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News Pokémon Legends Z-A announced for Nintendo Switch, releasing in 2025

The only Pokemon announcement that will have gotten me excited lol.

Just not a fan of the non Legends Switch games and I'm glad we're getting another one.
 
Z-A, starting from the end and moving towards the start. Time travel maybe?

I suspect a good chunk of the core gameplay loop will be more similar to Arceus than people expect from the trailer. Just because its a city, I don't see why we can't catch Pokemon or get attacked, especially if things change in the past/future and some of it is still wilderness or barely semi-developed land or delipidated or you can visit the outskirts or sewers etc.
 
Would be cool if we still have some "routes" with wild Pokémon. Winding sewers under the city, dank alleyways, sprawling parks, a riverwalk, etc.
 
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I'm pretty hype for this!
At first I was a little disappointed since there was so much rumblings about Unova related games, so I was a little sad to see this - but on the flip side, Unova remakes will come eventually, so it's just a waiting game

Really, this is pretty cool. "Pokemon Z" is currently the biggest hole with main series Pokemon games, seems likely this will fix that, fingers crossed at least. Also very happy about Mega evolutions being back - I did see Centro (lol) speculate how they'd work without abilities being in Legends, which is true, so maybe this Legends will add abilities back in? Either way, I'm so looking forward to this! Can't wait for more details.
 
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Sander RX said:
Nah, Luminose planners are just making a walkable city and saying no to car-based city planning!

Now all they need is trains and this game will be number one with urbanist YouTuber community!
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By the way, aren't the taxis in Lumiose literally the only passenger cars we've ever seen in the games? Otherwise it's just been stuff like trains, planes, boats, trucks, etc. i.e. vehicles for moving tons of people long distances or transporting cargo. Because like, why would you have a car when you could just ride your Pokémon around. The only roads we've ever seen were, like, highways in and out of shipping hubs like Castelia. Otherwise it's all walking paths and dirt roads
 
Brock Reiher said:
I'm hoping this isn't necessarily another ancient game with the same battle/catching mechanics as Arceus but rather Legends becomes the name for more experimental games
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I am thinking it may (and I stress MAY) be the latter, looking at the page where it has the Lumiose City covered in tape it says redevelopment as in working on something that already exist to either make it better than what we know Lumiose city as or to become what we know it as now.

I am sure we are going to learn more in the coming months, but I don't see this playing the same way Arceus was.

Of course I could be wrong, it is great to be excited about a Pokémon game again!
 
Hope they improve the battle system in this game. The first game in this line became pathetically easy once I figured out how to actually strengthen your Pokémon.
 
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The trailer and press release deemphasize how dangerous and scary Pokemon are compared to Legends: Arceus, I think the gameplay might be quite different. Might have fewer action elements.
 
Unova kids meeting karmatic retribution for the 6 years of pretending a game that sold 15 million units is an underrated underappreciated gem I see.
Zero love for the XY games but I do find the concept of "whole game in a fleshed out city" interesting, so I'm curious,
 
Metroid said:
Could you imagine just trying to get a cup of coffee in the morning and having to deal with a Hawlucha jumping off a building to slam into you
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Little Timmy goes on a walk in the park only to be obliterated by a level 90 Mega Salamance careening down from the heavens at 900 miles per hour
 
I’m honestly disappointed in you all.

We haven’t asked the most important question.

Can we still have roller skates please? 🙏

I want to grind on city rails like its tony hawk and fall into the city water canal into a Gyrados’ mouth.
 
This is truly Game Freak's vengeance, the sequel to Little Town Hero - Big City Villain.
 
Big tin foil hat time.

So back in gen 6, people datamined Bank and found there were a third pair of games planned that were ultimately never utilized. This is obviously what was originally planned to be Zygarde's thing as the 2015 release, but most likely got cancelled due to GF wanting to get gen 7 out for the 20th anniversary. Zygarde infamously got shafted as a game-long Cell hunt, but there was also another interesting addition: Guzzlord.

Guzzlord is the final UB encountered in SM's postgame. You find it in the last room of Resolution Cave, which is a replica of... Terminus Cave's final room. It is the thematic antithesis of Zygarde - protecting the environment at all costs vs. mindlessly destroying it. Lastly, James Turner himself alluded that there are intentional similarities between the two.

Fast-forward to 2024, and we have logos for a Kalos revisit named Z-A. The Z is a pattern of dark hexagons, while the A is green scales.

And now is where It All Comes Together(tm).

