Taylor Smith
On January 28th, 2022, the Pokémon Company released a game titled “Pokémon; Legends Arceus” which featured the main character being hurled into the distant past in the untamed wilds of the Hisui Region, where they are tasked with exploring the land, filling out the Pokédex, as well as calming multiple noble beasts as they explore this vast landscape.
After nearly 4 years, many fans started to think that the Legends series was simply meant to be a one-off title spin-off. A love letter to a previous game in the franchise that had fans seeing what the world of Pokémon may have been like in the past. But now with the release of “Pokémon; Legends Z-A” on October 16th, 2025, the franchise continues the legends series. Starting a legacy that allows players to explore and experience the world of Pokémon in new ways.
Comparing Legends Z-A with its predecessor Legends Arceus, let’s go over the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to this game.
The Good
Legends Z-A takes place in modern day Lumiose City, unlike the setting of Legends Arceus, which takes place in the untamed wilderness of a vast region. Because of the modern-day setting, players have more access to customization options for their characters. There are also many areas to explore, missions to complete, and a captivating story, and many memorable characters to meet and interact with. Also, if you are like me and enjoy causing a bit of chaos for a laugh, near the end of the game if you jump off the building that you access after climbing the human ladder you’ll get a very funny reaction from a certain poison type specialist.
The Bad
Despite being a long time Pokémon fan, I’ve never actually been a huge fan of competitive battles. Of course, battling is a huge part of the game, and I will battle and train my Pokémon, however I have always been more of a completionist or hunter when it came to my playthrough of these games. If allowed to, I can spend hours simply catching these creatures with no end in sight. Which is why I think that the worst part of this game is the way that day and night shifts. Unlike Legends Arceus, where the day and night shifts are smooth and natural. In Legends Z-A, because of the battle royale, the day and night shift is interrupted by an intrusive cut scene which cuts the flow of the game making it a tremendous headache for players like myself who may happen to be hunting down time specific Pokémon only to have them be despawned by the interrupting cut scene. I believe that if they can give an update that lets players choose if they want to see the cut scene or not, would be a great way to fix this feature.
The Ugly
If I did find anything ugly about this game, it would have to be the confusing layout of the city. It is so easy to lose track of your progress as you play through this game because of the multiple layers that the city of Lumiose has. There are sewers, parks, random alleyways, streets, hidden areas, rooftops, and so much more to explore that it’s nearly impossible to keep track of it all without the help of online guides and roadmaps. In fact, there is so much to explore in such a confined space that I find myself missing the ability to put down multiple different marks on the map like players were able to do with the map in the legends Arceus game.
Overall, I give the Pokémon Legends ZA game a rating of 3.5 stars out of 5. Ultimately, I really enjoyed the game, the story was captivating, and I found myself looking forward to all the interactions I had with the characters as well as exploring the city of Lumiose. However, the interruptions caused by the unskippable day and night cycle cut scenes. As well as the missing features of the map that were available in the previous game, it makes it feel like a bit of a downgrade. I am hoping that with a future update they will fix the main issues that I pointed out, and that I will be able to give this game a higher rating.
