Pokemon Legends: Z-A Review (Switch 2) – Poke-Life In The Big City

Given what happened with Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet, it was clear that The Pokémon Company couldn’t afford to release another major title or spin-off that wasn’t polished to perfection and truly worth players’ time. When word spread that the team was developing a follow-up to Pokémon Legends: Arceus, one set entirely within Lumiose City, fans (myself included) were intrigued yet understandably skeptical. As delays piled up, that uncertainty only grew. But as my Pokémon Legends: Z-A review will show, the wait was more than worth it. This entry doesn’t just refine the formula, it reimagines what a Pokémon world can be, as we’ll see in The Outerhaven’s Pokémon Legends: Z-A review.

Game Name: Pokémon Legends Z-A
Platform: Nintendo Switch/Switch 2
Developer: Game Freak/The Pokémon Company
Publisher: Nintendo Release
Date: 10/16/25
Price: $59.99 / $69.99

Pokemon Legends: Z-A begins with you being a tourist, arriving in the Lumiose City in the Kalos Region. You’re there on vacation when you get roped into various things at warp speed by your new BFF Taunie, or Urbain, depending on the gender of your character. You’re soon welcomed to your new partner Pokémon, join Team MZ at Hotel Z, and then join the Z-A Royale, which is hosted by the Quasartico company. You get all that?

As you find out from AZ, who returns from the original Kalos adventures, there’s something serious going on at the Prism Tower, and the point of the royale is to find the “Strongest Mega Evolution Trainer” to deal with the situation. Plus, if you make it to Rank A, you’ll get a special wish! Thus, your journey begins across many paths and storylines.

So, let’s get right to the heart of the matter: Does having the whole game in Lumiose City work? Yes! It really does. Not once while playing the game did I feel that things were “too small.” In fact, part of the fun of the game is that Lumiose City “evolves” with you as you progress, opening up not only new “Wild Areas” for you to adventure into but new side quests from the various citizens within. Plus, there’s a verticality to the city’s structure that all but forces you to pay attention to where ladders or special “holovators” are so you can take them up and see what else you can find.

As I noted in a recent episode of the Nintendo Entertainment Podcast, one of the funner elements to wandering Lumiose City was doing side quests and meeting all the people. Some are trainers, naturally, and will want to battle you, while others will need your help with various tasks, including showing them certain Pokémon, helping you find items, and so on.

Why did these side quests intrigue me? First, there are well over 100 of them, so you’ll be busy if you want to do a completionist run. Second, many of the tasks are tied to “city life with Pokémon.” One mission had me helping people with Poke-problems, only to get unique insights into how people in Lumiose viewed having Pokémon so close to them via the “urban redevelopment plan” that Quasartico had been putting into effect. In which the same people showed the highs and lows of such a project, and doing all of these really made me feel connected to Lumiose, despite my character only being a “tourist.”

Oh, and that doesn’t even touch on the other main characters you meet. Team MZ is full of personalities, for example. Taunie/Urbain is a bit of an airhead but is eternally loyal and never afraid to help people in Lumiose. Lida is the “big sister” of the group while also being the glue that holds it together and keeps it focused. Naveen is the “quieter” personality yet is a total fanboy for a certain streamer and was willing to leave home so he could fight for his dreams.

When you add that to the roster of “unique characters” that we meet across Lumiose via regular interactions and the Z-A Battle Royale, you’ll run the gamut of characters that all seem one-note but are surprisingly deeper. Even characters you would initially think are villains are actually so much more, and I appreciated that, especially when they’re all called upon at the end to help save the day.

Speaking of the story, I would be remiss in my Pokemon Legends: Z-A Review if I didn’t comment on how this is a true “sequel story” to the events of Pokémon XY. We not only see the fallout from the first game’s stories but see how Lumiose City adapted to the “Ultimate Weapon” being unleashed, the new role AZ and Floette have taken on, where Zygarde factors into everything, and even learn new layers about what really happened the first time around.

By the end, not only do we get some really cool moments (Zygarde is seriously awesome), but a meaningful conclusion to a key character’s arc and the blossoming of new tales to be told.

Alright, I’ve waxed on enough about characters and stories, let’s get to gameplay! First and foremost, Pokémon Legends Z-A plays GREAT on the Nintendo Switch 2. The graphics are tight, the framerate is smooth, and I honestly don’t recall many visual “hiccups” of any kind. So, yes, that means there’s no “windmill incident” or a case of a “Rider Pokémon” disappearing while you’re on it.

As for catching your favorite Pocket Monsters, that happens via the “Wild Zones.” Sectioned-off spots in Lumiose City, where you can catch a handful or two of Pokémon that are mostly different from the previous or next zones you’ll enter. They actually get pretty creative with things, including having true “biomes” within these Wild Zones, like a snowy area, a steel-filled construction yard, and more. I was honestly surprised by how many of my favorite Pokémon “made the cut,” which made it difficult to try and pick my “all-star team” to get through the game with. I managed, but it was hard cutting out some of my favorites from my party.

Regarding Pokémon battling, that was easily one of the strongest parts of the game. Gone is the classic “turn-based system” that we see in many RPGs, and in its place is a true free-flow battle system that makes it feel more like the Pokémon anime than anything else. You don’t have “limits” on your moves, as in how many you can use before you can’t use them anymore, and instead, you just have a “recharge” timer when you use a single move.

