Name: Pokémon Legends: Z-A review – Based Turn
Brand: TechStomper
SKU: pokemon-legends-z-a-review-based-turn
Rating: 3.5 (3 reviews)

Nintendo has been smashing it this generation with its first-party offerings, with some of the finest titles the company has ever crafted landing on the Switch and Switch 2. Yet one cornerstone series has struggled to nail the landing, with more misses than hits. Pokémon on the Switch fell short, whether in content, polish, or the functionality fans expect from the flagship series. Pokémon Legends: Arceus was the only game that truly bucked the trend, redefining what an open-world Pokémon game could be. Game Freak chose not to copy that formula, instead daring to try something different with what followed. Pokémon Legends: Z-A is the latest entry, and it feels worlds apart from Arceus.

Where Arceus was a prequel set in the distant past, Z-A is a modern tale set after Pokémon X and Y. Gone are the lush, unexplored lands of Arceus. Instead, Z-A unfolds across a single city.

It’s a bold move. The familiar “I will travel across the land, searching far and wide” mantra has been replaced with something fresh and unfamiliar. Though city-locked, the game offers a vast urban backdrop where rooftops become playgrounds and every corner hides secrets. Lumiose City, based on Paris, returns as part of the Kalos region, the same setting as Pokémon X and Y.

Multispecies Utopia

This setup introduces a new dynamic, showing Pokémon living side by side with humans in a thriving city, helping in daily life as well as battling in inventive ways. Lumiose City carries a sense of childlike wonder, constantly daring you to explore further.

Pokemon Legends Z-A catch them all monster count

The story sees you assisting in a huge urban redevelopment project while investigating Rogue Mega Evolution, a phenomenon where wild Pokémon rampage after spontaneously Mega Evolving. This helps justify the variety of encounters. While the city setting might seem restrictive, the inclusion of “Wild Zones” (smaller echoes of Arceus’ open areas) ensures access to fan favourites.

Catching Pokémon builds on Arceus’ foundations with tweaks, including the ability to capture a Pokémon after it has fainted, a first for the series. Battles have changed dramatically too. The new real-time action system removes turn-taking, letting you attack freely with cooldowns to manage. It’s faster and more frantic, and once it clicks, it adds a welcome challenge missing from recent entries. Multiplayer battles are included, though they can be scrappy and hard to follow.

The game takes its name from the Z-A Royale, an underground fight club held at night. You begin at rank Z and battle your way to rank A. These encounters demand real strategy and play out in special battle zones.

Now for the sore points. Z-A suffers from some of the same issues as recent entries, mainly in polish and finish. Graphically, the city looks flat and uninspired when it could have offered real depth. Oddly, interiors are far more detailed and visually impressive, which makes it stranger that a game played mostly outdoors gives the graphical bump to the indoors.

Performance, however, is a huge improvement, far better than Pokémon Scarlet and Violet were at launch. Yet once again, there is no voice acting. In 2025, with cinematic cutscenes and professional voice actors already tied to the TV series, it feels baffling that the games still haven’t taken that step.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A is bold on all fronts. Turning away from a proven framework to try something new is a gamble that mostly pays off, but not without caveats. The world is dull, the storytelling hollow, and the battle system sometimes too chaotic.

Pokemon Legends Z-A real time vs turned based

It’s to Game Freak’s credit that they continue to experiment, but as with all experiments, there are successes and failures. Keep that in mind when you play it.

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