Hot off the back of last months Pokémon Presents, the Nintendo Direct has given us a closer look at Pokémon Legends: Z-A, with a new trailer that dives into some of the game's features.
The focus of this one was all about the battling, with a closer look at the new real-time combat system and how it plays into Trainer battles. The Wild Zones we saw previously turn into ominous battle arenas by night, where you'll be able to engage in one-on-ones against Trainers keen to level up their Rank from Z-A (see what they did there?).
The trailer also gave a slightly more in-depth look at some Mega Evolutions, and teased "even more secrets waiting to be uncovered". Hmm, now what could they be?
You can have a look at some of these new features in the following selection of fresh screenshots:
There's still no release date on this one, but it was nice to get another look, we guess.
What's your Legends: Z-A hype level looking like after the new trailer? Let us know in the comments.
Comments 32
The first Legends game was okay but I'm really not feeling this so far. I think the city setting really emphasises how bad the visuals look.
I really like the concept of this "the whole city is a battleground" idea. This game has so much potential.
A shame that the trailer already shows a bunch of graphical jank and lack of polish already, then.
This showing was a lot better than the Pokémon presents one. I like the dynamic between catching pokemon in the daytime and doing trainer battles at night.
Small issue but I hope the character customization is better than it was in Legends Arceus.
So that’s another reason why the game is called Z-A. Honestly this is getting even more hype each trailer.
Oh, I missed the Z-A thing. Nice, haha.
@Greatluigi What's the other reason(s)?
@AussieMcBucket AZ. Ya know. The guy with the hotel. And to Tie the game to the X & Y games.
I was shocked that something as important as trainer battles was actually left out of the initial presentation.
Like, Z-A Royal completely flips the game on its head.
Lucario was confirmed in this game.
I want my boy Sawk also in this Z-A.
Yeah... I'm getting more hyped with each passing trailer. It still feels like they're holding off on so many other details but the battling, catching and having a real world danger again like in Arceus are all fire! I'm expecting the game to look better on my Switch than these preview videos as Arceus didn't look too bad (especially in comparison to Scarlet & Violet).
Now I just realize I had not finish Pokemon X & Y yet so probably will get through those before I get into Z-A.
Having the exploration and battling portions be separated like this is such a genius way of incorporating PLA's ranking system into a modern-day game like PLZ-A and it makes me really excited to see how the real-time battle mechanics are gonna end up playing out. Still buggering annoying that they didn't show off any new Megas (even teasing one off-screen at the end it seems) but I don't mind waiting just a little bit longer if need be XD
Really excited for Z-A more than ever. I was hoping to see some returning characters aside from AZ but I really like what was shown in this trailer so far.
I'll be playing this for sure, I do prefer outdoor and more natural settings, Alola being a favorite, so the blocky city setting does feel a bit stiff and cold as of now.
How did we not get a single new Mega tease today?
So far, these trailers have demonstrated quite a lacklustre game. No real indication of what buildings mean, aside from serving as physical barriers around the city, as well as taking over as the routes in the games of old. The only thing "new" is a mildly more advance battle system which just extends the Legends Arceus mechanics. Seems like another quick cash grab by TPC and Nintendo, something they're become notorious for at this point. I know this is NintendoLife, so the point it moot, but still- I wish you kids would stop settling for this swill, actually take a stand, and demand this company do better...
Nice that we finally know what the heck they were teasing last time we saw this game - personally, I'm looking forward to Legends Z-A even more than I already was!
Surely this is still going to be in November? Besides that, the night battle system sounds interesting. I would’ve preferred if they had showed more of this on Pokémon Day though.
Guys...the elemental monkeys return.
That's it. EVERY. SINGLE. POKÉMON. HAS. APPEARED. IN. A. SWITCH. GAME.
You'll finally be able to transfer or obtain every Pokémon to at least one Switch game.
Pokémon Legends Z-A is 100% going to release on November 14, 2025.
No idea why they always wait before just telling us when its coming out. They can't delay a Pokémon game due to how big the franchise is. It's release date was likely determined as far back as 2023.
I like the focus on trainer battles. It's kind of like a Yugioh Battle City kind of story which is vast change from Legends Arceus.
Since its only set a short time after X/Y I wonder if the player characters from that game are in this one.
@ChaosControl It's a real time battle system dude. What you're saying would be like claiming the original FF7 and the remake have the same battle system.
Like it's easy to be cynica,l but the idea that it changing from turn based to real time RPG in 1 entry wasn't big enough of a change is absurd. Were you expecting it to turn into a hack & slash?
The elemental monkeys are back! Finally get to play with Pansage, Pansear and Panpour again!
God, the vegetation is ugly as hell. Gamefreak need to either hire someone who actually knows what they're doing or just..not try to go with realistic trees.
It can't be missed that this is a monumental moment for a Pokemon game to be featured in a main Nintendo Direct, something that hasn't happened for a long time if not ever!
Even more excited for this game now! I wonder how they'll handle the cycle between day and night. Will it be an automatic timer, one that you can manipulate like BOTW or XenobladeX?
@Dr_Lugae I wanna see the player characters in too! They don't do this often enough!
@Dom_31 Have to agree that it's a poor choice to opt for a realistic art style, especially when they've made the Pokemon designs even less realistic compared to Scarlet/Violet; it makes everything from the buildings to the vegetation look worse. I would take the hyper impressionistic Tales of the Shire vegetation over this any day.
@Ulysses the gameplay looks like it could be fun but they seriously f***ing need to start having Nintendo's support studios work with them.
And by Nintendo's support studios I mean Monolith Soft Kyoto.
This looks really good.
@Dom_31 It's also a flawed sensibility in my opinion. They have executed games that look beautiful, like PLA, but namely Let's Go. Let's Go has almost the perfect art style for vegetation and buildings, and the art style fits perfectly with Pokemon. Other than the Chibi character models, Let's Go contains IMO the quintessential Pokemon appearance.
And I think Legends ZA would look perfect with the Let's Go art style, before even receiving any outside help.
I'm not sure why they keep opting for a realistic design ethos. It must have something to do with a strong belief that their biggest titles need the most mainstream art style possible, which they could think is a realistic one, at least when they created the Scarlet/Violet engine.
And if that's not the case, then for whatever reason it appears that they are simply lifting the Scarlet/Violet art style from the engine without tweaking it for Legends ZA.
I'm still cautiously optimistic. A great showing, and I like how the general feel changes between day and night. Love that they're focusing more on battles this time around.
It's nice to see some older Pokemons in the trailer, Totodile and Chikorita.
I’m really nervous for this game. From the looks of it, it’s going to take place almost ENTIRELY in Lumiose City. I’m still looking forward to it but I’m scared I won’t lie
@Greatluigi Ohhh. Good catch!
I really hope they have regional versions of the starters and don't simply give them Megas. Seeing the starters with different typing was so cool.
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