Pokémon Legends: Z-A will improve on both Arceus and X & Y in 2025

Legends: Arceus was a breath of fresh air for Pokémon, so I'm excited about the next entry in the series

Pokémon Legends: Z-A / The Pokémon Company

Pokémon Legends: Arceus was a childhood dream come true. Despite “Gotta catch ‘em all” being the series’ slogan, this is the first time a main series game has actually been about catching Pokémon rather than battling them as the main focus of the gameplay. 

Sitting a few years removed from it, it’s easy to forget just how mindblowing the initial reveal of that game was. Fighting Pokémon in the overworld, out-of-battle catching, stealth mechanics, these were all things that we had long accepted Game Freak and Nintendo simply had no interest in doing with Pokémon, but somehow the stars aligned and Legends: Arceus was a breath of fresh air for the series the likes of which we’d never seen before.

It still suffered from some technical flaws that, unfortunately, have come to define Pokémon’s time on Switch, but the core gameplay of exploring the game’s various areas and employing a variety of tactics to catch dangerous Pokémon out in the wild was such a joy that they were easily ignored.

In a series that so often tries to railroad you into a lame story that constantly waxes lyrical about how magical it is to live in the Pokémon world, Legends was the game that sat back and let you discover that magic for yourself. On top of that, it made a lot of fun additions to Pokémon lore, giving us a lot more to sink our teeth into when it comes to Sinnoh’s creation trio and the mysterious Alpha Pokémon, Arceus.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A / The Pokémon Company

The hardcore fanbase that felt underserved by the likes of Sword and Shield or the more casual-focused Let’s Go games finally felt heard with Legends, so it didn’t take long for cries of a sequel to be heard. People immediately began fantasizing about what mythical Pokémon could be the namesake for this new game, what region it would explore, and what nostalgia it could tap into. Kyurem, Celebi, and Mew were common cries, but I always felt more interested in fleshing out a Pokémon that got completely screwed up when it was first revealed, Zygarde. 

Pokémon X and Y aren’t particularly great games. The series’ first leap into 3D felt somewhat lifeless with an underwhelming story, the fewest new Pokémon of any generation in history, and it was by far the easiest game in the series to that point. While we’ll never know for sure, it’s likely that lack of enthusiasm that led to the expected follow-up game, Pokémon Z, never existing, breaking the pattern that had been in place since Generation 1 of an “enhanced” edition coming soon after the first games in a new region.

From a business perspective, this was a solid idea, as the Gen 3 remakes, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were much better received and put the series back on track, but there was one major casualty of the decision, Zygarde.

Where Xerneas and Yveltal served as the cover legendaries for X and Y, Zygarde was the third Pokémon in that trio, and typically the “enhanced” games would alter the story to focus on the third ‘mon. It had worked wonders for Rayquaza, Giratina, and Kyurem, all of which went from being the forgotten third wheel to a beloved legendary once their featured games were released.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A / The Pokémon Company

However, with Pokémon Z never coming to fruition, Zygarde was left in the dust. Two new forms had been designed for it, as well as new lore where it could split itself into a hundred different pieces and would gradually become more powerful as more of its cells were gathered. These ideas got shown off in the Pokémon anime to great effect and when they were eventually implemented into a main series game, it was as a side-quest in Pokémon Sun and Moon that felt completely out of place.

Since then, it’s just sat there as a sad example of a big missed opportunity, that is, until the reveal of Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Despite being revealed almost a year ago, we still know basically nothing about this sequel aside from that it’ll be set in the Kalos region, center around what will eventually become Lumiose City, and will inevitably have something to do with Zygarde. Also, Mega-Evolution is coming back.

If the original Pokémon Legends ticked all the boxes of what child-me wanted from the ultimate Pokémon game, these facts about Z-A tick all the boxes of what adult-me wants from a sequel. It promises to develop an area of the lore that was previously ignored, brings back a mechanic I love in Mega-Evolution, and will hopefully evolve the gameplay of the original in a fun way.

There are concerns to be found, though. For one thing, Game Freak’s scope problem hasn’t gotten any better since Legends: Arceus. Scarlet and Violet were dreadful performance-wise and I could easily see their ambition getting the better of it once again. Granted, this game will almost certainly come to Switch 2 at some point – maybe even at launch, depending on when that is – but even that may not help if it can’t keep the game’s scope in line with what the technology is capable of.

Still, that doesn’t change the fact that the first Legends game was everything I’ve ever wanted out of Pokémon. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had with a series I’ve loved since I was a kid, so any game promising to give me more of that is going to be top of my list when it comes to highly anticipated 2025 releases.