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Pokémon Legends: Z-A General Discussion

Idle thoughts on story. Post-tatsugiri, for reference

It's interesting to me how, after speculation on Terapagos maybe reacting to dreams and bringing them to life, Hyperspace is kind of very literally doing this. Explicitly a reflection of the subconscious dreams, desires and (in the case of battle zones lmao) resentment of the people and pokemon of lumiose. Can even speak to the dead! Not to mention all this dream stuff is able to manifest in reality (clothing, mega stones, items, pokemon).Does feel a little purposeful, though that could be I still do think a lot of Terapagos/crystals/area zero is reflective of people's desires.



Anyway what I'm saying is Unova confirmed
 
R_N said:
Idle thoughts on story. Post-tatsugiri, for reference

It's interesting to me how, after speculation on Terapagos maybe reacting to dreams and bringing them to life, Hyperspace is kind of very literally doing this. Explicitly a reflection of the subconscious dreams, desires and (in the case of battle zones lmao) resentment of the people and pokemon of lumiose. Can even speak to the dead! Not to mention all this dream stuff is able to manifest in reality (clothing, mega stones, items, pokemon).Does feel a little purposeful, though that could be I still do think a lot of Terapagos/crystals/area zero is reflective of people's desires.



Anyway what I'm saying is Unova confirmed
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AZ's encounter is reminiscent of Sada's/Turo's in SV DLC - both in the same generation and at the end of their DLCs. It's pretty clear at this point they plan to wrap everything up whenever BW remakes or Legends Kyurem shows up, potentially connecting the Dream World with both Hyperspace and Area Zero.
 
Looks like a lot of the legendary/mythical are nature locked. What I don't really get is that now we can more or less change our natures, so why lock them in the first place?

Hearing that Latios and Latias might be IV locked. No chance of getting maximum IVs. Any truth to that?
 
pkmfan said:
Looks like a lot of the legendary/mythical are nature locked. What I don't really get is that now we can more or less change our natures, so why lock them in the first place?
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Just for flavor, I suppose. Like how the “friendly” Koraidon/Miraidon in SV is fixed as Quirky while the “aggressive” one you catch in Area Zero is fixed to Adamant/Modest — it’s just a little detail to illustrate the personality that the devs intend for that specific individual to have.

Natures were always meant to be suggestive of the Pokémon’s individual personality (as is their IV characteristic), and nowadays because of mints, that’s kinda all they’re there for. Just a one-word personality descriptor that’s almost entirely divorced from the stat growth implications.
 
For the Mega Meowstic fight, is there something I'm missing?
The "wall" attack. Obviously you're meant to attack the square and that cracks the wall.
But then I just can't do anything. I can see my allies continuing to attack the wall, but I can't lock onto anything so I can't send my own Pokemon to attack? And I can't seem to just walk through or roll through the cracks, so every time it gets to this point the psychic blast goes off anyway. Then I'm on death's door (if not already dead) and meowstic locks onto ME and kills me badly.

like is the lock on just not working, or is there a way to get your Pokemon to just attack the wall I've been overlooking for the last 60 hours?
 
R_N said:
For the Mega Meowstic fight, is there something I'm missing?
The "wall" attack. Obviously you're meant to attack the square and that cracks the wall.
But then I just can't do anything. I can see my allies continuing to attack the wall, but I can't lock onto anything so I can't send my own Pokemon to attack? And I can't seem to just walk through or roll through the cracks, so every time it gets to this point the psychic blast goes off anyway. Then I'm on death's door (if not already dead) and meowstic locks onto ME and kills me badly.

like is the lock on just not working, or is there a way to get your Pokemon to just attack the wall I've been overlooking for the last 60 hours?
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I don't know what's going on for you, I completely missed the square in my first attempt but once I found it the fight was easy enough for me, you need to be in pretty close range to it to actually lock on so maybe that's the issue, otherwise I don't have an answer for you
 
Mex said:
I don't know what's going on for you, I completely missed the square in my first attempt but once I found it the fight was easy enough for me, you need to be in pretty close range to it to actually lock on so maybe that's the issue, otherwise I don't have an answer for you
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I mean I can lock onto ithe actual square, and it does break the square and makes the wall cracked, but it seemed like you were meant to continue breaking it after that point?

