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Pokémon Presents - Pokémon Day 2025 - Pokemon ZA Info & Pokemon Champions Announced
- Thread starter DHR-107
- Start date
I would personally have gone with Grimsley in Sun & Moon.
Could just be cause I always expect GF to try and do something different, I actually think this is closer to what they may do. Well, at least the part about Gogoat being for travel around the city.
Basically I don't think we're going to have dedicated Ride Pokemon. Instead all ride Pokemon are going to be situational, just like how they were in XY.
If we want to travel around Lumiose City fast (and not just take a cab to teleport where we want to be), we'll summon a Gogoat. And for Lumiose City that's it. It would just be Gogoat (which, as you pointed out can swim. And though it can't fly it's a goat so can jump pretty high & far so can travel by rooftops).
But I still think we're going to have those different "layers" of Lumiose City and when we go to those we'll have a different ride Pokemon. Like in the sewers we'll get a Water/amphibious Pokemon. Catacombs will have a digging/climbing/strength Pokemon to maneuver around. Maybe at night the could have Noiverns fly us to the other side of the city or onto rooftops for easier access to trainers.
Mega Bidoof is our ride mon.
This ain't Sinnoh. It would be Mega Bunnelby.
Going with my situational idea, maybe for story segments 10% will have us ride on it.
Someone floated the idea that AZ as presented in Pokémon Legends: Z-A may be the same character, but technically a different entity, such as Link of The Legend of Zelda. It would be convenient if Game Freak wanted to retcon out the uglier parts of AZ's story, but the presence of Eternal Flower Floette implies this will not be the case. Welcome to Smogon.
Before anyone continues reading this, I want to note that I myself have no clue why anyone thought this wasn't directly the same AZ from XY. While there is precedence for "same character, different version" in the mainline games, it's usually something that is obvious or sometimes outright stated.
Now the only reason I can think someone would think this is the case is if they're looking for "the twist". Everyone is now taking the appearance of AZ as meaning this game is taking place a few years after the events of XY. BUT, as far as I know, this hasn't been exactly confirmed; GF or any information about the game (from the trailer or website) hasn't said this game takes place after XY. So atm there's nothing saying Z-A isn't a parallel timeline where events in Kalos happened differently and that timeline AZ, while still an immortal 3k year old man, didn't have Floette run away from him (or regained its trust another way) and opened up a hotel in Lumiose City instead of (continuingly) travelling the globe.
As I mentioned, Pokemon does have precedence for this:
Game Versions themselves can be seen as parallel stories where which one is carried over as canon can cause some issues, especially for later gens which stopped having a "combined" 3rd version.
Gen 1 & 2 has no problem as they don't have major story differences.
Gen 3 & and to a lesser extent 4 do have a major story difference, but have a 3rd version which does its best to combine them and thus us considered the canon story all future games refer back to (or at least they did in Gen 3's case until ORAS).
But for Gen 5 onwards, any canon mention of their story would have to be done in vague terms cause there's no combined 3rd version.
Gen 1 & 2 has no problem as they don't have major story differences.
Gen 3 & and to a lesser extent 4 do have a major story difference, but have a 3rd version which does its best to combine them and thus us considered the canon story all future games refer back to (or at least they did in Gen 3's case until ORAS).
- For Gen 3 we have the question "which villain team was causing problems and awakened their Superancient Pokemon". Ruby its Magma/Groudon, Sapphire its Aqua/Kyogre. But then Emerald had both teams causing problems, awakened both their Superancient Pokemon that started to fight each other & cause the end of the world, and thus we had to awaken Rayquaza to stop them.
- Gen 4 was which Timespace Dragon was summoned: Dialga in Diamond or Palkia in Pearl. But Platinum said Cyrus summoned both of them and that Giratina got involved, so it's the canon story (though I'm not sure if BDSP now causes issues).
But for Gen 5 onwards, any canon mention of their story would have to be done in vague terms cause there's no combined 3rd version.
- Gen 5 which dragon did N have (and that was used by Ghetsis to complete Kyurem in BW2): Reshiram in Black or Zekrom in White?
- Gen 6 which Legendary did Lysandre discover and based part of his plans around: X would be Xerneas (using its power to give Team Flare immortality and fueling the Ultimate Weapon to kill everyone else) while Y would be Yveltal (using its power to fuel & empower the Ultimate Weapon to kill everyone which residual radiation (and/or using Yveltal's powers to drain life) would just so happen to also give every member of Team Flare immortality).
