The Media Man Reviews: Pokémon: Legends Z-A (Part 1)

I've done a series of posts all about playing the game, now it's time to finally review it.

Pokémon: Legends ZA has had an...interesting impact on the fandom. This game went from being incredibly hyped back when it was first revealed last year to being completely ridiculed when it was released. I can't tell you how depressing it was to see this game go from anticipated to hated so quickly and all because of irrelevant things like "flat building textures" or some nonsense like that. The haters of this game have gotten to the point they outright say "if you like this game, you're not a real fan". Seriously, why are we still acting like this? We're in 2025, we should know better than to say hurtful things like that. Also it never ceases to amaze me how unpleasable fans can be. They're the ones demanding GameFreak be given more time to make their games, they asked for another Legends game after the success of Legends Arceus and they also demanded for Mega Evolution to come back. GameFreak granted all three of these wishes and they're STILL not happy! Seriously, it feels like GameFreak could make a Pokémon game that's every fan's dream come true and they'd still hate it. I'd hate to be in GameFreak's position where it feels like no matter what they do, fans will complain anyway. Maybe this is why I'm glad I'm a self-published author with a small following so I don't have to deal with this kind of crap...

I on the other hand was hyped for this game's release since the first trailer came out and I couldn't wait to play it. And as you saw in my daily gameplay journals the last week or two, I had a good time playing it. So now I've played it, let's break down why I think this is another good Pokémon game...

Section 1: The Story

The story sees us, the player, visiting Lumiose City in the Kalos region. While there, we get our starter Pokémon, join a group of friends known as Team MZ and learn to master Mega Evolution while also bearing witness to Quasartico's redevelopment plan that promises to make the city a haven for people and Pokémon alike. But things get tricky when random Pokémon begin Mega Evolving out of nowhere throughout the city and all isn't what it seems to be...

Remember how Legends Arceus was set in the past and somewhat acted as a prequel to the Diamond and Pearl games? Legends ZA goes in the opposite direction. The story front and foremost is a sequel to Pokémon X and Y from back in 2013 and it's VERY apparent in that regard. The story will make frequent call backs to X and Y with some characters mentioning how it's been five years since the events of those games, the Ultimate Weapon is still brought up with a sense of dread, the events of the story are happening in the first place because of what went down in X and Y (it's said the Ultimate Weapon being fired and the presence of Mega Energy is bringing more Pokémon to Lumiose City) and several characters from X and Y even make a comeback such as AZ, Emma, Mable and even Lysandre. I like all this as it truly does make this game feel like a legitimate sequel to X and Y and not a distant sequel where you question why it's even a sequel in the first place if it's barely going to acknowledge the original. They could've easily pulled a Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and barely even mention the events of X and Y, but they didn't. Instead they built story on what came before and thus gave us what feels like the next chapter of the story and not just lazy fan-service. It's like the writers thought "OK, this game's a sequel to X and Y, so let's make it feel like one".

It also feels like this is one of those sequels that's laser focused on fixing problems with its predecessors and addressing some of the criticisms that fans had. Let's go over them shall we?

The friend group was bland and boring: Have to agree unfortunately. Calem, Serena, Shauna, Trevor and Tierno were a boring group of characters with barely any chemistry with each other. It felt like only Shauna had any real personality or chemistry with anybody because of what a precious little cinnamon bun she is. The rest were just disposable. NOT the case here. Team MZ have much stronger personalities, their own little character tics and idiosyncrasies that make them more distinct and full of life and they have a much better defined relationship with one another. Sure they're a group of friends, but they're not always going to get along and they can quarrel at times over trivial things. They also have a stronger connection with each other too thanks to having detailed backgrounds explaining where they came from and how they came together. Seriously, it feels like I know more about Urbain/Taunie, Lida and Naveen than I ever did about Calem, Serena, Shauna, Trevor or Tierno! The X and Y gang were just a friendly bunch that were nice to hang out with, but had little else to say about them. Team MZ by comparison feel like actual friends I got to know and form a bond with.

Mega Evolution was underutilized: MASSIVELY improved here! I've said before how I feel Mega Evolution felt like an afterthought in the X and Y games. Seriously, it genuinely feels like X and Y were created without Mega Evolution in mind and they didn't come up with it until much later in production and had to hastily slap it on at the last minute. You barely had any Mega Evolutions at your disposal throughout the game and the amount of trainers you battled that even use Mega Evolution could be counted on one hand. In this game, it was clearly made with Mega Evolution in mind from the start and as a result we have Mega Evolutions that are available to us much sooner, not too many of them are very late in the game (only three of them are post-game while the rest are during the main game) and just about every major character uses Mega Evolution here from your pals in Team MZ to all the high-ranking trainers you battle in the Z-A Royale. It also helps how you get Rouge Mega Evolutions that necessitate the need to Mega Evolve your Pokémon, thus making Mega Evolution feel necessary and not just a cheap, fancy gimmick you get to play around with to make the game easier. This is a game that makes Mega Evolutions feel fun to use and more special to play around with and I'm forever grateful to this game for that.

