Pokemon Legends: Z-A
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Pokemon Legends: Z-A - Official Trailer | Pokemon Presents 2025
Pokémon Legends: Z-A Official Announcement Trailer
Critic Reviews for Pokemon Legends: Z-A
Pokemon Legends: Z-A finally feels like Game Freak hitting its stride in Pokemon’s 3D era, with a fun setting to explore, a well-written story, and a total battle system overhaul that works surprisingly well.
Lumiose City could do with work, but Pokémon Legends: Z-A is a much more tightly focused - and delightfully goofy - return to better form. At least by modern Pokémon's standards.
That dream sold to us by the Pokemon anime? It's right here, clearer than it ever has been.
Pokemon Legends: Z-A successfully translates its iconic battle system to real-time, but its visuals and presentation leave a lot to be desired.
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.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A flips everything I thought I knew about Pokémon battles on its head, putting a fresh spin on the nearly 30-year-old series. Spicing up its challenging new real-time battle system is the return of fan-favorite mega evolutions, which give every battle a subtle tinge of excitement. However, its stealth mechanics leave a lot to be desired, and the lack of voice acting still makes for rather off-putting story beats and cutscenes.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A should be celebrated for its fabulous real-time combat and its largely smooth jump to the Switch 2, but in condensing things down to one single location, it loses part of the Pokémon magic that Arceus and many other entries managed to amplify.I'll forever find filling up my Pokédex fun, and for the Switch 2 generation, this is a good starting point for the franchise. But if the Legends series is to continue, it needs to recapture its personality and fuse that real-time system with a bit more freedom.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A is not the next-generation evolution of the franchise that you've been waiting for. And while that is disappointing, these spin-off titles have done a pretty good job of creating fun little diversions that will tide you over until the next mainline game. If you're expecting voice acting and a compelling story, you'll be disappointed, but the appeal of catching and battling with Pokémon is still a decent adventure worth undertaking.
Industry Coverage
Pokemon Legends: Z-A Players Have Already Figured Out A Shiny Duplication Method
The hunt for Shinies in Legends: Z-A just got even easier.
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Pokemon Legends: Z-A Fans Love How Good The 'Mons Look After The "Pale And Sickly" Designs In Scarlet And Violet
Look! It's colour!
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Pokemon Legends: Z-A Fans Think Naveen Is Better Than The Discourse Would Have Us Believe
Naveen really isn't that bad.
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Pokemon Legends: Z-A Has A Weird Obsession With Talking About Pokemon Poop
The most important Pokemon lore dump of all time.
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