- Gen 7 technically has FOUR parallel stories, but I'm going to assume that Ultra Sun & Moon overwrites any different story elements that vanilla Sun & Moon had. Thus we have the questions which Legendary did Nebbie involve into (and Necrozma absorbed) & what members of the Ultra Recon Squad did we meet (who would just so happen to have the other Cosmog evo as their Ultra Ride Pokemon): Ultra Sun would be Solgaleo/Dulse & Zossie and Ultra Moon would be Lunala/Phyco & Soliera. There's also some little ones here and there like which Ultra Beast did Hala, Hau, & Tapu Koko fight when they were temporarily released upon Alola: US would be Buzzwole and UM would be Pheromosa.
- Gen 8 would have the most differences to date. In the base games we have version exclusive Gym Leaders on top of which Wolf did Hop & the player get: Sword got Bea & Gordie/Hop gets Zamazenta, Shield got Allister & Melony/Hop gets Zacian. Isle of Armor gave us version exclusive Rivals who went on to become Gym Leaders: Sword got Klara, Shield got Avery. Finally Crown Tundra asked what Steed (and thus Rider form) did Calyrex have: Glastrier/Ice Rider or Spectrier/Shadow Rider.
- Finally Gen 9 would have what can be argued the most impactful differences. It all essentially comes down to which Paradox Pokemon are in the games (which also relates to which Professor is in Area Zero & what 'Raidon we befriend and becomes our Ride Pokemon): Scarlet has the Past/Sada/Koraidon while Violet has Future/Turo/Miraidon. Another visually significant difference is which name & color scheme did the Paldea Academy go by (which is honestly the more bigger issue GF is going to have if they ever refer back to it): Naranja/Orange in Scarlet and Uva/Purple in Violet.
Not to mention when they release a Remake that brings up the question of it overwriting the originals and/or do some parts of the originals not in the remakes still exist?
Gen I had no problem until the Let's Go games. FRLG can easily overwrite the original games (including Yellow). But then Let's Go throws a major wrench into things by changing the protag & rival (and which one got Pikachu and Eevee), having Red & Blue (and Green/Leaf) be unique NPCs that had their Pokemon journey earlier (before the creation of the digital Pokedex & Red having no involvement in the Team Rocket plot), and this is the first time outside the Johto games one of the Executives (Archer) made a named appearance (yes, I know two grunts in the Sevii Islands in FRLG were very likely meant to be Archer and Ariana). There's also the Rocket Trio (who aren't the same ones which appear in Master EX, that Rocket Trio is based on the ones from the anime cinematic universe series, who are different from the Rocket Trio in the original anime).
Gen II is mostly clear of having HGSS overwrite GSC, though even here we have a small issue with the female playable character. Crystal has Kris, but for whatever reason they replaced her with Lyra in HGSS (and while both appear in Masters EX, humorously the Special manga just has Kris where Lyra's clothes during the HGSS arc).
Gen III is where everything really began tying itself up into a Gordian Knot made of Kudzu and computer wires. While HGSS integrated the Crystal story points, ORAS did not integrate Emerald's so if ORAS is the most recent Hoenn games referred back to we once again have a big split in canonicity again. Heck, ORAS was the first official acknowledgement in the games of alternate timelines, with Zinnia heavily implying that teleporting the comet with the Link Cable would actually teleport it to an unprepared RSE Hoenn where Mega Evolution isn't a thing; hence splitting the main games into two timelines. ORAS also lacked the Gen III Battle Frontier so all of those characters are kind of in limbo (including Anabel, because remember the Anabel with the International Police is from non-Mega timeline, so in the current timeline we're in there are two Anabels). And of course that's not mentioning how in USUM's Rainbow Rocket episode they used the original RSE Archie and Maxie (thinking about it, in addition to being a neat reference, is also an excuse not Mega Evolve their ace nor Primal Reverse their Legendary) in a story all about taking the villain leaders from a timeline where the protags didn't exist so the villains won.
Gen IV is a special case where I'm not even sure if GF counts BDSP as proper remakes in the likes of FRLG, HGSS & ORAS. BDSP is almost literally original Diamond & Pearl remade into 3D, with changes made only out of necessity or because it wouldn't matter in the grand scale. So, even though there's very little of Platinum elements in that game, and Platinum itself is in the non-Mega timeline, the events in Platinum may still be considered canon.
Gen I had no problem until the Let's Go games. FRLG can easily overwrite the original games (including Yellow). But then Let's Go throws a major wrench into things by changing the protag & rival (and which one got Pikachu and Eevee), having Red & Blue (and Green/Leaf) be unique NPCs that had their Pokemon journey earlier (before the creation of the digital Pokedex & Red having no involvement in the Team Rocket plot), and this is the first time outside the Johto games one of the Executives (Archer) made a named appearance (yes, I know two grunts in the Sevii Islands in FRLG were very likely meant to be Archer and Ariana). There's also the Rocket Trio (who aren't the same ones which appear in Master EX, that Rocket Trio is based on the ones from the anime cinematic universe series, who are different from the Rocket Trio in the original anime).