The X and Y games are too easy: I'll cover this more in the gameplay section, but I can definitely say that this game offers more of a challenge then its predecessors did.

Zygarde was underutilized: Not anymore! Zygarde's an important player in the story and gets the focus it deserves after X and Y didn't get any follow ups to expand Zygarde's role and Sun and Moon reduced it to a lame side quest. Zygarde is here front and centre and is the primary cog in the greater machine as it takes a shine to the player and wants to battle alongside them in order to save Lumiose City.

AZ was underutilized: Once again, not the case here. In X and Y, AZ was more or less a footnote in the game's world-building and appeared so little that he may as well have not shown up at all. Here, he's the mentor figure for Team MZ and also provides us Hotel Z as a place to stay. More of his backstory is revealed here and his Floette gets to play a critical role in setting up the climax so now AZ doesn't feel like such an afterthought. He even gets a rather bittersweet conclusion to his story at the end.

Lysandre was a lame villain: I'll talk more about him when we get to the characters section, but I'll just say here that a lot of people changed their tune about Lysandre when he showed up here. He went from being one of Pokémon's more ridiculed antagonists to being considered one of the best characters in the game. Talk about getting the fans to change their tune, eh?

It's so cool to see this game tackle some of the criticisms of its predecessors and improve on X and Y's flaws, thus showing how those games had good ideas and just needed to execute them better. Thankfully, this game does just that and I feel it'll improve the experience of playing X and Y in the future now I know we have this sequel that adds more to what came before.

Speaking of, the world-building in this game continues Pokémon's amazing trend of always having fascinating and well-crafted world-building in their games. Seriously, I don't think any Pokémon game has bad world-building. Legends ZA still has the fascinating history of the Kalos region while also expanding on it with some new details revealed about AZ's past and how he created another weapon (Ange) alongside the Ultimate Weapon. That part is a bit of a retcon, but they do justify said retcon by providing a logical explanation in-universe as to why Team Flare didn't use Ange. Only AZ's Floette could activate it and Lysandre had no idea where to find her, so he didn't bother. Also, the world-building expands on Lumiose City and gives us this city that truly feels alive with different cultures, beliefs and personalities on display. The fact we have several different factions and groups that we encounter from the SBC to the Rust Syndicate to DYNA4MO and more is a big example of this. I truly feel this one game gave me more of an insight into life in Lumiose City than the entirety of X and Y ever did. Even the anime didn't feel like it gave us this much of a look into Lumiose City life compared to this game! People may criticize Legends ZA for being set in one location (which is a stupid criticism), but the fact it is set in this one location was to its benefit in my eyes as I got to feel more connected and developed more of an interest in Lumiose City than I ever did in previous games. Exploring a whole region is always fun, but sometimes it's nice to have just one location to focus on and not always be going from one to the next, y'know?

And as is the case with Pokémon games, the story tackles some pretty interesting themes and includes relevant commentary on the world around us. Despite people saying "Pokémon games have weak stories", I always find that they tend to be more nuanced and multi-layered than we give them credit for. In Legends ZA's case, I noticed a heavy and prevalent theme of redemption hanging over the story. Seriously, a lot of the story is about characters atoning for past sins and trying to make a better name for themselves. There's AZ trying to atone for his past sins in creating Ange and the Ultimate Weapon and how his actions drove Floette away from him before, there's Professor Mable who was once a member of Team Flare and is now doing honest work to atone for that, there are Grisham and Griselle who are ex-Team Flare grunts who hate how they've been ostracized by society because of their association with Team Flare and they want to make a better name for themselves and then there's Lysandre himself who has become a changed man thanks to his near-death experience at the end of X and Y and now wants to achieve a beautiful world in a more benevolent way. It's all really fascinating stuff and makes the story more compelling as we learn about these characters and how they want to improve themselves after their past misdeeds.