I eventually did beat it by just spamming roll against the wall. I guess the point is when it's cracked it goes down just before the attack goes off, then you roll into the cube to avoid it? Didn't feel very intuitive.
 
R_N said:
I mean I can lock onto ithe actual square, and it does break the square and makes the wall cracked, but it seemed like you were meant to continue breaking it after that point?

I eventually did beat it by just spamming roll against the wall. I guess the point is when it's cracked it goes down just before the attack goes off, then you roll into the cube to avoid it? Didn't feel very intuitive.
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yeah, you do just go close up to avoid the attack after breaking the wall rather than breaking the charge like you would for Hawlucha or Dragonite. I get why that'd feel unintuitive.
 
R_N said:
For the Mega Meowstic fight, is there something I'm missing?
The "wall" attack. Obviously you're meant to attack the square and that cracks the wall.
But then I just can't do anything. I can see my allies continuing to attack the wall, but I can't lock onto anything so I can't send my own Pokemon to attack? And I can't seem to just walk through or roll through the cracks, so every time it gets to this point the psychic blast goes off anyway. Then I'm on death's door (if not already dead) and meowstic locks onto ME and kills me badly.

like is the lock on just not working, or is there a way to get your Pokemon to just attack the wall I've been overlooking for the last 60 hours?
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The way the wall works is you break it to actually get inside and attack meowstic directly, then you stay inside until it actually attacks. It'll attack everything outside of the wall for a lot of burst damage.
 
I think its really interesting that DARKRAI appears to be the main antagonist (or misunderstood antagonist) of this DLC. I get it got a Mega Evolution, but usually in Pokemon games, the central antagonistic legendary is a Pokemon from the region - not a mythical from a different region. At most I would have expected Darkrai have a small sidequest dedicated to it, but it being the main cause of Hyperspace Lumiose was an interesting direction for the story. They even gave it those legs from the movie and brought back the Sinnoh Legendary theme!

Each region is usually treated in isolation so its really interesting that they went and decided to give Darkrai more spotlight here - doubly so since I don't believe it was even mentioned or acknowledged in the original Kalos games.
 
Esserise said:
Just for flavor, I suppose. Like how the “friendly” Koraidon/Miraidon in SV is fixed as Quirky while the “aggressive” one you catch in Area Zero is fixed to Adamant/Modest — it’s just a little detail to illustrate the personality that the devs intend for that specific individual to have.

Natures were always meant to be suggestive of the Pokémon’s individual personality (as is their IV characteristic), and nowadays because of mints, that’s kinda all they’re there for. Just a one-word personality descriptor that’s almost entirely divorced from the stat growth implications.
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Fair enough. Any word on IV locks? I know auto saving makes it harder to get different versions, but would be lame if some have locked IVs. Reading that about the Latios and/or Latias.
 
Magcargo said:
I think its really interesting that DARKRAI appears to be the main antagonist (or misunderstood antagonist) of this DLC. I get it got a Mega Evolution, but usually in Pokemon games, the central antagonistic legendary is a Pokemon from the region - not a mythical from a different region. At most I would have expected Darkrai have a small sidequest dedicated to it, but it being the main cause of Hyperspace Lumiose was an interesting direction for the story. They even gave it those legs from the movie and brought back the Sinnoh Legendary theme!

Each region is usually treated in isolation so its really interesting that they went and decided to give Darkrai more spotlight here - doubly so since I don't believe it was even mentioned or acknowledged in the original Kalos games.
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That's what I love about the Legends games so far. First Arceus in the Pokemon Legends: Arceus and now Darkrai in the DLC. It's really great to see these Mythical mons who have little to no interaction in the games they're introduced in (Darkrai being tied to the Sailor's son in a side quest and Arceus just being...there in DPPt) get some much needed spotlight.
 
