SPOILERS! OFFICIAL Pokemon Legends: Z-A Character POWER RANKINGS

[Esserise]

Personally I feel like Volo has a higher bar to clear in order to access his battle since you have to catch every Pokémon, and that involves a bunch of side quests to get the rest of the plates in addition to going back for any regular Pokémon you haven’t caught. Lysandre just needs you to do the Xerneas and Yveltal side quests, and those just require one round of the Z-A Royale.

Didn't play PLA but don't you fight Volo and then he summons Giratina as the climax battle? If yes then Lysandre comes much, much later (aka "I am in the postgame and had no idea there was a Lysandre battle").

Volo’s battle is completely within the post-game. The main story climax doesn’t really involve him and is more about dealing with Kamado and Dialga/Palkia.

 

[Darth Jigglypuff]

Personally I feel like Volo has a higher bar to clear in order to access his battle since you have to catch every Pokémon

Catching every Pokémon is required to face Arceus. To fight Volo you need to collect 17 out of 18 Plates.

For me L was harder than Volo, mostly because of how fast his Gyarados moves. On the other hand Zygarde was easier than Arceus, as I could rely more on my Pokémon (Meganium is a blessing during this fight).

 

[Yung Dramps]

Personally I feel like Volo has a higher bar to clear in order to access his battle since you have to catch every Pokémon, and that involves a bunch of side quests to get the rest of the plates in addition to going back for any regular Pokémon you haven’t caught. Lysandre just needs you to do the Xerneas and Yveltal side quests, and those just require one round of the Z-A Royale.



Volo’s battle is completely within the post-game. The main story climax doesn’t really involve him and is more about dealing with Kamado and Dialga/Palkia.

Quick correction but you don't need to complete the dex to fight Volo, you just need to go through a questline with him where you gather up the remaining plates and catch the various Sinnoh side legendaries. Catching everyone is how you fight Arc- ah shit sniped

Anyways sounds to me like L and Volo take about the same level of involvement to battle

 

[Mad Ram]

Switching things up a bit, I got the vibes with Jacinthe is supposed to be descended from Kalosian nobility. Not really a descendant of the monarchy like Lysandre but definitely blue-blooded aristocracy. It would definitely add to her sense of "I am just better than you" considering how that sort of thing makes modern class conflict look like an egalitarian wonderland by comparison.

 

[Esserise]

Catching every Pokémon is required to face Arceus. To fight Volo you need to collect 17 out of 18 Plates.

Ohhh right, I guess I conflated those two things in my head.

So for Volo, you basically have to battle an alpha Vespiquen, Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf, Heatran, Regigigas, Cresselia, and rematch Kamado.

For Lysandre, you have to do a Z-A Royale, and then catch Xerneas (which requires you to battle three alphas) and Yveltal (which first has you redo three Rogue Mega battles).

Huh, I suppose it’s actually about the same in terms of content.

For me L was harder than Volvo, mostly because of how fast his Gyarados moves. On the other hand Zygarde was easier than Arceus, as I could rely more on my Pokémon (Meganium is a blessing during this fight).

Personally, I had a harder time with the Volo battle. L wasn’t a total pushover, but I didn’t really have to try that hard (although tbf I have my own Gyarados, lol), whereas I recall wiping to Volo once.

I can’t gauge Arceus vs. Zygarde properly, because I refused to take advantage of the “keep your progress” option against Arceus. If I’d done what the game wanted me to do, then it probably would have been much easier than it was. It took me several tries to get it right.

With Zygarde, there isn’t an option to keep your progress, and yet I only lost once (I got close to losing the second time, but clutched it).

Then again, Zygarde forced me to use a lot of healing items. Part of the difficulty with the Arceus battle was that there’s not really a way to heal yourself. The sections where I used my Pokémon to battle Arceus weren’t really notably difficult.

For what it’s worth, I enjoyed both.

 

[Riguor]

So for Volo, you basically have to battle an alpha Vespiquen, Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf, Heatran, Regigigas, Cresselia, and rematch Kamado.

