Pokemon Legends: Arceus was easily the best Pokemon game this side of Black and White. Though not devoid of its own issues (especially on the technical front), it was the radical shake-up that the Pokemon series had been in desperate need of for so long (something that many might argue is still true for the mainline generation games). Taking players into an open world setting, putting its focus squarely on catching Pokemon, switching to a fascinating period setting, and elevating the moment-to-moment gameplay with new mechanics for catching Pokemon, battling, and exploration- in so many fundamental ways, Pokemon Legends: Arceus reinvented the series in the best way possible.
It’s no wonder that fans of the franchise have been as desperate for another game in the Pokemon Legends line as they have been for the last couple of years, and sure enough, at the recent Pokemon Presents presentation, Pokemon Legends: Z-A was indeed unveiled. All we got to see was a very brief trailer, and it wasn’t even a trailer that showed us any gameplay whatsoever. Details on the game are still scant, and at this point, it’s still at least a year away from release. And yet, in spite of all of that, we’re already incredibly excited about the game- or at least about the promises that it’s making and hinting at.
There’s several reasons for that, but chief among them is probably the setting. It’s been confirmed that Pokemon Legends: Z-A is going to be set entirely in Lumiose City, the Paris-inspired hub that served as the centerpiece of the Kalos region in Pokemon X and Y on the 3DS. It looks like we’re going to be involved in an urban redevelopment plan, which likely means this is another prequel, one that is centered around building Lumiose City into what it becomes, and what we recognize it as from the 3DS games. The YouTube description of the game’s official trailer suggests the same, mentioning “an urban redevelopment plan” that will “shape the city into a place that belongs to both people and Pokemon”.
The trailer itself also let that on in some interesting ways. Much of the trailer shows a sort of holographic rendition of Lumiose City, perhaps indicating that these are blueprints of sort of what the aforementioned urban redevelopment plan envisions Lumiose City as. Right off the bat, that’s an intriguing core premise. For starters, the plain and simple fact that the game is going to be set entirely in just one city is unprecedented for the Pokemon franchise. Sure, Jubilife Village was really the only town in the entirety of Pokemon Legends: Arceus, and served as your base of operations throughout the game- but there was a whole world split into multiple regions outside the village that we got to explore.
With Pokemon Legends: Z-A being set entirely in Lumiose City, we might be in for a game that is going to be quite different from its predecessor, both structurally and aesthetically. Structurally, it should be interesting to see how significantly the core loop will change to fit the premise of building a city. For instance, are we also going to be focused on acquiring materials or recruiting people to help build Lumiose City, rather than focusing exclusively on catching Pokemon? And with the game being set in a single city, how large can we expect the map to be, and how varied will the environments that we explore be?
Beyond that, the setting might also be hinting at a shift in aesthetic (to some degree at least). Of course, the Pokemon Legends aesthetic was very prominent in Z-A’s announcement trailer, but the trailer does also seem to indicate that the game isn’t going to be set as far back in the past as Arceus was. The grand ambitions that Lumiose’s redevelopment plan has for the city would suggest that we’re looking at, at the very least, a contemporary setting (or close enough to contemporary), as opposed to Legends, which was basically feudal. A willingness to make meaningful changes to the core experience has long been one of the mainline Pokemon franchise’s biggest problems, so the prospect of a Legends sequel that is making such significant changes is in and of itself an exciting one.
But there are other reasons to be excited as well, of course- like the fact that the Kalos region’s lore lends itself incredibly well to a Pokemon Legends game. Arceus did an excellent job of diving deep into the Sinnoh region’s backstory, and with Z-A, Game Freak has the opportunity to do the same for what’s probably one of the more overlooked corners of the Pokemon universe. Pokemon X and Y are considered by many to be the series’ black sheep, which means Kalos, by association, doesn’t really get a lot of time in the spotlight. That’s made even worse by the fact that we never got the fabled Pokemon Z that supposedly would have dived deeper into the region’s lore. Series fans have every reason, then, to be excited about a game that’s (potentially) finally going to deliver on that unfulfilled promise- that “Z” in the Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s title isn’t accidental, after all.
And there is going to be plenty for the game to dive into. X and Y’s lore is surprisingly dark for Pokemon games, revolving around a war that broke out between Kalos and another region 3000 years ago, leading to AZ, the king of Kalos, creating what he dubbed the Ultimate Weapon, which led to millions of Pokemon and human lives being wiped out. A Pokemon Legends game that dives deeper into that war, AZ’s past, and the region’s legendary Pokemon (especially the ever-so-mysterious Zygarde) could potentially do a lot of interesting things with its story (as Pokemon Legends: Arceus so frequently hinted at doing). Of course, if Z-A is indeed taking place in a much more modern setting than Arceus, that would still put us far, far away from the Kalos war, chronologically speaking, so it remains to be seen exactly how the game is going to rope that into its story. That it will do it somehow is definitely not in doubt, however.
Of course, the one question the vast majority of people are going to have is whether Pokemon Legends: Z-A is going to suffer from the same technical issues like the vast majority of mainline Pokemon games have in the Switch era. Game Freak and The Pokemon Company have, thus far, seemed unwilling to make the improvements that are so desperately needed, and the fact that Pokemon games keep selling like peanuts regardless certainly does make you wonder whether they’re ever going to have any reason to. Then again, publicly, at least, they have said a few times in the past couple of years that they’re trying to polish up the series’ development pipeline so they can deliver games at a higher level of technical quality. The hope is that they’re going to back those words with action.
With the Pokemon franchise taking the unusual year off in 2024 and Legends: Z-A coming (at least) three years after its predecessor, is it finally going to be the Pokemon game that has a decent budget and at least a passable level of technical polish? I mean, that’s not asking too much, right? If the game turns out to be a launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2 – which it very well might be, given recent reports that the console is now targeting a March 2025 release – you’d imagine Nintendo, The Pokemon Company, and Game Freak would want the game to at least look fine, and not shockingly ugly the way most Pokemon games have done in recent years.
Then again, ultimately, even with its technical warts, Pokemon Legends: Arceus was a fantastic game, maybe one of the best games available on the Switch, and definitely one of the best all time Pokemon games. So even if Legends: Z-A continues the franchise’s tradition of disappointing technical performance, we can at least hopefully look forward to another great and compelling title- one that hopefully builds on everything that was great about Legends: Arceus, and continues to take the Pokemon franchise in exciting new directions. Hopefully we will see significant technical upgrades, but even if we don’t, we’re at least starting off from a strong base.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
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