My crack theory is that the cancelled Kalos revisits were Pokemon A and Pokemon Z. Zygarde and whatever Guzzlord was initially conceived to be were the mascots, but the games were casualties of GF wanting a new gen for the anniversary. Zygarde was repurposed as the Cell hunt, and the other mascot was repurposed into the UB we now know as Guzzlord - the latter being placed at the end of Resolution Cave as a sort of development in-joke. Z-A is named that way to commemorate both cancelled titles and finally being able to explore their plotlines. With all of this, I imagine the overarching theme of PLZA will be taking the end of something (Z, the last letter of the alphabet) and using it to create something new (A, the first letter of the alphabet) along with themes of industry consuming the nature that was there to start with.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. Follow me for more wild extrapolations based on a single logo.
 
buildz said:
I've not played X or Y, so I'll have to consider giving them a go based on how this game looks. Might fill the Pokémon-shaped hole this Christmas for me if so.
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I got back into the series with Pokémon X myself (fell out of gaming and thus skipped the DS-era of the series), so I have a huge soft-spot for it and Gen 6 as a whole. The story is weak, but I think the game as a whole is more enjoyable that most fans give it credit for.
 
I found X very enjoyable (after using a save file editor to make text speed instant I'm not sorry)
 
Brock Reiher said:
I'm hoping this isn't necessarily another ancient game with the same battle/catching mechanics as Arceus but rather Legends becomes the name for more experimental games
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I think it's gonna become kind of an anthology series, where the common thread is maybe "familiar regions, unfamiliar time periods/contexts", a space for Gamefreak to get weirder and less formulaic than they usually would with the main games and try some ideas out before deciding whether they're a good fit to become mainstay mechanics

So like, while Arceus clearly borrowed from Monster Hunter, I think this probably is gonna take some notes from Like A Dragon (like focusing on building out a single city rather than a whole region). And maybe another Legends could try sprinkling in some hints of, for instance, a Final Fantasy (active time battles, maybe?)
 
Re: Legends being main series - I’d say it’s something like Mario, having 2D and 3D entries.

Pokemon video games could be subdivided in two categories:
• Mainline Versions, traditional games (mascots and version exclusives)
• Mainline Legends, the experimental Pokemon games

And honestly, with the amount of effort that is invested in Legends, I would also classify it as mainline.
 
Lord Azrael said:
By the way, aren't the taxis in Lumiose literally the only passenger cars we've ever seen in the games? Otherwise it's just been stuff like trains, planes, boats, trucks, etc. i.e. vehicles for moving tons of people long distances or transporting cargo. Because like, why would you have a car when you could just ride your Pokémon around. The only roads we've ever seen were, like, highways in and out of shipping hubs like Castelia. Otherwise it's all walking paths and dirt roads
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There's a car in the garage of the players home in Ultra Sun and Moon that when interacted with says it belongs to your father, and that your mother brought it with her to Alola so she could use it to run errands. Which is funny because the house is on a dirt path right within walking distance of the nearest city. In a region that consists of a series of small islands that you have to take a ferry between.
 
One of the best parts of Legends is that you can evolve all Pokémon and complete the Pokedex without trading. PLZA seemingly will be the same, since there's just one version.

Legends is basically Pokémon for those of us who are old and tired, I love it so much.
 
Tab said:
There's a car in the garage of the players home in Ultra Sun and Moon that when interacted with says it belongs to your father, and that your mother brought it with her to Alola so she could use it to run errands. Which is funny because the house is on a dirt path right within walking distance of the nearest city. In a region that consists of a series of small islands that you have to take a ferry between.
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Ah gotcha, never actually played USUM. Yeah that's dumb lol, they had a good (but possibly unintentional) worldbuilding thing going with vehicles for a second there

EDIT: Hmm looking up pictures of it now, maybe it's a pickup truck? Which my headcanon will begrudgingly allow
 
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This is so much more exciting than any other announcement they could have made. Legends is awesome and my favourite Pokémon game since Sun and Moon, so I’ve got high hopes. I always found Kalos to be the most lacking region as well, so it’s great to see them returning to it to expand on it and provide some much needed development.
 
I'm still catching up so I'm sorry if this has already been brought up but I have been thinking about the release date a lot today (mainly because I can't wait to play the game HAHAHAHA)!! I know a lot of people do think it's Holiday 2025 but, if that is the case, I do wonder why they'd announce it so early? We've seen them skip Pokémon Day in 2017, 2018, and 2020 so I don't think having something huge end a Presents is necessarily the reason why it was announced now? I feel like if if was Holiday next year, it could've been in the later year Presents that we've been getting in recent years because I feel like now, they probably have to do a trailer in August for it? I'm not really sure if this makes sense but part of me is thinking maybe it's a late Q1 or a Q2 release next year (March to June)? I'm not sure if I'm off base with that, however?

I was also wondering if you all think there's a chance that a smaller remake or a spinoff game of some sort still will be releasing for Pokemon this year? For ORAS and Let's Go Generation 1, they announced this in May of the years they came out so I think there's a chance, especially if they outsourced it! I could also see a spinoff being announced in a June/July Nintendo Direct, similar to how they re-revealed Detective Pikachu Returns during last year's June Direct! I just can't see TPCi not having anything Switch related this year when they've had a Switch game (mainline and/or spinoff) every single year of the console!!