Hey, don't forget grabbing Cogita's cutting board

 

[Fusion Flare]

About #4, Emma's return is nice and all, but I don't really appreciate that for one of the returning characters (she's on the boxart, for crying out loud!), her relevance in the story basically amounts to showing off Megas, pulling on Ivor's leash, and... popping into the climax via phone call to vouch for L? That's it? You'd think they'd do a bit more with her. I even did an entire shitpost for it. Mostly for jokes, but yeesh.

Please DLC pull through for her somehow...

 

[R_N]

About #4, Emma's return is nice and all, but I don't really appreciate that for one of the returning characters (she's on the boxart, for crying out loud!), her relevance in the story basically amounts to showing off Megas, pulling on Ivor's leash, and... popping into the climax via phone call to vouch for L? That's it? You'd think they'd do a bit more with her. I even did an entire shitpost for it. Mostly for jokes, but yeesh.
View attachment 783396


Please DLC pull through for her somehow...

Harsh but not inaccurate.

She feels like she's here because they couldn't remove EVERY notable character from Lumiose, and served as a side character for Taunie's (also minimal, all things considered) subplot. For someone investigating L & Zygarde, she sure contributes nothing to L or Zygarde.

The Ivor segment was fun, at least.

 

[CynicalGiant]

Doesn't really change my point but is it noticeably harder to access than Volo? I thought it was a similar chunk of playtime where you do some errands including catching Xerneas and Yveltal

possible I missed something but the game seemingly didn't tell me what to do to encounter him, unlike every other quest in the game so it is a bit more obtuse than I remember any of the volo stuff being

Lysandre Spoiler

after you catch xerneas and yveltal you are apparently supposed to go back to hotel z but there's no quest marker and I don't remember an npc or anyone saying to go back there. also in the post game there is basically no reason to go back there ever anyway. I caught the legends and then like over 10 hours of ingame passed until I just decided to go back to hotel z on a whim and then I get challenged by L.

 

[Esserise]

and... popping into the climax via phone call to vouch for L? That's it?

Yeah that… is pretty odd, isn’t it? Since she’s established as being able to use Mega Evolution just like all our other allies, and we have to cross through her neighborhood* on the way to Zygarde anyway… but all we get is a phone call. Seems like it would be much more organic to have you reach Rouge District, which is the last stretch before you get to Zygarde, to involve her in the scene with Grisham and Griselle, and have her vouch for L right then.

* By the way, about this path…

1. I’m genuinely surprised that Game Freak were able to restrain themselves from making it a big Z shape

2. Is there um… is there a reason why we’re not just cutting through Bleu District?

 

[R_N]

Yeah that… is pretty odd, isn’t it? Since she’s established as being able to use Mega Evolution just like all our other allies, and we have to cross through her neighborhood* on the way to Zygarde anyway… but all we get is a phone call. Seems like it would be much more organic to have you reach Rouge District, which is the last stretch before you get to Zygarde, to involve her in the scene with Grisham and Griselle, and have her vouch for L right then.

* By the way, about this path…

View attachment 783452

1. I’m genuinely surprised that Game Freak were able to restrain themselves from making it a big Z shape

2. Is there um… is there a reason why we’re not just cutting through Bleu District?

All the disaster rubble just happened to only open the most circuitous path

Though considering Zygarde is going out of its way to be as far from you as possible to "test" you, even if the bleu district was accessible it would just go somewhere else to make you go the long way around.

 

[Mario With Lasers]

About #4, Emma's return is nice and all, but I don't really appreciate that for one of the returning characters (she's on the boxart, for crying out loud!), her relevance in the story basically amounts to showing off Megas, pulling on Ivor's leash, and... popping into the climax via phone call to vouch for L? That's it? You'd think they'd do a bit more with her. I even did an entire shitpost for it. Mostly for jokes, but yeesh.
View attachment 783396


Please DLC pull through for her somehow...