Sadly, not all the themes the game tackles are well-handled. Case in point another commentary the story has about Quasartico's redevelopment plan. That part of the story contains relevant issues in today's world like how we try to make living accommodations beneficial to everybody, be they residents and immigrants or even trying to make things right for both humans and animals to co-exist peacefully together. That's brilliant stuff and again, highly relevant political commentary. But the story just...doesn't do anything with it. It's brought up and commented on, but...nothing comes out of it. Even Ivor is introduced with his big wish about wanting to get rid of Wild Zones as he doesn't think it's right to keep Pokémon contained in them, but that's only brought up in his introduction scene. He rarely, if ever, brings this up again afterwards. It's just a thing people talk about but don't do anything about in the end. Huh, kinda like real life politics in that regard! =P

Sorry, that joke was too easy to make. XD

Still, if you're going to have political commentary like this in your story, then do something with it. You can't just have it in the story and then have nothing come out of it. It's like all those medias you got in the 90's and early 2000's that contain environmental messages and say "Pollution is bad, be good to the environment!". They say those things but don't really teach us how to take care of the environment and how to make things better for humanity. It's the case here, they say that having Wild Zones are problematic but don't really tell us why and don't offer an alternate solution to the problem. It just feels weird that this is there but it's so surface level. It's even weirder too because Pokémon has done much stronger political commentary in previous games and given these aspects of the story much more solid conclusions be it Team Plasma's nefarious goals in Black and White or the bullying problem at the Academy in Scarlet and Violet. So why did this game drop the ball so badly with its political commentary?

While we're talking about bad things about the story, I can easily say that compared to Legends Arceus, this story is a bit of a downgrade. Legends Arceus had a much darker tone, had higher stakes and wasn't like your typical Pokémon story. Legends ZA feels closer to a typical Pokémon story and has a repetitive pattern of "rank up in the Z-A Royale, beat the boss, beat some Rogue Mega Evolutions and advance the story a little". It isn't really until the climax when the game truly feels like it has a story to tell. Until then, the plot is mostly just a series of goals to achieve with the whole "Rogue Mega Evolution" thing being a thinly woven narrative to tie everything together. Not saying the story sucks or anything, just that it wasn't as creative or experimental as it could've been.

That said, the climax itself does make the experience feel worthwhile in the end. Pokémon games during the Switch era have had consistently strong and visually impressive climaxes and this game continues that trend. Seriously, just teaming up with every important character we've met in the game to save Lumiose City and it all culminating into one final showdown with Mega Zygarde against Hyperrogue Floette was just incredible and probably the most epic moment ever put to screen in a Pokémon game. Shows how even a weak story can be salvaged by a satisfying and epic ending.

Legends ZA may not have as strong a story as Legends Arceus did, but it does improve on the flaws of X and Y and while not all of its themes are well handled, the theme of redemption is very strong and made for a compelling narrative at least. Not the best story in Pokémon, but still a mostly solid story I'd say...

Section 2: The Characters

Pokémon has a great track record when it comes to creating memorable and likeable characters and this game is no exception.

Let's start off with the members of Team MZ. Depending on what gender your character is, you get either Urbain or Taunie as your friend and rival. While they pretty much have the same character of being kind and helpful people who will stick their necks out for anyone and everyone that's in need, I do like how the game gave them some subtle personality differences so they don't feel totally identical. Urbain (for those who pick the female trainer) has a more snarky edge to him and tends to be more to the point while Taunie (for those who pick the male trainer) is more polite by comparison. One trait they both share is that they're immensely compassionate and how they love to help those in need. However, much like Liko in Pokémon Horizons, their compassionate nature is both a strength and a flaw as it can get them in trouble sometimes. Case in point, they ended up owing money to the Rust Syndicate because of their desire to help AZ by promoting the hotel. It is important to teach kids how being nice is a good thing, but it can have its downsides and you can be kind and helpful to a certain degree. I will say, I wish the two had a little more to their characters than just "happy and helpful". Seriously, the moment where they're trapped in Prism Tower as Ange goes berserk and all they could do was comment on the view was especially groanworthy. I agree with Lida, how are they not more scared for their lives? Like, read the room Urbain/Taunie! When it comes to Team MZ, I find them to be the weakest members of the group.

By comparison, Lida and Naveen are much stronger characters and more interesting. Lida is an aspiring dancer who acts as the team leader despite Urbain/Taunie being the actual team leader, and she's also the Only Sane Woman of the group as she tries to keep everybody on track and focused on the task at hand. Naveen is a stoic fashion designer who may have a chip on his shoulder, but is ultimately a good guy deep down and spending time with Team MZ causes him to mellow out and have more fun. He did annoy me at one point when he took watching a Canari livestream so seriously that he somehow thought that was more important than dealing with Rogue Mega Evolutions, but thankfully he didn't do that again after that one scene and had his priorities straighter for the rest of the game.

