Pokémon: Legends Z-A First Impressions

Just last week, we got the latest Pokémon Presents livestream and we got two intriguing new things that were shown in it. One was Pokémon Champions, which looks like the closest thing we're going to get to an updated version of the Wii's Pokémon: Battle Revolution game and might be worth a look at. But the second is the subject of today's post. First revealed in last year's livestream, the world was taken by storm when it was revealed that Game Freak's next title in their iconic Pokémon franchise was NOT remakes of Pokémon: Black and White as predicted. Instead, we got a new Legends game. Let me tell ya, the internet EXPLODED that day! You had to be there, it was crazy! Nobody saw this coming and we were instantly intrigued to find out more. The game in question was titled Pokémon: Legends: Z-A.

For what we know so far, the game is set in present day Lumiose City, the Pokémon equivalent of the city of Paris, in the Kalos region, the Pokémon equivalent to France. Unlike Legends: Arceus, this is NOT set in the past and is actually set some time after Pokémon: X and Y, thus technically making this a sequel game, or at least a distant sequel. The game is said to take place entirely in the city, which is unusual as Pokémon games have never done that before, and the most we know about the story is that we, the players, visit Lumiose City during a time a large corporation called Quasartico Inc. is leading an urban redevelopment plan to make it a city where humans and Pokémon can live in harmony. Oh, and given this is set in the Kalos region, to the surprise of absolutely nobody, Mega Evolutions are back. Needless to say, this doesn't sound like your typical Pokémon game, which is a good thing since the franchise is at its best when it shakes up its formula. Why else do you think Legends: Arceus is so beloved or why games such as Black and White, Sun and Moon and Scarlet and Violet have such high praise for their story-telling? Anyway, what are my first impressions of this game? Let's talk about them:

The Player Characters

Right off the bat, I want to say that I already like the designs of the player characters. They have that traditional Pokémon trainer look to them with the bags and the hats and such, but they look great here and have that suitably urban look, which fits for a game set in a city. I also like how the jackets not-so-subtly reference Zygarde with the black and green colours. I like how the girl character looks like she's wearing Converse trainers and the boy's red trainers look cool too. These two are a step-up above Florian and Julian from Scarlet and Violet, no question about it. Those two looked very plain and generic to me, but not these two. Also they're not stuck wearing bland school uniforms, that's also a plus. I wonder if like in Legends: Arceus, these guys will get customizable uniforms.

So far, we don't know what their official names are. For some reason, I can imagine the girl being called "Jane", I don't know why. I can so imagine Miraculous Ladybug fans calling them Adrien and Marinette respectively. Don't lie Ladybug fans, you know you're going to do it! XD

The Starter Trio

The fun part about speculating what this game had to offer was trying to guess what starters we were going to get. In Legends Arcues, we had a random hodgepodge consisting of Rowlett, Oshawott and Cyndaquil. It was a trio that represented three different Gens and regions and also brought new life to them as they got brand new evolutions with Hisuian Decidueye, Samurott and Typhlosion respectively. So naturally, fans were excited and keen to find out what starter trio we were getting in THIS game. When we got our answer, the reactions were...mixed, to say the least.

But this isn't about the fan reactions, this is about MY reaction. So what do I think? Eh...they're fine, I guess? All three of them are solid starters in their own right, but it's just not as varied compared to Legends: Arceus. Why in the name of the Distortion World did they just give us two Johto starters and one Unova starter? That feels so random! It's like they wanted to give us the Johto trio again, but they couldn't because they already used Cyndaquil in Legends: Arceus ,and so they randomly picked Tepig to fill in for it! I'm obviously happy Totodile's here since I love that croc, but couldn't they have at least picked a Grass or Water starter from a different region to make it more varied? Had I made this game, I would've kept Totodile but replaced Chikorita and Tepig with either Snivy or Grookey for Grass and either Scorbunny or Litten for Fire. That would've been pretty varied.