What this means is that you can’t simply spam a move, like we’ve all done in the past, and just as important, you REALLY need to be smart about how you battle and who you battle with. Why do I say that? Type effectiveness can be critical in key battles, and if you’re dealing with a disadvantaged Pokémon, they can get KO’d quickly. That goes double when you realize that the more powerful a Poke-move you use, the longer it can take to strike the foe.

In a key battle with the streamer Canari, I had a team that wasn’t really built for fighting Electric-Type Pokémon, and thus, I had to do some serious shuffling and healing to ensure I won. It was not easy, though. Also, status effects can be game-changers, including how when you’re poisoned, it saps your Pokémon’s health in real time, which can take you from fully healed to on the verge of KO in a matter of seconds.

You’ll definitely need these tactics in the Z-A Battle Royale. This event happens each night in Lumiose, and it’s a lot of fun. Each time you need to get a “Challenge Ticket,” you’ll see where the “Battle Zones” are and challenge the trainers within. By using special cards scattered around the area, you can get a boost in points that you earn with each victory, allowing you to easily get to your goal before the night ends. Oh, and if you do miss the deadline, don’t panic, your score carries over to the next night. I was honestly really surprised by how well-handled the Royale was, especially in how you can wander around the area after you’ve defeated trainers, and new ones will pop up! You never know what trainer you’ll see next!

And that doesn’t even cover another of the key elements to Pokémon Legends Z-A: Rogue Mega Evolution Battles! This is a key part of the game’s story, and you’ll have multiple missions to directly deal with these Pokémon before they unleash havoc on Lumiose. Now, if this were a straight-up battle, that would get annoying. However, The Pokémon Company thought of that, and not only do you REALLY need to use your own Mega Evolution, but each of these Rogue Pokémon acts incredibly differently in battle, making each one unique.

For example, Mega Victreebel pours out blobs of poison all over the battlefield, and if you step in one, you’ll lose a lot of health. Mega Beedrill actually summons other Pokémon from its evolutionary line to assist it in battle! Oh, and Mega Froslass can create a blizzard alongside icebergs that you’ll need to dodge, else lose the battle. Each battle rewards you with that Pokémon’s Mega Stone, and you will feel accomplished every time you win, especially since you’ll have a Team MZ member alongside to help you in each battle.

One thing to note before moving on to the next section is that this game is a little shorter than the last mainline titles or Arceus. But that’s not a bad thing! The game has a lot to do, and the main campaign alone took me about 26 hours to complete. Plus, there’s post-game content that continues the story, gives you another Wild Zone to catch Pokémon, and continues the Z-A Battle Royale! Thus, you can play this game for some time and not grow bored. I certainly didn’t.

Alright, this is the part where I note the game’s issues. To be fair, the game isn’t perfect. But to be just as fair, the main problems are rather small ones.

First, let’s once again talk about Lumiose City. While it’s clear the dev teams worked hard to make the city work, and they succeeded, there were times when they could’ve made straighter paths to get to where you want to go. For example, there are “obstacles” that certain Pokémon moves can get rid of, but they don’t make it clear at times which ones do what to these items, and I was expecting to be told which ones to use, as that’s what they did early on with rocks and the Brick Break technique.

And for some of the Rogue Mega Evolution battles, they ask you to go to VERY specific places, and if you don’t know “the path they wanted you to go,” it can get tedious trying to find the way up or over.

Continuing on, while the battle system was impressive, it wasn’t exactly flawless. Having to hold the ZL button throughout to “lock on” to an opponent Pokémon sometimes created issues. Furthermore, there were times when I swore I hit the button, and then the attack would start, and then it would just stop. And no, it wasn’t a “flinching” kind of thing.

With catching Pokémon, much like with Arceus, you don’t have to battle them to catch them, which is awesome. Like before, there’s a 4-tiered arrow system that lets you know the “likelihood” of getting the catch. There are even special items you can get called “Colorful Screws” (that are scattered about Lumiose City via “obstacle courses,” I kid you not!) that you can trade in for items to get better catching rates. However, I maxed out those catching rates, and yet I couldn’t get above a 2 in likelihood in certain attempts, and then, on the VERY NEXT POKÉMON, including one that was an Alpha, which should be harder to catch, I caught it with ease. Plus, there are some Pokémon that have VERY specific catching conditions, which will annoy.

Speaking of annoying, while I adored the variety of side quests in the game, including being able to get special Pokémon early through them, there were some that were a chore to complete. Some included randomly leveling up a singular Pokémon to battle someone just to “prove a point” or something along those lines, and others required you to find things by getting the most basic of instructions about a location, and you hoped to find it. One late-game quest asked me to have a team “Made Up Entirely Of Furfrou,” just so I could battle a version of “The Elite Four” that also used Furfrou. Um…pass.

Even still, I must end this Pokemon Legends: Z-A Review on a high note, because this was a really fun game! I found myself trying to squeeze playtime in as much as possible, just so I could squeeze another session in before I had to do something else.

This was a much-needed game for The Pokémon Company, and sales of the title have already been impressive. While I obviously don’t expect Gen 10, whatever it is, to be like this for obvious reasons, I do think there are many things to take away from it. The battle system is a keeper, I really liked the graphical style, the story was great, and so on.

Like with many games of this nature, you might hesitate to get it because “it’s a spinoff title,” or it’s “a smaller scale to what came before,” but trust me when I say, if you give it a shot, Lumiose City and its citizens will surprise you.

I was merely hoping the game would be fun, and I can’t wait to dive back in to see what else the post-game content offers.

Review Disclosure Statement: This copy of Pokemon Legends: Z-A was purchased by The Outerhaven for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.

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