I apologize for the longer message here but I was wondering what everyone's thinking about what the game would be releasing and when do you all think we'll get our first look at gameplay for it? :)
 
3dsboss said:
I was also wondering if you all think there's a chance that a smaller remake or a spinoff game of some sort still will be releasing for Pokemon this year?
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Definitely a solid chance there'll still be a smaller scale Pokemon project this year. Also possible they'll focus all their efforts on the new online TCG.
 
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Leo said:
One of the best parts of Legends is that you can evolve all Pokémon and complete the Pokedex without trading. PLZA seemingly will be the same, since there's just one version.

Legends is basically Pokémon for those of us who are old and tired, I love it so much.
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Sword & Shield had fully evolved trade evolutions in the wild area, just another reason why those games were incredible.
 
It takes place entirely in a city. When have RPG cities ever been the highlight O_O.

Lol the gameplay has gotta be very different to accommodate this change.

I'm starting to think every legends game is going to kinda have its own gameplay. They are really stressing the urban development keyword here.
 
YoboD said:
This is so much more exciting than any other announcement they could have made. Legends is awesome and my favourite Pokémon game since Sun and Moon, so I’ve got high hopes. I always found Kalos to be the most lacking region as well, so it’s great to see them returning to it to expand on it and provide some much needed development.
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Agreed, I think people could be judging too soon in being centered around Lumiose city being a bad thing. (If such is to be the case)

Think how much they could add just by condensing the experience. The city as seen has been scaled and seems more dense.

They can add tons of technical features such as a dynamic weather system that truly affects how people and Pokémon react.

I’d love to see “Town events” could be a thing where a rapant Pokémon is causing an issue and you have to quell it while giving chase.

We got a dodge roll in the first game perhaps they add to the player actions.

The day and night cycle for the town will be beautiful as the lights turn on at night and illuminate the city.

I’ll keep my expectations in check but its fun to imagine what a more modern Legends game could bring to the table. Gamefreak did say this was one of their most ambitious titles and while to some that doesn’t really mean much, I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt because I really enjoyed Legends Arceus.
 
Imagine a seasons mechanic that affects the entire city and the types of quests / Pokemon you encounter.
 
3dsboss said:
I'm still catching up so I'm sorry if this has already been brought up but I have been thinking about the release date a lot today (mainly because I can't wait to play the game HAHAHAHA)!! I know a lot of people do think it's Holiday 2025 but, if that is the case, I do wonder why they'd announce it so early? We've seen them skip Pokémon Day in 2017, 2018, and 2020 so I don't think having something huge end a Presents is necessarily the reason why it was announced now? I feel like if if was Holiday next year, it could've been in the later year Presents that we've been getting in recent years because I feel like now, they probably have to do a trailer in August for it? I'm not really sure if this makes sense but part of me is thinking maybe it's a late Q1 or a Q2 release next year (March to June)? I'm not sure if I'm off base with that, however?

I was also wondering if you all think there's a chance that a smaller remake or a spinoff game of some sort still will be releasing for Pokemon this year? For ORAS and Let's Go Generation 1, they announced this in May of the years they came out so I think there's a chance, especially if they outsourced it! I could also see a spinoff being announced in a June/July Nintendo Direct, similar to how they re-revealed Detective Pikachu Returns during last year's June Direct! I just can't see TPCi not having anything Switch related this year when they've had a Switch game (mainline and/or spinoff) every single year of the console!!

I apologize for the longer message here but I was wondering what everyone's thinking about what the game would be releasing and when do you all think we'll get our first look at gameplay for it? :)
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I think the reason they announced it now is they're not entirely sure when it'll come out. Something that jumped out to me is that while BDSP said "late 2021", Arceus said "early 2022", and Scarlet/Violet said "late 2022" in their respective reveal trailers, Legends Z-A just said "2025". My hunch is they're hoping to get it out early-to-mid 2025, but are intentionally leaving themselves wiggle room to push it back as far as holiday 2025 without having to actually delay it publicly. Possibly another indicator that TPC/Gamefreak are taking the feedback seriously and really are gonna start giving the games more time to cook rather than stick to an unbending schedule

I do think there's a chance there's something else Pokemon happening later this year that hasn't been revealed, but I think if it was something on the scale of an RPG then they'd have announced it here to avoid the "wait, so there's really no 10+ million selling RPG this year" reaction that announcing Legends Z-A has caused; right now my expectations for anything else Pokemon are more at the "new Mystery Dungeon, maaaybe old games on NSO" side of the scale
 
Not for nothing, but I cannot wait to see the clothing options we're gonna get. Gotta be looking fresh in the Pokemon equal to Paris.
 
super funny how many people thought it was going to be something GEN5 considering all the black/white fan art I've seen today on twitter
 
Upon reflection, I'm somewhat leaning towards a more modern setting. That does kinda seem like what most of the trailer is depicting.
 
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