Pokemon Legends ZA Switch 2 Review

Pokemon Legends ZA Switch 2 Review
Version Reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2

When I was growing up, Pokémon Blue took up a lot of my time. If I wasn’t playing it, I was watching Pokémon on Australia’s Cheez TV, following Ash and the gang through all sorts of adventures. That love and wonder eventually faded as I grew up, and I fell off the series for a while. When Pokémon Legends ZA was announced, it felt like a bold new direction for the franchise, and also a risky one. Confined entirely to Lumiose City and built around a battle royale format, it is a huge departure from what a somewhat faded fanbase had come to expect. What’s it like? Choose your starter, get on the train, and prepare for adventure as we review Pokémon Legends ZA for Nintendo Switch 2.

Pokémon Legends: ZA takes place entirely within Lumiose City, marking one of the series’ most focused adventures yet. You play as a tourist who is unexpectedly drawn into the story of ZA, joining a local crew to climb the ranks of the ZA Battle Royale while uncovering the mystery behind rogue Mega Evolutions appearing across the city. This focused approach is one of the game’s greatest strengths. It offers a strong narrative structure that guides you through the adventure while building deeper connections with your teammates and the citizens of Lumiose.

The story gives each character purpose, and that sense of belonging made me care about what was happening around me. I found myself completely absorbed, driven by the pacing of the narrative and the way each chapter naturally pushed me forward. The story unfolds over several in-game days. During daylight hours, you meet a wide range of unique and memorable characters or explore the surrounding wild zones to expand your team. When night falls, you enter the ZA Battle Royale, competing to climb the ranks and claim the title of Pokémon Master. Each new day brings another rank, another clue, and another step toward both victory and understanding the mystery that hangs over Lumiose City.

At the heart of Pokemon Legends ZA’s gameplay is your exploration of Lumiose City, which can be a double-edged Honedge. There is a lot to discover, and wild zones evolve and add new sections as the story progresses, constantly feeding content to the player. This exploration can be dull however, as the city itself often feels rather sterile. NPCs mostly stand around doing nothing, and many wide-open spaces are filled with bland, repeating buildings. It is a shame, because some areas have wonderful detail, like cafés and building interiors, but the outside areas where you spend most of your time look just “okay.”

In Pokemon Legends ZA, wild areas help offer variety, breaking up the urban terrain with parks, graveyards, and other environments. These zones allow you to catch Pokémon and face off against stronger Alpha Pokémon. Catching every Pokémon in these areas awards special research points, which unlock rewards and help bolster your team. Wild zones also feature different Pokémon depending on the time of day, giving you a choice between heading into a battle zone for the ZA Royale or exploring the wild areas for elusive Pokémon.

The ZA Royale is where the game truly shines. Each night, you enter a battle zone that changes regularly, taking on trainers for tickets and rewards. Once you accumulate enough tickets, you face a ranked match, climbing the ZA hierarchy. You can sneak through the zones to gain an advantage, setting up crucial attacks in the heat of battle. While many areas are easy to navigate, most of the ranking matches are challenging and often come down to close victories.

Rogue Mega Evolutions also play a part in the story. You encounter Pokémon on the verge of Mega Evolving, which act like mini-instances where you must battle significantly stronger opponents using your own Mega-Evolved Pokémon. Defeating these Pokémon rewards you with their Mega Stone, further strengthening your team and bringing you closer to uncovering the mysteries of Mega Evolution.

This all leads into the real-time battle system. Each Pokémon ability is assigned to buttons with cooldowns, letting you move freely and fight in real time. Moves can be swapped out, and TMs return, allowing you to manage a well-balanced team. The system is streamlined, making battles exciting and thrilling. Each move has fun, satisfying animations, and the battles themselves look fantastic. Overall, I found combat in ZA to be a fun and rewarding experience.

Visually, Pokémon Legends: ZA can be a mixed bag. Characters, Pokémon, and interiors look fantastic, brought to life with detailed expressions and fluid animations. Each team member has style and flair, giving them unique personalities and charm. Certain sections of the world are highly immersive and beautifully detailed, drawing you into the game… until you step outside. As Lumiose City is the main character of the game, you would expect it to be amazing to explore. Unfortunately, many wide-open areas feature flat textures and bland, recycled buildings, which makes the city districts feel repetitive and dull. This monotony is occasionally broken up by vibrant cafés and fashion stores, which can bring a street to life, but it makes you wonder why the game couldn’t include simple enhancements like bump mapping or 3D balconies instead of relying on flat textures. Overall, it feels like a visual compromise to ensure the game runs on all Switch hardware, rather than adding extra flair for the Switch 2 version. That said, the Switch 2 version runs at a silky smooth 60 frames per second and never misses a beat. Despite the plain textures, I still found myself immersed in the world of ZA, drawn in by its characters, animation, and the charm of its interiors.

For my Pokemon Trainers looking into accesibility, there are a couple of options relating to text speed and mini map rotation, but outside of that, there aren’t many options to speak of, so as always, I recommend further research into finding out if Pokemon Legends ZA suits your needs. At $90 AUD, Pokemon Legends ZA offers plenty of adventure with a 25 hour capmaign and post game content, as well as completionist and shiny hunters will have a lot to do here.

Pokemon Legends ZA is a bold and risky move for the Pokemon company, and in my opinion, it’s one that certainly pays off. As a fan who fell out of love with the series, playing only a couple of hours of recent titles before moving on, ZA has drawn me into this magical world of Pokemon once again. For the 20 odd hours I played through the story, I felt like that 11 year old kid sitting in front of my TV watching the show while playing Pokemon Blue, sending my Blastoise into battle along with my mainly Gen 1 team. Sure, the bland textures may make the game feel less polished in parts, but the overal changes reinvigorated this Pokemon Trainer with a well paced narrative and bold departure from a tried and true battle system. Pokemon Legends ZA feels like the start of something new, perhaps a new direction for the series moving forward, or perhaps a rekindling of the franchise gamers love. Despite some rough edges, Pokemon Legends ZA is an outstanding adventure, and one I hope that brings many Pokemon Trainers back into the wonderful world of Pokemon.

So, What’s It Like? Pokemon Legends ZA is Like Pokemon X & Y, crossed with Pokemon Archeus.

In the interest of full disclosure, a review copy was provided by Nintendo, but this doesn’t influence my score.

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