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Pokémon Legends: Z-A General Discussion

The game's setting is going to be the standout feature for sure. As I've grown older, I've learned to just love densely packed cities. Just being able to walk around anywhere (not even driving a car, just walking and maybe hopping on a train) and have something new or interesting to see or do every 5 minutes is just awesome. And I will admit, seeing animals integrate and live their day to day lives in cities has been a cool experience in a few places I've been to. And it helps that these cities typically let the brakes off and allow you to do anything. I definetly prefer it to most of the boring fields or forest where it feels like its just miles and miles of NOTHING (although those environemtns are charming in their own ways ig).

Obviously with this being a videogame, I am well-aware that this feeling of exploring a city won't be matched one-to-one (so no late-night game-center hangouts or Ramen runs for example) but I already do see a lot of things that I wanted to see from the gameplay. Seeing the Pokemon living in alleyways and parkways, the nightlife still bustling with trainer battles, local cafe spots for chilling and vibing (unironically my favorite places to go to in most cities lol), etc. All of it seems very well represented here. And of course, we've got the more mundane 9-5 activites like the Looker quest and lab to give the vibe of a bustling place where people are still busy, even if we don't see it. There also does seem to be a decent number of places you can go inside to as well. There are some things I'm dissappointed by, like no train system to maybe jump from city to city, but eh who knows, maybe I'll get that in the DLC with the Hyperspace rings lol. I am also hoping that we do explore some underground areas as well like we did in BW2 with the Castellia Sewers - which I still think is one of the coolest Pokemon dungeons.
 
R_N said:
Sycamore's (former) office has pictures of him bonding with his Garchomp, a Pokemon he only had in the anime. It's a cute reference.
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There’s also a line of dialogue in the Hoenn remakes that also references the anime that you could only see with the event Shiny Beldum with Steven’s OT. I imagine the way things played out were different in the games, of course, but I suppose it’s fun to speculate if the events of the Kalos anime seasons also happened in this universe too.

My leading theory pre-Legends ZA release is that this isn’t the same Kalos as the one we saw on the 3DS, and it might also be in a different universe than Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire. At the moment we can confirm there are at least three different universes (the original games, the old remakes, and the Mega timeline), so maybe the events of XYZ did happen in one of these after all. That would explain Ash-Greninja’s appearance in the old Sun & Moon demo.
 
Magcargo said:
The game's setting is going to be the standout feature for sure. As I've grown older, I've learned to just love densely packed cities. Just being able to walk around anywhere (not even driving a car, just walking and maybe hopping on a train) and have something new or interesting to see or do every 5 minutes is just awesome. And I will admit, seeing animals integrate and live their day to day lives in cities has been a cool experience in a few places I've been to. And it helps that these cities typically let the brakes off and allow you to do anything. I definetly prefer it to most of the boring fields or forest where it feels like its just miles and miles of NOTHING (although those environemtns are charming in their own ways ig).

Obviously with this being a videogame, I am well-aware that this feeling of exploring a city won't be matched one-to-one (so no late-night game-center hangouts or Ramen runs for example) but I already do see a lot of things that I wanted to see from the gameplay. Seeing the Pokemon living in alleyways and parkways, the nightlife still bustling with trainer battles, local cafe spots for chilling and vibing (unironically my favorite places to go to in most cities lol), etc. All of it seems very well represented here. And of course, we've got the more mundane 9-5 activites like the Looker quest and lab to give the vibe of a bustling place where people are still busy, even if we don't see it. There also does seem to be a decent number of places you can go inside to as well. There are some things I'm dissappointed by, like no train system to maybe jump from city to city, but eh who knows, maybe I'll get that in the DLC with the Hyperspace rings lol. I am also hoping that we do explore some underground areas as well like we did in BW2 with the Castellia Sewers - which I still think is one of the coolest Pokemon dungeons.
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Yeah I feel like they're very much going for this but since it's so contradictory to what people have come to expect (even if just by looking at PLA), it's raised some eyebrows. The whole point of Legends is to go against the grain of a typical Pokémon experience, and I'm glad that GF decided to make these games distinctive from one another instead of making it just another aesthetic.
 
