Pokémon Legends: Z-A review: Nostalgia and new mechanics combine for great Pokémon vibes

The first thing I thought upon arriving in Lumiose City in Pokémon Legends: Z-A^[1] was, ‘Yes. This definitely looks like a modern Pokémon^[2] game.’ Bright colours, basic textures and oddly flat buildings. Seriously – realising that the balconies and window shutters lack any depth, instead being pasted onto the buildings like stickers, made my brain go strange for a bit. Yet despite this, Lumiose City feels far more rich in life compared to Paldea and the desolate Hisui.

People and Pokémon fill the streets, there’s a café on nearly every corner and the largest amount of clothes shops any Pokémon game has ever seen. The true adventure doesn’t lie on the streets though, it’s found high in the sky. Climb up the right ladder and you’ll find yourself running across the city’s rooftops. Navigating from roof to roof, building to building and sometimes even across streets is a lot of fun. Mostly because it adds a navigation element Pokémon games have been sorely missing for a while (thankfully, it’s not as complicated as the Seafoam Islands.) It’s easy to get distracted by spotting a new Pokémon or item on an opposite rooftop and decide reaching that is your new mission.

Sadly, you can’t spend all your time running about the Lumiose City rooftops. Mysterious events are afoot. For some reason, wild Pokémon are Mega Evolving – an act that typically requires a trainer and Mega Stone – and this threatens the city’s redevelopment plan. Lumiose can’t really become a city where people and Pokémon live in harmony if it’s been burned down by a Rogue Mega Charizard X. Thankfully, Team MZ is on the case and you’ll join their ranks for, as always, only children and teenagers can save the day in the Pokémon universe.

Z-A’s plot honestly feels like it could be from a Pokémon movie^[3] and that’s not a bad thing! It’s a nice change from the typical ‘Become the Pokémon Champion and complete the Pokédex while you’re at it’ affair the mainline games typically follow. Though the tutorial does drag, the storyline benefits from being well paced and not being afraid to introduce a wide cast. The writing also embraces the fact that the Pokémon universe is, quite often, ridiculous, giving the game quite a good sense of humour. It actually made me laugh out loud a couple of times, which I can’t say any Pokémon game has done before. A nice added touch are certain returning elements from Pokémon X and Y^[4]. While I won’t go into the details to avoid spoilers, if you’ve played either of these games then you might pick up on similar themes and remember Emma.

Best of all, however, is how neatly the story is interwoven with the gameplay; keeping you invested so no overwhelming sense of repetition ever sinks in as you flow from trainer battle to Rogue Mega Evolution outbreak. It helps too that Lumiose City is teeming with side missions and Pokémon to catch. While there are some living on the rooftops, wild Pokémon mainly make their homes in the Wild Zones – small pockets of the city where they’re able to live peacefully. (And get beaten up by the local trainer community.) At times, a Wild Zone’s small size can make venturing inside quite chaotic though – I had a near death experience with an Alpha Krookodile and mob of upset Ground-types…

The mention of Alpha Pokémon probably already reveals that the catch mechanics in Z-A are basically the same as Legends: Arceus. You can still sneak up on Pokémon, still catch them without engaging in battle, and still avoid Alpha Pokémon unless you’re prepared for a tough fight. There’s no need to catch the same Pokémon over and over again to complete the Pokédex though – we’re back to the tried and tested ‘One and done’ Dex method here. While I personally loved the Arceus’ Research Tasks, it’s a change that makes sense. For, if Arceus was a game about catching Pokémon, Z-A is a game about battling and this is showcased best in its new innovation – real-time battles.

Well I say innovation, but you can still feel the roots of the traditional Pokémon battle mechanics holding firm at times. Moves and healing items may have cooldown timers, but it’s often no different than having to simply wait for your turn. (Especially in the case of the latter.) The trick is to find the right moveset combination which ensures you’re always – or close to – able to attack your opponent. Buckling them under the weight of your Pokémon’s power! The main difference is the freedom you’re given to move both yourself and your Pokémon as, unless preparing for an attack, they will always follow in your footsteps. It’s a very useful feature for avoiding area-of-effect attacks like Whirlpool, because you can simply walk your Pokémon out of the damage zone. At times, you can even avoid attacks all together by running away or dodging behind scenery.

Yet, how fun or annoying the real-time battles are all depends on whether you’re being affected by the mechanic’s quirks. At times, you’ll be having a great time unleashing attacks and dodging behind a car to avoid an enemy attack perfectly. During others, you’ll be frantically button mashing because the target function has randomly disconnected again and it’s impossible to attack without targeting an enemy. Worse of all, a move could be blocked by a piece of scenery you swear isn’t in the way or because you don’t have the height advantage on a small set of steps. (I swear, stairs are the true villain of Z-A.) The end result is a mechanic with a lovely crust, but, once you bite into it, you realise it was taken out of the oven too soon. What is baked to perfection, however, is Z-A’s approach to Mega Evolution.

