ziggyrivers
thunder
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One of the best Pokemon games! Makes you feel like you’re playing Pokemon for the first time~
Hope you enjoy it!
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News Pokémon Legends Z-A announced for Nintendo Switch, releasing in 2025
- Thread starter N 2 Deep
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Hope you enjoy it!
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Hope you enjoy it! I wish I could experience that game again for the first time. Although some of the novelty is missing now that gen 9 exists, it's still a super fun and unique game. Playing it before open world Pokémon was a thing was absolutely surreal.
thoughthaver
Chain Chomp
since this late 1800s france does this mean we fight the pokemon version of prussians
khu jebaited everyone, essentially. since it's clear he lost his sources, I hope he stops getting posted
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Just because it moves on to games that are in somewhat less primitive 3D doesn't rule out remakes. We live in a world with a number of full remakes of PS2/PS3 era games already.
shrug Let's Go is pretty different from other remakes. Different naming scheme, many more gameplay changes. It's not really part of the same line that includes Omega Ruby and Brilliant Diamond, but a new line altogether.
Or maybe the choice of a setting for Legends just has nothing much to do with whatever is planned for remakes?
Sword and Shield are way higher fidelity than ps3 games. outside of redoing the level design (which they haven't done before), there's not much they need to do here. maybe change the lighting model. hell, by the time SS's turn comes up, they could ray trace the whole image
Hauke_von_Arding
Moblin
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Legends Arceus is not even "ancient." It's based on 1900s Hokkaido, which was at this time started to be colonized by Japan. ZA seems to be based on 19th century France based on a lot of information and how the trailer looks, so ctually it looks more "modern" because of the setting, but technically it would still be "older" than PLA or around the same time.
rêverie
Bob-omb
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i’ve seen more than just you mention a similar sentiment, tbf.
i didn’t realize you meant GF developing it specifically, but i also don’t think this means GF won’t develop the next remake either. nothing is set in stone and i think, if anything, seeing the backlash to BDSP, GF will want to have more control over the next remake. could still be outsourced in some way, but i doubt they’ll treat it like an afterthought.
i just don’t think there’s any pattern to follow as of right now. the franchise is clearly being handled differently than it used to and kinda anything goes, until proven otherwise.
Yeah I'm hoping they don't do that personally
Tye
All-around Nintendo enjoyer
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I’m curious if they might cheat the whole “entirely within Lumiose City” thing by using Hoopa’s portals to briefly visit other areas for plot reasons and such, because otherwise I’m not sure how they’re gonna do Kalos justice without being able to explore outside of a single city. Then there’s the matter of the Gen VI Legendary and Mythical Pokémon, too. Like, surely they’re all going to be in the game in some form, but why would they all just be hanging out in Lumiose City? Especially when it comes to Volcanion, which we know specifically has ties to southern Kalos (and that’s pretty much all we know about Volcanion, lol).
Tye
All-around Nintendo enjoyer
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I understand that, but still, even if the game ends up being quite a bit different than Legends: Arceus in gameplay and design, I would assume they’re still going to include all Gen VI Pokémon (and maybe Magearna too, since it was clearly designed to be Gen VI but got pushed back into Gen VII instead) like how Legends: Arceus featured all Gen IV Pokémon, but doing that in a way that makes sense within the confines of a single city is going to be…interesting.don't have to do Kalos justice if you're just focusing on Lumiose City
it's a different design for pokemon, but not an uncommon one in the wider rpg landscape. GF is probably just stepping out of their comfort zone for the chance to do something different
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That's why I think the Lumiose City we get in Legends is going to be a different, more expansive beast compared to its original appearance. Not unlike how Remake!Midgar is quite different compared to the original in OG FF7.
Even if they stick with the usual tropes, they could feasibly fit that within the city environment, if they so wish. The waterworks for water PKMN. An expansive sewer system under the city, where a variety of cave-dwellers and other "gross" PKMN live. Multiple power plants where electric types thrive. Steel mills for fire and steel types. Etc., etc.
TheMindOfThomas
Kalosian
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Assuming they bring back the Ash-Greninja form in this game they need to include a rendition of this banger somewhere:
boodream
Paratroopa
I don't think what's intriguing for people is that there isn't a gen 5 remake so soon after the gen 4 remake. On the other hand, it might seem surprising, if you're making a new Pokémon Legends, to completely ignore gen 5 when you've explored gen 4 in the previous PLA.
it's possible, as others have said, that the spin-off sub-series is simply a kind of experimental laboratory allowing GF to try things out by revisiting generations in no particular order, and the concept itself would be really cool, but you have to expect that people who love gen 5 will feel aggrieved if they don't get either a rewrite or a remake.