Ear547 said:
Yeah I feel like they're very much going for this but since it's so contradictory to what people have come to expect (even if just by looking at PLA), it's raised some eyebrows. The whole point of Legends is to go against the grain of a typical Pokémon experience, and I'm glad that GF decided to make these games distinctive from one another instead of making it just another aesthetic.
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on some level I get it but I find the initial reaction to Legends ZA being different and not just the same concept as Legends Arceus very funny. pokemon fans have been largely begging for them to try new things and they did it twice in a row, and a lot of people were mad they didn't just pump out the same formula again.
 
CynicalGiant said:
on some level I get it but I find the initial reaction to Legends ZA being different and not just the same concept as Legends Arceus very funny. pokemon fans have been largely begging for them to try new things and they did it twice in a row, and a lot of people were mad they didn't just pump out the same formula again.
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The reactions to Z-A are pretty similar to how people felt about PLA re-release. You'd think people would be more trusting given they know what Legends is like, but alas.
 
Ear547 said:
Yeah I feel like they're very much going for this but since it's so contradictory to what people have come to expect (even if just by looking at PLA), it's raised some eyebrows. The whole point of Legends is to go against the grain of a typical Pokémon experience, and I'm glad that GF decided to make these games distinctive from one another instead of making it just another aesthetic.
Click to expand...
Not only that, but when we realized more LEgends games were going to be a thing, we suspected a bunch of them to take place in time periods of the past, like Unova, Kalos War period, Hoenn 3000 years ago, etc. Modern day i dont think was on anyone's bingo cards, but when you really think about it, it makes sense. Legends games are about Legends (or mythicals in arceus' case but shut up) and these same legends can be found in modern times, too. Now we could go to distant future, alt dimensions, anywhere they want.
 
CynicalGiant said:
on some level I get it but I find the initial reaction to Legends ZA being different and not just the same concept as Legends Arceus very funny. pokemon fans have been largely begging for them to try new things and they did it twice in a row, and a lot of people were mad they didn't just pump out the same formula again.
Click to expand...
Ear547 said:
The reactions to Z-A are pretty similar to how people felt about PLA re-release. You'd think people would be more trusting given they know what Legends is like, but alas.
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I think there is also the fact that while Legends Arceus was fully unexpected, being both
- first of its kind
- actually looking action based rather than turn based (we know how it turned out, but actively dodging things and pokemon physically hurting the player is a new concept)
- being a prequel rather than a sequel
- just a unexpected entry to begin with (people expected more remakes, not a whole ass full spinoff)

whereas Legends ZA has less of a surprise factor since at this point people sorta expected more Legends title to happen.
Not that it undermines the title, but I feel it's normal that the reaction to a unexpected new subseries is different from the reaction to "second title of a subseries"
 
CynicalGiant said:
on some level I get it but I find the initial reaction to Legends ZA being different and not just the same concept as Legends Arceus very funny. pokemon fans have been largely begging for them to try new things and they did it twice in a row, and a lot of people were mad they didn't just pump out the same formula again.
Click to expand...
I think it’s more that people really liked LA and were hoping for that style to continue, since it’s still something different from the main series.

I’m excited for ZA but I still kind of prefer the older setting/overall vibes LA had.
 
Worldie said:
I think there is also the fact that while Legends Arceus was fully unexpected, being both
- first of its kind
- actually looking action based rather than turn based (we know how it turned out, but actively dodging things and pokemon physically hurting the player is a new concept)
- being a prequel rather than a sequel
- just a unexpected entry to begin with (people expected more remakes, not a whole ass full spinoff)

whereas Legends ZA has less of a surprise factor since at this point people sorta expected more Legends title to happen.
Not that it undermines the title, but I feel it's normal that the reaction to a unexpected new subseries is different from the reaction to "second title of a subseries"
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Yeah, could be. But I think it's moreso that it's not doing the same thing as PLA and I think people still feel burned from SV. People in general have become a lot more cynical in recent years too.
 
