The Pokémon series has had staying power ever since its debut in the 1990s, but it has felt especially popular in recent years, thanks to Pokémon GO and the resurgence of the trading card game. Given that more Pokémon fans are experiencing new ways to play, it’s the right time for developer Game Freak to refresh the video game series. The upcoming Pokémon Legends: Z-A looks to do just that with a more action-oriented focus on a Pokémon trainer's journey.
At a special Nintendo showcase during PAX West 2025 in Seattle, I spent some limited time with Pokémon Legends: Z-A and its revamped combat system that ditches turn-based combat for real-time action. So far, this new entry in the long-running series is showing promise for a follow-up that could shake up the pokémon meta in the right direction.
Set in the Paris-inspired Lumiose City, Pokémon Legends: Z-A focuses on a new trainer coming into their own as they improve their skills and expand their roster of pokémon. However, Lumoise City has a darker mystery brewing after an unknown force is causing several pokémon to enter a frenzied state that triggers their Mega Evolution mysteriously. As the protagonist rises in the ranks, they'll soon come to find out what's behind the rise of rogue pokémon.
Speaking as a lapsed Pokémon fan who occasionally revisits the series for its more interesting entries, I've found that Pokémon games tend to be very familiar, stopping a few steps shy of reaching a broader scope that many players have imagined Pokémon games to be since watching the animated shows.
Recent Pokémon games like Legends: Arceus and Scarlet/Violet have moved the series forward in the right ways, and Legends: Z-A is continuing that trend by focusing more on the moment-to-moment actions of being a trainer.
Real-time combat is a significant game changer in Legends: Z-A, and it's a shift that many returning players will need to adjust to. Arceus set the foundations of a more open-ended style of player activity, but it still reverted to the turn-based tactical approach when the combat kicked in. Legends: Z-A moves away from that.
The demo started with a nighttime training session, in which I had to engage in several pokémon fights with trainers in a designated battle zone in the back alleys of the city. This led me to round corners and find trainers waiting for a fight, employing either a direct approach or more sneaky methods.
During my demo, I was given the team of Chikorita, Weedle, Mareep, and the flying pokémon Fletchling. When you engage in a fight, your trainer stays locked onto their enemy pokémon, with your chosen fighter right at your side. During these fights, you move around in real-time and have active skills that are on cooldowns. This sounds pretty standard for games, but for a Pokémon game, it's quite the adjustment, one that I really liked after a few matches.
What's interesting about Pokémon Legends: Z-A is that it's turned Pokémon into an action RPG, somewhat akin to a smaller-scale Xenoblade Chronicles. In addition to having to engage the right skills at the right time, I also had to dodge enemy attacks to keep my pokémon from taking heavy damage. This action-focused approach gives you far more options in how you want to engage enemies, and there are even opportunities to sneak up on unsuspecting trainers to engage in a sneak attack to start the fight off well. It seems odd at first, but it's honestly quite amusing to see trainers get walloped by a pokémon's attacks.
The next phase of the demo focused on another of Pokémon Legends: Z-A's other innovations – boss fights with rogue pokémon. As you start to track them down, you'll eventually face off against them in battle, and they'll even activate their Mega Evolved forms. The boss fight I encountered with Rogue Mega Absol felt right out of other role-playing games, like Final Fantasy or Nier: Automata, and Legends: Z-A presents them as showstopping encounters where you have to subdue these powerful enemies in a special battle zone. The battle was made especially exciting was the addition of the pokémon Lucario joining the fight.I could also activate their own Mega Evolution for a temporary buff – like Final Fantasy's limit breaks, but for pokémon.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A, much like its predecessor Arceus, takes a new approach to a traditional Pokémon adventure, focusing on interactive exploration and engagement with the world. I liked how it felt like a stylized JRPG, with the addition of quirky side characters and an epic boss fight to clear. It's very strange to play a Pokémon RPG without turn-based combat, but I found its most laid-back approach to be fair and engaging.
There has often been a desire among Pokémon fans that the series needs a shake-up to reach greater heights, but it has been clear that this is an ongoing process and won't happen all at once. Pokémon Legends: Z-A does hang onto the familiar premise of a trainer's journey in the Pokémon world, but a more action-oriented approach to commanding your Pokémon does show some solid promise, and could very well be a strong step forward for the series. And as a lapsed Pokémon fan, it's definitely one I'll be keeping an eye on.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A will be released on October 16, 2025 for the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/pokemon-legends-z-a-hands-on-135651443.html?src=rss
