Pokémon Legends Z-A - A Real-Time Delight
24-09-2025 13:00 UTC by Joe Merrick (Serebii).
Recently, The Pokémon Company International brought me out to Paris for an event held in the Eiffel Tower. This event was a full preview of Pokémon Legends: Z-A. This allowed for me to spend over an hour with the game learning more and more about the intricacies beyond what I learned at the demo at the Pokémon World Championships.
This preview came in four different elements: I got to spend 20 minutes exploring the Wild Zone, some time with the Z-A Royale, a battle against Rintaro who is one of the trainers needed to be defeated to rank up in the Z-A Royale and finally, another Rogue Mega Evolution battle against Mega Victreebel!
As this content was later in the game's progression to the demo at the World Championships, I definitely feel like I got more of a feel of the changes that exist in the game
Wild Zone
The first area we entered was Wild Zone 6 in the south-east part of Lumiose City. Here we were just let loose in the area to explore. It was a sizeable Wild Zone with a fair bit to it featuring a high street, basketball court, small access to the river and the ability to climb up to the top of buildings.
As with Pokémon Legends Arceus, you have the ability to walk past and catch a Pokémon simply by throwing a Poké Ball, which is of course immensely satisfying much like in the prior Legends game. As before, if they break out they will target you. This did work mostly well but I did notice something when trying to catch a sleeping Alpha Houndoom where, when I was locked on to it, the Poké Ball would just hit the ground meaning I had to manually aim and throw if I wanted to hit it. This is likely just due to the hit box being perfect for the Pokémon and the centre point was unfortunately on the ground.
Much like in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, wild Pokémon will also spot you and react differently. Pokémon such as Houndour went for the attack, and like in the previous Legends game, if they were angry and attacking you can't just throw a Poké Ball...you will need to battle them. Other Pokémon, such as Swablu would try to fly away and avoid combat. This continues with the ever growing showcase of the ecology of Pokémon and seeing it in a city environment is going to be fascinating.
Alpha Pokémon were a bit of a challenge here. The team I had was Level 20s while the Alpha Pokémon I saw was a Level 34 Houndoom, a Level 33 Binacle and a Level 42 Pikachu. This meant that the damage my Pokémon's moves were doing was minimal, even though I had super effective damage. Never in a battle before in Pokémon have I had to juggle healing items as much as in these battles, especially as wild Pokémon from nearby kept joining in, but being able to use the obstacles in the city streets such as taxis, market stalls etc. for cover definitely helped. I did eventually emerge victorious and caught all three of them. I will note though, one time I walked away a small distance to regroup and when I returned, the wild Pokémon's Hit Points had all recovered. I also defeated the Houndoom once and it dropped some Exp. Candy.
The wild Pokémon battles in general were quite illuminating. It actually started to show some of the strategy in the game with some Pokémon using Protect right off the bat and basically requiring me to think more about everything I do in a battle. This goes down to distance and positioning. At one point I was trying to battle a Swablu and it was flying too high up so my Pokémon's moves were just not hitting it as it was slightly too high. Obstacles including walls of buildings also get in the way of attacks hitting so you can use that for cover if needed. This adds a few extra layers of thought to the battles.
While playing this, we also got confirmation that there is a day-night cycle in the game akin to that seen in Pokémon Legends Arceus and Pokémon Scarlet & Violet – it's neither real-time nor needing to be activated by something else. Part way through our session, it turned to night and the Battle Zones activated.
Alas, I was unable to find a Shiny Pokémon in it but have a third-hand account of it. Unfortunately I can't confirm first hand if there are sparkles or sound but word is that we may be very happy.
With the Wild Zone, I was able to get a bit more of the sense of scale with the game. While there is concern overall that the city is small, from the size of the small area I was in, I'm not entirely worried about its size anymore. There seems to be something to find around every corner. I was removing obstacles with my Binacle's Bubble Beam to get some items hidden away; I was climbing rooftops to find wild Pokémon.
