Pokemon Legends: Z-A Launches in Late 2025 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 March 2025 / 4,682 Views
Publisher The Pokemon Company and developer Game Freak announced Pokémon Legends: Z-A will launch for the Nintendo Switch in late 2025.
View a new trailer of the game below:
Read new details on the game below:
Pokémon Legends Z-A is a new title in the Pokémon series.
The story takes place in Lumiose City, the largest city in the Kalos region. Prism Tower stands tall at the center of this city of beautiful vistas. These days, Lumiose is undergoing a high-tech urban redevelopment plan to turn it into a city that people and Pokémon truly share.
After you arrive in Lumiose City to see the sights, you’ll meet three Pokémon, one of which will become your first partner—Chikorita, Tepig, and Totodile. You’ll choose one of these Pokémon to accompany you on a new journey as you get to know Lumiose City and its inhabitants.
When you arrive in Lumiose, you’ll meet a new friend and ally—either Urbane or Tawny. The hotel where you’ll be staying is run by AZ. You’ll also meet his partner, Floette. Lumiose’s redevelopment is being managed by Quizartico Inc. You’ll become acquainted with the company’s CEO Jet and her secretary, Vinny. The different people you meet will make your time in Lumiose all the richer.
To help people and Pokémon coexist, the city has set up Wild Zones. These areas, located throughout Lumiose, give wild Pokémon habitats where they can thrive. To catch one of these wild Pokémon, aim carefully, then throw a Poke Ball. If you’re having a hard time catching one, have one of your Pokémon use its moves to weaken the target, making it easier to catch.
This game offers a style of Pokémon battling not seen in previous titles. Moves can have a longer or shorter reach, or different areas of effect, so choose your timing and positioning carefully to gain the upper hand. Lead your partner Pokémon through battles and dodge incoming attacks. Swap Pokémon if you need to and find the right moment to unleash a move.
What’s more, certain Pokémon can go beyond evolution by undergoing Mega Evolution. When a trainer’s keystone resonates with the Mega Stone held by their Pokémon, the Pokémon will do more than just change shape. It’ll unlock a new level of power, turning the tide of battle in its favor.
As Lumiose continues its transformation into a city that belongs to both people and Pokémon, who knows what kinds of encounters and experiences will await you.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.
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Performance looks atrocious. I wonder if they finally added some voice acting for this struggling low budget series that only sells 10s of millions per entry.
I suppose compared to current gamefreak games it's a generational visual improvement... But compared to current Switch titles, looks like a current generation game.
I'll wait for reviews of this one... Got burned with Scarlett/Violet which still isn't fixed.
Gamefreaks are a bunch of screwup in the switch era
Chikorita!
I won
Damn, megas are back, cool location and totodile is one of my favorites, but it's all kind of wasted because the game still looks unpolished and semi low effort. I bet it's okay but okay just doesn't interest me anymore.
It'll be great to have Megas for the Gen 2 starters.
I wanted to pick Chikorita so badly but they had to pair it with Totodile? Damn...
When I saw the Legends Arceus reveal, I knew I had to have it, even if it looked incredibly rough. It looked like an adventure though, a unique take on the series. This one... just looks very plain. Way too plain.
Cyndaquil fans must be seething right now.
Why? They got their mon in the last Legends.
Sees Chikorita
Take my money!
I missed my girl! It’s good to have her back!!
Cross-gen game it is
Source? The trailer says Nintendo Switch🙂
No guarantee. Pokémon has received games before on a system that was already replaced. For example, Black and White 2 launched about a year and half after 3DS did, even in Japan.
Cross-gen would be smart, but don't count on it.
Didn’t the GF leak back in October 2024 confirm that this would be NSW exclusive? (Which doesn’t surprise me, not even slightly. User base will be too small on NSW2, plus BC will allow the game to be playable on the new system anyways.)
https://www.vgchartz.com/article/463923/pokemon-legends-z-a-and-metroid-prime-4-beyond-to-still-release-on-the-switch-1/
Nintendo's president said it on February 5, ZA is a switch one game and only that, which can be played on 2 because of retrocompatibility.
Nintendo owns 33 % of Pokemon compagny, might i remind you, alongside with creatures and gamefreak.
So, pure switch 1 game it is.
And gamefreak is not working on it now is obvious : Each time they release a trailer, we get the exact same graphical result, when you know that, they obviously spend 3 years working on both ZA and gen 10, with ZA already finished and just waiting for November release like always.
It has SV's look, they've already shown new gameplay, base plot. We'll get a new trailer in June-August with an exact November release date, like always. And that's it, it's SV's graphics on a legends game.
They won't make a switch 2 version as it appears that legends are just there to put new gameplay in the franchise to test if everyone likes them and therefore they won't release a switch 2 game with that look and gameplay, they're waiting for sales to begin and then, gen 10. Gamefreak never released cross gen games and I can tell you that they're not even capable of doing that. They can't even get the max of a console with 10 games on it (2 lets go, swsh, bdsp, arceus, sv, za).
And we can even know what gen 10 will look like just by waiting till April 2, not next year, just by looking at how good switch 2 first games will look, as we'll get worst games in terms of graphics from gamefreak (No pokemon game has ever been the most beautiful game of its system).
The only thing i want from them is to make sure that their games won't run so slow anymore, because they were not able to make a technically "fast" game since gen 7 (Yes, sun and moon were already showing slowdowns, and so do lets go, swsh, bdsp, arceus and sv).