And as mentioned earlier, AZ from the X and Y games makes a comeback. The 3000 year old man (or should that be 3500 years old since this game is five years after X and Y?) is more happy and content with life now he has Floette back and is a productive member of society again. But unfortunately, his past sins are back to haunt him as there's still the other invention he created back in the day, Ange, that's causing problems for Lumiose City and it's also implied throughout the game he may be dying. AZ was great here and I liked how he played a grandfatherly mentor role to the main characters.

Next up are the high-ranking trainers we battle in the Z-A Royale. These include Canari, Corbeau, Ivor, Jacinthe and Grisham while secondary bosses we face who work for these characters include Tarragon, Philippe, Gwynn, Lebanne and Griselle. All of them are very memorable characters for a variety of reasons, some more positive than others. Canari is just Iono as a gamer, Tarragon is her loving and supporting grandfather, Ivor is an absolute meathead who is funny as hell, Gwynn is his deadpan sister who is a brilliant straight woman to her brother's antics, Jacinthe is an entitled brat who doesn't understand the meaning of boundaries and also needs to learn to read the room for once in her life, Lebanne is essentially Jacinthe's slave and that makes me hate Jacinthe even more and Grisham and Griselle are a sympathetic duo who just want to make an honest living in Lumiose City without being defined by their pasts as Team Flare grunts. They're quite the double act too with Grisham as the chill and affable one while Griselle is more ill-tempered and aggressive.

Now we get to unquestionably the best character in the game: Corbeau. When he was first revealed, we instantly assumed he was going to be the villain, but instead he turned out to be a pretty decent guy who's an example of an honourable Yakuza. While I think it would've been stronger for the story if he WAS a villain, I also think writing him this way made him a more nuanced character that serves as an example on how things aren't so black and white. Criminals aren't inherently bad people after all. Corbeau's a guy who uses his organization's resources to do good for the people of Lumiose, even if they are a little shady, and he just has so much style and charisma to him that it's impossible to hate him. He had tremendous presence and I loved every moment he was onscreen.

His associate Philippe seems like a typical dumb, brawny henchman character but he's actually not stupid and proves why he's Corbeau's right hand man with being as threatening and also as honourable as he is.

And of course, let's talk about Lysandre. Lysandre in X and Y was the kind of villain who was so obviously evil that the characters in the game came off as idiots for somehow not catching on to the fact he's evil and dismissing his rants about a beautiful world as just him being quirky. This caused some fans to look down on him and see him as a weak villain. His return here has caused fans to completely change their tune towards him, and I can see why. Going by "L" nowadays, Lysandre is repentant for his past sins and his experiences with Zygarde after having his life saved by it has changed his view on the world. Now he wants to achieve a beautiful world, but in a more benevolent and peaceful way, and it was so interesting seeing this new side to his character. It's very rare for Pokémon villains to get a redemption arc, so Lysandre's role in the story was more interesting as a result. It's also neat how the game talks about positive aspects of Lysandre and how he's positively impacted the lives of certain people like Corbeau and Grisham & Griselle, thus better showing how he was seen as a benevolent figure before he showed his true colours.

Sadly, Emma and Mable were kinda wasted here. Emma does show up every now and then and does help us get from Point A to Point B at times, but otherwise had no real bearing on the plot. She should've at least shown up during the climax to fight alongside us against some Rogue Mega Pokémon. Mable is infinitely more memorable here than she was in X and Y, but aside from giving us research tasks and also directing us to Grisham and Griselle during the climax of the Z-A Royale story, she doesn't do anything else in the story, They could've just kept Professor Sycamore in the professor role and nothing much would've changed.

Speaking of wasted, I'll forever question why the hell Jett even exists here. She's just the CEO of Quasartico...and that's all there is to her. She barely appears in the story and the only time she has any real relevance was during the post game where we find out she's Urbain/Taunie's grandmother. This was a nothing twist that didn't need to happen since it was barely focused on, poorly built up to and ultimately didn't really change anything about her. At best, she can be described as an accessory to Urbain/Taunie's character who only exists to add additional details to their wiki pages. Much like how Briar not being a villain made her a waste in Scarlet and Violet, Jett should've been the main villain of this story so her character could have an actual reason to exist. She doesn't even have to be outright villainous, she could've been misguided in how she things Quasartico can control Mega Energy and put it to good use, but it goes wrong and then she could've been part of the game's themes of redemption. But not, they did the bare minimum with her. It's pretty sad when her damn secretary Vinnie is a more important character to the story than she is...

While these characters may not be as strong as other characters in the franchise, they are a memorable batch and I guarantee anyone playing this game will walk away with a favourite or two...

Continued in Part 2...