Brawlz
Think you can take me?!
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As someone who lost interest in all non Legends Switch Pokemon games, this game was great. It really feels like the future of the franchise.
Ab
Like Like
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I'm skeptical. They would've done legends celebi or mew. Kalos is Gen 6 and the first 3D title so I'm not expecting a traditional remake of sorts.
Judging from the "effort" put into BDSP I don't think they will see any reason to do remakes after Gen 5
Ab
Like Like
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For sure, but it's just the question of "why Kalos next" I guess we'll see in a few years time
TheMindOfThomas
Kalosian
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I think popularity might be a factor in why they chose to skip Unova for it. X and Y weren’t as critically acclaimed as Black and White, but they did sell better. Kalos Pokémon and characters are some of the most popular in the franchise thanks to the XY anime, which is widely regarded as the best season(s) of the show. Greninja was even voted most popular Pokemon back in 2020, around when they would have decided to make this game.
As someone who hasn't seen the anime, this is surprising.
Black and White had gym leaders integrated into the world with roles in their towns; and Bianca and Cheren, who had interesting arcs.
X and Y was back to gyms that were just gyms and leaders who you never saw again, and the friend group in that game were unmemorable nobodies, just Other Gender MC, Nice Girl, and Dancing Lad.
If PLZ-A is going to be a game built on nostalgia for an anime I never saw, then it probably won't land for me.
TheMindOfThomas
Kalosian
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Yeah the XY anime is much different than the games in this regard lol.
Clemont, the lumiose gym leader, along with his little sister Bonnie are traveling companions of Ash and thus are developed far beyond their roles in the games. They have a nice wholesome sibling dynamic that a lot of people vibe with. Clemont of course has big ties to Lumiose city itself as its gym leader, and in the final arc of the XY anime Bonnie becomes the primary caretaker of Zygarde itself in its core form, eventually being the one to calm it when it wreaks havoc on Lumiose city (which is a really powerful story moment). I'd expect them to be prominently featured in these games.
Serena, the XY female protagonist, is also the deuteragonist of the XY anime. She's also vastly different than her game counterpart. She does Pokemon Performances after abandoning Rhyhorn Races which her mother was trying to force on her. Through this, she goes on a journey of self-discovery, and there's some in-depth stuff about the importance of dreams and goals. This also ties into a romance arc she has with Ash Ketchum himself, which is never fully realized of course but it ends in a great moment where she kisses him on an escalator. She also changes her outfit halfway through the series to an anime original design in a symbolic moment for her character growth.
Korrina, another gym leader from the games, also has a huge arc to herself where she learns to control Mega Lucario. Anime original characters like Alain have become fan favorites and have a solid chance of being included in this game if you ask me. The only game characters to not have majorly expanded roles are ironically the friends from the XY games themselves, who are just as worthless in the anime as they are in the games lol.
The popularity of the Ash-Greninja form from the XY anime cannot be understated. That will most likely make a return in this game somehow.
So in short, definitely expect a good portion of this game to be rooted in nostalgia for the XY anime.
Thank you for sharing this interesting write-up! That sounds extremely cool for people who saw that anime, and I'm glad a version of Kalos exists that's more interesting than the one I experienced. Hopefully there are other elements of the game that will be more appealing to me personally.
TheMindOfThomas
Kalosian
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It seems that other parts of the franchise are beginning their Kalos teases. Lumiose City can be seen on a painting in this frame from tomorrow's episode of Pokémon Horizons (the Gen 9 anime series).
I was just thinking about Z-A today and a thought struck me. While playing Legends Arceus I fully expected that the main character would be sent back to their original timeline after completing the story, but that never happened. We ended up just being stuck in the past. What if Legends will use the same protagonist throughout the series? I know there are debates on whether Z-A is set in the past or future, but I personally think it would be cool if at the start of Z-A we see the protagonist from LA being sent back to his/her own time only to find that the timeline has changed and now we have to deal with whatever the plot of Z-A is. It always struck me as such a weird, huge oversight that GameFreak would just leave a kid stranded in the past for the rest of their life, but maybe it was intentional in case they decided to proceed with the Legends series. Anyway, just a theory.
