Pokémon Legends Z-A feels destined for Switch 2, even if it isn’t an exclusive game

It’s been a year since Pokémon Legends Z-A was first revealed as part of the 2024 Pokémon Day celebrations, so you know what that means? It’s time for wild speculative theories, fake leaks, and discussing theories ahead of Pokémon Day 2025.

New information about the game should be revealed for the first time in over 300 days at Pokémon Day. And while Pokémon Legends Z-A will be a Nintendo Switch title due to the Nintendo Switch 2’s backward compatibility, the lack of gameplay or any news since its initial reveal, and the subsequent reveal of the Nintendo Switch 2 before Pokémon Day on Feb. 27, has me pondering that there might be something more to this then meets the eye.

Legends Z-A would be perfect for Switch 2, considering previous console limitations

Let me be clear: I fully expect Pokémon Legends Z-A to be a Nintendo Switch title. Everything we have heard and seen about the game from The Pokémon Company seems to confirm that Pokémon Legends Z-A was made with the original Switch in mind, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be playable on Switch 2.

But a part of me wonders “what if?” After all, we haven’t heard anything about the game in the past year, and the timing of the Switch 2 reveals before the Pokémon Day live stream in late February has me wondering why there has been so much radio silence about the title—and if the the Nintendo Switch 2 could have something to do with it.

Nintendo had no reason to reveal the console and then announce an April 2025 direct other than one reason: To allow companies to confirm if their games are coming to the console in the future. The timing of the reveal alongside Pokémon Day has me wondering if we might get some big Switch 2 Pokémon reveal as well, and if not Pokémon Legends Z-A being a Switch 2 exclusive title, maybe instead there is some benefit to playing the game on Switch 2.

One only needs to look at the poor performance of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet on the Nintendo Switch to know what I’m talking about. Those games chug on Nintendo Switch and have terrible performance, so I worry that Legends Z-A, which could be a bigger and more graphics-heavy game in scale considering its premise, might have similar difficulties when playing it on the old Switch hardware we’ve already seen struggle.

I don’t think The Pokémon Company has a reason to make Switch and Switch 2 versions of the game like what we saw Nintendo do either with their deluxe versions of Wii U games or how the company handled Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on both Wii U and Nintendo Switch. It has no reason to because of backward compatibility, so I’m hopeful the game has something that makes it “better” to play on Switch 2, or you have to own a Switch 2 to have the right experience.

What if a day one patch for Switch 2 systems boosted the performance rate of Legends Z-A, or there was a Legends Z-A Switch 2 bundle, or even missions in the game that you can only get by playing the game on the new hardware? Even if players can enjoy the base game on Switch, having something that makes the game superior to play on Switch 2 feels like a no-brainer.