Magcargo said:
I think its really interesting that DARKRAI appears to be the main antagonist (or misunderstood antagonist) of this DLC. I get it got a Mega Evolution, but usually in Pokemon games, the central antagonistic legendary is a Pokemon from the region - not a mythical from a different region. At most I would have expected Darkrai have a small sidequest dedicated to it, but it being the main cause of Hyperspace Lumiose was an interesting direction for the story. They even gave it those legs from the movie and brought back the Sinnoh Legendary theme!

Each region is usually treated in isolation so its really interesting that they went and decided to give Darkrai more spotlight here - doubly so since I don't believe it was even mentioned or acknowledged in the original Kalos games.
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I loved that Darkrai was the one. Had me speculating when I first heard the stay away part, before properly realising with subconscious and dreams part. Is a very big part of Darkrai’s lore, that it basically automatically causes nightmares etc. as a defensive mechanism, and thus isolates itself from others. (In fact though I loved Darkrai as the villain in PMD2 it was very out of character, though of course those games had to take liberties. Also its one of my all time favourite mons, so awesome to see it get the spotlight!

Also, Bois coming in clutch one more time!

Sadly feels like the Hyperspace Pokedex will be much more of a grind than the regular one.
 
Slight quirk with all these double battles: if anyone mega evolves for the first time, the cutscene will cancel out your move from hitting the other target, but won't like. Remove any other aspect. You'll still have to recharge and still have the in-place cool down. And still annoyingly lose your targeting.
Anyway this is nominally annoying with the enemy since it's just another thing to be aware of in how you take them down, more of an "on you" type of deal if you rush through and have both heavy hitters on the field.

Significantly more obnoxious when your partner's mega suddenly comes out, which you have much less control over and much harder to keep track of, and its like KORRINA. I was about to knock half this chandelure's HP off with Dark Pulse. EMMA I was 0.5 seconds away from knocking out this Metagross wrecking shop on field could you not hold off on your Malamar who will contribute nothing for just a little longer.

RoyalDispenser said:
The way the wall works is you break it to actually get inside and attack meowstic directly, then you stay inside until it actually attacks. It'll attack everything outside of the wall for a lot of burst damage.
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I've already passed this but
The problem I had was that it wasn't clear that, after cracking, the wall was meant to come down just before the attack goes off. So while I was busy trying to "figure out" how to go from the Cracked stage to the Wall-less stage, I was too busy fiddling with things for when it was go time and then got blasted.

I do wonder if maybe there was party chat that spelled it out better and I just missed it due to everything going on.
 
Magcargo said:
I think its really interesting that DARKRAI appears to be the main antagonist (or misunderstood antagonist) of this DLC. I get it got a Mega Evolution, but usually in Pokemon games, the central antagonistic legendary is a Pokemon from the region - not a mythical from a different region. At most I would have expected Darkrai have a small sidequest dedicated to it, but it being the main cause of Hyperspace Lumiose was an interesting direction for the story. They even gave it those legs from the movie and brought back the Sinnoh Legendary theme!

Each region is usually treated in isolation so its really interesting that they went and decided to give Darkrai more spotlight here - doubly so since I don't believe it was even mentioned or acknowledged in the original Kalos games.
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Maybe they felt like they owed Darkrai a do-over (and fans an apology) after how bland its mission in Legends: Arceus was (and for being associated with BDSP). :psysly:
 
Sulfurian said:
So possible immune to recoil and gains attack after each volt tackle use in champions.
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BTW MRX isn't the only one with this trait.
Now obviously Aegislash, Mimikyu, Morpeko, and the Weather Trio's Rogue Battle gimmick are all replicating their Abilities.

Tatsugiri & Dondozo is also sorta, though since there's no Double Battle when Dondozo is sent out the Tatsugiri on your team just hops out and enter its mouth to command it (and works as Commander usually does). Still, it this just a work around because there's no Double Battle, or is this maybe something new to Commander for the main game so it has a use in Single Battles?

