Pokemon Legends Z-A | REVIEW | Nintendo Switch 2

''DO YOU HAVE THE SKILL TO BE NUMBER ONE!''

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Developed: Game Freak

Published: Nintendo

Genre: Action RPG

Release Date: Oct 16th, 2025

Platforms: NSW/NSW 2

Pokemon Legends Z-A is the latest title in this massive franchise and it is developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo. With Pokemon being hit or miss in the days of social media, but a complete success with its sales numbers, Nintendo and Game Freak decide now is the time to push the Legend spin off series even further by taking us back to Lumiose City. But was this the proper setting to bring us back to after so many years after our trip in X and Y? or should it have been set in further back like Legends Arceus was? Only one way to find out, so lets catch them all!

''OLD TERRITORY, NEW LOOK''

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GAMEPLAY:

Another Pokemon game comes out and the older I feel, because much like were celebrating the 40th anniversary of Mario at this current time, we are also right at the cusp of the 30th anniversary of the Pokemon itself as well come 2026, in fact actually, just 4 short months away. Pokemon over the last 30 years has seen many iterations of the franchise, from its Red, Blue and Yellow gameboy days, snapping all the photographs you can in Pokemon Snap in both older and modern versions, straight up fighting games like Pokken, turned based titles like Mystery Dungeon, making me actually leave the house for once during the initial craze and hype of Pokemon GO and lead me to venture around the city at all hours of the night trying to find rare and exotic Pokemon... but only finding nothing but Zubats and Rattata's... who now I hate because of it. This also doesn't include all the other ventures Pokemon dipped its toes into with each mainline game switching it up with its formula, for better or worse and even spin offs like Pokemon Legends Arceus bringing a much needed fresh take on the traditional formula. The fact is, Pokemon I feel is even more a juggernaut nowadays than it was when I was growing up, that opinion is subjective of course, but still, it's the way things feel, regardless of the echo chambers of social media doing a ''boycott'' every week it seems. Yeah how'd that work out recently guys? can't be a boycott if a game sells 20 million plus, believe me, go and ask Hogwarts Legacy, that ''boycott'' lead to 34 million in sales. Social media aside and iterations of games aside, the franchise itself is one of the most profitable companies in the world, cause who are we kidding, who's going to pass up wanting to buy a Chikorita plush, not me. But while everyone is off enjoying their merch, playing the newest games and loving or hating them, I'm over here still crying my eyes out at the ending to Pokemon The First Movie when Ash gets straight up blasted to the point his body hardens into a cold husk of his former self, only for the tears of Pikachu to bring him back to life. Yup, that's me, in my 30's and still crying at the scene, don't judge me, or else I'm going to have to throw on the ''brother my brother'' soundtrack and I'm going to have to slap YOU till YOU cry. Ok sorry, aggression aside, my long history of Pokemon has definitely been filled with a lot of memories, mostly good overall, and now we arrive at the newest title, Pokemon Legends Z-A, an alphabet game that helps us as Pokemon trainers, learn our ABC's in this brand new educational game. Wait.. that can't be right. Give me a second guys.

