Pokémon Legends Z-A review for Nintendo Switch, Switch 2

The world’s favorite creature collecting RPG is back at it again with the second release in the “Legends” spinoff series. Pokémon Legends Z-A marks the second title for the Legends line and also a complete opposite of what Legends Arceus was. Set in a post-X and Y Kalos region, Legends Z-A finds us in the midst of a Lumiose undergoing reconstruction to allow Pokémon and people to live together in harmony. That all changed when the Rogue Mega Evolutions attacked…

Returning to the open world style of exploration and hucking Pokeballs at wild Pokémon, Legends Z-A also introduces a brand new style of battling. Instead of the typical turn-based style that Pokémon fans have become accustomed to over the last roughly 30 years, it’s a more action-focused system. Your moves don’t have a limited number of uses and are instead cooldown focused, and you’re actively moving around with your Pokémon to dodge attacks and reposition instead of relying on an accuracy/evasion percentage. As someone who grew up watching the original Pokémon anime way back when, being able to command our Pokémon to attack and run around and dodge seemed like a pipe dream back then, but seeing Game Freak realize this in 2025 was a very pleasant surprise. The active combat is surprisingly polished and offers an extremely fresh breath of air to spice up your battles.

To keep the spice of Pokémon sprinkled into the new (and arguably more exciting, sorry VGC players) active combat system, we’ve been graced with the return of the fan favorite battle mechanic of Mega Evolution. With the power of your Mega Bracelet and the appropriate Mega Stone, you can unleash a whole new power of evolution with your Pokémon, increasing their stats and giving them access to a new type of move called a “Plus Move”. Plus Moves add an extra STAB, or Same Type Attack Bonus, on top of the existing bonus to unleash even more devastating damage on opponents. With the game no longer being turn based, this means your Speed stat is now effectively a “casting speed” stat, determining how quickly you can use moves again after you unleash them. Your new and returning Mega Pokémon are even bigger threats than before, which is surprising given the old Generation 6 and 7 competitive metas.

These battles don’t just lend themselves to battling NPC trainers throughout your journey, either. Obviously you’ll be battling all sorts of crazy characters during your journey, but there is a PVP mode via online ranked battles. For those that didn’t see the news about the Kalos starter Mega Evolutions, you may not know about the online ranked mode. Just like the normal game, you’ll partake in battles to raise your rank from Z to A, but this time for ranked rewards during battles with other players. You’ll go in with a team of three and compete against three other players attempting to claim the most KOs during the allotted time. It’s both fun and infuriating, but that depends on what kinds of players you get matched with. If they keep their head in the fight, it’s great, but you’ll sometimes get that one guy that gets a lead and runs away. It’s not a game problem, but it is funny to mention.

While the battles are fun and honestly even flashier than ever before, the game can be an eyesore at times to look at. The whole thing about Pokémon being worth so much and whatnot is more than a dead horse by this point, but I mean, there’s a reason, right? The art style of Pokémon Legends Z-A isn’t bad, it’s quite the opposite, but the devil’s in the details. Lumiose looks really gorgeous in concept, but when you’re actively running around, you start to notice how eerily flat everything is. The interiors of the game’s buildings are genuinely pretty, especially for Pokémon, but the actual external part of Lumiose? It really does feel like one big cardboard diorama you’d make in middle school for a science class display. The buildings look like devcubes that got a texture slapped on with a trapezoid on top so you have a roof to get up on and explore. There’s no issue with things like plantlife or the Pokémon themselves, but when you suddenly are slapped with shots that look like a flat box with a texture slapped on, it’s super jarring. We’ve seen the posts online, so it’s not worth harping on harder, but you get the point. The most profitable thing on the planet can surely do better.

On the plus side, Legends Z-A does run exceptionally well. I genuinely mean it when I say I tried to find ways to tank my framerate given Scarlet and Violet’s abhorrent state on Switch 1, but I couldn’t. The Switch 2 version of this game runs like a dream, and it feels fantastic. How much of that is the optimiZ-Ation and how much of that is just the hardware pulling weight, I can’t be sure, but it’s welcome nonetheless.

For a Pokémon game, I think the story’s actually pretty solid here. It’s nothing to write home about, after all it’s still a Pokémon game, and you’re definitely not playing these games for a gripping narrative, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless. Lumiose is host to a whole cast of fun characters, with some being rather less than enjoyable than the rest by a siZ-Able margin. If you’ve played the game, I’m sure you can guess who. Between your normal friend characters, rivals, and the “evil” organiZ-Ation, it’s a very well written bunch of characters. The passive NPC dialogue is both enjoyable and varied, so that’s a big positive to making Lumiose feel alive. It’s mostly straightforward about completing the Z-A royale, but as you progress the reasoning for doing so becomes more and more apparent. I won’t go into more depth than that to avoid spoilers for those that do genuinely wanna see the story for themselves.

Other than all of that, there’s some strange choices on certain things in the game. When you traverse Lumiose, you’ll find ladders and these “Holovators” to climb up on top of buildings to find rogue Mega Pokémon, collect items, TMs, or even battle trainers during the nighttime. Most of the Holovators are marked, with ones you can unlock being entirely happenstance on whether you find them or find the sidequest. The ladders, on the other hand, are not marked. This is…strange, given how many times you’ll need them to climb and how oftentimes out of the way and hidden they are. It can make getting to story progression fights frustrating, so be wary of that. If you can’t find a way up, it’s probably a ladder tucked somewhere you didn’t see or a Holovator you haven’t unlocked.

There’s definitely a LARGE plethora of things you can do, so you won’t be starved for content. Is all of that content good? That’s up to interpretation, but there’s lots to do and stuff to acquire and unlock. The biggest offender for “okay but why, Game Freak?” is the Shiny Charm. If you’ve been checking your “Requests” level, you’ll notice that level 50 unlocks the Shiny Charm. While technically true, there are other requirements. 1000 battles is a real, actual requirement you’ll have to fulfill before you can get the shiny charm. From what I can tell, online battles don’t count, so you’ll have to repeatedly throw yourself into the nightly battle zones to grind out this achievement. Is it worth it? That’s entirely up to how much you value the increased shiny odds. It does go from 1/4096 to 1/1024, so it is a large difference, but that’s up to your sanity. 1000 battles is a lot of battles, especially because going into postgame you’ll probably be around 250 or so.

Overall, it’s safe to say that Pokémon Legends Z-A is a good game, albeit with some shortcomings. It’s fun, it’s enjoyable, and brings the return of the best battle mechanic in the series’ history. Both versions of the game (Switch 1 and Switch 2) run well on their respective platforms, with the Switch 2 getting a 60fps version of the game. Legends Z-A does also have its DLC expansion planned for release later on, bringing new story content and Mega Evolutions. It’ll also (presumably) bring in more Pokémon that aren’t already in the game, so there should be some fun surprises for all of us when we get to see the new Mega forms. Pokémon Legends Z-A marks an enjoyable breath of fresh air, but it could still do with some growth to catch up with the times.

Note: Nintendo provided us with a Pokémon Legends Z-A Switch/Switch 2 code for review purposes.