An Extremely Belated Pokémon Legends: Z-A Speculation Post

Pokémon Legends: Z-A Official Trailer

Pokémon Legends: Z-A was announced this past February, but in the five months since the initial trailer, we’ve gotten no new information about it. At publishing, all we really know is that 1) it’s due to come out some time in 2025, 2) Nintendo of America’s X account has stated the game takes place “entirely” within Lumiose City, and 3) For the first time since the Let’s Go games, Mega Evolutions will (finally!!!) be returning to the main series games.

Many people are optimistic, though, as it’s about that time of the year when we get a bi-annual Pokemon Presents livestream featuring news about the year’s World Championships event, some spin-off news and updates, and, most importantly, a major trailer and showcase of the upcoming main series title (or DLC). In fact, as I’m making my last few tweaks and edits to this blog post, I half-expect them to make an announcement about it by the time I’m all done.

That means the window of opportunity to throw opinions and predictions about the game before we have a clear image of what we’re going to get is rapidly closing, and I would be disappointed with myself if I didn’t join in on the fun myself.

Some of what I have to say are safe guesses, while other things might come off as thinly veiled projections of my pipe dreams. Just as well, here’s one more heap of hunches and hot takes to toss into the mix.

First Partner Pokémon

(Author’s Note: There’s been some mild controversy over Pokémon officially adopting the term “first partner Pokémon” over the traditional fan term of “starter.” While it’s a moot issue for me and I tend to use the term interchangeably, in this blog, I try to reserve the term “first partner” for the official role, while “starter” is used for the Pokémon who have ever been a first partner.)

A very important part of any Pokémon game experience is having a trio of “first partner” Pokémon to choose and begin our adventure with. Quite interestingly, however, we haven’t gotten any confirmation yet as to which Pokémon will end up filling this role.

Previously, it might be safe to assume we’d be starting with the Kalos Region’s original starter Pokémon of the Kalos Region: Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie. However, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, the first and most recently released game with the Legends branding, had its native starter Pokémon be available as wild encounters, opting instead to have its official first partner Pokémon be a mix of starters from other previous installments.

Given that the Kalos Region was inspired by France, many fans have theorized that two of the three first partners will be Snivy (whose evolutionary line was inspired by French royalty) and Piplup (whose final form, Empoleon, is clearly inspired by the famous French leader Napoleon Bonaparte). The Fire type of the trio, meanwhile, is a far more contested topic.

Some fans claim it will be Torchic, pointing to shots from a trailer for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s Indigo Disk DLC showing it, Snivy, and Piplup alongside their Legends: Arceus counterparts of Cyndaquil, Rowlet, and Oshawott, respectively. While very interesting, I think the fact that Torchic has already received a Mega Evolution (and was an early Mystery Gift Pokemon when Kalos’s first games, Pokemon X and Y, first released) is a disqualifier. I also definitely don’t think it will be Charmander (two Megas, probably a wild encounter with its fellow Kanto starters), Cyndaquil (the Legends: Arceus Fire-type starter), or Fuecoco (literally the most recent game’s Fire-type starter) either.

That leaves us then with two viable candidates: The Alola Region’s Litten and the Galar Region’s Scorbunny. While it really feels like a coin flip, my gut tells me it will probably end up being Scorbunny, partly because of the popularity of association football in France (though it’s worth noting the sport is popular seemingly everywhere besides the United States), but also partly because of personal bias and wishful thinking.

One last thing I wanted to say: while Legends: Arceus did spice up its first partner Pokémon by giving them regional variants to alter their stats and spice up their designs, I think it’s more likely they will keep their base forms and get Mega Evolutions instead. After all, Megas the region’s signature battle mechanic, and it’s more than likely they will get more focus than regional variants, standard evolutions, and any other way they tend to revisit pre-existing Pokémon.

Gameplay

Pokémon Legends: Arceus featured while departure from the series’ usual approach to battles—an absence of abilities and held items, a turn-based action speed system that could let Pokémon attack multiple times in a row, and different move styles to exploit said system—but I have a feeling Legends: Z-A will be much tamer and in-line with series norms in that regard. Instead, what will set Legends: Z-A apart from the average main series Pokémon game will be the structure of its story and gameplay loops.

Both Legends: Z-A’s announcement trailer and its website emphasize an “urban redevelopment plan” unfurling in Lumiose City. Some fans take this to mean there might be city-planning/city-building mechanics (perhaps something akin to HeartGold and Soulsilver’s customizable Safari Zone…?), but while I think there’s a chance of that, it’ll be more likely (in my opinion) that we’ll be reshaping Lumiose City the same way we helped develop Jubilife Village in Legends: Arceus: by using Pokémon to help people with all kinds of missions and errands.

As to how that will end up informing Legends: Z-A’s story, I can’t say for certain. All I know is that whatever challenges arise, they almost definitely won’t involve collecting gym badges or becoming the Pokemon League Champion.

…With that being said, I like to imagine Legends: Z-A’s ultimate antagonist will be someone part of the urban redevelopment plan who’s actually been secretly trying to rebuild or duplicate the Ultimate Weapon in some fashion. Expect shades of the XY anime’s climactic, Zygarde-focused final act.

The Setting

Perhaps the biggest share of discourse has gone towards when (and to a lesser extent, where) Legends: Z-A will take place. Some people think the game will take place in a historic setting similar to Legends: Arceus, while others look at the trailer’s incorporation of a futuristic aesthetic to say the game takes place in the future.

If you asked me… I don’t think they’re going to do anything special with the time period and will give the games a modern-day setting (eleven-to-twelve years after the events of X and Y, if they wanted to be cute). The only real (and admittedly circumstantial) evidence I have for this theory is simply the fact that during the sketched portion of the trailer (specifically around 0:26 in the trailer), we see a woman wearing what appears to be a modern baseball cap, and the fact that there’s no Pokémon in Kalosian lore that can affect time and space to the same extent as Arceus (except perhaps Hoopa). Besides that, this point is a majority conjecture.

I also can’t help but be skeptical of the claim by the Nintendo of America account that this game really will only take place in Lumiose City. I definitely don’t doubt that Lumiose City will be the game’s main location, but if it really is their ONLY visitable location, that would feel like a severe waste of the Kalos Region. I’ll hold onto desperate hope that we might be able to take isolated visits to key landmarks, but if we really aren’t going outside Lumiose City, then I’ll just try to accept it and carry on.

Closing Out

From the moment I wanted to make a blog about Pokémon Legends: Z-A, I concerned myself with one important question: what exactly makes a Pokémon Legends game?

After Arceus released and proved successful, most people seemed to think the next Legends game would be a Johto game with Celebi and the time period before the Brass Tower burned down, or a Unova game featuring Kyurem in its original, complete form. If anyone expected anything like Legends: Z-A, they probably didn’t expect it to be the very next Legends game they were going to make.

Even so, and even with the very little information we have on hand, the key elements of what defines a Pokemon Legends game are apparent: experimentation, deviation, and both a narrative and mechanical focus on growth, change, and proverbial evolution. Pokemon Legends: Z-A could end up being virtually anything, but it’s all but guaranteed the sum of its parts will be one of a kind.

Now, let’s see how poorly all these silly predictions age once we finally get some real news.