Pokemon Day Presents 2024 - Pokemon LZA 2025

[Nickeljorn]

I remember people being pretty annoyed by it due to the rationale that the devs gave in an interview:

> “In terms of the customization of the trainer, that was really kind of a special thing for the Kalos region, which featured this kind of motif of France and really focused on this beauty and fashion aspect, which is why it was a prominent feature in that game. For this game, we’re focusing on adventuring elements, so we don’t have the actual free customization of the trainer, but you’ll see the items you use throughout the game visually represented; for example, when you’re underwater, you’ll have this little mouthpiece that lets you breathe. So there’s some cool stuff for how your trainer changes clothes and puts on accessories throughout the game.”

I admit I was very much one of the annoyed, haha.

That rationale does seem pretty annoying, especially how we know now the Sinnoh remakes would feature it by putting it in the old game corner building, which in ORAS just has the former owner say "thank you for playing!" give you secret base dolls, and then never comes up again for the rest of your save file.

Goddammit I am tired of crafting systems and resource management in fucking everything. That's why I find the Switch Zelda games inferior to the first 4 3D ones.

Me but with Animal Crossing

 

[Coronis]

Also Re: Ash-Greninja being in the game - I would bet money it shows up. When my old Pokemon league was still up and running while I was in college, Ash-Greninja was the coolest thing in the world to the kids we had. As embarrassing and pandering as it may seem to some parts of the fandom, it’s at least a fond memory to a bunch of others. I expect it back, especially after PLA took the time to make sure every Gen 4 Pokemon had perfect attendance.

It wouldn’t surprise me either if we had other cases (probably exclusive to this specific game) of “Bond Phenomenon”, most likely with the other Kalos starters.

 

[Esserise]

It wouldn’t surprise me either if we had other cases (probably exclusive to this specific game) of “Bond Phenomenon”, most likely with the other Kalos starters.

Why would they do that, though, when they could just use Mega Evolution?

As far as the games are concerned, the “Bond Phenomenon” was never really meant to be, like, an actual thing, after all. It only exists in the anime because the producers wanted Ash to have a Mega, but also didn’t want to have him use any non-Gen 6 Pokémon (other than Pikachu) on his team. When the games went to adapt it, they didn’t give it any kind of special mechanical functionality - it’s just an in-battle form change tied to an Ability, similar to Zen Mode or Flower Gift.

Even the quality of it being an itemless alternative to Mega Evolution is preempted by Mega Rayquaza. There’s not really anything the Bond Phenomenon does flavor-wise or mechanics-wise that Mega Evolution can’t do.

 

[Eriorguez]

I swear, we would have gotten Mega Greninja if Z was the 2015 game... oh well.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

It would be possible, of course, to rework the already existing Ash Greninja design into a proper Mega, fully establishing the form into a proper Mega Evolution and making it something that truly exists in the games.

And of course finish the group by giving Delphox and Chesnaught their share of the pie.

It was already an honorary Mega Evolution in the first place, being a super transformation and lore wise it was predicated on the bond between Pokemon and Trainer, which is already the core of Mega Evolution's essence. Might as well rework it into a proper Mega that exists alongside the other two Kalos starters getting their own Mega Evolutions as well.

 

[Cobalt Empoleon]

I don't understand which specific parts of Ash-Greninja people want incorporated into a Mega Greninja design, because to me, the only interesting thing about Ash-Greninja is the specific visual/emotional connection to Ash. I don't want to see that design element in a Pokemon I've raised from a Froakie, but if a hypothetical M-Gren doesn't have that, we can't really call it an Ash-Gren redesign, right?

I'd much rather they start from scratch and take it in a different direction.

 

[Count Bleck]

The team's logo being a galaxy reminded me of the alleged scrapped plot/content which was very paranormal and had Team Flare & AZ as aliens, along with Fairy types and Mega Stones also hailing from space. The extraterrestrial origin of Mega Stones was used in ORAS which retconned the rather weak explanation of the phenomenon in XY.

My biggest gripe with XY will always be how half baked the lore was. No human or legendary had any real purpose or motivations, and we got two pretty major mechanics introduced with basically no explanation. There is so much potential to expand on Team Flare (or a related but different team), the Mega phenomenon, the XYZ trio, AZ and the weapon, etc. Even Diantha and Sycamore could desperately use some greater character development.

Now I don't expect PLZA to be a XY rewrite but it would be nice if it could properly flesh out the region and its various phenomena & legends/myths, and do Kalos some justice after all these years. It's such a flavourless game.

