Ryan McCaffrey
Guest
In my second hands-on opportunity with Pokémon Legends: Z-A on Nintendo Switch 2, I played for almost an hour, which still wasn’t nearly enough time to fully sink my teeth into this new, action-forward take on a mainline Pokémon game. However, it did ease some of my early concerns, pique up interest in mastering its battle mechanics, and reveal a few new details: like how you can power up moves with Mega Power, and Mega Evolve repeatedly in the same battle–at least with some caveats.
Wilds Zones - Where There’s Always a Catching Chance
The modern setting of Legends: Z-A doesn’t exactly do it for me–even in real life I generally prefer exploring ancient forests and temples over cities when traveling–but I did get to explore a Wild Zone in Lumiose City myself during my hands-on this time around, and it was more interesting and fun than I expected.
These Wild Zones are where wild Pokémon live within Lumiose City, and so it’s also where you can catch Pokémon. Like in Legends: Arceus, you can just toss a Poké Ball at a Pokémon to try and catch it, but you can make the task easier by damaging the wild Pokémon first. Legends: Z-A makes an interesting change to the already modified catch mechanic: you don’t have to worry about accidentally knocking a Pokemon out–they’ll “faint” for a while, indicated by stars circling their heads as they wobble in place, giving you a free chance to capture them, instead of “disappearing”--but keep in mind they will disappear if you wait too long after knocking them out.
Legends: Z-A makes an interesting change to the already modified catch mechanic: you don’t have to worry about accidentally knocking a Pokemon out–they’ll “faint” for a while, indicated by stars circling their heads as they wobble in place, giving you a free chance to capture them, instead of “disappearing.”
I’m curious about how this affects capture rate, like how status effects and less HP increase your chances of catching a Pokémon. I actually hope that knocking a Pokémon out resets its catch rate, so there’s still some benefit to formulating a Pokémon-catching strategy with the right moves. Removing tediousness is usually a good thing, but removing tension to streamline things isn’t the change I'm looking for. Doing so completely undermines the satisfaction succeeding would have granted. I understand it’s much more difficult to methodically choose your next move to avoid knocking out a wild Pokémon in a real-time battle, but there needs to be some consequence for doing it. If there is no consequence, well, RIP False Swipe.
Verticality and Challenges
The Wild Zones in Legends: Z-A use the verticality of a city very well, allowing for exploration in the waterways below and the skyscraper rooftops above, creating micro-habitats for different collections of Pokémon. At one point, I climbed up a building to escape a very angry alpha Houndoom with glowing red eyes, and found a flock of happy-go-lucky Swablu at the top. Apparently, some other trainers at the event went up to a different roof and encountered an alpha Pikachu–who then chased them back down to Houndoom’s domain, making for an even scarier encounter. And I say scarier because the Houndoom was kind of frightening–at about five levels above my own Pokémon, it knocked out my poor Gyarados despite my type advantage.
This encounter made me want to experiment with my movements and strategy, where I discovered Gyarados’ Whirlpool remained on the field when I switched it out. I tried to dish out a well-timed Sleep Powder to Whirlpool combo with two different Pokémon, and though I couldn’t quite pull it off well, it had me thinking of what possible combos could exist. The issue with having the moves on different Pokémon is that once you switch out, the new Pokémon’s moves start on a cooldown, essentially replicating the core game’s mechanic of allowing your opponent a free attack if you switch out in the middle of battle. The difference here is that, with quick thinking and positioning, there’s a higher chance of avoiding said free attack.
Legends: Z-A requires quick thinking, too. With it being real-time, there’s not a second to waste ruminating over which move would be the most ideal or efficient, and it doesn’t allow for forgetfulness. You’ll need to know your team like the back of your hand to be able to make appropriate switches at the drop of a hat, unless you want to pause all the time. It can get a bit hectic, actually, especially when I didn’t know the demo team!
Overall, the Wild Zone had more crammed in it than what was suggested by looking at it on the map, made possible by the aforementioned verticality. There are plenty of Wild Zones, but I can’t help but worry how same-y they’ll feel considering they’re all contained within a city.
Trainer Battle Zones and Extra Goals
During this demo, I once again got to experience a Z-A Royale battle zone, too, but this time, at the higher W rank. I found some slime blocking my path, which a Water-type attack washed away, suggesting you’ll need a variety of Pokémon on your team in order to adequately explore everywhere there is. You’ll also want a mix of Pokémon and moves on your team to take advantage of extra missions.
As I wandered the battle zone, I picked up glowing bonus cards on the ground, which then provided missions that popped up on the right side of the screen. We could see these in a previous trailer, but I didn’t expect how much more interesting they’d make the battle zones. Instead of just taking out trainers one by one, which I could see becoming a bit monotonous, I kept these special conditions in mind. For example, one instructed me to start a battle with a Flying-type sneak attack, and another to land a super-effective Water-type attack. Successfully fulfilling these conditions gave me more Ticket Points at the end of the battle, getting me closer to a Challenger’s Ticket faster, which would then qualify me for a promotion match.
