Pokémon: Legends Z-A – Review

The Pokémon series is one of the most popular gaming franchises developed by Game Freak. This game has attracted a large crowd of fans who are into gaming, anime, and even card collecting. With its popularity on the rise, one game just came out and has once more sparked the flames of Pokémon fandom, and that is Pokémon: Legends Z-A.

Pokémon: Legends Z-A is the 2nd Pokémon: Legends game to be released for the Nintendo Switch and has officially launched as well for the Nintendo Switch 2. This game takes place 5 years after the events of Pokémon X & Y, where Luminose City has recovered from the tragic incident and is now at its peak of Pokémon and human co-existence. However, a dangerous energy begins to emit within the city, where rampaging Pokémons have started Mega-Evolving and wreaking havoc. No one knows what, but it is up to the trainers of Luminose City to stop them by competing in the Battle Royale to prove who can be the best trainer to tame these wild Pokémon!

In my honest opinion, the Legends ZA game is quite a decent game in terms of story and combat. In terms of story, I love the fact that they connected this game to the events of Pokémon X & Y, which was released in 2013. Visiting the grand city of Luminose was nostalgic for me, as I got to revisit once more iconic locations that hold meaning for many Pokémon fans, such as myself.

The gameplay is similar to Legends Arceus, but now, players will need to be prepared as they will be part of a battle royale that can happen once the game settings begin to reach nightfall. Sneaking through bushes and performing ambushes against the trainers and earning prize medals, and more, to increase one’s rank. The higher the rank a trainer has, the more benefits they will earn. I personally love this feature of the game as it gives us what Pokémon fans want, and that is a battle royal style of fighting various opponents. Not only that, but I love the fact that they brought one of my favorite themes for Pokémon, and it is Mega-Evolution.

There are a total of 250 Pokémon that can be caught within the game. Sadly, I find this lacking, even though some of them are capable of Mega-Evolution. In other Pokémon games, there are a total of 300 or more Pokémons to be captured, and comparing them to Legends Z-A, I find this disappointing, as we were expecting a great Legends game to be released, as we are having Mega-Evolution returned to us once more, and expectations to interact with various Pokémon are very important when playing this game.

The game’s map covers mostly the entirety of Luminose City. I was expecting to explore more of the Kalos region, but instead, I can only explore the city itself. I find it hard to understand why we can’t leave the city, even though the developers have explained that we get to explore a lot more of what Luminose has to offer. I felt like they just mashed up both the wild areas and battle arenas together in 1 single map with no effort whatsoever.

Not only that, capturing Pokémons within this game should be challenging, but in fact, had an opposite effect, where after playing the game within 2 days, I managed to complete my Pokedex with no effort. The main appeal for a Pokémon game for me is to be challenged in capturing multiple Pokémons, but here in ZA, I find it too easy and was expecting to explore large areas to capture Pokémons and train them.

Despite the many cons revealed in Legends Z-A, some good points need to be mentioned. But one of the things that I really love to point out is the graphics. I played this game on the Nintendo Switch 2 and I have to say it is literally worth your money to see the graphics of high quality than seeing flat images on a screen. I would recommend that players play this game using handheld mode rather than docking mode, as the graphics are better using the portable screen of the Nintendo Switch 2. Looking directly at it can show how improved the graphics are, and we can see that future Pokémon games will have better renders and graphics in the near future.

Another good point about Legends ZA is the online Link Party. The Link Party is technically the online multiplayer mode of the game. Here, players can participate in Rank Battles that grant rewards if trainers manage to achieve a high rank. Note, the Rank battles are not 1 -on -1 battles anymore, but full-on battle royale between players, and see who can defeat the most number of rival Pokémons in the match. I personally can’t stop playing this game as the rewards for this season involve unlocking new Mega-Evolutions for Greninja and more. Plus, players can also use the initial Link trade, where players can do trades with other players online and perform evolutions through them.

With all that has been said, Pokémon: Legends Z-A is a good game for Pokémon fans worldwide. However, it would be best to have this game have better improvements on the content, as what this game has to offer right now is very meager and should have met the expectations of many gamers, such as myself. I hope that they can find a better way to improve their delivery in promising Pokémon fans that this title deserves to be part of the Legend series.