The countdown to 2025 is now well underway following the surprise announcement of Pokémon Legends Z-A, which has us frothing with excitement about what could be included.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus provided a breath of fresh air to the Pokémon franchise, and Pokémon Legends Z-A should follow on in that regard, making adjustments to the Pokémon formula that we’ve become accustomed to in the decades since Red and Blue first arrived on shelves.
Though we may have a long wait until we get our hands on Pokémon Legends Z-A, it gives us plenty of time to decide what we are desperate to see—and we’ve made a list of our biggest wishes.
Starter variety
Pokémon Legends: Arceus shook up the standard formula with a Starter trio consisting of Pokémon from different regions than Sinnoh, with the normal Starters for the region available to encounter in the wild, and it was a breath of fresh air.
The same approach with Pokémon Legends Z-A should be taken, with Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie not included and instead available in the wild, and their places taken by Starter Pokémon from other regions. This would open the door to providing new Mega Evolution forms to the selected Starter Pokémon, potentially with a different typing like we saw with Hisuain forms in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and could provide a new lease of life to some forgotten starters.
New Mega Pokémon
The introduction of Mega Pokémon in Pokémon X & Y was a fan-favorite feature, but one that was somewhat neglected in the years following. Although Gigantamax in Pokémon Sword and Shield has some similarities, fans longed for the return of Mega Pokémon in their original style.
Now that a return to Kalos is on the cards, the door is open for all the Mega Pokémon we know and love to feature, as well as the opportunity to introduce Mega Pokémon for plenty more in the Pokédex—and this is where the original Kalos trio could come in to receive Mega Evolutions.
There’s also the potential for favorites like Flygon, Skarmory, and the trio of Johto starters to get a refresh, though I’m holding out hope for Sandslash to take center stage and become the most powerful Pokémon in existence.
Return of the Shiny sound
Shiny hunting in Pokémon can be time-consuming and, at times, tedious, but the reward is worth it. However, there’s always the fear you’ll miss a Shiny Pokémon—a concern that is increased when it comes to those who only receive a minor color change. Pokémon Legends: Arceus provided some respite for this worry with the introduction of a sound that would trigger whenever a Shiny Pokémon appeared, which made Shiny hunting much easier and much more enjoyable.
That feature was not included in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, even though Mass Outbreaks did make the move to Gen IX, and this should be rectified by the return of the Shiny sound in Pokémon Legends Z-A.
New regional forms
First introduced in Gen XII, regional Pokémon forms provided the opportunity to give a refresh to existing Pokémon alongside the addition of entirely new Pokémon and, in total, 54 Pokémon have received a regional form. So far, the majority of those have been from Gen I, which is understandable given the popularity of the original 151 Pokémon and the fact they can’t rinse the Kanto region for a remake every year, but Pokémon from later generations have also received attention.
New regional forms will likely be introduced in Pokémon Legends Z-A and that is a good thing, as there are plenty more Pokémon that deserve some attention.
Improved battle mechanics and PvP
While Pokémon Legends: Arceus did many things right, the battle mechanics were confusing with the strong and agile styles that either made your moves more powerful or quicker, varying the amount of time you had to wait between attacks from the standard format.
In theory, that approach makes sense considering you could catch Pokémon off guard, though some adjustments were made in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet that let you utilize surprise on wild Pokémon without requiring different styles—which should be the formula that remains in Pokémon Legends Z-A. Moving away from styles would also make it easier to introduce PvP elements into Pokémon Legends Z-A, something that has been a staple of the Pokémon franchise for generations but was absent from Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
Zygarde and AZ lore
Zygarde looks like the focus of the main storyline in Pokémon Legends Z-A, as Arceus was in the previous game. And if the game is set in the past as we expect, we could also see AZ—the former king of the Kalos region.
Both Zygarde and AZ have an extremely interesting backstory that has only just been touched upon by previous Pokémon games, and they serve as the ideal background for the story that can be significantly fleshed out in Pokémon Legends Z-A.
The catch, however, could be how AZ played a huge role in the Great War in Kalos, said to be thousands of years ago, likely well before the setting of Pokémon Legends Z-A. But with time-travel mechanics already in the games, anything is possible.
Game stability
Pokémon Legends: Arceus made great strides in bringing the Pokémon franchise into the 21st century with a semi-open-world environment and the ability to catch Pokémon without engaging in direct battle, but Pokémon Scarlet and Violet took some big steps back. Gen IX seemed to struggle to cope with a fully open-world environment, and while that could be improved if Pokémon Legends Z-A is released on the Nintendo Switch 2, avoiding lag spikes, freezes, and other bugs needs to be a guarantee.
If that means the open-world is abandoned in favor of the approach of the Hisui region where there were a variety of different environments to explore and load times between them, I’m sure the Pokémon community can cope.
Published: Feb 27, 2024 01:51 pm