Pokemon Legends ZA brings the players back to the Kalos Region which was last visited in Pokemon X&Y in 2013. However unlike X and Y where the players traverse the Kalos region freely, Legends ZA takes place in Lumiose City. We know that the
story takes place 5 years after the events of X/Y because the City is being redeveloped and is still recovering from the incident involving Team Flare. Our character Paxton(male avatar)/Harmony(female avatar) arrives to the city of Lumiose(resembeling Paris) on
train. In the city we meet Taunie, a character who was looking around for tourists in order to help her advertise Hotel Z. The two were interupted as a gigantic screen played the "Welcome to the City message" by Jett, the CEO of Quasartico Inc, the company behind
the reconstruction of Lumiose. Once the add finished and thw two were about to film, they realise our traveling luggage was stolen. We follow the thieves and enter our first pokebattle in which we get to choose our starter Pokemon given to us by Taunie.
After an eventfull day, Taunie invites us to Hotel Z where we meet a 3000 old man known as AZ who owns the hotel. After a brief conversation we head to bed. The next day, Taunie offers us a tour around Lumiose and also tells us to join the Z-A Royale Tournament.
A tournament where people enter and begin at Rank Z and fight around the city in order to reach Rank A. The trainers who reach Rank A will have a wish granted to them by the Quasartico Inc. We also meet a few others who stay in Hotel Z and we agree to join their group, Team MZ.
As we venture around Lumiose we explore more areas, more NPCs and meet certain people who will ask for our help whether is to research Pokemon or to solve cases and help people around. Once our player reach a certain rank, we attract the attention of Jett, who wishes to talk to us.
She regroups us in order to deal with Rogue Mega Evolution. Pretty much pokemon are somehow Mega evovling in the City and someone needs to stop them from going crazy. Similar to what happened with Jett, our efforts also draw the attention of Zygrade a legendrary pokemon
and also a mysterious figure man known as L.
Will we make it to rank A?
Will we find out whats causing the Rogue Mega Evolutions?
Who is L?
What does Zygrade want from us?
Find out in Pokemon Legends ZA.
I personally liked the story of Pokemon ZA but in some cases it felt like it was just trying to last more than what it should have. There are two main plots within the game's narrative. Our journey to rank A in the ZA tournament and the story around the rogue Mega evolutions. Both of them are interesting in their own unique way and offer some fun moments, however there are times when the plot of one stops the momentum of the other. For example when the mysterious L appeared i wanted to find more about him but instead i was searching for a guy's sister in town and under the sewers in order to challenge him for my ZA rank tournament. I liked the mystery with the Rogue Mega Evolutions and Zygrade's behavior to our trainer. However i also belive that the game relied abit to much on the X & Y games, as they keep referencing a certain incident and certain characters. Also the big climax of the game left be unhintch as i didnt play those games and some things depsite knowing certain stories and incidents didnt land with me.
In Pokemon Legends ZA we get to customize our trainer who can be either a boy or a girl. We can make some decent changes to the face characteristicks and towards our haircut. We can also change our outfit throughout the entire game. Afterall the game takes place in Lumiose city which is similar to Paris, the city of fashion.
We soon introduced to Taunie who offers us our first starting Pokemon. After a few cutscenes and a few tutorials the city of Lumiose opens to the player. Despite the game being placed in a city alone, the scale is big enough to make up for it. The city is filled with multiple NPCs who re mining their own bussiness, stores that the player
can spent their money to get battle items or clothes and cafes and restaurants to have some good dining. There are different holo-elevators which can help the player reach the rooftops. Up there the players can find secret items and various pokemon.
