Change is coming with Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Where Pokémon Legends: Arceus looked to redefine the open world experience and catching mechanics of the series, Z-A is bringing a huge overhaul of the combat. Gone is the turn-based battling, in favour of running around battle arenas in real time.
We sampled two sections of Pokémon Legends: Z-A at Gamescom, starting with a preview of the Battle Zone gameplay. During the day, Lumiose City is a shining beacon of peace and harmony, the metropolitan area being completely overhauled to feature Wild Zones for Pokémon, so that they can better coexist with humans – just don’t think about it too much, and you’ll be fine. But at night, Pokémon trainers emerge to engage in the Z-A Royale at designated Battle Zones, like they’re underground street racers, or something.
We’re introduced to this by Urbain, Naveen and Lida from Team MZ, a group that has taken it upon themselves to protect the city, and is there to guide you through these first nighttime battles.
It boils down to being an area and time dedicated to trainer battles. Other trainers will be hanging around in the Battle Zone waiting to challenge you as you come into view, though if you’re able to sneak up behind them, you’ll be able to launch an early surprise attack and gain an advantage.
So far, so Pokémon, but the battles themselves have a completely different feel thanks to the shift to real-time combat. You only fight with one Pokémon at a time, calling them out and then targeting and launching attacks and abilities as and when you please. These are then on a cooldown, but you can launch their other abilities while waiting for another one to recharge. As you give out your commands, they’ll leap into action, getting close enough to launch their attacks before returning to your side.
Being in real time and with free movement means that you’re also able to actively try to evade the attacks and abilities of your opponent’s Pokémon. This took me a little getting used to – think I was pressing to run instead of to dodge roll by mistake – but I managed to dodge some slower moving web attacks, and the like.
It’s a really big shift for the franchise, that’s for sure, and has allowed for some major new game modes to be added alongside the regular battles. Just last week the four-player time-based Z-A Battle Club was announced, for example, while we also got to try a battle against a Rogue Mega Evolution Pokémon.
As part of a story moment where Team MZ is following a Zygard who really wants to lead you to something, we’re bundled into a battle with an Absol who’s being wracked by an unwanted Rogue Mega Evolution – they definitely saw this disaster coming! Thankfully the towering figure of ZA returning just in time to lend you his Lucario and a Mega Ring to aid in this fight.
Much like the regular real-time battles, you have free movement and can launch attacks as soon as they’re ready, with Lucario launching themselves into the fray. As you deal damage to Rogue Mega Evolved creature, they drop Mega Orbs that you’ll need to collect in order to charge up your Mega Ring and give Lucario their own Mega Evolution, letting them deal much more damage with their attacks.
There’s a nice back and forth here, as you can continue to run around and grab Mega Orbs, extending the time that Lucario can spend in their Mega form. You just need to be a little careful because, while you don’t have a health bar of your own, you can take damage and be KO’d yourself – this has the edges of the screen darken as a warning, but thankfully you will heal up again in a short span of time. Another thing to know is that using items is also on a cooldown, though opening the inventory screen does seem to pause the game in single player.
Playing these two battle experiences has me really looking forward to Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Jumping from turn-based to real-time battles is a big risk and will absolutely change the feel of the game compared to the classic, but once again, we’re getting closer to the style of battle that we see in the anime, running around, dodging attacks and giving your Pokémon commands. It’s a great shift that could easily define the next decade of Pokémon games.
