Z-A at least already looks better than S/V when it comes to graphics, that battle system also looks really cool, I imagine this game will be primarily focused on battling like how L:A was primarily focused on catching
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Pokémon Presents - Pokémon Day 2025 - Pokemon ZA Info & Pokemon Champions Announced
- Thread starter DHR-107
- Start date
ill be honest i think this is just a hindsight is 20/20 situation where if gamefreak knew what they were doing for legends z-a as they developed arceus we would have a different fire starter in legends to get a hisuian form. and they dont care about patterns so they just threw in tepig there to finish the trio
Strictly speaking we don't even know the full gameplay loop of the game. I still think we're going to go to areas outside of Lumiose just because like....it's the centerpiece of the region that connects to a bunch of things that are right there. I'd be really surprised if we don't do "expeditions" or story-based travels to at least the key areas (zygarde's cave, tower of mastery, likely the sundial, the site of the ancient weapon, maybe Pokemon Village and honestly we should be able to go to the forest & desert) for the sake of developing the city further.
But they're going to focus on Lumiose first before talking about anything else because it's still the centerpiece of the game.
Z-A's battle system excites me. I literally wrote a letter to Game Freak asking for this when I was little.
Champions and the Tera raids honestly stole the show for me. ZA was whatever. I don't get why people were disappointed, and the combat system at least seems like it will be fun...if it is well implemented.
The thing that baffles me even more than the starter selection is how it has taken people less than a hour to twist it into a "pattern" again. This fandom is so absolutely obsessed with them, no matter what Pokemon does at this stage, it will always be part of their imaginary rules.
I can't complain because for once I can choose Totodile for a first playthrough without guilt. That being said, I hope they don't get Megas, simple because thag would leave my boy Cynda out.
Other than that, happy for the XY story fans because this is an obvious sequel. Can't say I'm thrilled about that personally, but seeing AZ is kinda fun.
The thing that baffles me even more than the starter selection is how it has taken people less than a hour to twist it into a "pattern" again. This fandom is so absolutely obsessed with them, no matter what Pokemon does at this stage, it will always be part of their imaginary rules.
I can't complain because for once I can choose Totodile for a first playthrough without guilt. That being said, I hope they don't get Megas, simple because thag would leave my boy Cynda out.
Other than that, happy for the XY story fans because this is an obvious sequel. Can't say I'm thrilled about that personally, but seeing AZ is kinda fun.
I'm just happy for starter Tepig because I love Emboar and think it's always been super underrated. That would've been the highlight if not for the aforementioned atomic soul blast
I did not see Marill personally but JOHTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO starters made up for it and I'm sure it will appear as an early Kalos staple.
Real time combat with cooldowns is a cool iteration on the PLA style that I was kind of hoping for. I want to dodge roll as Azumarill and make use of its full special/physical/projectile/contact based moveset variety for once. Rollout looks like a fairly predictable dash in this one now, I wonder how Aura Sphere will work with perfect accuracy. Stealth Rock seems to be a kind of field trap that Talonflame flies into to eat Flame Wheel, yet another move that changes in Legends.
As shown with the Chikorita vs Flaaffy clip, you can faint pokemon and then catch them after and get EXP both times, that's something else people seem to have been asking for a while.
Also this game seems to not have PLA's inflated HP stats. Most examples follow a general 31 HP IV as expected of the normal formula, except for Onix being lower than expected.
Level 15 Chikorita with 43 HP and Level 10 Totodile with 33 HP is expected of a 31 HP IV, as is Level 38 Lucario with 112 HP and Level 36 Hippowdon with 134 HP.
Same for Level 44 Vivillon with 138 HP, though the Onix with 94 HP is lower than expected for a 31 HP IV.
Also AOE moves like Bulldoze can thankfully hit multiple mons unlike Arceus.
Real time combat with cooldowns is a cool iteration on the PLA style that I was kind of hoping for. I want to dodge roll as Azumarill and make use of its full special/physical/projectile/contact based moveset variety for once. Rollout looks like a fairly predictable dash in this one now, I wonder how Aura Sphere will work with perfect accuracy. Stealth Rock seems to be a kind of field trap that Talonflame flies into to eat Flame Wheel, yet another move that changes in Legends.
As shown with the Chikorita vs Flaaffy clip, you can faint pokemon and then catch them after and get EXP both times, that's something else people seem to have been asking for a while.
Also this game seems to not have PLA's inflated HP stats. Most examples follow a general 31 HP IV as expected of the normal formula, except for Onix being lower than expected.
Level 15 Chikorita with 43 HP and Level 10 Totodile with 33 HP is expected of a 31 HP IV, as is Level 38 Lucario with 112 HP and Level 36 Hippowdon with 134 HP.