There *IS* stuff there, it just tends to not be given a major spotlight compared to other regions, and especially coming from gen 5 to 66 its jarring. Serena coming from a family of ace trainers only to be humbled constantly by you has legs that could go somewhere, Malva being a part of Team Flare and the main newscaster (which is why people dont know who team flare is up to their hostile takeover; they are only referred to on the news as an "unknown group", the post game Looker story quest, etc. There was also Sycamore's assistants who helped out fighting team flare while disguised as Heroes. Bunch of little bits that if given more of a spitshine could make for some interesting revelations.

 

[Coronis]

Why would they do that, though, when they could just use Mega Evolution?

As far as the games are concerned, the “Bond Phenomenon” was never really meant to be, like, an actual thing, after all. It only exists in the anime because the producers wanted Ash to have a Mega, but also didn’t want to have him use any non-Gen 6 Pokémon (other than Pikachu) on his team. When the games went to adapt it, they didn’t give it any kind of special mechanical functionality - it’s just an in-battle form change tied to an Ability, similar to Zen Mode or Flower Gift.

Even the quality of it being an itemless alternative to Mega Evolution is preempted by Mega Rayquaza. There’s not really anything the Bond Phenomenon does flavor-wise or mechanics-wise that Mega Evolution can’t do.

Idk possibly because they may want to have the starters be unique in that sense. It would make more sense lorewise (at least imo) with them all being starters. I don’t really care that much but yeah it’d be cool to have that be unique to the starters and gives the player an inherent advantage since they can still hold an item.

 

[WinterArcanine]

Why does the title of the thread say LZA? I thought it was Z-A. Did I miss something? nvm I just realized the L stands for legends.

 

[Yung Dramps]

So one of the contentions with the "big Lumiose City exploration game" premise is questions about how they'll fit in all these types into a city map. After giving it some thought I really don't think this is much of an issue: The whole type chart can easily be made to fit without needing to do any Terarium artificial biome-type stuff. Let's go through them all one by one.

The Types

Bug: A park or two will knock this out easily. Heck you don't even need that, even just random trees could have Scatterbug chilling in the branches.
Dark: Murky back alleys like what you see in Emma's questline in XY will do the trick here. I could imagine one with a gang's treasure being guarded by a fierce "Alpha" Pangoro alongside their Scraggy and Pancham underlings.
Dragon: Admittedly a bit trickier, namely because there's never really been a biome throughout the series consistently associated with the type. As such more case-by-case placements will be needed: A swampy puddle of stagnant water for the Goomy family, for instance, or even just having them spawn when it's raining.
Electric: I'm absolutely certain you'll go to Lumiose Badlands at some point, so the Power Plant there will be the main site for Electric types. Even if you don't, you can just plop a couple of stations within the city perimeter.
Fairy: Like Dragon they have a knack for showing up anywhere, but they're not as exotic in-universe so it's no biggie to plop em around as what I'll call "generic field mons", guys who aren't super explicitly tied to a distinct environment for survival. How about a candy store where Swirlix hang out, or rouge Mr. Mime performing in the middle of the street you can get your hands on?
Fighting: See Fairy.
Fire: A good chunk of them are generic field mons, like the Fletchling and Litleo families. The more distinctly flame-based ones like Slugma could make their home in some sort of foundry akin to Fuego Ironworks.
Flying: As it turns out, Lumiose City has a sky. Also plenty of balconies and clotheslines to perch on: Good practice for your ball-throwing skills!
Ghost: As others have pointed out, this would be a good time to implement a Pokemon world equivalent of the famous Paris Catacombs. If not that, however, abandoned buildings like the Old Chateau and Thrifty Megamart should suffice. If this is set after a post-XY timeskip, maybe the office space where the ghost girl was could be left behind and decaying with no buyers due to its haunted reputation.
Grass: See Bug.
Ground: If Lumiose Badlands is in as I expect, this is another easy one. Otherwise, though, this could be another somewhat tough one. Diggersby works fine as a generic field mon, but guys like Onix and Sandile like we saw in the trailer won't be too happy in the main city I don't think. Probably gonna need to have little caves and digouts hidden throughout the city: Just more incentive from a design perspective to add Lumiose Catacombs!
Ice: Just do another Cold Storage lol. Hmmm.... Maybe an ice cream place's back fridge where you can find frosty boys and other Pokemon based on or partial to sweets like the aforementioned Swirlix, Munchlax and Lickitung?
Normal: Generic field mons the type. I skimmed through the whole XY dex to see if any Normal from its roster would require more thought put into it and other than Dunsparce came up blank. If anything there's quite a few that feel like they could have lots of fun with in a big city: I mentioned performing Mr. Mime earlier, so how about some Smeargle showing their skills to crowds, or a sidequest where an invisible pack of Kecleon is holding up the line for Lumiose Galettes?
Poison: Insert preferred forms of city pollution here
Psychic: Sorta like Fire it's a mix of generic field mons and guys who need a more defined, Psychic-specific habitat. When it comes to Kalos original designs the only potential struggle I see is inserting Meditite, but that could be hanging around a martial arts dojo or a temple.
Rock: See Ground.
Steel: lol
Water: Lumiose already has exposed bodies of water and the parks could always have some lakes added in.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Urban reconstruction Most likely means that we're building back the city After the ultimate weapon exploded, so We Evacuated to the undergrounds and Tree-Xerneas protected us.