Certain Pokemon re free roaming in the city. Bird pokemon can be seen sitting on rooftops, trees and traffic lights. Flabebes, weedles, Kakunas and others can be seen relaing on bushes or trees. Some "rarer" pokemon can be seen on top of certain rooftops. Pokemon like Riolu, Larvitar and dratini can be seen relaxing on rooftops but they ll flee once
they spot you. However, Pokemon can be seen in Wild Zone. Lumiose city wants to create a place where humans and pokemon live together. However, theres a fear that pokemon can attack humans and thus they place barriers around areas and they called them wild Zones. Theres a total of 20 zones however, they beocme available in a pace that matches the players
progression with the story. In the wild zones, you can battle and catch wild Pokémon. Each zone features unique, localized pokemon, specific spawn rates, and occasional weather or time-of-day changes that alter which Pokémon appear. When you open the map and place your cursor on the zone you can see the potential available pokemon. Zones can spawn an alpha pokemon
which is different and shouldnt be in that zone. Alpha are pokemon whose size differs, their level is way higher than the zone's and aim for the trainer instead of the pokemon.
Once again Pokemon are visble and you can approach them by either directly running towards them or stealthily approach. To catch the Pokemon you can either battle it first or throw a ball. When you aim a pokeball at it, next to the aim theres an indicator showing the catch rate potential. Different type of Pokeball may be more effective than others. For example a Net ball
will have a higher capture rate on a water type pokemon than a fire type and will most likely be more effective than the basic Pokeball, Great Ball or Ultra ball. If the pokemon's rate is low, you can battle it. Pokeballs can be thrown during the actual battle but the highest capture rate will appear once the pokemon is defeated. Unlike turn base games, a defeated pokemon will
stay on the spot and will be dizzy. Thats when you can either catch it or let it dissappear. You get one pokeball chance however there are incidents where people who failed the first ball threw another one before the pokemon dissappeared which allowed to have multiple throws on a fainted pokemon.
A pokemon party can consist of up to 6 pokemon and similar to other recent games, the player can access their box from the pause screen to change their party on the spot. During pokemon/trainer battles, the pokemon which was the last used, or had an arrow on it is the one that will come out. Not having a pokemon out will allow the opponent to attack your trainer causing them to
black out. To avoid that, you can around, dodge incoming attacks and ofcourse battle them. Unlike before theres no PP on the attacks. The players can open the skills menu and use the available attacks. These attacks have cooldowns and once they re up and ready they can be used again. Powerfull attacks usually require more time than those with a regular damage. RPG elements re back meaning a
water type attack will deal more damage on a fire type pokemon. Items such as Potions/Revives etc can be used during battle at any point. They cannot be used back to back but there will be an indicator in the center bottom showing when a new item can be used. Once a pokemon further up and can be evolved, the player can open then pause menu and look at the party. The specific pokemon will
have a golden arrow indicating that its ready to evolve. Skills are gained by leveling up and by giving them HMs and TMs. From The party menu, select the pokemon and choose the options skills. A window will open with all the available skills of that pokemon. The skills it knew/forgotten, the skills it learned from leveling up and ll available(to it) skills from your TM/HM bag. Each skill
shows its power, its cooldown and its impact.
After a certain point in the story, the trainer will experience a Mega raid. During a mega raid a pokemon is going bersek and brings havoc to the city. The player teams up with a Memeber of the Team MZ and challenge these pokemon in order to calm them down. Certain pokemon can Mega Evolve. A Mega Evolution is a temporary battle transformation which grants the pokemon powerfull attacks. It increases the
users base stats, it may change their type and significally boost it over all. To mega evolve the pokemon you need to give it its specific mega stone to hold it. During battle a small bar on the right will appear which charges the more you battle. Once the bar is complete you can tap the button to transform. The stone held by the pokemon has to be its unique one, for example Starmie needs to hold the Mega starmie stone and
not the Charizard's. The meter can also be used in order to used a mega attack when you re not mega evolve. To do that, open the attack menu, press a certain (+) and all attacks will be highlighted. This allows the user to use the mega version of that attack by consuming energy from the bar. Once a mega pokemon runs out of energy, it will turn back to its original form. In the mega raids, the trainer should avoid the incoming
attacks and also collect energy orbs to charge up the next evolution.