Same for Level 44 Vivillon with 138 HP, though the Onix with 94 HP is lower than expected for a 31 HP IV.
Also AOE moves like Bulldoze can thankfully hit multiple mons unlike Arceus.
Real question is why we can use Earthquake in the city and not raze the entire fucking place
/s
I wonder if Champions will require a Home subscription, or have its own subscription on top of that.
If the small indie company cannot afford the time or resources to put all the Pokémon in the game, this isn't a bad compromise, subscription costs aside.
Z-A doesn't look too bad, though if you really are constrained to just the city the environments might get a little stale. The teleporting to a rooftop, over a climbing animation, looked cheap and lazy, and human characters seemed pretty static throughout the city. Not much hustle and bustle. It is difficult to judge the performance from a YouTube video, but it wasn't the glaring framerate disaster that SV were. Not that that's a high bar.
If the small indie company cannot afford the time or resources to put all the Pokémon in the game, this isn't a bad compromise, subscription costs aside.
Z-A doesn't look too bad, though if you really are constrained to just the city the environments might get a little stale. The teleporting to a rooftop, over a climbing animation, looked cheap and lazy, and human characters seemed pretty static throughout the city. Not much hustle and bustle. It is difficult to judge the performance from a YouTube video, but it wasn't the glaring framerate disaster that SV were. Not that that's a high bar.
Saw someone on Reddit say that the next legends game will have Snivy, Litten and Popplio to finish out the gen 5/7 starters before a legends Hoenn game lmao
I do think we’ll leave Lumiose at some point but I doubt this means anything. That description would apply regardless of whether or not the entire game is set there. It’s just describing the setting.
I didn't see the teleportation as lazy because there are plenty of other RPGs on the Switch that have dungeons/areas with similar mechanics like Tokyo Mirage Sessions and SMTVV
champions was said to start with limited availability, which i think can mean two things:
1. gen 9 restricted format start > gen 10 expansion > plza expansion
2. gen 10 regional format > gen 10 dlc formats + plza expansion > gen 10 restricted format
i dont know if their goal is to have a full natdex as much as it is to have a vgc playing machine
1. gen 9 restricted format start > gen 10 expansion > plza expansion
2. gen 10 regional format > gen 10 dlc formats + plza expansion > gen 10 restricted format
i dont know if their goal is to have a full natdex as much as it is to have a vgc playing machine
With the development of knowing our starters for PLZA, I feel extremely confident we will be seeing a situation where we can pick the Kalos starters with Mega stones like the Kanto starters in XY. The parallel is just way too good to pass up on imo, my only qualm is that this would’ve been the perfect opportunity to show them off and they just didn’t.
The game and battle system look great and I love AZ becoming a hotel manager with his best friend after the events of XY, such a cute development.
The game and battle system look great and I love AZ becoming a hotel manager with his best friend after the events of XY, such a cute development.
I don't see why Champions would have its own subscription at all
It "can also connect" to Home so you "won't be limited to using Pokemon you can partner up with in Pokemon Champions" [ie rentals unless you transfer in] so I don't see it requiring a Home subscriptoin.
incidentally while looking through the footage to make sure of the wording I saw the little footnotes
So it'd be funny if it literally only has the pokemon from SV & Z-A, at least at first. Not-Quite-National dex after all lol
The visibility varies but it looks like Mega Evolutions now have a faint rainbowy glow. Interesting visual touch, I dig it
I don’t think I’d read too much into that. Lumiose simply is the largest city in Kalos, so that can just be a statement of fact. Besides, we’ve seen the map art now, and it depicts only Lumiose.
It also just makes sense? Like, we’re literally redeveloping Lumiose to make it ultra-modern, and Pokémon has had in-universe teleportation tech since the beginning. Why wouldn’t an urban developer take advantage of that?
Besides, a climbing animation in this context would just interrupt the moment-to-moment gameplay. It’s one thing when climbing is a mechanic, but this is just one of those efficiency cases where there’s no reason to waste the player’s time on an transitory animation if you don’t have to.
Which further makes me think we'll be stepping out of the city to explore select other locations.They released the official map in the website. I believe it shows the wild areas (where the Pokémon are fighting). Interestingly, I don't see diversity in the biomes. I'd expected a snowy and desertic biome, but they all seem to be just parks.
Ok, this framerate thing is seriously bugging me. While other complaints I can see like on how flat the textures on the buildings are, this is just something I haven't been able to see and yet it comes up enough that it should be. I've seen people suggest it could be because of the stream but then others say it's supposedly still on the trailer by itself. It feels almost like gaslighting. Where is it?
I said it earlier. I'll say it again.
You see it or you don't. I'll notice frame drops that 95% of people wouldn't and it bothers the shit out of me. This happens with literally every Switch release.
It's not gaslighting. It's some of us are just good at this.