Speaking of which, just saw this

 

[R_N]

Speaking of which, just saw this

View attachment 783464

ah, the affectionate version of the meme

 

[RocketSurgery]

All the disaster rubble just happened to only open the most circuitous path

Though considering Zygarde is going out of its way to be as far from you as possible to "test" you, even if the bleu district was accessible it would just go somewhere else to make you go the long way around.

I wish they had come up with a different narrative reason for us having to make our way to Zygarde instead of it just coming to us. Why does it need to test us? What if we failed the test? Zygarde would have let Lumiose get nuked?

Might have been better to have said Zygarde was fending off a bunch of rogue megas on its own, and the player needs to escort L to it to give it its cells so it can power up to Zygarde complete.

 

[R_N]

I wish they had come up with a different narrative reason for us having to make our way to Zygarde instead of it just coming to us. Why does it need to test us? What if we failed the test? Zygarde would have let Lumiose get nuked?

Might have been better to have said Zygarde was fending off a bunch of rogue megas on its own, and the player needs to escort L to it to give it its cells so it can power up to Zygarde complete.

I don't fully disagree but this feels like a really common trope so I just shrugged and went with it like Canari did.

And to be fair if we did fail I don't think we'd be able to beat up a giant renegade tree tower so Zygarde might've been about to pull out its own emergency measures and have to take a much longer trip to alola

 

[Omastar68]

I wish they had come up with a different narrative reason for us having to make our way to Zygarde instead of it just coming to us. Why does it need to test us? What if we failed the test? Zygarde would have let Lumiose get nuked?

Might have been better to have said Zygarde was fending off a bunch of rogue megas on its own, and the player needs to escort L to it to give it its cells so it can power up to Zygarde complete.

I agree. This also goes for that last scaffolding course. Tarragon character takes a minus for that lol. I don't really get the reason they have these scaffolds ANYWAYS, but that was absurd timing.

Edit: for actual topic, think I favor corbeau. If I had to learn more about one character would pick him. I agree jacinthe is lol, but unfortunately low role.

And that ivor sister, she's kinda this game's Squidward so to speak ..

 

[jimmyolsen]

Ohhh right, I guess I conflated those two things in my head.

So for Volo, you basically have to battle an alpha Vespiquen, Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf, Heatran, Regigigas, Cresselia, and rematch Kamado.

For Lysandre, you have to do a Z-A Royale, and then catch Xerneas (which requires you to battle three alphas) and Yveltal (which first has you redo three Rogue Mega battles).

Huh, I suppose it’s actually about the same in terms of content.



Personally, I had a harder time with the Volo battle. L wasn’t a total pushover, but I didn’t really have to try that hard (although tbf I have my own Gyarados, lol), whereas I recall wiping to Volo once.

I can’t gauge Arceus vs. Zygarde properly, because I refused to take advantage of the “keep your progress” option against Arceus. If I’d done what the game wanted me to do, then it probably would have been much easier than it was. It took me several tries to get it right.

With Zygarde, there isn’t an option to keep your progress, and yet I only lost once (I got close to losing the second time, but clutched it).

Then again, Zygarde forced me to use a lot of healing items. Part of the difficulty with the Arceus battle was that there’s not really a way to heal yourself. The sections where I used my Pokémon to battle Arceus weren’t really notably difficult.

For what it’s worth, I enjoyed both.

I didn't find L particularly challenging, but my core of Meganium, Gyarados, and Excadrill were all equal leveled to him when I got there. But the fight is easily missable. There's nothing to suggest you go back to Hotel Z to trigger it. Meganium made short work of Zygarde too.

The two hardest fights in the game are the 1v1 Pikachu fight and the Elite Frou Champion.

 

[Coronis]

I didn't find L particularly challenging, but my core of Meganium, Gyarados, and Excadrill were all equal leveled to him when I got there. But the fight is easily missable. There's nothing to suggest you go back to Hotel Z to trigger it. Meganium made short work of Zygarde too.

The two hardest fights in the game are the 1v1 Pikachu fight and the Elite Frou Champion.