Here in Pokemon Legends Z-A, its time to start on a brand new adventure set 5 years after the events of Pokemon X and Y and now has you make your grand return to the city of Lumiose, where your adventure stays confined to. Now before you get mad and angry about that, settle down and take a deep breath, that premise is not as bad as it sounds. Z-A much like Arceus, changes up the formula even more and steps back from the traditional turned based style of gameplay that requires you to attack then wait your turn, and now takes it to a more action based combat system that reminds me more of an MMO style of gameplay or a more modern setup due to you having free movement of combat for not only yourself, but your fellow Pokemon as well. During combat now you're able to run around at your own free will, using B to jump and dodge out of the way from Pokemon attacks and then using your face buttons to initiate an ability your Pokemon has at their disposal, all running off a cool down system that has you wait until the move is ready to be used again. This way of combat keeps everything flowing at a fast pace, letting you use moves back to back instantly and makes you feel like you're actually in the heat of battle alongside your Pokemon, which honestly, makes it as close to the anime experience as we've ever gotten, which is awesome. Thankfully there's no Gary Oak around flaunting his badges to us the entire time either with his smug slappable face or Tracy constantly going ''IM GOING TO MAKE SOME SKETCHES''. I'm also not like Ash, I'm not giving away or letting go of 5,000 Pokemon, screw that, if I want 200 Fletchlings, then dang it, IM GOING TO HAVE 200 FLETCHLINGS AND YOU CANT STOP ME. Ok sorry about that, almost sounded like my own version of Team Rocket there. As the story unfolds over your twenty to even 30 hour journey you proceed to the city riding the Hogwarts Express alongside Ron and Harry Potter and upon arrival you see how vast and large the explorable city is. While confined to one major city is a bit of a bummer considering how in pretty much every Pokemon game you proceed through multiple areas like grass areas, meadows, urban and even open world free roam such as Arceus and Scarlet and Violet, but in this version of Lumiose, while not as open, sure, you're still able to explore down various alleyways, climb on top of buildings to explore roof tops to find wild Pokemon hanging about like this freaking Abra I couldn't catch because the dang jerk wouldnt stay still. I actually enjoyed climbing and going roof top to roof top quite a lot because not only do you get a good view of the city and your surroundings, but you're also able to see any Pokemon down on the ground below you might not have spotted before from a ground level view and even spot new ladders or pathways to take to buildings you didn't even know you could get onto in the first place. It makes the city feel less redundant and confined, at least for me. Further as you explore the city, you'll be able to enter green lit areas known as Wild Zones. When entering a Wild Zone, you're free to catch any Pokemon you see in the area or battle them, whichever you choose to do by partaking in your action based combat. But the change to the formula again comes into play.. for instance in traditional and every normal Pokemon game on the market and something we've been taught since day one is in order to capture a Pokemon, you must battle it, weaken it and then toss a Pokeball and hope for the best, simple, right?. Welp the heck with that, here in Z-A you're allowed to just absolutely obliterate your foe and beat the crap out of them without having to stop to assess your damage because now, even when directly knocking out your opponent, sending them to zero health, they now momentarily get dizzy with a marker indicator over their head, which gives you roughly three seconds to press ZL to lock onto the Pokemon and ZR to toss a Pokeball to capture it. Aww cute little Fletchling... so adorable.... TEPIG, BURN EM TO THE GROUND! MWHAHAHA.

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''HES ABOUT TO GET JUMPED''

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Being a lunatic trainer aside, your goals as you push through the story is to take part in Z-A Royal contest that has you make your way from Z rank, all the way to A rank by battling trainers to level up your ranks for Battle Points and investigate the resurgence of Mega Evolutions. This involves you exploring the city at dusk or rather just in general at night time as trainers from all over the city roam the streets looking for a fight and for others to duel in the hopes that they beat you and rank up and as stated previously, when defeating a specific amount of trainers and their cute friends, you will gain points needed to upgrade said level to a new rank. The higher your rank means the tougher the competition as well with early battles feeling you're maybe you're a little too over powered, but as you rank up and gain new Pokemon to use and strategize with, you'll soon find out that your swift, quick and easy knock outs become far and few in between, and instead, you'll find yourself jumping and dodging out of the way, moving around your environment to get a proper position and figuring out when is best the time to use an ability to slow down your foe or lower their defenses before making a decision on what offensive move you should take at the most opportune time. Its intense and gets the heart pumping, making you feel like you're Ash at the opening of Pokemon The First Movie, only without Dragonite flying in at 100 mph and wrecking your whole picnic. The more battles you face, the closer you will get to acquiring Mega Evolution gems, which are key to some of the best parts of the game, which are Mega Evolution encounters. These skirmishes are basically the games boss fights but more so leaning towards what people would traditionally call a ''Raid'' and each one test the limits of not only your skill, but item management, strategic timing and your knowledge of elemental types for strengths and weaknesses, and should you not be up to date or are someone who's quick to get frustrated during big pivotal moments, then you're in for the roughest time of your life. Why is this? well for starters, the raid mega boss says SCREW the rules, and pulls a South Park Cartman of ''I DO WHAT I WANT'' and will actually attack YOU as well, hence why I mentioned the dodging mechanic beforehand, which demands 100% of your attention at all times to make sure you properly evade, restore health when needed and switch in and out of Pokemon on your team as the situation calls for it. The amount of intensity these battles bring and give you far surpass anything you've experienced in any past Pokemon game and makes Scarlet and Violet's Tera Raid dens feel more like a sheer novelty or a test run for what they truly wanted to do in the first place... which is funny because that's exactly what Z-A feels like in comparison to Arceus. Much like BOTW felt like testing grounds for what devs truly wanted and achieved in Tears Of The Kingdom, Z-A feels like the same with Arceus being the testing ground and Z-A being the full utilization of the idea itself. Sadly, no ''YAH YAH!'' or ''WOW'' to be had from our boy Beedle, but we'll survive... maybe.

