Pokémon Legends: Z-A review – rooftops, rogues, and rising the ranks

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to review a new Pokémon game. Game Freak’s series has been one of my few lifelong obsessions, and these last couple of weeks, I finally got what I wanted, as I was given the reins for our Pokémon Legends: Z-A review. I’m happy to report that this certainly isn’t a case of being careful what you wish for. No, this, in many ways, is the sort of monster-taming adventure I’d always dreamed of, just not in every way.

Let’s start with the basics. For those who don’t know, Pokémon Legends: Z-A is a spin-off from the main series, much like 2022’s Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Whereas a regular Pokémon game has a whole region for you to explore, in Z-A, Lumiose City is your playground, with the urban area divided up between Wild Zones, where Pokémon live, and civilian areas. Your player character isn’t a Lumiose native, though, so the city is just as new to you as it is to them during the opening sequence of the game, which, as fans of the series might anticipate, involves a lot of hand-holding for the first couple of hours.

In terms of story, I can’t reveal all that much, but Legends: Z-A weaves a tale of pretty epic proportions that finds its center in Mega Evolution. It’s pretty linear at first, as you find your bearings in Lumiose, but after that, you can pick up side missions in between your main quests, which adds a nice bit of variety and serves as a way to introduce you to new mechanics or gift you free Pokémon.

Like with most of Game Freak’s creature collectors, you have two primary objectives in Legends: Z-A that frequently cross over. Your first objective is to take part in the Z-A Royale, a competition between trainers where your goal is to rise through the ranks from Z to A by way of Pokémon battles. Your secondary mission is to figure out what’s behind a surge in Rogue Mega Pokémon and the phenomenon that’s causing wild Pokémon to Mega Evolve of their own accord. If you don’t know your series lore – wild Pokémon aren’t supposed to be able to do that, so it’s a pretty big deal.

While I have to keep my lips zipped on the specifics, Legends: Z-A is definitely one of the more engaging Pokémon games I’ve played in terms of storytelling and pacing. It introduces characters and concepts gradually, so even if this is your first Pokémon adventure, you’d likely be able to keep up. Don’t worry if you’re a superfan, though, as there are still plenty of easter eggs and references for those of us eager to gorge on more lore and potential connections to other games.

Moving onto the Pokémon series’ bread and butter – yes, we’re talking about battling – and Z-A is a departure from what you’re likely used to. Gone are the turn-based showdowns, and in their place, you’ve got real-time combat. Each Pokémon can have up to four moves with different cooldown periods, and swapping your active Pokémon is a lot more fluid than in previous games. It’s also possible for the player character to get caught up in the action, so you’ve now got the option to dodge out of the way yourself with a rolling movement. The type system remains the same, though, which means a lot of your Pokémon knowledge still applies in battle.

The new combat system is a breath of fresh air for the series, but it has its drawbacks. For a start, it’s all too easy to dodge and roll out of a battle accidentally. If you do leave a battle, it doesn’t matter how many of your opponent’s Pokémon you’ve knocked out; you have to start again. Combine this with the fact that the toughest opponents are often on the rooftops, and it can make for a very frustrating experience when you’re dodging a Gyarados, only to fall to the streets below, forcing you to find a way back up and start the battle all over again.

When the real-time battles are good, though, they’re really good. During a couple of bouts in my journey from Rank Z to A, it came right down to the wire, as I frantically hit the ‘Liquidation’ attack button in the hope that it’d cool down just in time to finish my enemy off. There’s a sense of urgency that isn’t there in the turn-based games, which forces you to think on your feet. Given that I was a bit apprehensive about the new way to battle after seeing it in pre-launch trailers, I’m more convinced than I was then, but I still slightly prefer the rock-paper-scissors-style combat of the main series games.

Given how much I complained about the lack of meaningful battles in Pokémon Legends: Arceus – and trust me, I complained to anyone who’d listen – I’m pleased that this game is absolutely chock-full of showdowns. Every night, when darkness descends, a district fills with trainers, forming a Battle Zone. This is where you compete to earn enough points to take part in your next promotion battle to rise through the ranks. Promotion battles also serve as a fantastic alternative to the classic gym battles, offering a sense of spectacle to reward you for your hard work pummeling trainers on the street.

Of course, to take part in trainer battles, you first need to assemble a team, and that’s where the Wild Zones come in. Each Wild Zone is home to five or six different species of Pokémon, and catching them is a lot like it was in Legends: Arceus. You can either attempt to sneak up on a monster and, quite literally, catch them unaware, or you can engage in battle and knock them out, which often makes catching them a little easier. Most zones also usually have at least one Alpha Pokémon, another returning feature from Legends: Arceus, which offers more of a challenging bout while giving you the chance to pick up a new party member with boosted stats.

I say Alpha Pokémon are challenging, but they don’t have anything on Legends: Z-A’s new addition, Rogue Mega Pokémon battles. These encounters are similar to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s six-star Tera Raid battles in that, if you don’t come prepared with a powerful Pokémon with a type advantage, you can easily lose. To make matters more complicated, these aren’t multiplayer bouts, either. Each Rogue Mega Pokémon also has its own special attack, which it launches a couple of times during the confrontation, keeping things fresh if, like me, you find yourself taking on a few in a row.