Gen II is mostly clear of having HGSS overwrite GSC, though even here we have a small issue with the female playable character. Crystal has Kris, but for whatever reason they replaced her with Lyra in HGSS (and while both appear in Masters EX, humorously the Special manga just has Kris where Lyra's clothes during the HGSS arc).
Gen III is where everything really began tying itself up into a Gordian Knot made of Kudzu and computer wires. While HGSS integrated the Crystal story points, ORAS did not integrate Emerald's so if ORAS is the most recent Hoenn games referred back to we once again have a big split in canonicity again. Heck, ORAS was the first official acknowledgement in the games of alternate timelines, with Zinnia heavily implying that teleporting the comet with the Link Cable would actually teleport it to an unprepared RSE Hoenn where Mega Evolution isn't a thing; hence splitting the main games into two timelines. ORAS also lacked the Gen III Battle Frontier so all of those characters are kind of in limbo (including Anabel, because remember the Anabel with the International Police is from non-Mega timeline, so in the current timeline we're in there are two Anabels). And of course that's not mentioning how in USUM's Rainbow Rocket episode they used the original RSE Archie and Maxie (thinking about it, in addition to being a neat reference, is also an excuse not Mega Evolve their ace nor Primal Reverse their Legendary) in a story all about taking the villain leaders from a timeline where the protags didn't exist so the villains won.
Gen IV is a special case where I'm not even sure if GF counts BDSP as proper remakes in the likes of FRLG, HGSS & ORAS. BDSP is almost literally original Diamond & Pearl remade into 3D, with changes made only out of necessity or because it wouldn't matter in the grand scale. So, even though there's very little of Platinum elements in that game, and Platinum itself is in the non-Mega timeline, the events in Platinum may still be considered canon.
Heck, there's even an example in Z-A! The Rivals are just recolors of the protags.
Pokemon and the Multiverse of Madness.
So, as odd as it sounds to question whether Z-A's AZ is the same from XY, it's not a completely out-there theory. But I'm personally going by the rule of "unless there's evidence of the alternative, I'm going with the obvious". Time will reveal all; though if that does turn out to be the case then all the kudos to that person, certainly beats my prediction we'll be getting some ORAS characters.
if it ends up being actually a different AZ than the one from XY we should call this one AZed
Or how about AZ-A?
It's an alternate AZ but he has the exact same backstory of XY's AZ. 
The introduction of AU to Pokémon was a clever idea (or if one is feeling less generous a cop-out) to bypass answering what exactly happened in each gen and to smooth over the retcons. Mega evolution was both first discovered in Hoenn and Kalos, it just depends from what AU one is coming from.
All games being canon isn't a new theory and the remakes don't supercede the original games because in the Rainbow Rocket episode Maxie/ Archie used their original design and I would argue that in the same vein, newer games aren't more canon than older ones.
The introduction of AU to Pokémon was a clever idea (or if one is feeling less generous a cop-out) to bypass answering what exactly happened in each gen and to smooth over the retcons. Mega evolution was both first discovered in Hoenn and Kalos, it just depends from what AU one is coming from.
All games being canon isn't a new theory and the remakes don't supercede the original games because in the Rainbow Rocket episode Maxie/ Archie used their original design and I would argue that in the same vein, newer games aren't more canon than older ones.
The funniest part is that I made that remark about AZ as response to vague questions a while ago on "is the game a sequel or its own thing", while I myself firmly believed that it is a sequel to XY and thus AZ was the same.
That said if by any chance this happens to be a AU we shall baptize it "The Worldiekalos" in my honor. (Ya'll read too much into simple comments honestly ^^")
That said if by any chance this happens to be a AU we shall baptize it "The Worldiekalos" in my honor. (Ya'll read too much into simple comments honestly ^^")
A lot of people are saying this is silly, but after the "Ancestors" in L:A, I wouldn't have put it past Gamefreak.
I agree about the layers of the city, but I'm pretty firmly on the "no ride mons" or "highly limited ride mons" side of things. To be fair, it's weird if they have the animations from L:A and don't use them, but at the same time, I think they're going to want to control player character mobility enough that ride mons would break too much if we had free access to them.
HOLD UP
Mega Evolution data was compatible with Legends Arceus
This is wild, amazing! So this together with the battle system was being worked on nearly five years ago.
So PLA really was a bit of a sandbox for testing ideas and developing new ideas for the future of Pokemon.
PLZA is going to be interesting for sure.
(By the way, just realised we have PLA going to PLZA so presumably if we keep up this pattern (and yes I know there are no patterns in Pokemon) for the next one we’d get PLAZA lol)
Does anyone else feel like the hype cycle for Z-A has just not really started? The trailers we’ve seen of late were welcome but the lack of truly “new” content has been a bit of a put off to me.