I think you're confusing Lumiose City for Geosenge Town. Geosenge was where the Ultimate Weapon was and left in a bad state after its activation threw around a few houses.

Also: apparently some sharp eye'd viewers noticed the company/team/group responsible for the redevelopment plan is called Quasar

If anyone knows how to read Galarian/Paldean script, can anyone confirm this?

Well here's research on the Pokemon World's alphabet, and none of those symbols appear in the ones seen in Galar & Paldea.

I think people are saying it's Quasar because six symbols vaguely look like it's spelling it (or at least the closest word that matches the logo)? I think it came from this Twitter post, but since I don't have a Twitter I can't see any further discussions.

The real question to me is: will we be able to get a Battle Bond Greninja in this game since that's slowly becoming an endangered species

For a Battle Bond that transforms Greninja into Ash-Greninja, I feel the answer to that is "no". Ash is no longer the main character of the anime, and GF specifically made Ash-Greninja as a request from the anime producers, so I imagine GF wanting to move on from it (especially if they make a Mega Greninja, possibly have it have traits of Ash-Greninja like the giant water shuriken but it's head isn't based on Ash's hair and hat).

But they did change Battle Bond in SV to simply increase Atk, SpA, & Spe by +1 stage each if the Pokemon knocks out a Pokemon (which includes an ally), so the question is do they want to keep this rather OP Ability. I would say maybe they could make it the Ability for all the Mega Kalos Starters, but not all the stat increases benefit Delphox and Chesnaught. If they want to keep Battle Bond I think it would need to be given another update, like if this Pokemon knocks an opponent it'll increase its 2 highest stats by +1 stage BUT only activates once per switch in (like Libero & Protean). That feels more balanced and now benefits all of them.

Granted, they'd need al ot of changes anyway I can't see us not having abilities this time, we'll probably get items, can't see the Style system returning, I doubt we'll have the same tendency for 2-3v1s...at that point may as well just make a new battle system again.

To add in my two cents, I think the Strong & Agile Style is likely gone. Those feel like a game exclusive gimmick rather than a series mechanic. Maybe we'll get a system more focused on Xerneas and Yveltal; maybe something like X-Aura (which is defensive, healing/curing, and status focused) & Y-Aura (which is offense, speed, & accuracy focused). And then they can have Zygarde's Aura Break prevent you from using the system you'd likely become dependent on.

The paper says "Urban development Plan: Lumoise city" In an older style of paper.

RE-development.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

But they did change Battle Bond in SV to simply increase Atk, SpA, & Spe by +1 stage each if the Pokemon knocks out a Pokemon (which includes an ally), so the question is do they want to keep this rather OP Ability. I would say maybe they could make it the Ability for all the Mega Kalos Starters, but not all the stat increases benefit Delphox and Chesnaught. If they want to keep Battle Bond I think it would need to be given another update, like if this Pokemon knocks an opponent it'll increase its 2 highest stats by +1 stage BUT only activates once per switch in (like Libero & Protean). That feels more balanced and now benefits all of them.

Battle Bond already only activates once per battle. It's not Ultra Moxie.

 

[R_N]

For a Battle Bond that transforms Greninja into Ash-Greninja, I feel the answer to that is "no". Ash is no longer the main character of the anime, and GF specifically made Ash-Greninja as a request from the anime producers, so I imagine GF wanting to move on from it (especially if they make a Mega Greninja, possibly have it have traits of Ash-Greninja like the giant water shuriken but it's head isn't based on Ash's hair and hat).