In the Wild Zones itself, there was also no Pokémon Center. If I wanted to heal my Pokémon I either had to use items, or I could go to a Café where I could spend money for a drink which would then heal the Pokémon.
I'm also very curious about the spawn system. The spawns I encountered matched what others in the preview session had so I am questioning the randomisation of the spawn system or if everything is set, but it is looking to be more akin to the Pokémon Legends Arceus spawn system where there's spawn points with one or few options, rather than Scarlet & Violet's system where everything is fully randomised within certain constraints with countless spawn points. Some of the spawns also came back over time, but I wasn't quite sure how to trigger this. This will be something we'll need to wait and see at launch for full clarification.
Z-A Royale
The Z-A Royale was also much later down the line than the previous demo. Inside, we got a full look at the mode and had to face off a number of trainers to get 5000 Points for the Rank Up Challenge.
This was much like in the demo before but we got a full look at the tasks that are provided that can give you more points if you achieve them, akin to the Blueberry Quests in The Indigo Disk. These ranged from getting Super Effective strikes, to using specific types of moves to knock out and even getting an instant knock out from a surprise attack on a Pokémon. Each of these gave you coins and bonus points and were dotted around the Battle Zone so you could exchange for one you felt you could more easily achieve.
The Z-A Royale itself was a bit easy with the team we were given as we were a little over levelled that it was basically a one-hit knock out against most Pokémon with super effective moves and I didn't really lose a Pokémon or receive much damage during it. That's not to say it wasn't fun, looking around for the tough trainers and trying to sneak attack them was definitely a fun way to go about it.
This part of the preview ended with a battle against Rintaro. This was one of the battles that is needed to rank up. Rintaro's dream is to make his restaurant a three star restaurant when he wins the Z-A Royale and challenged simply with a Simisage, a Simisear and a Simipour. This actually felt more like a final Gym battle than a simple battle. It was set in a battlefield his restaurant and navigating it was fairly simple and as I had a varied team I could switch in the Pokémon that were stronger against each one so I didn't face too big a challenge.. Mechanics were the same as before and with the team I was provided, I was able to switch in Pokémon at will to make it easier.
Rogue Mega Evolution
The next segment was against a Rogue Mega Victreebel. This battle was much like the Mega Absol one I talked about in my Demo preview, but there was definitely more of a challenge here, to the point that Naveen was also involved in the battle.
I had a team filled with Mega Evolution capable Pokémon including Houndoom, Absol and Gardevoir and with Houndoom I managed to deal with the combination of distance attacks with Ember and close-up attacks including Fire Fang and Snarl to do damage. Victreebel did target my human character down more and any damage inflicted on my Pokémon did feel more like collateral damage than it being targeted down.
It also had a massive field attack which placed poison puddles through much of the arena requiring navigation and if a Pokémon was hit by it, it would be damaged and sometimes poisoned. Due to this and it's varied attacks, I had to rethink things a couple of times, even to the point of recalling my Pokémon as it was about to attack to make sure it avoided all the damage and made sure to collect the Mega Energy that Mega Victreebel released whenever it got damaged.
I ended up defeating the Victreebel with these strategies, not losing a Pokémon, and earning a Victreebelite Mega Stone. However, I do know others in the preview session did struggle with it and lost to it, so challenge is in the eye of the beholder.
Battle System
With the battles against the Alpha Pokémon in the Wild Zone, the Rank Up match against Rintaro and the battle against Mega Victreebel, I definitely got more of a feel with the battle system and it really does seem like it is more than just "Go for the super effective attack". As the wild Pokémon can, and will, attack your Pokémon while they're preparing a move you need to think strategically about position, move choice and more, especially as more Pokémon enter the battle. You need to think about whether the move will hit multiple Pokémon around you to take down multiple Pokémon at once. You need to use moves with secondary effects more and more and think about timings of when your Pokémon are more vulnerable. As said before, I have never in my 26 years of playing Pokémon used recovery items in a battle as much as I did against the Alpha Pokémon.
