That was a curve ball coming from Game Freak. Everyone waiting (I was not an exception) for a Johto or Unova remake, and was Kalos. I'm happy. My favorite Pokémon game from Switch era was Legends: Arceus. Expecting great things from here (And waiting for new Megaevolutions e new regional forms!)
-
If you have been following the news, you should be aware that the people of Lebanon have been under a violent bombardment that has recently escalated. Please consider donating to help them if you can or trying to spread word of the fundraiser.
-
Asheville and Western North Carolina at large are in crisis after Helene, please consider contributing to these local organizations and helping the people whose lives have been destroyed.
Pokémon Legends Z-A announced, releasing 2025 on Nintendo Switch
- Thread starter --R
- Start date
As a MASSIVE Gen V Stan I'm a little hurt, not gonna lie... That being said, I'm hopeful this game will help me appreciate the Kalos region for the first time, since I despised X and Y.
It's hard to know because the setting is in a city this time around, so they might go for an entirely different gameplay loop
Now if you mean specifically the strong/agile style thing, then probably...? But they didn't show any gameplay so it's unconfirmed
The idea behind games that could be played on GBC with proper color is absolutely crossgen. It functions the same as Xbox cross gen and plenty of PS5 cross gen games.
As for GBA, GF didn't release any games on GBC after GBA launched.
I think mostly I was thinking of its method of encountering & catching pokemon as compared to the main games, but sounds like theres no way to know yet
I like the idea of expanding into Kalos more, X/Y felt like a barebones iteration with mostly genwun nostalgia pandering while slapping a French sticker on it; hope they keep that to a bare simmer with Charizard Z
Since Legends: Arceus took inspiration with the Meiji Restoration Japan. I'm predicting Legends: Zygarde would have Belle Époque France. Would be awesome to have a Fire Emblem: Three Houses approach with warring factions between Kalos offshoots of monarchists, Bonapartists, and Republicans struggling for power and whichever faction you choose destabilizes the region
That's asking too much for GF though.
Since Legends: Arceus took inspiration with the Meiji Restoration Japan. I'm predicting Legends: Zygarde would have Belle Époque France. Would be awesome to have a Fire Emblem: Three Houses approach with warring factions between Kalos offshoots of monarchists, Bonapartists, and Republicans struggling for power and whichever faction you choose destabilizes the region
That's asking too much for GF though.
It's actually a mainline entry into the series.
Glad I could clear that up for you.
I think there are good changes for them to go with a different game loop (I don't see how they could replicate PLA's game loop in most type of Legends game that wouldn't be very similar to Arceus, let alone one set in a city which already exist in some form prior to the game).
Even in terms of combat, I think it might be different then the traditional in some forms, but I don't think it'll necessarily have strong/agile or similar features. I expect held items to be back in this game also.
I think the catching part might actually be the one that might end up diverging a lot in Z-A compared to traditional games, or even Arceus.
I'm here for this day 1, especially if they give new Kalosian forms. I do wonder what the setting would be though... if it's a urban renewal plan, it could be around the creation of the big not-Eifel tower which was just before the Colombian Exhibition in the real world so we could be looking aroudn late 1880s-1900??? We could also be looking at a futurisitic game which could be cool. Cautiously optimistic either way
Legends is a mainline title because the developers literally tell you it is. There is no higher authority to appeal to, and anything beyond that is just going back to the old "well Super Mario 3D World isn't a real 3-D Mario", as if that means fucking anything at all.
As for Z-A, I'm intrigued since I really liked many of the changes and additions Legends brought, but also have some trepidation because I have a hard time wrestling with the shift to an intra-urban setting and how that seems like it would necessarily remove a lot of those same elements I enjoyed about the first Legends. The notion of needing to literally, physically avoid attacks from strong wild pokemon would practically need to be gone, as would a lot of the stealth elements and material collection and the whole vibe of venturing out into wild territory.
I'm trying not to develop any expectations about how this will actually work, but my hope is that the lessons they took out of LA weren't "people liked the idea of building up a central city, and also want way more trainer battles" and made that the focus over all the real-time world and pokemon interactions.
As for Z-A, I'm intrigued since I really liked many of the changes and additions Legends brought, but also have some trepidation because I have a hard time wrestling with the shift to an intra-urban setting and how that seems like it would necessarily remove a lot of those same elements I enjoyed about the first Legends. The notion of needing to literally, physically avoid attacks from strong wild pokemon would practically need to be gone, as would a lot of the stealth elements and material collection and the whole vibe of venturing out into wild territory.
I'm trying not to develop any expectations about how this will actually work, but my hope is that the lessons they took out of LA weren't "people liked the idea of building up a central city, and also want way more trainer battles" and made that the focus over all the real-time world and pokemon interactions.
Since this is specifically a Zygarde game, if we have to find all its cells, it"s going to be much more guided than Arceus' wisps.
It has a dedicated subtitle. It plays differently. It is set far in the past. It doesn't introduce a new generation of Pokémon. It's a spin off.
Why are some of you so weird about this
This is most definitely a Switch title, at most a cross gen title. They wouldn't announce a Switch 2 exclusive before Nintendo even announces the console.
I'm sure there will be passive performance benefits for the Switch 2 through backwards compatibility, I just doubt that Game Freak will bother making a native Switch 2 version of Legends Z-A.