Elite Furfrou was quite annoying at the stage it came up (and I was doing them all as they came up). Ended up catching an Alpha + 5 Regulars. Alpha took care of the first 5 of hers and then attacking and reviving to whittle down that last mean dog.

 

[jimmyolsen]

Elite Furfrou was quite annoying at the stage it came up (and I was doing them all as they came up). Ended up catching an Alpha + 5 Regulars. Alpha took care of the first 5 of hers and then attacking and reviving to whittle down that last mean dog.

I did basically the same thing. Rocky Helmet, Charm, Cotton Guard, Double Edge and healed as needed.

 

[Yung Dramps]

Sincere discussion prompt: Is the transition from the XY friends to Team MZ one of the biggest leaps in party quality in an RPG sequel?

 

[R_N]

Sincere discussion prompt: Is the transition from the XY friends to Team MZ one of the biggest leaps in party quality in an RPG sequel?

To be fair SM already started making the corrective leap, and I'd argue that what Team MZ went for with its core vs what XY was going for is jsut a little different, but generally yeah. A solid trio of enjoyable characters who you spend the entire game with, form the core of the gameplay loop so you are constantly in conversation with them, and get some focus on them throughout. Honestly Taunie's the weakest one and she's still fairly enjoyable (even if I still think the end game scene with getting Floette was done poorly).
Even if the characters were half as good they'd probably still rank higher just because they had a very tight focus.
XY was too split on how it wanted to treat the quartet.
Shauna is generally the most well liked and the one who gets to be relevant for the climax and she only gets 2 battles (the introduction and the bridge); she gets to offset this by having a very distinct personality, cute design and more memorable set pieces.
The rival on paper has a lot going for them; they have frequent fights, appearances, and in particular get to show up in the climax. Team isn't even that bad a line up. There's even some background details you can dig around for about their home life and why they act the way they do. But I think most people probably put them below Shauna due to their overly reserved personality and lack of "wow" moments. No one really goes to bat for, I dunno, the battle at the tower of mastery. Personally they felt kind of a less interesting retread of Cheren.

Then it's like, damn. Tierno, if nothing else, has a memorable design and gimmick. But I don't think he even got an arc? Closest I can recall was his scene at the mirror cave? Surely there's another I forget about. Did you know you actually fight this guy thrice? His first battle is with Corphish and his second battle is (checks notes) the one pre-bridge battle Trevor has, where is continues to just bring the Corphish. Guy doesn't even get named by his sister; at least we know he's dancing in Unova thanks to an NPC?


Then Trevor huh? I don't think anyone really likes Trevor. Very dull and nothing sticks out personality wise. He does get that dedicated segment at the frost cavern, but it's not really like. A good one? It has what I feel the arc to be "I feel useless...-> tries and fails to help -> Yeah, I guess I am useless." So that's not endearing. So his scene on the bridge doesn't really resonate even though you've ostensibly been traveling with him. It's a shame, 5 years, being made the acting professor after Scyamore stepped down and an attitude adjustment could have made him work in Z-A but oops got replaced by Mable, the woman who owned him at Frost Cavern (And no one cared! )

Too much spread too thin, with the moments of spotlight not being equal. SWSH has its own problems with how it handled its traveling trio but even Marnie sticks with people better and over all is a much bigger success since it gave moments of distinction to all of them.

 

[Yung Dramps]

To be fair SM already started making the corrective leap, and I'd argue that what Team MZ went for with its core vs what XY was going for is jsut a little different, but generally yeah. A solid trio of enjoyable characters who you spend the entire game with, form the core of the gameplay loop so you are constantly in conversation with them, and get some focus on them throughout. Honestly Taunie's the weakest one and she's still fairly enjoyable (even if I still think the end game scene with getting Floette was done poorly).
Even if the characters were half as good they'd probably still rank higher just because they had a very tight focus.
XY was too split on how it wanted to treat the quartet.
Shauna is generally the most well liked and the one who gets to be relevant for the climax and she only gets 2 battles (the introduction and the bridge); she gets to offset this by having a very distinct personality, cute design and more memorable set pieces.
The rival on paper has a lot going for them; they have frequent fights, appearances, and in particular get to show up in the climax. Team isn't even that bad a line up. There's even some background details you can dig around for about their home life and why they act the way they do. But I think most people probably put them below Shauna due to their overly reserved personality and lack of "wow" moments. No one really goes to bat for, I dunno, the battle at the tower of mastery. Personally they felt kind of a less interesting retread of Cheren.