Some might say "Why not any of the Hoenn starters?" Duh, because they already have Mega Evolutions. If the starter trio in this game are going to have new Mega Evolutions like the fans are suspecting, then it's a bit redundant to bring the Hoenn trio in again. Same for the Kanto starters. If I was in charge of this game, I'd have made the starter trio Snivy, Scorbunny and Totodile.

As is, these three are fine enough, and I honestly kind of appreciate the fact Chikorita's here. The poor mon has an unfairly bad reputation as being a "bad starter" just because the Johto region is unfair to Grass-types and thus it's overshadowed by the other starters. This game could give Chikorita its time to shine at last.

Overall, the starter trio should've been more varied instead of just being the Johto trio but with Tepig in place of Cyndaquil, but these three are good choices and if we're going to get new Mega Evolutions, then I can't wait to see what they'll look like. Mega Feraligator especially will look amazing, I'm sure. Speaking of Megas...

The Return of Mega Evolution

Time for me to give a hot-take...I think Mega Evolutions are overrated.

Pokémon Fans: BOOOOOOOOOOOO! YOU SUCK! GET OFF THE INTERNET YOU FAKE FAN!

Yep, I knew I was going to get that kind of reaction. (rolls eyes)

Now I'm not saying I hate Mega Evolutions and I'm NOT saying I think Mega Evolutions suck or anything. It's just that I don't see what the big deal is with them half the time. Whenever I've used them, they never seem that powerful and depending on the Pokémon, they can still go down easily even though Mega Evolution's supposed to make them stronger. The ONLY time Mega Evolution feels useful is if it's a Mega Evolution that changes a Pokémon's type such as Mega Charizard X, Mega Aggron or Mega Altaria. Those guys at least feel like they get a proper benefit from Mega Evolving and have more tools to abuse when Mega Evolved such as Mega Aggron becoming a pure Steel-type and gaining a new ability or Mega Charizard X gaining the Dragon-typing and dropping its double Rock weakness to a single Rock weakness instead. Mega Evolutions that don't change types feel like they're not worth using as nothing really changes. I mean why bother Mega Evolving Abomasnow when it'll still die in a single hit from a Fire-attack when a Mega Abomasnow with a new typing could've been more useful?

Also, the gimmick is so poorly handled and introduced in its debut gen, that it has me asking what the point of them was. I mean how much do you suck at introducing your big shiny new gimmick when only ONE Gym-Leader, the main villain and the Champion of the region actually use Mega Evolution? You'd think all the Gym Leaders would've used it and especially the Elite Four. Not to mention, the gimmick is too restrictive compared to other gimmicks like Z-Moves, Dynamax and Terastal. Only certain Pokémon can Mega Evolve whereas the other gimmicks could be used by everybody, so it felt like every Pokémon gets a time to shine whereas Mega Evolution feels like fan-pandering to certain mons. Charizard is ESPECIALLY guilty of this. Who the hell decided that oversaturated lizard could have two Megas whereas most others only got one? And when it comes to the mons that can Mega Evolve, I'm baffled as to why Gen 6 introduced Mega Evolution and then introduced Mega Evolutions to Pokémon from other generations. No Kalos introduced Pokémon could actually Mega Evolve. What the hell was that about? That's like having Dynamaxing in Gen 8 and giving no Gen 8 mons their own G-max forms, that's so stupid! They should've at least given the Kalos starters Mega Evolutions! So yeah, Mega Evolution is overrated as hell and pales compared to other gimmicks in the line due to being too restrictive, only being useful on certain mons and being so poorly introduced that they felt like an afterthought. I can't deny that it does look pretty awesome whenever it happens at least and a lot of the Mega designs do look really badass.

Anyway, the return of Mega Evolutions was to be expected with this game and I actually welcome it. Now we've had a break from the gimmick, it'll be nice to have it back again, and maybe this game can learn from X and Y's mistakes and make the gimmick feel better integrated into the story instead of feeling like an afterthought. I'm hoping we see more opponents that use Mega Evolution and most importantly, I hope we'll see some new Mega Evolutions in this game.