I agree, but I also wasn't expecting it to. With new generations, I don't expect the hype cycle to start until we see the first stage starters. With a non-mainline game like this, I'm not sure when the hype cycle starts, but it's not releasing for like 5 months, I'm not expecting it yet.
This is par for the course for any mainline Pokemon game. The big hype cycle leading into monthly news drops starts roughly 5 months in advance of the game releasing, and seeing as how this game isn't coming out until Fall 2025 (aka Holiday season), we're not gonna see much on the "new" content, including new designs (in this case most likely most of them will be Megas) and whatnot, until around June, going by SwSh and SV as precedent.
So the current situation is nothing surprising. For now we must all remain patient and wait for summertime which is when the real juiciness and hype will begin.
how im sitting knowing the adult emma key art is somewhere in the legends z-a website's code and could drop any day now
Eeeeeh, I think they want to wait until Switch 2 release is live. That way they can directly showcase the "new version" to push people in committing to the console.
I do suspect they plan to also do a co-sale for it with S2 similar to MK. At least, I hope to, would be enough to get me to buy the console anyway.
I do suspect they plan to also do a co-sale for it with S2 similar to MK. At least, I hope to, would be enough to get me to buy the console anyway.
Reminder that Legends Arceus preorders opened on May 26 2021 with the box art being revealed that day. Z-A is coming sooner than January 2026 soooo
God, what is this torturous timeline of waiting on PLZA news? Like throw us a bone, TPC, just one new mega…!
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No, I’ve been here since gen 1 - not sure why this time out is so frustrating!
If I had to guess, probably 3 factors:
1. Since we've already had a Legends game there is now an expectation of what this new one will have, especially in terms of new Pokemon. With Legends: Arceus, we had no idea whether it would do something like introduce new Pokemon, be they forms or completely new species. Now, we know Arceus did do just that (a handful of Regionals, new cross gen evolutions, a few new forms (both normal and Legendaries), and a new Legendary). Kalos has a lot of potential for this as it was the first gen to severely cut back on the amount of new species so plenty of room for new evolutions, only had 3 Legendaries (& 3 Mythicals) so has room for some more, and Mege Evolutions provide a big window of opportunity of new Pokemon forms. Not to mention not only are their Regional Forms (and would be interesting if they'd use the term "Kalosian" or something else) but have also introduced the concept of Convergent Pokemon.
2. They have actually revealed quite a bit about Z-A, but if probably doesn't feel like a lot because the setting (that we've been told so far) is by current Pokemon standard so confined. Cities in Pokemon, at least when compared to other games which take place in a single city, are very small. Pokemon games often gives us an entire region to explore which means what is defined as a "city" isn't as big as it should be as we're expected to go in, do what we need to do there, and go on to the next place. This has meant cities of Pokemon never had more then a handful of things to do, and that includes "big" cities of Lumiose and Castelia. So Z-A has BIG city-size shoes to fill to turn a small Pokemon city into a city location like in the "Yakuza/Like A Dragon" or "Grand Theft Auto" games in terms of exploration and amount of content (obviously not the same kind of content, we're talking quantity here). Like, sure, we now know of the Wild Zones and at night it turns into a giant battling sandbox, but they haven't really put much focus on all the places/buildings we can visit; infact a lot of buildings still only feel to be just platforms for us to climb on but not go into. And then there's expectations from Legends: Arceus, which gave us a handful of big open sandboxes; it would feel pretty disappointing to go from that to what we've seen of Z-A's Lumiose City so far. What is GF going to do to make Lumiose City feel like an actual giant city (and what could that potentially mean for future mainline games big cities in the future).
3. Them naming it "Z-A". For years, I think for a decade now, the Pokemon Community have talked and gossiped about the "Pokemon Z Version" that we never got. Gen VI skipped having a third/expanded version(s) to get to Gen VII, wanting a new gen to celebrate Pokemon's 20th Anniversary, and some felt it left bits about XY unresolved (not to mention them smooshing in Zygarde's new forms into Sun & Moon which felt out-of-place). Some even held out hope that maybe they would go back to doing a Z-A during Gen VII, though that was pretty much all abandoned when Gen VIII came about. And with people thinking "Legends" games only take place in the past, NO ONE saw this game coming. We've finally got our Z Version, and it's a Legends game, a games who's format was highly praised for bringing new life to the Pokemon franchise. It's a win-win... or, at least can be a win-win. This is a HUGE experiment, for a story continuation people have been waiting years for, which could have big ramifications on the franchise going forward. And where with past games most just hoped they would be good but would let it stand on its own merits; this is a game people WANT to be good. But now the dreaded question: Is GF up to the task?