Then it's like, damn. Tierno, if nothing else, has a memorable design and gimmick. But I don't think he even got an arc? Closest I can recall was his scene at the mirror cave? Surely there's another I forget about. Did you know you actually fight this guy thrice? His first battle is with Corphish and his second battle is (checks notes) the one pre-bridge battle Trevor has, where is continues to just bring the Corphish. Guy doesn't even get named by his sister; at least we know he's dancing in Unova thanks to an NPC?


Then Trevor huh? I don't think anyone really likes Trevor. Very dull and nothing sticks out personality wise. He does get that dedicated segment at the frost cavern, but it's not really like. A good one? It has what I feel the arc to be "I feel useless...-> tries and fails to help -> Yeah, I guess I am useless." So that's not endearing. So his scene on the bridge doesn't really resonate even though you've ostensibly been traveling with him. It's a shame, 5 years, being made the acting professor after Scyamore stepped down and an attitude adjustment could have made him work in Z-A but oops got replaced by Mable, the woman who owned him at Frost Cavern (And no one cared! )

Too much spread too thin, with the moments of spotlight not being equal. SWSH has its own problems with how it handled its traveling trio but even Marnie sticks with people better and over all is a much bigger success since it gave moments of distinction to all of them.

For clarification's sake when I say RPG sequel I mean "Legends Z-A as a sequel to XY" not the evolution of how rivals were handled in all the games released between those two. Like how one would compare the main casts of, say, Final Fantasy X and X-2

 

[Esserise]

No one really goes to bat for, I dunno, the battle at the tower of mastery. Personally they felt kind of a less interesting retread of Cheren.

It’s funny, I was just watching Newsteevie’s retrospective on XY and they made a lot of these same points, which I mostly agree with as well, but at about 52:25 they actually do go to bat for the Tower of Mastery battle as one of the better-realized moments for the XY friend group.

To summarize, it’s cool because it shows that Shauna, Tierno, and Trevor all know themselves and their positions within the group dynamic well enough to recognize that the Mega Ring is a neat idea but not really relevant to their own goals, whereas they know it does mean something for us and Calem/Serena, and that in turn means that our battle actually has more stakes than usual since the rival stands to lose out on an opportunity that they really want. And the video doesn’t touch on this, but it also ripples out into a later part of the story with how Lysandre cites it as an example of a limited resource having to be fought over and yeah sure they end up getting their own Mega Ring in the post-game anyway but you knowwww~

That, uh, unfortunately is kinda it for the rival as far as notable moments go, though. Well, unless you consider both-sidesing genocide a notable moment…

 

[Valoo]

One little moment I love is Lida getting a water stone from vinnie so she can finally evolve her Staryu. Really makes her pokemon feel relevant and like actual characters, it’s almost like something out of the anime.

 

[Coronis]

One little moment I love is Lida getting a water stone from vinnie so she can finally evolve her Staryu. Really makes her pokemon feel relevant and like actual characters, it’s almost like something out of the anime.

It does make me worry about poor Lida though (and Naveen?). Their progression through ZA Royale is noted to be well behind ours… a Water Stone is only 3000 poké which tbe player character could easily Smash going between rank Z and Y.

Obviously, there’s the chance she doesn’t know about the emporium, and iirc ingame she mentions not being sure if she wants to evolve it…

But my personal headcanon is that Lida and Naveen are actually that poor. Naveen’s clothing business really does need to take off!