Pokémon Legends Z-A Review: A love letter to older fans that betters Arceus in every way

Every new Pokémon game is someone’s first Pokémon game. The lifeblood of the series, new, young players, are well served by a raft of new monsters, locations, and gimmicks. Speak to fans of any age, and they’ll passionately explain why the pair of games they grew up with are the best.

But for those for whom 2026 will also mark 30 years of Pokémon fandom, it’s often felt like the series has primarily focused on younger players for almost all of those three decades. And that’s why the emergence of the Legends spin-off series has been so welcomed by the hardcore.

While there have always been calls for a “hardcore” Pokémon game from some sections of the audience, this is unlikely to ever happen. Instead, the Legends series, which began with 2022’s Arceus, exists in a timeline where the franchise has aged alongside the veteran playerbase. While still friendly to younger fans, Legends has now become, in our view, a non-negotiable accompaniment to the central pair of RPGS: a space for Pokémon to try new ideas, and explore the monsters and lore that often gets missed by mainline entries.

Pokémon Legends Z-A, the second game in the Legends series, is not only an excellent tribute to classic game Pokémon X & Y, but it also successfully experiments with new mechanics, adds new characters that will become fan favourites, and even pulls off a 30-hour Pokémon adventure set within one single location. In my opinion, as a Pokémon stalwart, this is the best Pokémon game in many years.

Pokémon Legends Z-A takes place entirely within Lumiose City, the Paris stand-in from 3DS’s Pokémon X and Y. While in those games, typically, wild Pokémon could only be found in the roaming hills and fields around the city, thanks to the new Wild Zones created by Quasartico Inc., in the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 game, people and Pokémon are now working together.

The player arrives in not-Paris and is quickly thrust into a mystery around Lumiose City, the location’s new Z-A Royale tournament, and Mega Evolution. Pleasingly, Pokémon Legends Z-A’s story is far more mature by Pokémon standards, and doesn’t treat the player like they’re a beginner.

It’s also legitimately funny, with plenty of the side quest writing evoking genuine laughs. The game has a vast amount of optional content, most of which offers a look into everyday life in the Pokémon world. It’s here where the most self-referential dialogue can be found. Not only does it reference deep-cut X&Y lore, but fan memes, conspiracy theories, and long-standing community jokes all get a wink and a nod.

While Arceus made exciting tweaks to the turn-based formula, Pokémon Legends Z-A goes way further and makes battles totally real-time – a huge change for the series. Both Pokémon trainers and their Pokémon now move around independently, and moves are performed via Switch’s face buttons.

This is a massive departure for the series and will likely prove divisive amongst fans. However, I found its execution rewarding, action-packed, and perfect for Z-A’s overall format. This time, moves have different animation lengths and cooldown times, while the weakness and resistance system returns from the traditional games.

Physical location is now more important than ever. Some moves will only hit if the Pokémon is close enough, for example. Others, such as Dig, will see the Pokémon disappear underground and reappear in another location, indicated by a dirt ring around the target. If the target doesn’t move in time, it will do damage.

“While Arceus made exciting tweaks to the turn-based formula, Pokémon Legends Z-A’s battles are now totally real-time. Both Pokémon trainers and their Pokémon move around independently, and moves are performed via the face buttons.”

The real-time battles are well complemented by the introduction of the game’s main story theme, the Z-A Royale. When night descends on Lumoise City, trainers take to the streets to battle. Defeat enough trainers in a single night and you’ll earn points towards a promotion match.

As the name suggests, the goal here is to increase your rank from Z all the way to A, and as you ascend the ranks, you begin developing a team that can knock out as many Pokémon as possible before the night ends, which in turn earns you currency that you can use to purchase the costly Mega Evolution stones.

It’s a brilliant twist on the Pokémon battle formula that captures the frantic spontaneity of combat we’ve seen in the anime series. Because everything is real-time and fast-paced, players need to have their wits about them, lest they get jumped by a rival trainer – especially if their Pokémon is of a type that’s favourable against yours, and you end up knocked out well before sunrise.

If the main Pokémon series’ battle system feels like math problems displayed by sprites bashing into each other, Z-A feels like an action game. There’s a dynamism to launching your Poké Ball towards an opposing trainer and getting right into the battle. The speed of the new real-time system means that battles where both Pokémon are down to their last hit are often resolved by who picked the faster move.

Pokémon Legends Z-A’s real-time combat is at its most complex during Rogue Mega Evolution battles, which happen throughout the game. These battles see the player take on a supersized Mega Evolved Pokémon in a pseudo-raid format and the game’s toughest tests. Here, because the unruly Pokémon will target not only your Pokémon, but the player as well, you’ll need to worry about dodging, healing, and keeping track of environmental hazards as well.

Overall, the dynamism of both Z-A’s battles and its world makes for a Pokémon adventure that feels significantly more immersive and vibrant than what’s come before. Many types of Pokémon freely roam Lumiose City, for example, like Trubbish hanging around the dumpsters, the long MIA elemental monkeys sitting in the trees, and flocks of Pidgey sitting on the lamp posts around the streets.

“If the main Pokémon series’ battle system feels like math problems displayed by sprites bashing into each other, Z-A feels like an action game.”

Pokémon Legends: Z-A finally captures the feeling of Ash and the gang arriving in a new city, observing the residents and Pokémon coexisting in harmony. If anything from Legends Z-A becomes a standard, wild Pokémon co-existing in towns is near the top of our list.

Of course, with every Pokémon that makes big bets on new ideas, there are some stumbles. Notably, while Pokémon Legends Z-A runs at a rock-solid 60fps on the Nintendo Switch 2 and visually looks bright and well-animated, it’s very much a Nintendo Switch game with a Nintendo Switch 2 patch. Overall, Lumoise City suffers from low detail and flat, repeated textures, which leaves players with the feeling that it was scaled back for Nintendo’s weaker machine, which is a shame.

The game’s Pokédex is an excellent mix of Kalos-native Pokémon and fan favorites, but it’s disappointing that trading is required to complete it – something Arceus side-stepped with in-game items. Pokémon Legends Z-A does have an online multiplayer component, so it’s perhaps more understandable that the trade evolutions remain, but the quality of life that Arceus introduced with the in-game items was a nice touch I wish were still an option.

Pokémon Legends Z-A thrills in the spaces in which it subverts the traditional Pokémon setup. In many areas, it feels like a massive departure for the series, with its new battle system and Z-A Royale structure, in particular, paying off, and once again proving that the Legends series is home to the most interesting ideas Game Freak has.

It’s an entry that rewards older fans with the series’s most mature narrative in a long time. The soundtrack, which is full of X & Y rearrangements and new pieces, is also arguably the best orchestral score the series has had, with rearrangements of classics like the battle and Pokémon Center themes, to new music, and returning favourites from X & Y.

The Pokémon Legends series feels like it’s settling old scores. Pokémon Legends: Arceus allowed Game Freak to tell the epic story of Arceus (and finally have him easily catchable worldwide in a game), while also serving as a pseudo-remake/tribute to Generation 4 for those who didn’t love BDSP.

Pokémon Legends Z-A is a game that understands its audience and feels like a love letter to both players who grew up with X & Y and those who’ve been here the whole time. Lumoise City is finally as grand as Game Freak tried to make it with the limited power of the 3DS, and Zygarde not only earns plenty of focus, but Z-A will likely propel it from total obscurity to a fan favourite.