I recently picked up Pokemon Legends: Z-A and while it’s not maybe a total shift in the formula, it is refreshing to have something try so many new things in the series.

I want to start by saying I never played Pokemon Legends: Arceus and I fully understand that game laid a lot of the groundwork that Pokemon Legends: Z-A build off of. But I think that if I take a step back and look at both games, Pokemon Legends: Z-A just in general seems like a more complete vision of what Pokemon Legends: Arceus started. So I’d like talk about how this game tries to refresh the genre, if it’s enough and where we can go from here.

The first thing to talk about is how combat is for once, in real-time for what I would call a fully fledged Pokemon game. It might not be a core, main-line game, but this isn’t a arena battler or a mobile game. So I think it’s a big deal that they tried to update the formula to address more modern tastes. I know that some will still prefer turn-based combat and there definitely some moments where turn-based combat gives you a better sense of control or helps build up the tension when you’re backed into a corner. But I would personally stick with real-time combat just because of how fast it can be to run through a fight. I like that a fight can be done in less than a minute or that I feel I have a tiny bit of control when it comes to avoid an attack. I think it’s smart that you don’t control your Pokemon because that’s not the power fantasy here and I’ll be really curious if the next game brings this combat system forward. Of course, it has some issues, sometimes fights can at times feel chaotic, you’re may end up spamming attacks rather than thinking through strategically and that can cause you to feel like it was a slug fest rather than a battle of tactics or wit.

The setting for the game is also hit or miss for me. I like a focused setting and it’s nice to just run around the city and see how it feels more grounded. You’ll see Pokemon just roaming around outside of their normal wild areas and you see ads using Pokemon in a way that makes sense for the world. But this isn’t Rockstar level world building. I understand it’s supposed to mimic Paris, France. But it can at time feel like all the buildings are copy-pasted. So you end up losing some geographical awareness and have to refer to the map to figure out if you’re anywhere near where you want to go. It’s a good reminder that good world building ensures there are enough varied landmarks that you have a general idea where you are and how to go from point A to point B. I do also wish there were more buildings to go into or something that made me want to explore more rather than finding some pick ups. But this is much preferred over the empty giant world that I experienced in Pokemon Violet and Scarlet, that game had a huge world, but towns didn’t feel like towns and I felt like I was wasting my time going from location to location.

I also think the core mechanic of going from rank Z to rank A in a city-wide battle royale was kind of not fully fleshed out. I will always prefer the gym battle path as I like getting the badges and the sense of progression and the game ends up falling back on that at times. The game starts out just having you battle random people as you go up in rank, but it quickly gives up and you end up just doing psuedo-gym battles. You may not get badges, but the higher up you go, the more you have to go to someone’s factory or dojo to fight them and they use specific types so it ends up feeling like a gym battle. Also, the game does give up the sense of starting from the bottom and the daunting feeling that you’re going to have to slug it out from rank Z to A. You’ll do one boss fight at the start and the game will randomly bump you up halfway up the ranks. I know that it would probably make me feel burnt out or feel like filler, but it was a little annoying to see all that potential content shuffled away.

So, like I said the game is refreshing, but it’s not a huge game changer. It’s doing somethings differently, but seems to want to only dip its toes instead of jumping in head first. Does it work? I don’t know, it’s hard to say because every shift is so small. It does make me feel like Pokemon is one of those series that has so much nostalgia tied to it, but also so many expectations. It’s a game geared towards kids, but the kids that first played it, still want to play it, so they want the game to evolve. I know personally that I want more of these types of tweaks, in larger scale. I think Pokemon done by a different developer or a game done by Game Freak where maybe they feel that have to prove something would be amazing. As it stands, I’ll take these tiny swings, but I think it’s a good reminder that I might pick up a new Pokemon game in the future, but maybe I’ll space them out so the changes are more impactful.