are just where the really dangerous Pokémon live, and the holographic walls that surround them keep you from getting pounced while you’re on the way to buy Potions. There’s a pretty wide variety of Wild Zones, each with a pool of Pokémon to catch that broadly make sense for their location, and more Wild Zones appear as you progress through the story, which is a clever way to encourage the player to explore the city and find new creatures, as well as an opportunity to change up the city a bit. 

Catching Pokémon in Wild Zones and participating in Rogue Mega fights is just one half of the gameplay loop. The other half is the Z-A Royale, which takes place exclusively at night. When night falls, a particular section of the city is roped off, and inside that section are a host of trainers who all want to throw down with you. Your goal is to defeat as many trainers as you can to earn money and points, the latter of which are needed to earn a Promotion Match and rise through the ranks. There are even bonus cards scattered throughout the Battle Zone that task you with completing certain challenges, like landing 10 hits with Ground-type moves, and reward you with extra points for doing so. 

One thing I didn’t expect going into the Z-A Royale is how big of a stealth focus there is. It’s not a necessity by any means, you can just walk up to a trainer and start a fight like you normally would, but many of the bonus cards ask you to sneak up on an opponent and get the jump on them, which also gives you a slight advantage going into the fight, or potentially even knocks out their first Pokémon altogether. You don’t have to get all of your points in one night in order to qualify for a Promotion Match, you can spread it over a few nights if you want, but if you do want to knock it out in one night you pretty much have to rely on bonus cards and being stealthy. I had a great deal of fun trying to avoid being seen and getting all of my required points in one night, and while none of the fights in the Z-A Royale are especially difficult at lower ranks, it’s still an enjoyable highlight. 

The gameplay loop, then, looks something like this — during the day, you visit a few Wild Zones, catch some Pokémon, complete side quests and research tasks (of which there are many of both), and power up your Pokémon. Then, when night falls, you head into the Battle Zone and rack up points towards your Promotion Match. Or you can opt not to participate that night, and continue on with your daytime tasks, or spend half your night battling and the other half catching Pokémon. It’s a very satisfying gameplay loop, and it feels like there’s always something worthwhile and different to do, depending on what you’re in the mood for. 

It’s very flexible, but also quite structured within the bounds of the story. You’ll have to compete in the Z-A Royale to progress the story, and you’ll have to compete in your Promotion Matches and face off against Rogue Mega Pokémon too, but your time is your own, and if a story beat isn’t actively happening on-screen, the city is your playground. Importantly, there’s always something to do, and something to work towards, which feels a lot more satisfying than Legends: Arceus’ frequent singular task of filling out Pokédex entries while you wait for something to happen. You’re rarely forced to kill time like that, but you can take as much time as you want doing the things you want to do. 

I really do like Lumiose City as a setting for a game like this, if that wasn’t clear already. It’s big enough that it doesn’t feel like I’m getting shortchanged by the scope of the game, but small enough that it feels intimate and eventually familiar. I’m still finding new things here and there in the city, some 40 hours into the game, and I still get a little lost from time to time, but on the whole I feel like I’ve settled in. I know where my familiar haunts are, and I can navigate to and from them quite easily, but when I have to go somewhere I’ve only been once or twice, I have to check with the map to find my way. It feels a lot like actually living in a city, and while I don’t know if that’s necessarily one of the design goals Game Freak had in mind, I’m glad that it ended up the way that it did. 

I do have some very minor gripes with certain aspects of Legends: Z-A. The UI and UX feels a tiny bit underpolished, for example. It’s easy to accidentally throw the wrong Poké Ball, because you don’t see which Ball you have selected until you’re aiming one at a Pokémon that could very well be charging right at you. 

Using items in battle is another UI area that needs a bit more polish. Not only does the game not tell you that you can use items in battle, when you do figure it out it’s unclear when you can do that, and why pressing the button to open the bag doesn’t always work. I’m sure there’s a logic to it, but some kind of UI feedback showing that you can do that, and when you can do that, would be nice. I went the entire game without knowing you could use items in battle, because the few times I tried to open the bag menu in battle it didn’t come up, and I assumed you just couldn’t. That kind of thing shouldn’t happen. 

Some late-game battles are also a little bit too chaotic, as well. If you and two other trainers are facing off against three powerful wild Pokémon at once, it’s hard to know which Pokémon is which, and where, and even harder to know which attacks are going to hurt you and which are safe to stand in. These moments are rare, and I’m not sure how you would mitigate something like that without removing them altogether, but it is a bit of a pain point nonetheless. 

I also haven’t seen even a hint of a Linking Cord item, at least not yet. If it’s not in the game – which mind you, it very well may be and I just haven’t found it – that means having to trade with other players to evolve those Pokémon. There aren’t a lot of trade evolutions in the game, and from what I can tell every Pokémon that is a trade evolution can be found in the wild, but it’s still disappointing that such a helpful quality of life addition has been removed since Legends: Arceus. Thankfully, just about every other QoL addition has been carried over from that game and Scarlet and Violet, and some have even been improved and built on, like the ability to quickly swap out learned moves for your party Pokémon directly from the pause screen, or quickly teach a TM (which are reusable again). 

As for performance and presentation, I have no major complaints. We’ve all seen screenshots of the buildings and their flat facades, and yes, some of the geometry is very basic, but all around I think it looks fine, and in a lot of places even quite good. It’s not the best-looking game on the Switch 2, but given it was made with the original Switch in mind, there was probably a ceiling on how much could be done. It’s certainly a lot better looking than Scarlet and Violet, that’s for sure, and it runs at a fluid and locked 60fps on Switch 2. Some might have issues with how basic it can look at times, but I don’t when it plays as well as it does. 

Two games in, it’s clear now that the Legends subtitle is for experimental ideas and gameplay concepts. Pokémon Legends: Z-A experiments a lot, taking big swings with its action combat system and smaller, more focused world, but it’s a very successful experiment and hopefully a sign of great things to come for the Pokémon franchise. Minor quibbles aside, Legends: Z-A very quickly became my favourite Pokémon game in the modern era, and probably the best Pokémon game in years. 

Rating: 4.5/5 

Screenshots courtesy of Nintendo via the ‘Pokémon Legends: Z-A – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition — Overview Trailer’.