My personal wish list is to see new Mega Evolutions for Raichu, Tyrantrum, Ageislash, Flygon, Noivern, Froslass and Roserade. All of those would be pretty awesome to see. As mentioned above, people are already speculating that Meganium, Emboar and Feraligator will at least get new Megas. I mean Legends: Arceus gave use new regional forms for Decidueye, Typhlosion and Samurott, so it only makes sense to give this starter trio something new too. The fact we don't even see their evolved forms does lead credence to the theory, like they're hiding something. Here's hoping we're correct and they are getting new Mega Evolutions...

The New Gameplay

Now THIS is where things get interesting.

Legends: Arceus was notorious for being the first Pokémon game in years to change up the gameplay. Battling was done with different styles, agile or strong, and you had to use them wisely in order to take down the opponent. It seems that changing up the gameplay is going to be a thing with the Legends series, for Legends: Z-A is changing things up again.

So what's new this time then? For starters, this game features REAL-TIME combat. Yep, you don't battle the way you used to do in previous games anymore. You battle in real-time, and it's no longer turn-based either. Instead, you can actually move around the arena and launch attacks right off the bat, and most notable of all, you can do the one thing that Pokémon did in the anime but you could never do in the games...you can DODGE attacks now! Yep, we're finally starting to make the combat more complex this time around. We'll be able to have battles closer to what we get in the anime now we can use the OP tactic of "Dodge it!". It's been explained that how the combat system works here is that you have to factor in precise timing for swapping out Pokémon, how long moves take to execute and how big of an area the moves will effect. So yeah, it's no longer a matter of taking turns to launch attacks and winning easily with a super-effective move, it sounds like the battles here will be more strategic and action-packed with more to consider when you go on the offensive. It'll also make defensive moves like Protect more useful now we're not wasting a turn just to block an attack. Blocking attacks will actually be more beneficial to us in this situation. It'll also mean that just launching super-effective hits won't be an instant win as now Pokémon can dodge attacks and depending on the move, it might take too long for us to execute it and leave us open for attack, so we'll have to play more carefully. To all those fans who spent years whining how the games are "too easy", they might find this a breath of fresh air since the battle mechanics are more complex now. Even I'm kind of wishing they did this sooner. Mega Evolving is also said to "unlock a new level of power", so Mega Evolving actually feels like it means something this time and that there's benefits from using it.

I also noticed how in the trailer, the player gets a Flaaffy's health down to zero, but it doesn't faint and they're still able to catch it with a Pokéball. That sounds really handy, especially if you're someone who's tried to catch Pokémon in the past and failed because of a poorly-timed critical hit or you used a move that was a bit too powerful. It seems we can battle a Pokémon until its HP is gone and still catch it. Maybe they can still faint in the end and we have to react quickly before it happens, I don't know, but that's still interesting to see.

But that's battle mechanics. The gameplay still has other things to offer. The game is set entirely in Lumiose City and follows in the footsteps of Legends: Arceus and Scarlet and Violet with more open world gameplay than what we got in the previous gens. Whether we can explore outside of the city, I'm not sure. It says the game is set ENTIRELY in Lumiose City, so we probably won't be able to leave it.

Anyway, the gameplay looks as if we can just explore the city, there are teleport pods to teleport us up onto roofs and we can use our Rotom Phones as a mean to parkour (yes really) and our home base for this game is Hotel Z, run by the 3000 year old AZ from the X and Y games. It's like how in Legends: Arceus, we had a home base in Jubilife Village, only we're staying in a single hotel rather than a village. Also the hub world being a whole city makes it a lot bigger too. I also noticed a shot of the player character sat at a table eating cake with his Totodile. I hope this means we've got something akin to the camping and picnic features in Sword and Shield and Scarlet and Violet respectively and that we can sit at cafes and eat with our Pokémon as a means to heal up and max up their friendship levels.

