In 2022, Pokemon Legends: Arceus reimagined the long-running series’ catching mechanics. For the first time ever, capturing a wild Pokemon required you to sneak through tall grass, line up a throw, and chuck a Poke Ball. As fresh as the catching mechanics were, the battle system was largely untouched. Yes, there were the new Agile and Strong Style moves, but the turn-based formula was intact. Now, much in the same way that Legends: Arceus reinvented the catching mechanics, Legends: Z-A is attempting to do something similar with battling.
My 20-minute hands-on demo consisted of two standalone segments: One centered around trainer battles and the other pitted me and Lucario against a Rogue Mega Evolved Absol.
The first portion took place at night during the Z-A Royale, a battle competition that transforms Lumiose City into a labyrinthine battle arena where trainers will essentially jump you in dark alleyways, a return to form for trainer battles after the series stepped away in Scarlet/Violet and made the player the initiator. I wasn’t able to explore the city during my play session, but I was able to challenge four different trainers backed by a Chikorita, Mareep, Weedle, and Fletchling. My Pokemon were around level 5, so this was likely very early in the game.
Unlike Legends: Arceus, Legends: Z-A’s battles happen in real time. Moves are on a cooldown, and they can be fired off in quick succession regardless of what your opponent is doing. During battle, you can move around freely with your Pokemon in tow and call out attacks with A, B, X, and Y. Once you select a move, your Pokemon locks in place until that move is finished. Success requires smart positioning and well-timed attacks that take your opponent’s actions into consideration. Weaknesses and resistances still play a role, but a talented trainer may be able to avoid super-effective attacks with some clever positioning. This makes battling feel a lot more dynamic. You can open with a stat-altering move like Growl and then follow up with Ember.
The first three battles were fairly forgiving. However, the fourth optional battle was not. The opponent’s Pokemon were a much higher level than mine and their Pidgeotto one-shotted most of my team. Modern Pokemon games follow a fairly gentle difficulty curve. So I was surprised to see such a challenging trainer so early on, but it makes sense here: Thanks to the new battle system, you could feasibly take down a much tougher Pokemon if you dodge opposing attacks and time your moves effectively. I hope Pokemon Legends: Z-A can use these new battle mechanics to dangle some tough fights in front of players looking for a challenge.
Outside of battle, Legends: Z-A lets you get the jump on other trainers by sneaking up behind them and unleashing an attack on their Pokemon. If done correctly, their leading Pokemon will take a bit of damage before the fight even begins. The light stealth mechanics mirror Legends: Arceus: You can crouch, and as long as they don’t have line of sight, you can sneak up on unsuspecting trainers. It’s fairly straightforward, so you can easily transition from spotting an unsuspecting trainer to stealth attacking their Pokemon and launching into a battle. Legends: Z-A also adds held items to the mix, a mechanic that’s been in the mainline series for years but was absent in Legends: Arceus. About halfway through the Z-A Royale Segment, a character gave me a Sitrus Berry. Like in the mainline series, a held Sitrus Berry automatically heals a Pokemon when their HP falls below 50 percent. It works the same here, but given how quickly battles unfold, I could see held items being far more useful for a casual playthrough. Especially since there’s a cooldown on using items such as Potions mid-battle.
Legends: Z-A merges its style of combat with the quick action of Legends: Arceus to make more cohesive-feeling fights.
The second demo had me chase down a Zygarde 10% Form throughout Lumiose until it led me to a wild Mega Evolved Absol. These function somewhat like Frenzied Noble Pokemon fights in Legends: Arceus. The key difference is that instead of quelling the boss with balms before battling it, your Pokemon fights alongside you in real time. This means that in addition to commanding your Pokemon to engage the Mega, you also need to dodge the raging Pokemon yourself. While I enjoyed the novelty of Legends: Arceus’ boss fights, this new approach feels more engaging. Legends: Z-A merges its style of combat with the quick action of Legends: Arceus to make more cohesive-feeling fights.
This boss fight also let me test out Mega Evolutions. As I attacked the Mega Evolved Absol, it dropped motes of energy. Picking up that energy fills a meter in the bottom left corner. Once full, I could trigger my Lucario’s Mega Evolution. The meter slowly drains while in this form, but picking up more energy will lengthen your Pokemon’s time in a Mega Evolved state. This means in order to activate a Mega Evolution, you need to get in the opposing Pokemon’s face to scoop up energy. Although this boss wasn’t very difficult, it created a risk-reward loop that enticed me to jump in front of danger to juice up my Pokemon. As of this now, it’s unclear if you can Mega Evolve in any battle, or if it’s limited to specific battles.
Perhaps one of the most interesting moves Lucario had access to was Protect. In most cases, Protect always goes first and blocks all incoming damage that turn. Unless you’re against an Urshifu, because apparently rules don’t apply to Urshifu. However, in Legends: Z-A, Protect made Lucario invulnerable for a short period of time. This has me excited to see how developer Game Freak plans to adapt iconic moves for this battle style.
Of course, it’s hard to talk about a modern Pokemon without touching on its visuals and performance. Both demos were on a Nintendo Switch 2, and it’s worth noting that this game is still in development and things could change upon the final release. Fortunately, it ran smoothly at what appeared to be 60 frames per second. Across both demos, I didn’t notice any stutters or dips in performance. Visually, it’s a clear step up from Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, but based on the time I had with it, I don’t think its visuals will wow anyone, aside from some colorful battle effects and charming character models. I am excited to see a city like Lumiose in full 3D, though. I was able to pull up the map, and it seems dense. There are a lot of winding alleys and thoroughfares to explore while staying true to circular design from Pokemon X and Y. Unfortunately, both demos were very linear, so I didn’t see much of the city itself.
While both segments left me excited to see and play more of Pokemon Legends: Z-A, the experience was very brief. It’s impossible to say how these new mechanics hold up after a few hours and how they develop beyond what I’ve seen. However, it seems like a solid foundation that will give players a new way to experience Pokemon battles that have become so familiar. If anything, I hope that developer Game Freak continues to use the Pokemon Legends series to experiment with the formula and try out different things that may or may not work in the mainline series.
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