In addition to MRX receiving an Attack boost from Volt Tackle, the Swords of Justice raise BOTH their Atk & SpA when they use Sacred Sword. Their only Ability in the main game is Justified which raises their Atk when hit by a Dark-type Move, so if this is hinting at a new Ability for MRX then it may also mean a new Ability for the Swords of Justice (and a better one from the sound of it). Since Secret Sword isn't in ZA, I'm going to guess if this is hinting at a new Ability for the SoJ, it'll likely also increase offense when Keldeo uses Secret Sword. Though, will it be both Atk & SpA, or is that just for Z-A and maybe Sacred Sword would only increase Atk (or, while Sacred Sword increases Atk & SpA, maybe Secret Sword would increase SpA by 2 stages)?

And interesting only Mega Raichu X have this trait. If this is a new Ability, then what is Y getting if it's not a stat increasing Ability (and why wouldn't they program it in as a sneak peak like X; unless it's just getting an existing Ability they don't want to have to program other Pokemon to also have)?
 
Pikachu315111 said:
Since Secret Sword isn't in ZA, I'm going to guess if this is hinting at a new Ability for the SoJ, it'll likely also increase offense when Keldeo uses Secret Sword. Though, will it be both Atk & SpA, or is that just for Z-A and maybe Sacred Sword would only increase Atk (or, while Sacred Sword increases Atk & SpA, maybe Secret Sword would increase SpA by 2 stages)?
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Secret Sword is in ZA, Keldeo learns it at base. It just doesn't have the passive effect for whatever reason.
 
Pikachu315111 said:
BTW MRX isn't the only one with this trait.
Now obviously Aegislash, Mimikyu, Morpeko, and the Weather Trio's Rogue Battle gimmick are all replicating their Abilities.

Tatsugiri & Dondozo is also sorta, though since there's no Double Battle when Dondozo is sent out the Tatsugiri on your team just hops out and enter its mouth to command it (and works as Commander usually does). Still, it this just a work around because there's no Double Battle, or is this maybe something new to Commander for the main game so it has a use in Single Battles?

In addition to MRX receiving an Attack boost from Volt Tackle, the Swords of Justice raise BOTH their Atk & SpA when they use Sacred Sword. Their only Ability in the main game is Justified which raises their Atk when hit by a Dark-type Move, so if this is hinting at a new Ability for MRX then it may also mean a new Ability for the Swords of Justice (and a better one from the sound of it). Since Secret Sword isn't in ZA, I'm going to guess if this is hinting at a new Ability for the SoJ, it'll likely also increase offense when Keldeo uses Secret Sword. Though, will it be both Atk & SpA, or is that just for Z-A and maybe Sacred Sword would only increase Atk (or, while Sacred Sword increases Atk & SpA, maybe Secret Sword would increase SpA by 2 stages)?

And interesting only Mega Raichu X have this trait. If this is a new Ability, then what is Y getting if it's not a stat increasing Ability (and why wouldn't they program it in as a sneak peak like X; unless it's just getting an existing Ability they don't want to have to program other Pokemon to also have)?
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Or it's just not gonna carry over, like the Origin Form versions of Roar of Time, Spacial Rend, and Shadow Force from PLA.
 