The promotion match I battled against Rintaro reminded me a bit of a Gym Leader battle, except instead of the trainer having a monotype Pokémon team, he had a “themed” team.
The promotion match I battled against Rintaro reminded me a bit of a Gym Leader battle, except instead of the trainer having a monotype Pokémon team, he had a “themed” team. He works at a restaurant and had a Simisage, Simipour, and Simisear–seemingly a callback to Pokémon Black and White’s restaurant-themed Striaton City Gym, run by Cilan, Chili, and Cress, whose partner Pokémon were the pre-evolutions of this trainer’s lineup. It was a cool battle, and I look forward to seeing other trainers’ teams as I crush their dreams to climb the ranks.
Battling Mega Victreebel and Repeat Mega Evolutions
Finally, in the fourth part of the demo, I fought a rogue Mega Evolved Pokémon. In the first demo I played at the Pokemon World Championships, I faced a Mega Absol, but this time, it was the larger-than-life, recently revealed Mega Victreebel. I also had three Pokémon capable of Mega Evolution at my disposal–a Houndoom, Absol, and Gardevoir. The battle against Mega Victreebel was more ferocious than the tutorial fight against Mega Absol despite Naveen fighting by my side, but I welcomed the challenge. Its attacks left poison on the ground, making it more difficult to avoid while I simultaneously dished out commands and picked up Mega Power orbs to Mega Evolve my Pokémon.
When my first Mega Evolution Pokémon fainted, I thought I was screwed. In the core Pokémon games, you can only Mega Evolve one Pokémon per battle, and can’t Mega Evolve again, even if your first Mega Evolution Pokémon faints. Unexpectedly, that wasn’t the case during this battle in Legends: Z-A–I was able to Mega Evolve all three of my Pokémon, as long as I gathered the required Mega Power.
I didn’t get to test if this works in trainer battles, so I asked–and I was essentially told you’re not limited to single Mega Evolutions per battle–as long as you have the Mega Stone and Mega Power to support it. This is evidently possible when up against Rogue Mega-Evolved Pokemon, and likely possible in Wild Zones since the Mega Ring fills up with each attack and by collecting energy from breakable crystals. I’m curious how exactly this would work in trainer battles. In our demo, we weren’t high enough rank to access mega power in the trainer battle portions–so we’ll just have to test that later.
Plus Moves - The Solution to the (Possible) Repeat Mega Evolution Problem
Speaking of Mega Power, this resource does more than just allow your Pokémon to Mega Evolve. See, you can also use Mega Power to power up a Pokémon’s move into a “Plus Move” which packs more of a punch than usual. This power-up can be activated by pressing the plus button on the controller.
I can’t really see a reason to do this instead of saving up Mega Power to Mega Evolve–since Mega Evolved Pokémon’s moves are automatically Plus Moves. However, it could be a great mechanic to help Pokémon unable to Mega Evolve from becoming entirely obsolete. This would be especially important if you actually can Mega Evolve as many times as you want in trainer battles, solving the potential problem this freedom would cause.
Closing Thoughts
Here’s the thing: it’s so difficult not to compare Legends: Z-A to Legends: Arceus, as the predecessor set expectations I feel like weren’t met. I liked Pokémon Legends: Arceus’ slightly modified battle system–the turn-based battles were just different enough with the introduction of Speed and Strong styles to mix things up. I also loved Arceus’ blast-from-the-past feudal setting, which allowed for some really cool and unprecedented Pokémon lore exploration. It triumphantly set itself apart from the rest of the mainline games’ very modern settings, and this was my highest expectation for the Legends series. It honestly makes me wonder if there will be time-travel stuff in Legends: Z-A to bridge this gap.
I’m also definitely a fantasy girly in general–I prefer archaic dungeons and dragons over high-tech spaceships, aliens, or even just modern-day shops and domestic animals. With all of this in mind, I’ve been skeptical from the start whether I’d like Legends: Z-A’s battle system or setting and story nearly as much as Legends: Arceus’, despite any potentially implemented learned lessons or improved systems.
After watching its intro cutscene and playing, overall, more than an hour of Legends: Z-A, I have to say I’m still skeptical if I’ll appreciate this experience more than I did Legends: Arceus. But I didn’t dislike anything I’ve played or seen, and absolutely had fun with it. Legends: Z-A’s gameplay loop is unique, and I’m looking forward to experimenting with and mastering the new, real-time battle system. I appreciate the risks Pokémon is taking here - I just hope they fully pay off.