Trainer battles also slightly changed. The enemy trainer NPCs do not randomly challenge you when you walk infront of them. In fact there re no opponents during the day. This is because Lumiose has a rule that trainer battles will occur during night time in the areas known as battle zones. During night, open the map and look which area is highlighted red. Inside a battle zone everyone is a trainer and
will challenge you once they spot you. An indicator top middle will show you how close they re on spotting you. If they spot you first they can potentially get the first hit on you. Similarly, you can approach an anaware trainer and deliver the first hit on them. Dealing the first hit will allow you to attack again and the skill used will become instantly avaiable again without the need to cooldown. Mega evolutions can
be used for both parties. After the battle, some NPCs with yellow bubble will reward the player with items or even heal your party. At the end of the battle you get rewarded coins and ranking points in order to get enough for the rank pass which will allow you to have a rank match. Inside the zone you can find coins on the ground and also mission. These missions have specific objectives that once completed will reward you more
coins and more points. These quests can be something as simple as "get the first strike", "use a super effective attack" and sometimes they specify certain types of attacks. The players can have up to three challenges and can drop any when picking up a new mission. Finaly these missions will dissappear and wont carry over the next time nightfall comes.
Outside of pokemon catching and pokemon battles, the player can free roam the city and collect various items. Mobility is done on foot or by fast traveling. Around the city there are 4 types of items the player can pick up. Shiny dots have small items like potions, revives, pearls mushrooms etc. Battle items can be used in and out combat whilst other items can be used to sell at the store. The other 3 items are pokeballs of different type.
Regular Pokeball can be include super battle items and different pokeballs. Ultraballs consist of skills HMs & TMs. Masterballs include colorfull Screws that can be exchanged at a certain NPC for rare items like EXP boosters and others. These items are scattered on the ground and on the rooftops. Some rooftops are connected and others have a small gap. The player can jump from roof to roof by dodging or they can tap a button to allow their phone to
give them an extra push. Some parts of the city need fixing or require the player to take action. For example using a fire skill to burn wooden logs, use water to remove toxic piles or use fighting move to break stones.
This is the 5th Pokemon game i played within these 4 months and once again i found myself invested into it and feeling it was a fresh game. The real time action combat was something new to me(i havent played Arceu(at tleast yet)) and i quite enjoyed it. However, i would love to see that the main line Pokemon games will continue with turn base and leave the action battle system to
the Legends series. The action battle system also got rid of the PP system which meant i could spam my favorite attacks and just wait for the cooldown to go down to re use it. There is a balance where powerfull attacks take more time to cool down. Certain status effect did not translate well in action combat such as sleep. Your slept Pokemon can still attack which in my eyes makes it kinda
useless. The same thing can be said about items. Using items during battle does not skip your turn and infact can be used alongside an attack. Mega evolutions were fun to use and Mega raids were a great addition. In my eyes, they were better than dynamax raids. The fact that the pokemon can attack the trainers reminded me alot of the Pokemon Manga, and it was the only way i would black out.
I found alot of "fun elements missing" from ZA but at the same time they werent needed. For example theres no Bike riding which has been a staple for the series and its not like it was replaced by a similar mechanic like riding a Pokemon. Thankfully the game has alot of checkpoints to fast travel to. The day and night cycle was a fun addition and allowed for different pokemon to be introduced.
I do feel like the narrative affected the gameplay abit even though it gave me options to counter it. For example if i wanted to focus on the ZA tournament, i would have to fight trainers and if i didnt beat enough for my ticket, i would go on a bench and skip to nightfall. Sometimes though, the cycle was a mess, during day, i would be fighting an Apha Pokemon but nightfall came and made the Pokemon
dissappear before i defeated it or before i threw the ball to catch it. Aside from those minor critisisms, i realy enjoyed Pokemon Legends Za gameplay.
Once the player completes the story the game "truly" opens. Before going on about the single player experience, i should mention that if the player owns a Nintnedo Online subscription, then Pokemon Legends Za offers Online multiplayer. There are three main ways to enjoy multiplayer.