Esserise said:
Actually, as a whole I feel like anyone who was hoping for this DLC to lean in on continuity and lore has been riddled with a barrage of Ls. no Magearna/AZ ultimate weapon connection
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I'm willing to give GameFreak a pass on not making a connection between Magearna and the ultimate weapon. That one always struck me as a bit of a "surely alomomola evolves from luvdisc" kind of conclusion. Like, it's not unreasonable that people would connect a Pokemon powered by the souls of defeated friends and foes with a flower-based signature attack to a giant weapon shaped like a flower that is powered by draining the life force of Pokemon (with Kalos being PokeFrance, the attack being named Fleur cannon, and Magearna being in Volcanion's movie added in as out of universe reasons for the connection). And for all we know maybe that is really how Magearna started (maybe even as the scrapped electric/steel mythical?), though I don't thing anything from the teraleak validates that. But, I think the Pokeuniverse is also just allowed to have multiple people independently come up with similar concepts for things without them needing to be connected or to even point out the similarity, just like there can be multiple unrelated heart-shaped mons. It very well could just be that GameFreak didn't add any lore because in their minds they are distinct concepts. Similar to how there is apparently no internal lore relating Mew to Ditto despite them both being pink mons with blue shinies that can transform. (And nobody had better bother trying to argue that Alomomola is just BW's expy for luvdisc, even if that were the intent it change the fact that in-universe there are still two unrelated heart fish!!)
 
RocketSurgery said:
I'm willing to give GameFreak a pass on not making a connection between Magearna and the ultimate weapon. That one always struck me as a bit of a "surely alomomola evolves from luvdisc" kind of conclusion. Like, it's not unreasonable that people would connect a Pokemon powered by the souls of defeated friends and foes with a flower-based signature attack to a giant weapon shaped like a flower that is powered by draining the life force of Pokemon (with Kalos being PokeFrance, the attack being named Fleur cannon, and Magearna being in Volcanion's movie added in as out of universe reasons for the connection). And for all we know maybe that is really how Magearna started (maybe even as the scrapped electric/steel mythical?), though I don't thing anything from the teraleak validates that. But, I think the Pokeuniverse is also just allowed to have multiple people independently come up with similar concepts for things without them needing to be connected or to even point out the similarity, just like there can be multiple unrelated heart-shaped mons. It very well could just be that GameFreak didn't add any lore because in their minds they are distinct concepts. Similar to how there is apparently no internal lore relating Mew to Ditto despite them both being pink mons with blue shinies that can transform. (And nobody had better bother trying to argue that Alomomola is just BW's expy for luvdisc, even if that were the intent it change the fact that in-universe there are still two unrelated heart fish!!)
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Certainly; just to be clear I’m not saying I have an issue with it. There’s some stuff on that list I had a bit of a stake in (mostly just the Heatran, Magearna, and ORAS points) and some stuff I didn’t (I already assumed there wouldn’t be any returning characters beyond Korrina — especiallly not Volo, who I think works better as an intriguing name drop anyway), but either way I don’t see it as a problem. I was just a little surprised by how overwhelmingly the DLC didn’t bother to involve itself with some of the more esoteric lore that had an opportunity to come up. I suppose that was just more of an Arceus thing.

Similarly, I often think that people do seriously underestimate the power of coincidence. The Pokémon fandom loves to obsess about perceived patterns in things, and while I wouldn’t go so far as to say there’s never anything to the patterns that people identify, I do always encourage people to keep in mind the very real possibility that we’re actually all just watching clouds.

At the end of the day, I can absolutely appreciate a more self-contained story that keeps its focus on the things Z-A is actually about. (And I’m still free to headcanon whatever I want about Magearna’s history, which is good enough for me. I’ve never needed official canon to affirm my own ideas.)
 
Don't forget GF only recently decided that mythicals deserve some good lore with things like Pecharunt, sadly this game is just find portal, go to portal, have boss fight and catch rather than "oooo zeraora was once a mighty king on this island" or "volcanion is rumored to be a man trapped in their experiment Bill style" or "oooo Hoopa has a connection to the creation trio and thats why he can open portals"

Maybe that's what future legends games will be after they give us legends Kyurem and give us the true dragon, lol.
 
The path finding in some of these hyperzones is kind of stunningly bad sometimes. There's a chunk of crystals right in front of me. The pokemon i have is right beside me. Instead of attacking, with the up close attack mind you, it instead walks all the way over to the scaffolding several feet away, gets stuck on geometry, and then does its attack. Which obviously misses because they're half a football field away with their liquidation.
 
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