Pokémon Legends Z-A

Darren

Pokémon Legends Z-A will release on October 16th, 2025 for the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. As we near the release of this game, I am curious to hear your thoughts ahead of its launch.

Dragonfree

Like Legends: Arceus, Z-A's gameplay looks like less my personal jam than mainline proper, but I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays in practice and what they do with the story, especially following up on X/Y's story with AZ and hopefully finally doing Zygarde some justice.

Darren

Dragonfree At the time of writing, I am on the fence about keeping my preorder. I loved Legends Arceus, and I don't feel anything when I look at Z-A. I love some of the new Mega Evolutions, but I don't think that's enough for me.

I'm also hesitant to pick up a game when their previous game released in a poor state. I really thought the delay was because they were taking extra time to perfect this one and make sure it held up, but when I saw the DLC announced before Z-A had even released, I knew this couldn't be the case.

I just don't feel like they have earned my money this time around, you know? It won't make any difference at all, because it will still sell ridiculous numbers, but maybe I can vote with my wallet on this one. As I said, i'm on the fence, maybe users here might have some points that might change my mind? 😟

KomodoZero

I am actively looking forward to Z-A, but I do feel the marketing has been quite poor.
We haven't really seen much to actually justify the Lumiose only setting yet. Are we getting a Paris style catacombs? How are they dealing with "biomes" in an urban environment? The drip feed of information just hasn't really been enough, TPC seem to have taken the opposite approach to marketing from the Sun and Moon days, a bit too much...
Even so, I snagged a really good deal on the NS2 version, so I really can't complain. I took advantage of The Game Collection's £10 extra points on select games when I was getting one of the games offered anyway (Raidou Remastered, by the way). Maybe that will offset the DLC price a little...

Darren While not to sound like a shill or anything, I believe the DLC was announced so early is because they want to take it away from the inevitable Gen X announcement at Pokemon Day next year. Poor optics, yes, but they likely have good reason. The price though? Nah, can't really defend that one easily.

Dragonfree

Darren I really thought the delay was because they were taking extra time to perfect this one and make sure it held up, but when I saw the DLC announced before Z-A had even released, I knew this couldn't be the case.

Hmm? I'm not following how the DLC means anything for the polish of the base game. Even if it's content that could have been included in the base game (which it isn't necessarily; being announced before release just means they're intending to add DLC and not that the content for that DLC is complete), that can certainly be argued to be penny-pinching but it doesn't say anything one way or the other about the amount or quality of the content that is in the base game. Doesn't mean you should buy it if you don't feel like it either way, of course, but I don't think these two things have anything to do with each other.

Personally I know I'm going to want to play it regardless - I like to keep up with what the franchise is doing and be able to opine on it and discuss it with others, particularly in terms of story - so I'll be happy to get it on release. If you're not sure it's a game you'd want to play, it makes sense to wait until it's out and you can see reviews and other people's unedited gameplay and judge for yourself!

Darren

KomodoZero Announcing DLC for a game that hasn't been released, is unnecessary. We all expect these things to happen, but not this soon. If it had been free DLC I wouldn't have had any problem with it, but all I can think about is that this content could be part of the full game. I feel simiarly towards Donkey Kong Bananza where its paid DLC was announced literally weeks after launch.

MissingnoMaster

However odd the marketing for Z-A has been, I'm still hyped for it. It looks really good, and while the battling mechanics will no doubt take some getting used to, I'm still excited to try it out and see what I make of it. Also interested to see how the story unfolds- between Legends Arceus and SV, Pokémon's been stepping up their game in terms of story, and it's been a treat to witness! If they intend to top the SV story in Z-A, I gotta see how they do it.

KomodoZero

As a recap of what we know (and also a way to test how video embeds work), MunchingOrange did a big video on 50 things you need to know before playing Z-A. It's a good watch.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/-heSybWt8UI

Sheep

I'm quite excited! Adore Mega Raichu so that alone is enough to make me want to play, but I like the premise of the Z-A games a lot and am excited to explore Lumiose in more depth - and hopefully in a less messy, confused state because I could not get around it in XY to save my life haha. Biggest motivation for me is learning more about Emma because goodness did I miss her. <3

tkarispe

I'm honestly really excited for this game for quite a few reasons:

I absolutely adored Legends: Arceus and I'm thrilled to see another Legends game with similar gameplay
I enjoyed X/Y and liked the Kalos region, and I'm so excited to get more plotline involving some of my favorite characters from those games, like AZ and Emma; Z-A almost feels like the follow-up game to X/Y we should have gotten ten years ago
I think setting the game entirely in Lumiose City is a fun new direction to take; all previous core games have involved traversing expansive regions consisting mostly of wilderness, so I'm intrigued by the idea of instead exploring a futuristic metropolis for a change
True real-time battling is something I've wanted in Pokémon games pretty much since the first season of the anime, and I'm hoping it'll be every bit as engaging and satisfying as the anime makes it look
It looks like there will be plenty of things to do besides progress in the main storyline, which I appreciate since I don't really enjoy hyper-linear games; I'm excited by the prospect of just getting to wander around Lumiose and enjoy some immersive worldbuilding

I hate to admit this, but I felt a bit underwhelmed by Scarlet/Violet because the overworld felt very empty for its size, with not really a whole lot to offer story-driven gamers outside the main (and only) storyline. Legends: Z-A looks like it's going to be a lot beefier with the story content, which I appreciate.

samblogspokemon

I'm looking forward to the new battle mechanics the most with this title, here's hoping they are fun to play and the multiplayer battles are fun too!

KomodoZero

Given the game's multiplayer being emphasised here, I'm curious as to if they're bringing back features from Legends Arceus to accommodate for the general lack of multiplayer it had, like the Linking Cord item for evolving trade evolutions.