I’ve always been a little hit and miss when it comes to the ways Game Freak has tried to spice up the franchise’s battle mechanics. Tera Types were my favourite part of Scarlet and Violet thanks to how they could completely flip the odds of a battle, but I never really used Mega Evolution in any of the games it appeared in. Outside of an initial experimentation in Pokémon Y, I never felt the need. Z-A has changed that. Not just because the expanded range of Mega Evolutions are great to play with, but due to how it’s crucial for some battles. Namely the Rogue Mega Evolutions – the closest Pokémon will most likely ever get to a Soulslike.

Imagine it: Mega Victreebel towers above you. Its goofy smile may give its face a harmless look, but its bloated belly bulges as it bounces. You can’t help but wonder what this sentient pitcher plant is digesting. Could you be next? The unwanted thought is cut off by Victreebel unleashing Bullet Seed. Each seed is the size of your body. You run, daring to hope your Pokémon is keeping pace, feeling the hard casing of a seed graze your back.

Thankfully, your Pokémon remains unharmed. They’re your companion, your only weapon, and so tiny compared to Victreebel’s weight. There’s only one option: attack. To chip away at Victreebel’s health and pray to Arceus it drops some Mega Power. Only that will allow you to Mega Evolve your own Pokémon, but to obtain it you must put yourself in Victreebel’s path. Take too many hits and you’ll faint just like the weakest of Pidgeys. Though, without Mega Evolution, how else will you bring a fiery end to this glorious monstrosity?

Rogue Mega Evolution battles are fast paced and intense. So much in fact, I occasionally found it a little hard to keep up with what was happening. This doesn’t stop them from being my favourite part of Z-A despite the flaws in the real-time battle mechanics. Each one is a solid improvement over the Legends: Arceus’ boss fights and, unlike Scarlet and Violet’s Tera Raids, it’s a battle I’d actually play online.

Z-A’s focus on battling is also portrayed in the Z-A Battle Royale where the majority of the game’s trainer battles take place. Every night a portion of the city will be cornered off and, within these fences, you’ll sneak up on your opponents. While you can just rush in, a little stealth is far more rewarding as you’ll be granted not only the first but an extra hit. Be seen? Well that useful bonus goes to your foe. After winning enough battles, you’ll unlock a Promotional Match. These are essentially Z-A’s Gym Leader battles and, as is tradition, each one is more difficult than the last. Eventually, you’ll reach the point where your opponent also uses Mega Evolution.

It’s here, however, that a nasty little command delay slips in. You see, certain trainers will Mega Evolve their last Pokémon the moment it enters the field. This, of course, leads to an unskippable cutscene which is followed by an equally unskippable line of dialogue about how your opponent is about to thrash you. The problem? If your own Pokemon is currently not Mega Evolved and you wish to change this fact, then there will be a delay in your ability to execute this command. During these few vital seconds, your opponent has the chance to get at least one free hit in. I experienced the odd moment of lag when playing Z-A on the Nintendo Switch 2^[5] – the occasional frame rate drop here, stuttered Fletchling wing flapping here – but none had a more damaging impact on my experience than this. It’s a shame modern Pokémon games are still experiencing these small, but frustrating, technical issues.

Outside of this, the Z-A Royale offers a nice shake up to the traditional ‘Walk down Route’ aspect of Pokémon battling. Sadly, even the location changing on a nightly basis doesn’t prevent it from becoming slightly repetitive at times though. This is in part because it’s the best way to EXP grind – so you’ll be doing it a lot – alongside both the locations and trainers repeating. I swear I’ve fought the same ‘Only Magikarp for some reason’ guy five times. No hate on Magikarp, but, like, evolve one dude. Come on.. Did you spend £500 on these carps?

The Legends series^[6] appears to be turning into Game Freak^[7]‘s way of experimenting with the Pokémon franchise. In this way Z-A is mostly a success in how it brings Mega Evolution to the forefront again, returns longtime players to an old region and almost achieves its goal of changing up the battle mechanics. What lets it down is the Achilles’ heel of all modern Pokémon games, the graphics and performance. The cracks are present even in the Switch 2 version and, for a franchise entering its thirtieth year in 2026, you’d expect Z-A to be far more polished. It undercuts the obvious effort put into development, especially when it comes to the Rogue Mega Evolution fights. Thankfully, these flaws don’t stop Z-A from being an incredibly fun game with a great atmosphere Pokémon fans will enjoy sinking into.

Hopefully Game Freak will continue using the Legends series as a playground (maybe a return to pixel graphics, just a suggestion), but, for now, Lumiose City has been a treat to revisit.

This review was written based on the Switch 2 version of the game, and code was provided by Nintnedo.