Tye
All-around Nintendo enjoyer
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Unova wasn’t “skipped” over for Legends, just as Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn weren’t, either. Legends is clearly doing its own thing, not going in any specific order. They could do a Johto Legends next, followed by an Unova one after that, for example. They probably just chose to do a Kalos Legends this time because they had the most ideas for it, or something along those lines.
Modern day characters like Clemont and Bonnie won’t appear in Legends: Z-A (unless they’re sent back in time somehow like Ingo and Lucas/Dawn in Legends: Arceus) because the game clearly takes place in the past. Unless by “they” you were talking about Zygarde.
TheMindOfThomas
Kalosian
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Bowser Sr.
Bob-omb
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With all due respect mate, "Definitely" and "Expect" seems more like you're confusing your personal hopes and biases as Gamefreak's intention. For the vast majority of the time Gamefreak only barely tips their hat towards the anime, and when it does do so it's stuff like Jessie and James appearing but obviously neutered in their depictions. We even saw Pokemon Let's Go concept art where the artist wanted to do references to the anime but Gamefreak did not go ahead with those nods.
There is very little reason to believe they'll use that anime as inspiration, it is much more likely that any similarities you see come from the simple fact that both are telling stories using XY's setting as basis.
TheMindOfThomas
Kalosian
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I'm not saying everything will be based solely on the XY anime. GameFreak has always kept the two worlds separate to a degree, and I'm sure they have plenty of new ideas on the table as well. But given the XY anime's popularity in comparison to other series and even the XY games themselves, I do believe there will be more elements will be taken from the anime than usual. Ash-Greninja is undisputedly one of the most popular Pokémon in existence, and given that it was removed from Scarlet and Violet while still being teased in a painting, they probably have bigger plans for it here, most likely to more faithfully adapt how it was featured in the series. I also think much of the anime's storyline involving Zygarde and Lumiose City will be similar, especially since it was most likely taken from the scrapped Pokémon Z to begin with.
Clemont/Bonnie's involvement is more so my personal hypothesis based on what we've seen. I think they (or at least one of their ancestors depending on when it takes place) have to play some important role in the games given that they run the Lumiose Gym - which is Prism Tower itself.
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Tye
All-around Nintendo enjoyer
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I don’t know why you’d assume that when there’s a real life analogue to this that the game may very well be based on, and one which would put it roughly around the same time period as Legends: Arceus as well. That Twitter thread also doesn’t exactly explain much at all, either. Maybe I’m not understanding what they mean by “Rebuild” here, but the mention of “beautiful coexistence” isn’t necessarily a Team Flare thing at all (though a sort of proto-Team Flare could be featured in the game just as was the case with Team Galactic in Arceus), because “beauty” as a concept was the keyword for Kalos and Pokémon X/Y in general, and it makes sense to describe the blueprint for the version of Lumiose City we know in the present which is what is being developed here. It also served as a hint to the viewers that the game was set in Kalos before the trailer showed any Kalos Pokémon or Lumiose City landmarks.
TheMindOfThomas
Kalosian
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I'm not sure how much of the rebuild of Paris will be telling of when the game is set as it as an excuse for why Lumiose City will be larger than it was before.
We also have evidence from the trailer to back up the idea of it being set in a more modern era. For one there's the font of the documents themselves.
Secondly, the majority of the trailer shows Kalos in its fully formed state, with trainers wearing modern clothing and such. I don't think they would show that if that wasn't where at least the majority of the game will be set.
AllEchse
Bob-omb
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All this is based on the assumption that they put this much thought into their font choice.
Also as others have said, we see a hologram thing in the trailer, it's a projection of whats to come.
It starting as a sketch on paper and then turning into a 3D hologram might aswell be interpreted as the game taking place over multiple time periods and you witnessing the construction of the different city districts from the past into the future.
I just don't understand why people can say with so much certainty that it has to be what they say it is when the trailer left so much room for interpretation.
Tye
All-around Nintendo enjoyer
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I’m not sure what you mean by that. We see the blueprint for Lumiose City in the trailer, and it matches up perfectly with the map of it from X/Y, so it can’t be larger than it was in X/Y. The scale will probably be presented differently to make it larger in-game, sure, but it’s clearly supposed to be the same sized Lumiose City in-universe. As for the trainers with modern clothing and such, again, it’s showing us what Lumiose City will eventually become in the future as we know it in the present. It’s a blueprint, after all, and is presented as such in the trailer, with these trainers and such just being a projection, not real. We don’t even have any gameplay footage yet, anyway, and I don’t think this initial trailer was supposed to be representative of what we’ll actually be seeing in the game, just establishing the concept of it. The font thing is an interesting observation but they seem to only be able to find one example of a serif version of that font in the first place (the Game Freak logo), so it could just be that they didn’t bother to make a full serif version of the font—or it’s not that deep and the font choice just doesn’t actually matter that much.
