We dedicate a special to the mysterious grand finale of Presents: here’s what to know, at least at present, about Pokémon Legends ZA
If you wonder how it is possible to get something out of a final teaser as poor in details as the one in Legend of Pokémon ZAyou are underestimating the writer: actually, taking into consideration everything you need to know or remember about it, many food for thought also emerge. We rallied ten different points to think about, each of which will be properly mentioned. Only warning to sailors: don’t expect too many illustrations from the game, because this time the trip will be more of a speculative nature than anything else. However, by gathering together the information known so far, of course!
Sub-series | What to know (at the moment) about Pokémon Legends ZA
Let’s start from the beginning: what it entails existence itself of Pokémon Legends ZA, for anyone who can know enough about the brand? You can find two different examinations regarding the predecessor, Laying Pokémon Arceus: the official review by our Marta Gravina, or the shorter one that the undersigned dedicated to the title later. In both cases, it was about an innovative approach to the main series, which shows its true potential every time it is reinterpreted by thinking outside the box. With this sequel, we have confirmation that we have a separate series in hands. And this is already a reason for (village) jubilation!
Year of release | What to know (at the moment) about Pokémon Legends ZA
Let’s move on to the next point: when will the game be available? The trailer, as can be seen from its title if you have seen it above without opening it, is about 2025: For this reason alone, this is a positive development that the most disgruntled Trainers have been waiting for for years. Just as Pixar understood that it needed to take more time after Arlo’s Journey, now too GAME FREAK will enjoy a longer period of (metaphorical) motherhood. The gestation of the title, therefore, will be longer, from the worst case scenario (early 2025, exactly like the month of February in which LPA was released) to the best scenario (late 2025). Lesson learned, then?
Platform | What to know (at the moment) about Pokémon Legends ZA
Natively speaking, any game with pocket monsters as its centerpiece is exclusive to consoles Nintendo by definition (mobile spinoffs excluded). The brand operates on a parallel level to the Big N’s IPs, but the latter still continues to be the founder (and among the major shareholders) of The Pokémon Company. However, the logo of Nintendo Switch appeared at the end of the trailer and caused us some doubts: on the one hand it could simply be the swan song for the hybrid of wonders, but the simultaneous launch in 2025 doesn’t seem too appropriate due to the rumored optimization of the titles on Nintendo Switch 2?
Setting | What to know (at the moment) about Pokémon Legends ZA
And here we begin fantasize. The game’s official website heavily implies that the adventure will be set entirely in Luminopolis. On the one hand, this may seem limiting, previous GAME FREAK experience with Little Town Hero permitting. On the other hand, however, the Poké equivalent of Paris remains the largest city in the entire series, and the idea of a metropolis comparable to that of a Grand Theft Auto, it is as credible as the pre-Sinnoh rural Hisui of the first, intriguing spinoff. Or, to give an example more suited to role-playing games, the Midgar to which Final Fantasy VII Remake is limited!
Zygarde | What to know (at the moment) about Pokémon Legends ZA
The now old format of the “third version” has long left room for the welcome DLC, but at the time of X and Y (the games where Lumiose City made its debut) we were all ready for the hypothetical Pokémon Z of the rite. Who, despite himself, never arrived. Or at least, until today: Zygarde it would therefore be the cover legend, although it remains a mystery how to translate it into an urban environment from the cave in which we captured it in 2013. Presumably, the Luminopolis that we will see on Nintendo Switch or its successor will be really, really mammoth. About that…
Temporal placement | What to know (at the moment) about Pokémon Legends ZA
And this is where things get interesting. Pokémon Legends Arceus was set in the past, to be precise in nineteenth-century Japan (see the settlement of the Ainu people in Hokkaido). However, it is possible that the Legends sub-series intends to leverage not a specific time period, but the simple one chronological diversity. In other words, therefore, it is more than plausible that the Luminopolis undergoing advanced urbanization (gentrification) is the one of the future. The trailer (or rather, the teaser) is deliberately ambiguous in this regard, with an art nouveau architecture in the first moment Pikachu appears. The neon recalls the blue plans, but the sheet on which the final view from above appears is deliberately yellowed.
Plot and implications | What to know (at the moment) about Pokémon Legends ZA
With a name like that, the game is practically inviting us to a wedding fantasizing about THE, or the ancient (and inexplicably alive) King of Kalos. The region, as explained in the X and Y arc on Nintendo 3DS, boasts the bloodiest backstory the series can rememberwith a real war use of little monsters in the past. It is still implied that Kalos and Galar were involved in the fictional equivalent of the Hundred Years’ War. As we just noted, however, the temporal ambiguity of the teaser is 100% intentional. If the game was actually set in the past, the implications could be… interesting.
Gameplay | What to know (at the moment) about Pokémon Legends ZA
We take the liberty of putting forward theories on the gameplay, if you don’t mind. Hisui’s Region has integrated the side quests into the usual loop the series is known for like never before, resulting in human characters developed well beyond the usual supporting role. Now, we have no confirmation on the temporal location of the game, but from Hisui we remember all too well the space-time distortions (in which he appeared, of all the over a thousand creatures, even Porygon). It is not known whether Lumiose City will act as a central hub like Jubilee Village, but with or without wild areas to explore it would not surprise us if, in a game set in the future, a creature from the past suddenly appeared. Not after Area Zero, at least!
Mega Evolutions | What to know (at the moment) about Pokémon Legends ZA
Returning to the material shown throughout the video, at the end we were able to unmistakably see the symbol of Megaevolution. The mechanics, seen for the last time (and the only one, if we limit ourselves to Switch) in the two Let’s Go!, therefore seems about to return for the last title on the console. We don’t know if GAME FREAK will explore it properly by creating more Mega Evolutions or if it is a mere one-off fanservice, but at this point it is more than desirable that even the easiest gimmick to adapt to all Pokémon, the Teracristal phenomenon, is part of the many fleeting dynamics seen in the series. For sure, the starter they will have one to redo their look with, assuming they still come from different regions.
Wildlife section
We end here with the thing we can know more and less about at the same time: the creatures obtainable in Pokémon Legends ZA. Assuming that Nintendo is 100% transparent about this right from the start and that the game is, for all intents and purposes, set entirely in Lumiose City, one wonders how wild Pokémon are contextualized. Surely GAME FREAK will have clear ideas on the matter, but one question still remains: who is there? We could glimpse Furfrou, making its embarrassingly delayed debut on Switch, and therefore we can hypothesize also Xerneas, Yveltal and, of course, Zygarde, all three absent in the Paldea database. Even the Unova monkeys (Pansage, Pansear and Panpour) have not yet been seen on Switch. In the teaser, meanwhile, the evolutionary lines di Pikachu, Litleo, Flabebe, Klefki, Fletchling, Dratini, Staryu, Hawlucha, Magikarp, Hippopotas, Skiddo, Ekans, Absol, Emolga, Espurr, Eevee, Honedge, Sandile, Pinsir, Heracross, Bellsprout, Onix, Pancham, Vulpix, Zubat e Rhyhorn.
Now it’s up to you to tell us your opinion: is there something we haven’t figured out yet? Let us know below, and as always don’t forget to stay on techgameworld.com for all the most important news for gamers and beyond. For your purely gaming needs, you can instead find the best discounts in digital format on Instant Gaming.