Early in Pokemon Legends: Z-A, the towering and gaunt AZ makes a grim proclamation: The game’s setting of Lumiose City “bustles today with Pokemon and people, but beneath the surface lurks a terrible grief.”
Walking around Paris-inspired Lumiose, it’s evident that as the city undergoes earth-shattering changes, uncertainty and anxiety permeate the air. Amidst catching ’em all and being the very best, the thematic core of Pokemon Legends: Z-A is a question: How does a city solve its problems?
In the five years following the events of Pokemon X and Y, during which Team Flare wreaked havoc in the region, Lumiose City experienced an exodus, and property values plummeted. In response, the city initiated an urban redevelopment plan and charged the tech corporation Quasartico Inc. with its creation and implementation. This company wields extraordinary power over the city’s infrastructure and governance, essentially putting Lumiose under a tech oligarchy.
Coinciding with this ambitious redevelopment program was a massive influx of wild Pokemon in the city, which became the most prevalent issue for Lumiose. In response, Quasartico installed holographic barriers to create “wild zones,” converting former public areas into havens for wild Pokemon. But as with any significant development in a metropolitan region, the effects trickle down to the city’s inhabitants in several different ways.
Transit has been upended, with Gogoats that previously acted as shuttles becoming “skittish,” leaving taxi services to fill the void. Scientists are overwhelmed, lacking the resources to survey and study, with the director of the city’s Pokemon lab cursing Lumiose’s mayor (unnamed and unseen through the game) for funding the redevelopment plan. Police and even civilians are tasked with the cleanup of property damage, trash, and droppings from Pokemon. Construction is so prevalent in Lumiose that scaffolding has become gamified as obstacle courses.
As you listen to chatter from the city’s residents, you hear longtime or returning citizens brood about the changes, nostalgic for what the city used to be–Lumiose is well into “there goes the neighborhood” territory. This is the type of problem that takes over a city. Everyone has their own opinion on redevelopment, the wild zones, and the growing number of Pokemon.
Some citizens, particularly younger ones, are thrilled about the prospect of coexisting with Pokemon to a greater degree, while others express dismay that basic needs like home affordability and job security are lost in the mix. Occasionally, you’ll see some more nuanced views–one side quest, for example, has you lead a swarm of smelly Trubbish away from a restaurant, and concludes with one of the restaurant’s workers remarking, “Coexisting with Pokemon doesn’t just mean sharing the same space. … Maybe coexisting with Pokemon sometimes means knowing the right distance to keep.”
Anyone who lives in a big city has their own examples of big changes that drive mobilization and nonstop discourse among residents. As I was playing Legends: Z-A, my mind flashed back to a redevelopment plan in my native Philadelphia. A few years ago, the owners of the Philadelphia 76ers NBA team announced a proposal for a new arena, built in the heart of the city and neighboring Chinatown. As you can imagine, responses were loud and divisive.
This redevelopment proposal in Philly sparked fierce public battles in the years that followed, with each party having its own stake or motivation. Proponents included construction trade unions, City Council members, and Philly’s own mayor, who claimed the arena would provide an economic boost and revitalize an area currently occupied by a declining shopping district. On the other end, Chinatown inhabitants lamented that an arena would displace residents and businesses, threatening the neighborhood’s identity and livelihood. Naturally, citizens mobilized against the proposal, forming organizations, throwing festivals and protests, and frequently interrupting City Council sessions. You couldn’t go a single day in Philly without hearing someone’s take on the Sixers arena, and it felt like the central news topic in the city for years.
In Pokemon Legends: Z-A, there are brief glimpses of mobilization as this urban redevelopment plan dominates talk in Lumiose. One group called the Fist of Justice breaks out the bullhorn to call for the abolition of wild zones, arguing for Pokemon to fully coexist with humans and even offering to train citizens in martial arts for self-defense against wild Pokemon. In one scene, a crowd of people from an organization called the Lumiose Safety Group gathers to confront Quasartico’s CEO, demanding the “truth” about the flood of wild Pokemon in the city.
The game’s protagonists make up the organization Team MZ, which aims to “save” and “free” Lumiose City. To MZ, the only way to achieve this is by rising in the ranks of the Z-A Royale, a nighttime tournament held by Quasartico. By achieving a high rank, the team’s leader (Taunie or Urbain, depending on who your player character is) hopes to gain Quasartico’s attention and use their resources and support to address the city’s issues head-on. Those who reach Rank A will even be granted a wish by the tech company.
It’s a rather dystopian solution, having to fight through a violent competition for the attention of a corporation to “fix” a city’s problems–it sounds more like The Running Man or The Long Walk than a Pokemon game.
It’s also frustrating to see Taunie/Urbain–a character so devoted to public service that they are often absent from cutscenes while out helping community members in need–fully support Quasartico and never question the company’s motivations. In that scene with the angry Lumiose Safety Group protestors, Taunie/Urbain is even the first on the scene in defense of Quasartico’s CEO. In a defiance of Pokemon tropes, there is no heel turn with Quasartico Inc., and they remain a compassionate corporation through the storyline. In this fantasy world, a tech corporation serves and benefits a community in good faith–in our real world, they’d probably end up building power-sucking AI data centers, useless Hyperloop tunnels, or job-stealing delivery drones.
But of course, this is a kid’s game, not The Wire. Pokemon Legends: Z-A doesn’t offer any complex depictions of the issues an urban community faces. At the end of the story, “saving” the city isn’t improving the quality of life of citizens–instead, it’s battling a giant creature that shoots giant laser beams into space.
What Legends: Z-A lacks in narrative nuance, it makes up for it by characterizing Lumiose City and its inhabitants. Citizens will share their thoughts unprompted, and like any real city, Lumiose is full of strange, quirky individuals. But listening to Lumiose residents reveals an inner darkness–or a “terrible grief,” to use AZ’s words. Several people are downright depressed, often from loneliness or disillusionment with ongoing events. One character even expresses that she can only scrape by solely through Pokemon battles, painting a troubling picture of the socioeconomic state of the city.
While Taunie/Urbain and Team MZ are too subservient to authorities, they give the story of Legends: Z-A strength by actually giving a damn about their community and working for the betterment of the people around them. During the explosive, lore-staddled final mission of the main story, the most powerful image is of several citizens, all from different walks of life, standing together to mobilize and take direct action while the powers that be are nowhere to be seen.
Pokemon Legends: Z-A ends with its thematic question of “how does a city solve its problems” largely unanswered, though violence through Pokemon battles emerges as the most likely answer. If there’s another thing that Pokemon Legends: Z-A gets right about real life, it’s that there are too many times where city-wide issues aren’t solved–they’re just kicked down the road for us to figure out far in the future.
To revisit my Philly example, the arena saga ended in anticlimax earlier this year, with the Sixers deciding to stay in the city’s existing sports complex despite City Council’s approval of the new arena. Opponents celebrated, and the arena’s supporters largely looked foolish. While the construction of a new, new arena for Philly might be another battle for another day, what mattered in this last bout is that people showed up to act.
Despite all the problems a city faces, there is also pride and love for that city, which mobilizes people to at least try to improve it. As Pokemon Legends: Z-A reminds us, the battle (or in the game’s case, literal Pokemon battles) may be never-ending, but the effort is always worthwhile.
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