The city features something called "Wild Zones", which are marked with these holographic green gates as you see in the picture above. Wild Zones will be our chances to catch Pokémon and naturally, each Wild Zone will have different species to catch and different environments to accommodate them. I'm guessing that each Wild Zone will be level locked and you need to progress so far in order to unlock them and so not every species will be immediately available to us straight away. That's just a guess, I don't know for certain.

As far as Mega Evolution goes, I imagine that too is something we have to unlock later in the game. No way will we be able to use it straight away. Maybe we have to wait until we're halfway through the game until we can Mega Evolve? We'll have to wait and see.

Oh, and compared to Scarlet and Violet, the game already looks to be a smoother runner and doesn't seem to have the issues that plagued those games. That extra year off clearly did it some good.

In any case, the new battle mechanics and the city exploration gameplay has me keen to play this. I have a feeling we're in for a fun and unique experience that no Pokémon game has given us before.

The Characters

There's not a whole lot of new characters revealed so far. For what we did get, we've got the confirmed return of AZ and his iconic Floette. AZ felt very underused to me in the original X and Y games, feeling like an accessory to the game's story than an actual character, even if his story was pretty fascinating. Here, he's now running Hotel Z and will essentially be running the Professor/Mentor role for us. His presence fully confirms that this is a sequel to X and Y as well since his Floette is back with him and he's no longer a giant-sized hobo being forced to work for Team Flare. I'm really curious what his role will be in the story and if he'll be a secret boss fight.

We also have new friend/rival characters named Urbain and Taunie. Interestingly enough, for the first time in a main series game, we have version exclusive rivals. If we count DLCs, then the first time this actually happened was in Sword and Shield's Isle of Armour DLC where Sword players got Klara and Shield players got Avery. In this case, it's dependant on which gender you pick for the player character. The girl gets Urabin and the boy gets Taunie. All we know about their characters so far is that they're the player's friend, they help people and Pokémon and are skilled at battles, while also coming on as strong at times. Their battle skills don't seem particularly impressive for now since they pick the starter that's weak to ours, but who knows, maybe they get pretty strong teams as time goes by. I especially hope the two have their own teams and they won't have the same team between them so that battling each of them will be a unique experience and not the same opponent but with a different coat of paint. I'll be curious to see what their roles will be and if they'll be really involved in the plot or not. I just hope we're not going to have yet more complaints about being stuck with another friendly rival character.

We also got these new faces too, Jett (left) and Vinnie (right). Jett is the CEO of Quasartico, the company that's carrying out Lumiose City's redevelopment plan as the story tells us and Vinnie is her secretary. We don't know much about their characters or roles yet other than Jett seemingly desires to deepen the bonds between people and Pokémon. That "seemingly" part sounds a little suspicious to me...

I don't know what it is, but these two give me twist villain vibes. CEOs in media are often villains after all (which isn't far off from real life as CEOs are often very morally reprehensible people) and Vinnie especially looks like a villainous bodyguard kind of character. It totally wouldn't surprise me if these two turned out to be villains, especially since Legends: Arceus also gave us a twist villain with Volo. I can totally see it happening where this whole ubran development plan is all some big evil scheme for whatever reason and we're essentially being stringed along like a puppet for whatever Jett's goal is. It really wouldn't surprise me if this is how it goes!

Then again, last time I called it that someone in Pokémon was evil, I was totally wrong and Briar was actually legit. These two could be legit too, so we'll see...

Overall

And those are my first impressions of Pokémon: Legends Z-A. What do I think to it? I'm hyped for it!

The graphics look lovely, the gameplay offers some cool new battle mechanics, the story has potential to be unexpected and full of surprises and it overall has so much to offer. I do wish the starter trio was more varied, but otherwise I'm sold on this. I can't wait to play it and review it for this blog. I'm intrigued with what we're in for and I'm convinced we have another winner from the Pokémon franchise on our hands...

And that's it for this post. What are your first impressions? Do let me know in the comments below.

Join me again on Friday for my review of Transformers: Prime. See you then media fans!