Pokémon Legends: Z-A Review

I’ve been playing Pokémon since the pixel days of Red and Blue, through the ups and downs of every handheld and console generation. The Nintendo Switch era has been the roughest stretch of that journey. Sword and Shield, released in 2019, showed ambition but never quite broke free of its linear structure. Pokémon Legends: Arceus, in 2022, introduced semi-open environments and live catching systems, but looked and performed unevenly. Then came Scarlet and Violet, whose open-world vision collapsed under visible pop-in, frame drops, and broken animation logic. Pokémon Legends: Z-A, arriving on both the original Switch and Switch 2 hardware, thankfully, feels like the payoff for all of that trial and error. It’s the release where Game Freak finally applies the lessons of a decade of technical growing pains and shows real confidence in how Pokémon should look, move, and feel in fully realized 3D space.

This time, everything takes place inside Lumiose City — yes, the same Paris-inspired hub from Pokémon X and Y — but five years after those events. There are no routes or wild fields stretching to the horizon, no gyms scattered across a continent. Instead, Lumiose itself becomes the world. The city is caught in a crisis, with wild Pokémon spilling into the streets, forcing the creation of contained “Wild Zones.” You arrive by train as a young adult, which in itself feels like a small but refreshing change after decades of ten-year-old heroes. Within minutes, you’re pulled into the orbit of Team MZ, a small group that protects the city during the day and fights to grow stronger at night through a tournament called the Z-A Royale.

The Z-A Royale structure surprised me more than I expected. Every night, one section of the city transforms into a Battle Zone filled with trainers roaming the streets. You can sneak up behind them for a first strike, and each victory earns you points toward your next Promotion Match. The ranks go from Z to A — that’s where the game gets its name — and at one point, the story suddenly bumps you up seventeen ranks in one go. It’s the kind of design choice that made me laugh but also realize that the developers wanted to keep the pace brisk rather than stretch the experience unnecessarily.

What I love most about Z-A’s design is how much life it squeezes into one location. There are over one hundred side quests scattered across the city, and I found myself constantly distracted by them in a good way. They’re not repetitive fetch quests; they’re strange, often funny glimpses into how people and Pokémon share the same space. I helped a Furfrou groomer teach a Scyther to style hair, worked with a perfume maker who needed to test different Pokémon scents, lured a stubborn Trubbish away from a café, and even cleared out Pokémon that were tampering with an electrician’s “Holovator.” It took me around thirty-five hours to see the credits, keeping up with most side quests as they appeared, but there were still more waiting afterward.

Z-A’s combat system is what completely redefined the experience for me. Game Freak has thrown away the turn-based structure for fully real-time action battles. You move your trainer freely across the battlefield, dodge attacks, and direct your Pokémon dynamically. Holding ZL locks your Pokémon onto a target so you can launch moves, and because wild Pokémon can attack you directly, your position on the field suddenly matters in a way it never did before. Short-range attacks are quick but dangerous, while long-range ones need more setup. Defensive abilities like Protect or Detect now feel like timed parries. Moves such as Fire Spin or Sand Trap create zones on the ground that you can use strategically to lure opponents into, while Spikes scatters hazards around the area.

Status conditions have been changed to fit the new system, too. Paralysis slows your movement dramatically, and confusion makes your Pokémon wander off in unpredictable directions. Mega Evolution has also been redesigned. Instead of a one-time transformation per battle, it runs on a charge meter, allowing multiple Mega Evolutions in a single fight. There are also new “Plus Moves,” powerful techniques that carry Mega-level energy when certain conditions are met, even for non-Mega Pokémon.

The highlight of the campaign, though, is the series of boss battles against Rogue Mega Pokémon. These fights are intense, demanding your full attention. A few of them fill the screen with projectiles in almost bullet-hell fashion, and some create copies of themselves or suddenly teleport behind you for a surprise strike. You’re constantly moving, balancing dodging for your own safety while managing your Pokémon’s positioning. There are around sixteen of these Rogue Megas, and Mega Starmie in particular stood out for how flashy and difficult its second phase was.

Exploration in Lumiose is smaller in scope than in other Pokémon games, but it’s far more rewarding. The city hides a surprising number of secrets — alleyways, rooftops, courtyards, and even sewers — and the thrill of discovery comes not from vastness but from density. Early in the game, I found the usual low-level Pokémon like Pidgey and Fletchling in the parks, Kakuna on trees, and Trubbish by trash piles. Later, exploring deeper revealed hidden encounters that felt special: an Ariados dropping from a sewer ceiling, a Gastly appearing in a dim alleyway at night, a single Eevee wandering a narrow backstreet, and even a lone Dratini waiting on a rooftop that took several minutes of careful jumping to reach. These finds made the city feel alive and unpredictable, something I hadn’t felt in Pokémon for years.

The day and night cycle runs on an internal timer of roughly twenty minutes, with night marking the start of Royale battles. It’s a subtle but satisfying rhythm — day for exploration and side quests, night for battle. Performance-wise, I played on the Nintendo Switch 2, where the game runs at a smooth 60 frames per second with quick load screens that barely give you time to read the tips. I didn’t encounter any major bugs, frame stutters, or Pokémon sinking through the floor, which was a huge relief after Scarlet and Violet’s issues. On the original Switch, the game runs at 30 frames per second with occasional resolution drops in crowded areas like boutique malls, but it still feels stable overall.

Visually, Lumiose City isn’t stunning, but it’s an improvement. Many exterior buildings repeat the same flat textures — windows painted onto walls, lifeless balconies, but the interiors are surprisingly charming. Cafés, apartments, and event rooms are colorful and full of detail. Character models are more expressive than before, and the NPC variety is noticeably broader. There’s finally diversity in faces, clothing, and accessories. Customization is better, too: outfits are no longer locked by gender, and you can mix colors for individual pieces like jackets and belts.

There are still rough spots. Pokémon Legends: Z-A doesn’t have voice acting, and it feels strange watching fully animated characters silently move their mouths during big story moments. The early hours are also heavy with tutorials that slow down the opening pace. But once the game opens up, the writing shows flashes of real warmth and wit. Characters talk about adult life, like paying rent, holding jobs, instead of endlessly repeating dialogue about type matchups. The central theme of Lumiose’s story revolves around coexistence, about how people and Pokémon share space when their needs conflict. It even includes a benevolent Japanese-style mafia faction that surprisingly fits the tone.