Pokémon Legends: Z-A – Review: Dynamic Battles, Lumiose City, and Everything In Between

There are very few games I run to buy just to play them on Day 1. Sure, a handful of titles have graced my inbox early thanks to review collaborations (recently Stellar Blade or Towa, and back in the day, Redfall). But the number of games I’ve actually pre-ordered with my own money? Extremely small over the years—Diablo II: Resurrected being one of the rare exceptions, powered mostly by nostalgia.

And then came this year’s new Pokémon game. Most likely the last ones released for the old Switch—the one without the number “2” in its name.

Legends, the series that rewrote the rules

This is an entry in the Legends line—a series with a specific charm that sits slightly outside the main Pokémon flow. The previous game, Arceus (2022), took us to ancient Sinnoh, back when it was known as Hisui. It introduced mechanics that felt fresh even within Pokémon—sneaking through tall grass or hand-crafting Pokéballs and yeeting them at unsuspecting creatures.

Despite being perfectly set up for an open world, Legends: Arceus didn’t quite get there—whether by design choice or Switch limitations, we got compartmentalized zones with loading screens in between.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Pokémon Violet

An open world that collapsed under its own ambition

Scarlet and Violet (2022) were supposed to break that barrier. The push to slap a big shiny “OPEN WORLD” sticker on the box was so strong that visible loading screens were kept to a minimum… but the trade-off was a notoriously unstable performance and graphic glitches more common than shiny Pokémon.

Legends: Z-A was meant to regain goodwill—even its mysterious title sparked theories. Early info teased a story set in Lumiose City, the iconic hub from Gen 6’s Pokémon X and Y (2013, Nintendo 3DS).

And then came the fandom-wide question:

“Wait… only the city? No routes, no forests, no meadows? No sprinting through grass with Froakie at your heels?”

Despite the concerns of die-hard fans, the devs stuck to their plan. You really are confined to one single metropolis. No outskirts. Period.

You can’t go beyond the city limits, but you can grab a coffee with your partner. | Own gameplay

A Playground Called Lumiose City

Lumiose is built like a wheel: Prism Tower at the center, star-shaped avenues shooting outward, and a giant wall circling the city—just like in X/Y.

Prism Tower is undergoing reconstruction, but that’s hardly the biggest issue. Wild Pokémon have started pouring into residential areas for mysterious reasons. It’s kinda kawaii… but also kind of a public safety nightmare. Free-roaming untamed creatures are not the ideal commuting companions.

Parks, squares, and even the cemetery slowly turn into Wild Zones—fenced off with holographic barriers that keep the creatures from trespassing on taxpayer-funded property.

And into all this chaos arrives you — girl or boy, minimal starting customization (the real fashion game unlocks later once you earn enough credits for clothing and hair dye experiments).

Your choice also determines which human companion will accompany you throughout the game. If you choose the female character, your partner will be a boy named Urbain. If you play as the male avatar, your guide will be a girl named Taunie.

They don’t just greet you—they hand you your first Pokémon, a room in Hotel Z, and your reason to exist in Lumiose. They also introduce you to the city’s illicit nighttime pastime: Battle Royale. And just like that, the game’s title clicks: you start at Rank Z and fight your way up to Rank A.

Playing as the girl? Say hello to Urbain—the guy in the tracksuit on the left who’ll be tagging along.

Daytime missions & nighttime arena chaos

Day and night cycle more or less smoothly. Daytime is for story quests, over a hundred side missions, catching Pokémon, and exploring the city. At night, a Battle Zone pops up in a random district—another holographic cage. You fight, you win, you climb the Z-A Royale ladder.

“More or less smoothly” because scripted sequences (such as tutorials or dramatic endgame scenes) lock the time of day.

But that’s not the only oddity. Invisible walls create artificial corridors during early missions, keeping you from exploring even the tiniest detour.

And then comes the ADHD hell moment. Glittering items lie scattered everywhere— Pokéballs, berries, random loot—glowing like little shiny beacons.

Shiny items + ADHD brain = instant fetch quest.

Destination irrelevant. The brain has spoken: we detour now.

But invisible walls say otherwise. Suddenly your phone rings: “Hey, aren’t you supposed to be somewhere?”

You’re standing three steps from the item and can’t reach it.

This borders on psychological torture.

Just a casual stroll through Lumiose City | Own gameplay

Mega Evolution: The Return of an Icon

Just like previous titles, Legends: Z-A introduces a signature mechanic. Scarlet/Violet had Terastallization. Z-A brings back Mega Evolution—straight from the X/Y era.

Pokémon fans know regular evolution by heart. Mega Evolution is reserved for species that have already hit their final form… but could still tap into a little extra oomph.