If anything, this is the best-case scenario. With Game Freak & TPC seemingly sticking to one traditional remake per system, this means that Black/White's remake will be on the Switch 2.
How I feel when y'all argue that it isn't mainline
Hell it getting a 2nd entry just makes this debate feel even more pointless
Mega Evolutions to the other gimmicks since Gen VII:
Damn straight!!!!😤😤😤
Mega-evolution gang was in never in doubt!
Ya had it right the first time Nintendo!!!(Well game freak!😅)
I think the lowkey best part of this news, too, is that we might be done with yearly releases? Hopefully this franchise gets the well earned TLC it deserves moving forward.
Question: is the Z-A implies there are two legendary Pokemons or is it something else? I took as a Zygarde and some other A-something pokemon. I'm probably very wrong.
Exactly what I was talking about in my first post, especially if it's later in 2025 like the lack of an "Early 2025" mention implies.
Yeah, this is probably it. I enjoyed Arceus, but it (and Pokemon in general) could be so much more visually. Anyway, appreciate everyone's replies.
Legends Arceus is closer in gameplay to Scarlet and Violet than BDSP were. Just because they're trying new things it doesn't make it a spin off.
Nobody cares about your personal—personal being the keyword—criteria of what makes a mainline title a mainline title. GameFreak's said it's mainline, therefore it is. You don't have to twist yourself into a pretzel making pedantic arguments simply for the sake of it.
Who's the weirdo here? Lmao
The Legends games are all in the past right? Are we going to see the great Pokemon war where people ship off their tiny grass fairies to the front line and then get their corpses back in shoeboxes in mail like in the flashbacks for X/Y? Because seeing that is the hardest I remember laughing at a game's plot in a long, long time and I'd love to see more of that.
And hey, Megas are the only good gimmick - hopefully them coming back here won't just be for a fun return to the region and we'll see them in the next mainline game instead of dumb glass pope hats or big character models.
This is clearly true, I just don't think it's a hill worth debating people on. It's about as mainline as Let's Go or Mystery Dungeon imo
And hey, Megas are the only good gimmick - hopefully them coming back here won't just be for a fun return to the region and we'll see them in the next mainline game instead of dumb glass pope hats or big character models.
This is clearly true, I just don't think it's a hill worth debating people on. It's about as mainline as Let's Go or Mystery Dungeon imo
Why do some of yall have to make up such pedantic arguments about what makes up a mainline game or nor?
If a company says a game is mainline, then that's what it is.
I don't think you understand my post.
You are treating Regional Pokémon as gimmicks while I consider them as new Pokémon with their own typings, movesets and abilities. Mega, Z, Max and Tera are gimmicks you activate only once per fight.
So is this set in the past? It's hard to tell from that trailer.
The game being set entirely within the confines of Lumiose sounded questionable at first but I can see some really cool potential there for a super detailed city, with lots of interiors, different urban environments, lots of colliding and combining cultures, and perhaps the best narrative ever seen in a Pokémon Game (okay maybe I am being too optimistic).
Pokemon Colosseum was mostly set within the confines of cities and labs and it's easily one of my favorite games in the series, so there is a lot of potential for an idea like this.
Best Wishes to GameFreak on this new endeavor, excited to see some gameplay this summer hopefully.
The game being set entirely within the confines of Lumiose sounded questionable at first but I can see some really cool potential there for a super detailed city, with lots of interiors, different urban environments, lots of colliding and combining cultures, and perhaps the best narrative ever seen in a Pokémon Game (okay maybe I am being too optimistic).
Pokemon Colosseum was mostly set within the confines of cities and labs and it's easily one of my favorite games in the series, so there is a lot of potential for an idea like this.
Best Wishes to GameFreak on this new endeavor, excited to see some gameplay this summer hopefully.
The Legends games are "all" in the past insomuch as the literal one example we have is a Legends game set in the past. One data point is not enough to establish any sort of trend or expectations as to what this game will or won't include. Like the whole useless "mainline" debate, we don't actually know what core ideas are meant to make a Legends game a Legends game beyond that GameFreak says it is.
Don't think we know, there's only been one Legends game so there's no pattern. This could be a sequel to X and Y as far as we know
Same! I loved Arceus and it got me excited for the series again.
Curious to see what the gameplay will be like since the game is only set in Lumiose city. Will we have biomes? Can we catch Pokémon? Or will it be a Pokemon XD/Colisseum type game where we focus more on battles?
I just remember the time when Regionals were considered to be standard feature going forward and directly compared to Megas (It helped that at the time Megas hadn't been removed yet). Even then Regionals were seen as the more popular option over Megas (WIth the biggest complaint being why were they all Kanto only, which later gens resolved.)
With how much work on the design, conceptualizing, modelling, animating and lore for Megas, they can easily be seen as new pokemon as well. I saw people made this claim to balance how few new pokemon Gen 6 had because a lot of resources got pulled towards the megas instead.
I am making a definitive claim here, I absolutely don't think this game is taking place in the past. It's going to be about someone in the modern Lumiose City urban planning office conducting a comprehensive survey of Lumiosian wildlife to better integrate pokemon habitats into the city.
Game Freak basically never jumps on board a new platform immediately. They were releasing a DS game a year and a half after the 3DS had launched.
They also barely showed anything. Usually at this point they atleast have some short game footage, so maybe they only announced it because Pokemon day and to just show the next mainline game.