Stat buffs and debuffs seemed to be able to be boosted/dropped once at a time, and last for a set amount of time before reverting to normal. You can't just keep spamming Growl to make a Pokémon's Attack stat as low as can be forever, and doing that will get your Pokémon severely damaged in the interim. They will be displayed above the Pokémon with a simple red arrow if boosted or blue down arrow if lowered with there being five symbols; one for each stat that can be buffed/debuffed. It will then start to flash as the boost/drop is about to vanish.
Plus Moves are also mechanically interesting. You can use a move as standard but when a Pokémon has learned its move as a Plus Move, then when you press Start in battle before choosing a move, it's used as a Plus Move, giving it more power. However, it will drain your Mega Gauge, even if not Mega Evolved. When a Pokémon is Mega Evolved, all its moves are Plus moves.
It's also worth noting that Sleep is also not a status condition in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, but moves that inflict it have returned to the Drowsy status condition from Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
As noted and discovered before as well, there are no Abilities but Hold Items are in this game so that adds an extra element.
I'm definitely starting to see the battle system in a different light and have moved from concern over the changes to cautious optimism. I think there is the spark of something really fun with this system and I am eager to dive into the depths of it when the game launches, especially with the Z-A Battle Club multiplayer mode.
Miscellaneous
We also got to have a look at the Trainer Customisation and though we couldn't go into Boutiques to have a look and see what there is, the options that we were given were plentiful. It makes for a stark contrast from the uniforms of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet.
It's also worth noting that evolution works just like Pokémon Legends: Arceus where, if you're not in battle, you can just select it from the Pokémon menu at any time if your Pokémon is eligible. Moves are also able to be learned from the Pokémon's screen with level up moves and even TM moves being available from there, allowing for much quicker ease for checking a Pokémon's move set. When our Chikorita evolved into Bayleef, it gained an idea for Giga Drain and from the menu; I just taught it the move. It's very quick and efficient, and that move came in very handy against the Alpha Binacle I was trying to fight.
Performance & Presentation
I was playing the Nintendo Switch 2 edition of the game and obviously this is a pre-release build so things can change but the game ran like an absolute dream. During my gameplay I didn't notice any frame drops and the visuals were nice and crisp; much like has been seen in the previews. It's nice and silky smooth at 60 frames per second.
Draw distance is one thing I'm a little concerned about, much like with Pokémon Scarlet & Violet. For wild Pokémon, I could see them from far away. When on top of a building I could see them on the pavements of Lumiose City below, and I could see them in the river and everything which matches somewhat with Pokémon Scarlet & Violet on the Switch 2. In the Battle Zone, I didn't see many issues either.
However, in one bit of footage we were shown before the preview, there was some pop-in of a human character a little bit closer than I'd like. Until we get full hands on with the game and the ability to fully explore Lumiose City beyond the Wild Zones and Battle Zones, we won't know for sure what the pop-in situation is like. Hopefully it was a one-off blip.
The music for this game is also a set of classics, we are seeing a good number of remixes of music from Pokémon X & Y, which makes sense, but it just feels so natural into the game.
Thoughts
Overall, I am feeling very optimistic about this game. I still have some trepidation over the shift to a city environment over a sprawling region and I am very curious how the story and game will proceed with that, but from a gameplay standpoint I am absolutely enamoured by what I have seen. The new battle system has me curious and wanting to dive more and more in.
I really want to see more of where this goes and I want to see how well Lumiose City works as a foundation for an entire game. I still have some trepidation over traversal of the large city seeing as we've not seen any Ride Pokémon or anything like that. While fast travel between Wild Zones, Battle Zones, key areas and Pokémon Centers exists, I am very curious to see how actual traversal goes and feels.
I can tell this game is going to be a bit divisive due to the battle system and exploration changes, but I just can't wait to see more. There's some strong potential here and if they hit the mark with the battle system as perfectly as the foundations are making it to appear, we may have something special.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch 2
Footage provided by Nintendo & The Pokémon Company International
Transport to preview provided by The Pokémon Company International
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