Even in case you’ve by no means performed a Pokémon recreation earlier than, you may most likely work out how the kind chart works. Fireplace varieties are weak to water varieties, water is weak to grass, and grass is weak to fireplace. Kind matchups are foundational to Pokémon battles, far earlier than you get into the weeds of stats and strats. I’ve had the Pokémon sort chart memorized for round 25 years.
That also didn’t cease me from making a rookie error in Pokémon Legends: Z-A. I panicked and despatched out my Weedle towards an NPC’s Pidgeotto, which it is extremely a lot weak to. It acquired one-shot, clearly.
It’s not that I forgot how sort matchups labored. However the battle system in Legends: Z-A could be very, very completely different from what I’m used to, not less than with Pokémon. It’s the second entry within the Legends spinoff collection, which started with 2022’s Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and whereas the Legends video games are nonetheless RPGs like the primary Pokémon video games, they mechanically and structurally diverge a bit from the everyday Pokémon components. And Z-A takes it additional than Arceus did: it’s the primary Pokémon RPG to characteristic real-time battles as a substitute of turn-based ones.
In the primary collection, you select your actions flip by flip, taking time to assume by means of the choices — the precise assault to make use of, whether or not to modify out for one more pokémon, what the opponent is likely to be planning — earlier than locking one thing in and seeing the way it performs out. In Legends: Z-A, alternatively, you’re dealing with your opponent extra instantly. There’s no ready for each opponents to lock of their actions for the flip; you simply choose your pokémon’s transfer utilizing one of many face buttons, and the transfer goes out.
It’s an enormous departure from practically 30 years of Pokémon video games. I’m used to excited about Pokémon like a chess match, slowly and a number of other steps forward; in Z-A, I had to consider the identical sort matchups and stats and all the things else, however rapidly and on my toes. It took me a while to regulate.
The demo, which I performed forward of the 2025 Pokémon World Championships in Anaheim, California, was break up into two elements lasting round 10 minutes every, each seemingly early within the recreation and closely centered on the brand new battle system. Within the first half, I attempted my hand on the Z-A Royale, which had me battling NPC trainers round Lumiose Metropolis at evening. Within the second, I battled a Rogue Mega Absol, which felt just like the Pokémon model of a basic 3D Zelda boss. Within the second a part of the demo, I began to get the dangle of this model of battling, and what was at first a bit overwhelming rapidly turned an alluring form of problem: rewiring the Pokémon a part of my mind.
The primary large change I needed to deal with: since battle in Z-A is in actual time, strikes are on cooldown timers. You may’t simply spam the one super-effective transfer you will have time and again; it’s important to work out what else you are able to do when you wait to make use of that assault once more. Even towards very low-level opponents, I discovered myself counting on standing strikes like Growl, which lowers the opposing pokémon’s assault stat, as a buffer whereas my different strikes have been on cooldown. This had the added bonus of permitting my pokémon to take extra hits, shopping for me a while each for the cooldown and to assume.
Utilizing standing strikes like this isn’t uncommon when taking part in the core Pokémon video games at a excessive degree, however it’s very uncommon towards a run-of-the-mill Bellsprout early within the recreation. I didn’t have sufficient time within the demo to essentially mess around with it, however I can see myself rigorously deciding on every pokémon’s strikes to account for the cooldown, like making certain I’ve Shield on extra of my pokémon to dam incoming assaults. In different Pokémon video games, I’d completely train my pokémon Shield if I used to be constructing a aggressive crew, however I might nearly by no means do it simply to play the primary story.
Picture: The Pokémon Firm
It’s not that battles in Legends: Z-A are unforgiving. (I did get smoked by the Pidgeotto, however in my protection, it was additionally not less than 10 ranges larger than the pokémon on my crew.) However after years and years of approaching each mainline Pokémon recreation the identical manner, working not less than a bit bit on autopilot and muscle reminiscence within the early recreation, it’s form of an thrilling problem to have to have a look at Pokémon in another way.
The battle towards Rogue Mega Absol — a wild, rampaging Absol that may Mega Evolve by itself — was just like the NPC battles in that manner, however much more hands-on. Not like in battles towards different trainers, wild pokémon can injury each your pokémon and your character, so it’s important to bodily dodge and transfer across the enviornment whereas deciding on your pokémon’s strikes, keeping track of everybody’s well being, and juggling cooldowns. (Utilizing objects like Potions can also be on a cooldown.) Touchdown hits on the Rogue Mega causes it to drop orbs of “Mega Power,” which it’s important to run and choose up so as to cost up a gauge to Mega Evolve your personal pokémon and deal extra injury.
It’s much more to stability, however I didn’t discover it overwhelming, one way or the other. On this case, I had a Lucario at my disposal, and it had super-effective strikes whereas additionally resisting Absol’s assaults, which helped. Lucario already knew Shield, too, so I acquired to reap the benefits of the technique I had simply developed within the Z-A Royale. And it’s additionally a well-known model of boss battle in video games extra usually, even when it’s completely different for Pokémon. It was extra concerned and felt extra harmful than the coach battles, however I felt competent at it comparatively rapidly (particularly in comparison with the Pidgeotto incident).
Possibly it’s only a typical studying curve, and I’ll in a short time develop an up to date form of autopilot for the simpler elements of Z-A. However I actually did like having to assume actively about Pokémon in a manner that I normally save for aggressive play. I hope the sport can maintain that for longer than a demo, and that I’ll get to construct on the Pokémon information I’ve been amassing for years, quite than simply passively flexing it.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A shall be launched for Nintendo Change and Change 2 on October sixteenth.