Review #045 – Pokémon Legends: Z-A

Prior to release I was skeptical of Legends: Z-A, mainly because of its urban setting and potential lack of scope. But I was also cautiously optimistic about the return of Mega Evolutions and, more importantly, the introduction of real time battles— something I’ve always wanted to see since playing Red Version way back in the 90s.

I’m happy to say the game turned out great! The battling is particularly fun—having attacks be on cool-downs lets non- damaging moves be much more viable (in the story mode at least). And because everything is much faster you need to think on your feet more often—positioning your Pokémon to avoid or land certain attacks is super important now, for example.

I had a blast exploring Lumiose City, catching Pokémon, battling trainers, and finding new Mega Evolutions. Like any other modern Pokémon game it suffers from lack of voice acting, bland set dressing, and overly long onboarding. But the Pokémon and characters look really sharp, not to mention how shockingly smooth the Switch 2 version runs. It’s a great game.