Graphically the game looks decent, not amazing, but I like the art style, and the game definitely looks better on its Switch 2 counterpart over Switch 1 do to better lighting, draw distance and performance. But what I feel makes up for it graphically is the amount actually going on in the environment with Pokemon freely roaming around the city with Pokemon hiding in trash cans like they're Oscar The Grouch or something, Pidgey hanging out on lamp posts or flying around on top of buildings enjoying the day breeze, etc, it truly makes it feel like were all living in a Pokemon world just as Ash and crew were in the anime and its the first time I've actually felt that sensation for a Pokemon game in general. But with all the greatness this game has to show for it in both its story that aims at appealing to long time fans, more mature fans and even fans of X and Y and its willingness to expand combat to a faster paced action centric battle system, it still does have a wee bit of a problem here and there. Since this game was obviously made first with Switch 1 in mind with Switch 2 being the afterthought, you will see see performance issues even in the Switch 2 version with textures and pop ins due to Switch 2's version being similar to the ''Switch 2 upgrade packs'' that you see for titles like Mario Party Jamboree, Kirby And The Forgotten Land, etc, which is a bummer really because I really want to see what a Pokemon game can truly do utilizing the power of Switch 2, but sadly, it looks like we'll have to wait for Generation 10 for that. City exploration also has its fair share of issues, because yes its fun to explore and find new Pokemon or new roof tops to traverse, but at the same time there's SO MANY buildings that yield very little to no interactivity at all which kills some of the immersion for me as a player who likes going into houses, seeing what residents are up to, stealing stuff from their house like TM's or something, you know, random stuff like that. That's lost in this iteration and that means it gives me less a of a chance to be a total jerk and rob people and laugh at them like Haunter. Why would you take that from me, devs, WHYYYY. Oh well, I guess I can cheer myself up in a different way. BOOM! BURN FLETCHLING! YOU THOUGHT I FORGOT DIDNT YOU!?.

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''NAP TIME FOR THE SQUAD''

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OVERALL:

At the end of the day, Pokemon Z-A ends up for me personally as one of my favorite games in the series, at least since the early Kanto days. Obviously it has down falls like flat textures here and there, pop in issues, being confined to one city can be a drag for some people and less interactions with overall buildings themselves, however, I feel Z-A exceeds at everything else beyond that. At its core, Z-A triumphs more when it goes against the usual conventions of what we've grown accustomed to with the franchise by revamping its combat to be faster, fluid and intense, Z-A Royale being a fun time, storyline that mixes in both humor and charm the series is known for alongside some darker tones, freely using Pokemon abilities outside of battle at any point to get through obstacles in your way like smashing boulders, completing research and obtaining new rewards and abilities for your Pokemon, Mega Evolution boss battles that push the series past its limits with fundamentals, allowing for greater strategic gameplay and diversity, multiple ways to explore the city using its roof tops, etc. Sure the new format might tick off series purist a bit, but honestly you cant have innovation or explorative ideas without kicking the hornets nest a little bit, even if it does anger the purist who only want classic style of gameplay and battling. So if you're a fan of more experimentation and pushing the limits of what Pokemon ''is'' or ''could be'', similar to the way Arceus was, then as a Pokemon fan, you owe it to yourself to give this one a go, even if past entries like Sword, Shield, Scarlet or Violet underwhelmed you, Z-A is a much different beast...or monster... or Pocket Monster?. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says BUY NOW.

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