Pokemon Legends: Z-A Reviews
Pokémon Legends: Z-A is fun, but it's clearly light-years behind industry standards and what one would expect from the most profitable franchise in video game history. The good ideas are completely drowned out by shoddy graphics and dialogue that still believes children need to be banal and simple, ruining a plot that works at its best and finally gives dignity to the characters and the plot holes that Game Freak missed in the sixth generation.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Pokémon Legends Z-A dares to be different in various ways, and it comes together beautifully. Sure, not everything works, but it's a marked improvement over the many issues that Scarlet/Violet had, and improves upon the "graphical issues" that many felt Arceus had.
Game Freak succeeds in taking the strengths from Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet to create what felt like its freshest take on Pokemon’s battle system and exploration yet. I especially recommend it to both newbies and longtime fans who enjoy exploration, experimenting with Pokemon teams, and customizing their outfits.
Pokémon Legends: ZA brings exciting real-time action and a bold new style to the series, but its lack of variety and a lifeless city prevent it from reaching its full potential.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
With fresh ideas and innovative combat for the franchise, Pokémon Legends: Z-A is a title full of ups and downs. It does offer a fun campaign, engaging characters, and a dynamic battle system, but lackluster visuals and some odd limitations dull the shine of what could have been one of the series’ best entries.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Pokémon Legends: Z-A is the best game in the franchise in many years, but it still doesn’t update the formula enough for you to feel like you’re playing a truly modern version of what Pokémon should be in 2025. With its highs and lows, we hope that Game Freak has learned its lesson and will continue moving in the right direction from here on out.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Pokémon Legends: Z-A swaps open fields for urban sprawl and structured ambition. A satisfying gameplay loop and some bold new ideas go a long way toward offsetting its shortcomings. It’s not as strong as Pokémon Legends: Arceus, but that still makes it the second-best Pokémon game of the last decade.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A promised a lush environment, a magical city, and fun Poké fights. It was unfortunately half-baked all of it, but the potential is there. We have high hopes for the next Legends game in the series.
Review in Czech | Read full review
Pokemon Legends: Z-A doesn't move the needle for the series as much as Arceus did, but the great changes to combat do a lot to keep you engaged, even when it stagnates and feels uninspired in other areas.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A is recommended for being a very entertaining title with its own unique essence. Its reinterpretation of what it means to be a trainer makes it one of the freshest, most human, and most coherent installments in the entire series. It is a game that combines innovation and nostalgia and, despite its technical issues, gives the impression of being a new starting point for Pokémon.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Real-time combat and strong storytelling make Pokémon Legends: Z-A a bold step forward, even if restrictive zones, Lumiose’s limits, and no voice acting hold it back from true greatness.
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.
Pokémon Legends: ZA is the next step in the series' mega-evolution, a title with fresh ideas, a spirit of renewal, and a desire to do things right. While there's still work to be done, this is the path future Pokémon games should follow.
Review in Spanish | Read full review