Pokémon Legends: Z-A Preview: Mega-Evolved Madness That Could Change Everything

After another preview session with Pokémon Legends: Z-A I’m both excited but wary of The Pokémon Company’s next spin-off game.

I went hands-on with the title at Gamescom and came away impressed by the innovative new combat system, which lets Pokémon battles play out in real-time as opposed to the turn-based formula we’ve had so many years to master.

It was a refreshing experience that flipped everything I knew about Pokémon battles on its head, as suddenly combination attacks, perfect timing and movement were part of the equation.

Following a second, more in-depth, hands-on event in Paris this year my opinion on the combat is unchanged, it’s still engaging, makes you carefully calculate your next move, and keeps battles interesting regardless of the trainer and their team.

However, I can’t say I’m 100% convinced by Game Freak’s next Legends game, as while I did see it as an improvement on Pokémon Legends: Arceus I’m concerned it’s taking as many steps back as it is forward.

My biggest concern lies in the new Wild Areas. In Pokémon Legends: Arceus almost the entire map was one big wild area, with the different biomes of Sinnoh providing a wide variety of ‘mon to battle and catch.

While Legends: Z-A brings trainers back to Kalos, things have changed since Pokémon X & Y. Lumiose City is bigger no doubt, but is it better? When stepping into the new Wild Area I was greeted with a generic street, with some market stalls, a cafe, and a ladder leading down to a sewage system of sorts. Pokémon I could find included Houndoor, Buneary, and Binacle. Why these Pokémon were present aside from others wasn’t really apparent.

That was just ground-level though, you could climb up to the roof on one of the buildings to encounter other ‘mon, mainly Flying-Types, and while I was up there I looked out at a gorgeous, vibrant green park and wondered “why am I not catching Pokémon over there?”

The Pokémon Company

I understand that Lumiose City has grown since we last saw it and story-wise it endeavoured to remain a home for both humans and Pokémon, but prior to the demo I was expecting that to involve luscious green areas they could thrive in, in addition to them just roaming the streets. For now I’ll have to hold back on judging it too harshly until I play the full-game, but I am worried that exploring Lumiose City might get a bit boring if every Wild Area is just another city street.

Onto more positive stuff though, the Alpha Pokémon. These were introduced in Legends: Arceus and they’re arguably more formidable here, especially with the new combat system in place. With my team I fought a Houndoom and a Pikachu, both of which were high-level and packed a punch, often one-shotting my ‘mon if I wasn’t thinking on my feet. Because you can move around during battles this also makes you a target to whatever you’re fighting, so while I was commanding my Gyrados I was also dodging out of the way as a Houndoom tried to bite my head off. It felt intense and a great evolution of the mechanic from Legends: Arceus. I’m excited to face all of the Alpha Pokémon in the full-game.

Trainer battles also benefit from the new combat system. I covered this briefly in my Gamescom preview but you can now catch trainers unaware and surprise them with a battle, and after years of having my route exploration interrupted by these menaces it’s immensely satisfying to get payback. I was curious how switching ‘mon would work with the fluid combat, and learned that when you throw out a new ‘mon mid-battle they’ll stand still for a second allowing the other trainer to attack, so you can’t just spam switches and hope you never get hit.

The final part of the demo was another Mega Evolution Battle against Mega Victreebel, which was revealed just a few weeks ago. This was as fun as it was at Gamescom and this time I had a few more Megas of my own to play with. My only gripe with this is Mega Victreebel had some area-of-effect moves that would create a pool of poison on the ground, damaging both you and your team when you linger in them too long. They’re easily dodgable but my team would seemingly get stuck in them, either by walking into them as they initiated a move or just not moving with me as I tried to lead them away. I couldn’t quite work out if this was due to some faulty AI or another factor, but it did cause some frustration especially after my Mega Gardevoir sauntered into a poison pool right after evolving, getting KO’d in seconds.

All in all I enjoyed my second go at Pokémon Legends: Z-A. After getting a broader experience than the Gamescom demo it feels like a natural evolution of the mechanics found in Legends: Arceus and reimplemented into Pokémon Scarlet & Violet. That said it still feels like there’s work to be done, and unless the full game convinces me otherwise we might have to wait until a third Legends game to see these new gameplay mechanics truly mastered.

I’m excited to return to Kalos in October though, and you should be too. Just watch out for those Alpha Pokémon, they’re vicious.