In terms of the wider difficulty curve, I’d say this is the closest Game Freak has come to making a game that feels approachable to younger fans without alienating series veterans. The best example of this is in the Wild Zones, as while each has a recommended level suggestion for your Pokémon, you can get brazen and try to take on Alpha Pokémon that are much stronger than you are. On the other hand, if you’re struggling, you can grind it out in Battle Zones until you’re overpowered compared to your Promotion Battle and Rogue Mega Pokemon opposition, so nothing stands in the way of story progression. It’s all on you, and while it’s still pretty on-rails in a narrative sense, the illusion of choice is as convincing as looking at a Mimiyuku from a distance and assuming it’s a Pikachu.

My biggest problem with the game is the exploration factor, or lack thereof. It’s less noticeable in the first few hours, as Lumiose City is hardly small, and given that you can explore the skyline by way of climbing up on top of buildings as well as the streets below, it’s a bit of a novelty at first. But after a while, I started to pine for the fields, the caves, and the rivers.

Sure, you’ve got the Wild Zones, but they vary in terms of how expansive they are. Some Wild Zones have hidden areas or Alpha Pokémon hiding away, but some are a little bland and take mere minutes to complete. It just feels like it’s missing a little bit of depth. The game could benefit from letting you just outside the walls of Lumiose, even if just to catch wild Pokémon, so you don’t grow tired of revisiting the same areas over and over again. I felt a bit of city fatigue in the mid-game, but new Wild Zones pop up as the story progresses, so you never have too long to wait before it’s time to revisit an area that’s suddenly packed with Pokémon.

All that isn’t to say Lumiose City isn’t gorgeous, though, because it is. It feels like a living, breathing city, and the influence of Paris is pretty obvious in the countless boutiques and cafes that litter the walkways. You can visit these cafes with your Pokémon to strengthen bonds, which makes friendliness-related evolution easier, while the boutiques offer more clothing and accessory options than I’ve ever seen in a Pokémon game by far. Better still, none of the fashion wear is gender locked, so you can style it out in whatever way you please.

Outside of cafes and boutiques, there are plenty of ways to interact with the people of Lumiose. Legends: Z-A is pretty generous with its side quests, and they remind me of some of my favorite old Spider-Man games, in the sense that you’re just rocking around the town looking for people to help. There’s a liveliness to the streets, and it makes almost every other town or city in the history of Pokémon seem almost barren in comparison. The more I walk the streets of Lumiose, the more convinced I get that, while I miss the great outdoors, you might not need a whole region to tell a captivating Pokémon story.

Like with the game’s central narrative, I’m not going to spoil any of the new Mega Evolutions for you here, but there are more hits than misses. I say that, but as far as I’m concerned, a couple of the misses are big misses, and I could write a full-length feature about how one particular Mega Evolution design has me feeling especially disappointed, but that isn’t to take away from the fact that a lot of them are great.

In terms of performance, Pokémon Legends: Z-A runs like a dream on the Nintendo Switch 2, no matter whether you’re playing in handheld or docked mode. My one small complaint is that, occasionally, the loading times are a little long, but outside of that, I didn’t experience any noticeable stuttering or frame rate drops. I can’t speak for the original Switch, but if you’ve got Nintendo’s latest hybrid console, you can pick this up without any concerns surrounding how it runs.

Before rounding off, there’s one thing I have to mention about Pokémon Legends: Z-A that I absolutely love: the soundtrack. I love every bit of music in this game, from the jazz-infused bops that accompany you during Lumiose City daytimes to the techno remix of the battle theme that leads the celebrations after a promotion match victory. The one exception to the rule is the music that plays when you’re low on health during a Rogue Mega Pokémon battle, which is awful, but I think that’s the point. Otherwise, this is yet another Pokémon game with some lovely tunes to keep you going.

If you’ve got this far, it’s probably clear that I don’t think Pokémon Legends: Z-A is a perfect game. I’ll admit to that. The real-time battles take a bit of getting used to, exploration isn’t as fulfilling, and a couple of Mega Evolution designs don’t quite live up to the hype. That’s not the full story, though. This game might be the bravest and boldest effort from Game Freak in as long as I can remember, and the developer is successful in a lot of ways.

Movement feels better than it has in any other Pokémon game, the Rogue Mega Pokémon battles are epic in scale, and the story is the most original I’ve experienced from Game Freak in a long time. All that, and a few other factors, make for an adventure that feels unique, even more so than Legends: Arceus. I don’t think it’s going to be for everyone, especially those who are looking for old-school series staples like turn-based battles and the gym gauntlet, but if you’re willing to try something new, Pokémon Legends: Z-A is a delight.

That was our Pokémon Legends: Z-A review. If you’re looking for something else to play, be sure to also check out our guides to the best Switch games and the best mobile games. Or, if you need to do a bit of research before jumping into the latest offering from Game Freak, see our complete Pokédex.