But ultimately we have extremely few details to go off of right now, so I guess we’ll be waiting awhile before we can really say anything definitively.
ItWasMeantToBe19
Manakete
The only thing I remember about Lumiose City was the horrific camera so I probably won't remember any differences in scale, lol.
TheMindOfThomas
Kalosian
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My interpretation of it was that the trailer was giving us the backstory for Lumiose City’s redevelopment, a tease before we see the fully finished project in the gameplay reveal. It's like storytelling through trailers in that sense.
Also regarding the clothing, I just remembered the design document on paper also features what appear to be trainers with modern-style outfits. So even if the game is set in the past, it clearly can't be as far back as Legends Arceus was.
Calling these "teases" is a bit if a stretch, methinks. That's how we gone down this path to begin with, ignoring khu's lack of info. Pokemon, as a series, integrates all its regions in some way to make it feel like one big world. Like walking into someone's room and they have a flag of France for whatever reason.It seems that other parts of the franchise are beginning their Kalos teases. Lumiose City can be seen on a painting in this frame from tomorrow's episode of Pokémon Horizons (the Gen 9 anime series).
TheMindOfThomas
Kalosian
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I mean showing a painting of Lumiose City in the episode that airs directly after the announcement of Legends: Z-A feels like at the very least a nod. This series also has the most future teases the anime has done since Gen 1/2. For instance, they revealed Terapagos' smaller form in the pilot before it was officially announced.
You are right in the all-regions thing though, especially since the anime hasn't confined itself to one region since Journeys. I do expect that they have a special arc planned for Kalos when Legends releases though, similar to how Sinnoh got a lot of focus again in the anime when BDSP/PLA was released.
Tye
All-around Nintendo enjoyer
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If it was closer to modern day, though, why would there be a redevelopment of Lumiose City in the first place? There’s no reason to believe that Lumiose City in X/Y is a relatively new development, and, like its real world counterpart, it seems to be a city with some significant history. And Legends A-Z certainly doesn’t appear to be after X/Y, either, because, again, the Lumiose City blueprint and map looks about the same as it does in X/Y (just presented at a grander scale). It just doesn’t make much sense at all for it to take place in modern times, while taking place about 100 or so years in the past would make a lot more sense and it would be consistent with Legends: Arceus, too.
And regard the clothing in the design document, I think it’s likely very much the same situation as the other blueprint visuals—a projection of the future. Even if you take it to be the literal design document from the time, you can still make sense of it as someone imagining what fashion will be like in the future. Regardless, though, I wouldn’t take clothing as a super reliable point of reference for time period when it comes to Pokémon, anyway, because even some outfits in Legends: Arceus look way more modern than they should for the time period.
Ab
Like Like
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It's doing its job well as a trailer I suppose lol
TheMindOfThomas
Kalosian
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This might be an out-there theory, but since I've seen people compare Lumiose to Midgar from FFVII Remake, what if the box art for Legends: Z-A pays homage to the cover of Final Fantasy VII? It could have Prism Tower in place of the Mako Reactor, and Calem/Serena and their Pokemon in place of Cloud.
Apopheniac
Monolith Soft action game truther
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Part of me thinks the game will be set in the past with the the modern day stuff existing only as neon projections for no reason other than the fact that the Switch is liable to combust if a Pokémon game were to atttempt to render an urban environment at scale
Darkred401
Cappy
I'm a bit unsure what they'll do timeline wise, it could take place in an older lumiose and build towards the modern version at the end or take place in the present and build towards future.
a one off episode which doesn't even have the paint in focus (just as a background piece) isn't much of a tease than anything else. I don't think it's comparable to terapagos who's plot relevant and the pokemon was long since hinted at since the launch of SV.
have the show had Unova or Johto stuff in prior episodes? (I don't know, I don't watch it).
SpaceGodzilla
Did You Get that Thing I Sent You?
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wonder when there going to release this in 2025, since this time they don't have to worry about a new pokemon generation that year