Worldie said:
I think there is also the fact that while Legends Arceus was fully unexpected, being both
- first of its kind
- actually looking action based rather than turn based (we know how it turned out, but actively dodging things and pokemon physically hurting the player is a new concept)
- being a prequel rather than a sequel
- just a unexpected entry to begin with (people expected more remakes, not a whole ass full spinoff)

whereas Legends ZA has less of a surprise factor since at this point people sorta expected more Legends title to happen.
Not that it undermines the title, but I feel it's normal that the reaction to a unexpected new subseries is different from the reaction to "second title of a subseries"
Click to expand...

I'd say Z-A had plenty of surprise factor though nonetheless.

While more Legends games were expected at this point and wanted, Z-A subverted a lot of expectations in a lot of ways.

One being that it's in Kalos. In the months leading to the reveal of this game everyone thought a Johto game or a Unova game would be next after SV, but voila, Kalos time!

Another being that this game takes place entirely within Lumiose City. A game taking place entirely within a city is a new one.

And the third being this game subverted something people thought would be a constant in Legends games by being in modern times as opposed to Arceus being more ancient, and in general having a super urban, high-tech flavor to it.

This game being the specific way it is and landing at this time point relative to the rest of the series was a curveball no one saw coming, and I'd say that allowed it to have a lot of surprise factor in its own right.
 
more gameplay footage and customization options shown


EDIT: the UI for the box/online battle team selection looks cool

1760116556213.png
 
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First a Level 50 Adamant Gallade showing stats for all 31 IVs, and now a Level 50 Quiet Ampharos that shows 31 IVs for HP, Sp.Atk, Sp.Def, and Spe…

I know it doesn’t necessarily mean that IVs now default to 31 and/or were removed entirely, but have we actually gotten any footage of a Pokémon showing stats that prove that random IVs still exist?
 
reaverz said:
First a Level 50 Adamant Gallade showing stats for all 31 IVs, and now a Level 50 Quiet Ampharos that shows 31 IVs for HP, Sp.Atk, Sp.Def, and Spe…

I know it doesn’t necessarily mean that IVs now default to 31 and/or were removed entirely, but have we actually gotten any footage of a Pokémon showing stats that prove that random IVs still exist?
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The Austin John Plays gameplay demo Chikorita has stats below 31 IVs assuming all else is normal.

1760118555013.png
1760118592308.png


Also the Mareep and other party examples, and the existence of Characteristics support random IVs.
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doipy hooves said:
The Austin John Plays gameplay demo Chikorita has stats below 31 IVs assuming all else is normal.

View attachment 778091View attachment 778093

Also the Mareep and other party examples, and the existence of Characteristics support random IVs.
View attachment 778095View attachment 778096
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Thank you for settling that, I had forgotten about Characteristics having been confirmed already. Watching the actual footage from a few posts ago, they do scroll over several Pokémon and all of them appear to have all 31 IVs. It was clearly a tailored selection of Pokémon specifically for showing off the multiplayer battles.

Speaking of said multiplayer battles, I noticed that players do react to getting hit by moves but there is no indication of taking any damage themselves. They’ll only black out when all three of their Pokémon are knocked out. This is a good thing in my opinion, I’m fine with having to be careful during wild battles but the player being susceptible to attacks during trainer battles would have been annoying.
 
Count Bleck said:
Not only that, but when we realized more LEgends games were going to be a thing, we suspected a bunch of them to take place in time periods of the past, like Unova, Kalos War period, Hoenn 3000 years ago, etc. Modern day i dont think was on anyone's bingo cards, but when you really think about it, it makes sense. Legends games are about Legends (or mythicals in arceus' case but shut up) and these same legends can be found in modern times, too. Now we could go to distant future, alt dimensions, anywhere they want.
Click to expand...
Legends Alola where we can explore different Ultra Beast worlds... please...
 
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