Since mega-evolving takes massive energy, it lasts only briefly before reverting back to normal (even if “normal” Charizard is still majestic, the Mega forms take it up two very different notches). In that Mega moment, the Pokémon becomes absurdly strong—defeating a Mega form with a non-Mega is no small challenge.

Mega Evolution also ties into the story: something happening around Prism Tower is triggering wild Pokémon to mega-evolve on their own—painful for them, dangerous for everyone else. Your job: pacify these Rogue Mega-Evolved Pokémon.

Only experienced trainers can trigger Mega Evolution. And you. And the strange happenings around Prism Tower.

Smart Design Choice or Cut Content?

And this brings us to a certain story shortcut the developers took — one I still can’t decide whether it’s clever, justified, or just a way they kinda ran ahead of the players and shaved off roughly ten to twenty hours of content.

An NPC named Vinnie—secretary to the CEO of Quasartico Inc., the company building Pokémon Zones and restoring Prism Tower—is your quest-giver for Mega trouble. He explains that controlled Mega Evolutions are a privilege of top-tier Z-A Royale trainers.

Except… due to the sequence of events, you unlock Mega Evolution much, much earlier than the game claims you should. After a Promotion Match (basically this game’s Gym Leader format), you get bumped from “Not-So-Green Rookie” straight into “Congrats, you can Mega Evolve now!”

First reaction: Dafuq!?

Clearly the devs tried to justify the jump through Vinnie’s dialogue.

But maybe doing the Z-A Royale cycle Rank by Rank would’ve turned the nighttime loop repetitive—and required padding the day cycle with 10–20 more hours of content.

Welcome to Rank F | Own gameplay

Technical Performance: Better Than Expected… With a Price

Scarlet/Violet’s reputation suffered due to shaky performance and frequent glitches, including visibly “popping in” objects. Arceus did better thanks to stylized, less detailed graphics.

Given the old Switch hardware, hopes weren’t high—but Legends: Z-A runs surprisingly smoothly. I only saw a handful of late-loading objects during my entire playthrough.

The price? Building textures are totally flat. Windows, balconies, flower pots—just painted on. Some streets are pure window dressing, all flair, no substance.

Personally, that’s a trade-off I can live with for fluid, dynamic combat. Battles now mix trainer movement with real-time Pokémon attacks—you dodge as your partner fights (a mechanic somewhat returning from Legends: Arceus).

PP—which measures the number of times that a Pokémon can use a move—has been replaced with cooldowns, which makes perfect sense in a real-time combat system.

Status conditions (poison, burn, sleep…) now have strong, visible effects both in and out of battle. This is the first Pokémon game where I actually stocked up on remedies like a worried parent at a pharmacy.

There are really a lot of cafés around the city. Charizard loves Ember Roast. The scaffolding in the background hints that something is being built here. | Own gameplay

This Is a Stickup!

One mechanic, though, drove me up the wall: ambush rules in Z-A Royale. If you charge straight at an enemy, the battle triggers but they get the advantage. So the game encourages crouch-walking, hiding in bushes, sneaking behind obstacles… to land the opening hit.

But even if you’re hidden and send your Pokémon to strike, claws raised, spell mid-cast—if the enemy turns around right before contact, they get the advantage.

Physics: The attack is already mid-swing!

The game: Nope.

And one more thing I’d improve: voice acting in cutscenes. There is none. It’s a classic Pokémon move—like Link in Zelda never speaking—but with the increasing cinematic ambition of the series, voiced scenes would fit perfectly in Legends: Z-A.

In Lumiose City, you can go shopping—and come back with a Heracross | Own gameplay

One City, Big Impact: Z-A Surprises More Than It Disappoints

Pokémon Legends: Z-A is a blend of clever ideas, technical compromises, and design shortcuts that will inevitably divide players. The one-city world works shockingly well, combat is refreshing, and performance on the aging Switch is pleasantly stable.

On the other hand, invisible walls, flat facades, and narrative speedruns can pull you out of the magic. It’s a charming game, but even loyal fans might raise an eyebrow here and there.

The revamped combat system is faster, flashier, and once you adjust to its rules, incredibly addictive. I can see younger players enjoying it too—but if Z-A becomes your very first Pokémon game, older turn-based entries may feel surprisingly stiff afterward.

The story references Pokémon X and Y quite often. For rocksteady fans (and I don’t mean admirers of Geodudes and Onixes), it’s basically a siren song: Is it time to dig out your old Nintendo 3DS and revisit Kalos? Or will your next steps take you back to Hisui in Pokémon Legends: Arceus?

Rating: 85 Pokéballs out of 100

Naveen and Lida (on the left) are buddies from the team. Vinnie is the guy on the right | Own gameplay