Graphically the game looks beautiful. Despite the fact that the entire game is placed within Lumiose City, the devs made a great effort creating a nice looking place. It has its Parks, its cafes, its shops, harbors and landmarks(Statues, important buildings etc.) I also appreciated the effort of having multiple trainers walking around with and without Pokemon, giving a realistic atmosphere. Not everyone has Pokemon and if they do not all
of them walk with them out of their Pokeball. I appreciated seing contructor builders building things, kids playing and even adults trainning by doing circles around the park and others stealthily approaching Pokemon. Wild Pokemon exist within the zoned areas but you can see some free roaming in the city. For examples, Pidgeys and Fletchlings flying around or sitting ontop of night lights, Flabebes of different colors chilling around the parks,
Trubbish appear near trash cans and even Weedles/Kakunas/Pansage/Pansear/Panpour and others climbing trees, Magicarbs swimming and many many more pokemon. The only negative thing about Lumiose's design is the infamous bulding designs with the windows and the balconies texture looking like a PS2 game. The action battles and the mega raids were very well with nice animations. The new Mega Evolutions re very well designed and allowed the team to come up with new
designs for classic pokemon like Feraligatr, Dragonite, Absol, Victrebel, Starmie and others. Last but not least, since this year i player multiple games back to back, i gotta say the textures found in Legends ZA are quite noticable(for the good reasons) than those used in Sword and Shield(2019). I know the 2 titles have 6 years difference and that i played them on a different hardware but like i said, since i played them around
the same time the difference was obvious.
The audio department on the other hand has me a bit confused. It does what pokemon games do, but this time around i didnt have a specific OST that stuck with me. The entire game takes place in Lumiose City meaning that there are no specific Route tracks. Even though the Lumiose theme is good, listening to it all time gets a bit boring. They can make slight alteration but it still is the Lumiose Song. There re character themes when phasing off againts "important Characters"
like Canari and there are also themes for casual Battle Zone trainers. Yet again the game does not have voice acting which i honestly dont mind, but since the Legend series experiment with the formula, i wouldnt be oppose to them try using it and see the reception. After all New Pokemon Snap did implement voice acting in certain scenes and as far as i am aware, there werent any major isssues. Once again, the pokemon have their own
battle cry and each move have its own battle effect. I do appreciate that some effects are carried over from 1996 but have a slight change duo to the hardware being vastly superior.
In conclusion, Pokemon Legends Z-A is a new fresh Pokemon game. The game takes place in the city of Lumiose where our trainer arrives. We make new friends and they give us our starter Pokemon. Soon later we find ourselves participating in the ZA tournament, where we begin from rank Z and have to climb all the
way up to ZA. At the same time, a strange phenomenom occurs in the city where Pokemon Mega evolve around the city and we try to stop them to prevent any accidents. A legendary Pokemon known as Zygrade seems to be curious about our trainer and is spying on us. Theres a nice ammount of mystery around the entire
plot and it introduces some new fun characters.
Gameplay wise the game replaces the turn base formula and brings back the action base formula first introduced in Legends Arceus. During combat you move your trainer around and with a tap of a button your list of skills will appear each mapped to the buttons of your console. The combat is fun and fast, instead of PP you
have time cooldowns. Skills(old-new) can always be replaced allowing for easy skill adjustments. The re introduction of Mega Evolution was not only fun but also well thought. You deal damage to power up a meter and transform on the go. Inside battle zones, you can sneak up on trainers and trainers can also sneak up on you
granting you the first strike. Traversal wise, the game is not as fun as you can only sprint from place to place and thus you simply fast travel. Its not like you can encounter many pokemon on the way or that the scenery change drastically.
Once you beat the game, you can try and complete the pokedex, complete the sidequest of the NPCs and hunt the post game pokemon that become available. The Infinite ZA tournament will also become available which will allow you to constantly challenge new trainers with new rewards given to you each time you win.
The game does have a paid DLC which introduces new story elements, new pokemon and challenging trainer battles. Additionally players who own a Nintendo live subscription can challenge other players in Online battles, partake in a ZA cup and even trade pokemon.
