Pokémon Legends: Z-A Announced During Pokémon Presents
For those who don’t know, February 27th is the anniversary of the Pokémon video game series. The day is usually marked with a Pokémon Presents livestream to update fans on the video game franchise. During today’s announcements, The Pokémon Company revealed the next game in the Legends series: Pokémon Legends: Z-A. This game will follow in the footsteps of 2022’s Pokémon Legends: Arceus, but presumably, with Zygarde as the primary legendary Pokémon. This game also appears to revisit a past version of the Kalos region from Pokémon X and Y, heavily featuring the region’s capital, Lumiose City. The announcement showed what looked like blueprints for the city, suggesting that the game might focus around building the iconic city.
Generally, this came as a shock for most Pokémon fans who were expecting either Pokémon Black and White remakes or a continuation of the Let’s Go series. This was largely due to rumors leading up to the presentation. Fans of the Unova region do not despair, Black and White remakes are likely inevitable, as The Pokémon Company has not broken the trend of remaking the older Pokémon games in order since the original remakes of Fire Red and Leaf Green. Hopefully, the lack of a Black and White announcement today means that Gamefreak and The Pokémon Company are taking their time with this remake, rather than rushing it out. Pokémon Legends: Z-A waiting to release in 2025 could also mean that more time and effort is going into this game.
According to recent rumors, the next Nintendo console will be arriving in March 2025, this could mean that the new Pokémon Legends game will be released on that new console. But this also seems to suggest that there will not be any major Pokémon games released in 2024, so fans will have to remain patient until the new year.
Fans are already speculating about what Pokémon Legends: Z-A’s story will include. This game could likely shed some light on the mysterious AZ character featured in Pokémon X and Y and his partner Floette. Pokémon X and Y also introduced the history of a war that happened thousands of years in the past. While Legends: Z-A doesn’t seem to be taking place that far in the past, this game could enlighten fans on this lore as well. Perhaps the most exciting detail for some fans though, is a small teaser at the very end of the reveal that seems to confirm that mega-evolution will return to the series. Pokémon X and Y was the game to originally introduce the concept, so it would make sense for this to be the opportunity to bring the mechanic back.
At the very least, today’s announcement confirms that the Legends series will continue. Legends: Arceus is the beginning of a series, not just a standalone spinoff. Plus, everyone who thought back when X and Y were released that there would also be a third Z version finally had their suspicions confirmed, it just took ten years.
What are your thoughts on today’s announcements? Are you excited for Pokémon Legends: Z-A? Why or why not?