New information about Pokémon Legends: ZA was announced during the Pokémon Presents presentation today, which just so happens to be Pokémon Day (convenient, huh?). From what I've seen so far, the game looks like a cross between Pokemon Legends: Arceus and all of the Professor Layton games in terms of graphics; not exactly groundbreaking, though I hope the locations load a lot better and faster than they did in Arcues - that was painful to watch!
The main starters to choose from for your adventure through Lumiose City are Chikorita and Totodile from Gold & Silver, and Tepig from Black, White, Black 2, and White 2. I guess they got rid of Cyndaquil after all those weird Typhlosion news articles flooded the web a few months back...
The Pokéball throwing mechanics from the previous game are the same, but the battle system seems a little bit freer than in Pokémon Legends: Arceus too with Pokémon positioning playing more or a vital role.
As for characters, we were introduced to a hotel owner named AZ (original) and his Pokémon as well as two choices of rivals and other NPCs that play key parts in the game. Honestly, I think it all looks a little underwhelming and more of what has come before, though instead of heading back to the dawn of Pokémon, it's set in a city that has Wild Zones which feel like something from 'I Am Legend'.
The game is arriving 'Late 2025', so I think it would be safe to assume that ZA will be arriving on the Nintendo Switch 2. I'm hoping that this game surprises me when it releases, but after my disappointment with Arceus, it'll have to pull out all the stops to win me over.
In other news, I'm very excited about the new announcement of Pokémon Champions, a new game that allows players to battle online over Switch and mobile, meaning that I could play my friends who don't have Switches but are glued to their Smartphones no matter where we are in the world!