But they did change Battle Bond in SV to simply increase Atk, SpA, & Spe by +1 stage each if the Pokemon knocks out a Pokemon (which includes an ally), so the question is do they want to keep this rather OP Ability. I would say maybe they could make it the Ability for all the Mega Kalos Starters, but not all the stat increases benefit Delphox and Chesnaught. If they want to keep Battle Bond I think it would need to be given another update, like if this Pokemon knocks an opponent it'll increase its 2 highest stats by +1 stage BUT only activates once per switch in (like Libero & Protean). That feels more balanced and now benefits all of them.

I'm aware of Battle Bond's changes, the thing I am asking is will they let you actually obtain the thing since you can't breed for it and you can't download the demo and eventually you will not be able to transfer it forward.

Like "keeping battle bond" isn't the question here, because it is still around and usable.

 

[Castersvarog]

I assume the piplup/snivy speculation are for if the starters get megas and not regional forms, since they can't really outfrench piplup or snivy lol.

I'd much rather we get new regional starters and then megas for the kalos ones, because its the best of both worlds to me. I don't think its a pattern, but imo starters should get things together, so if we get 3 different region starters and then each gets a mega, the other two in their respective trio being left in the dust would annoy me too much. Its not like hisuian starters where they're already a separate thing, an empoleon is an empoleon.

However, considering how recent plza seems to be, I find it unlikely we'll get starter forms. I think kalos starters with megas are the most likely, considering theyve been a sore point about xy's mega implementation for years

I agree fully, if you make the new starters have Megas that could mean up to 6 starter Mons that are getting shafted by a lack of Mega.
But making the Kalos starters get the mega, while having there be new regional variants for the final stages helps give Kalos Mons the attention they needed

 

[AquaticPanic]

The team's logo being a galaxy reminded me of the alleged scrapped plot/content which was very paranormal and had Team Flare & AZ as aliens, along with Fairy types and Mega Stones also hailing from space. The extraterrestrial origin of Mega Stones was used in ORAS which retconned the rather weak explanation of the phenomenon in XY.

Well, the XYZ trio isn't in SV because they were being kept for this. And yknow who else is not in SV?

Hide

Zygarde does show up in Alola and Guzzlord is found in the same cave as zygarde in those games... this would be an appropriate way to go back to the alien theme i think

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

On that note among the legendaries the Tapus are very notably missing from SV among the sub-legendaries.

I know it's too early to really have knowledge on it but what if they pull a PLA Forces of Nature and have the Tapus in Kalos this time around, and even go as far as to add a fifth member to them a la Enamorus?

Lumiose City in particular has 5 plazas that divide the city, and that means 5 different sub-areas within said city. What if we had the four Tapus and the added 5th member and each one "rules" over one of the 5 plaza divisions?

That would be interesting.

 

[BP]

RE-development

Yes Lumiose City is based on Paris. Paris existed before the Eiffel Tower. This will take place right before and potentially during the towers construction. I don't know specific dates and I'm too lazy to look it up but iirc WW1 took place after the tower had been completed. This lines up with the great war or whatever.

Having it take place in the future just makes 0 sense.

 

[R_N]

Yes Lumiose City is based on Paris. Paris existed before the Eiffel Tower. This will take place right before and potentially during the towers construction. I don't know specific dates and I'm too lazy to look it up but iirc WW1 took place after the tower had been completed. This lines up with the great war or whatever.

Having it take place in the future just makes 0 sense.

My reasoning for it being more modern (not necessarily "the future") than that is Prism Tower itself is fairly modern. It's not just a big steel tower, it also a power hub.

The style of clothing in the trailer also strikes me as fairly modern

The 5 areas that line up with Lumiose as we know it also seem far more intricate...and in general the idea of this being a Lumiose of the mid-past kind of makes the modern Lumiose a massive step down. We can ignore the city being bigger, that's basic gameplay-necesseties and gameplay-segregation at work, but there's the water ways and also the fact its meant to be a massive hub for Pokemon which it just....isn't, in the Lumiose we know.

e: I'll also just say that if they wanted to sell the "old" aesthetic they probably should have kept to the sketch blueprint aesthetic and not the hyper modern tron holograms aesthetic.

 

[Yung Dramps]

One idea I've seen for this game that I very distinctly dislike is having it set pre-XY but not that much, like a decade or two before. This feels like the worst of both worlds to me: Not far back enough to do any cool old-timey aesthetics like the 1860s Kalos interpretation while also not being able to partake in any of the fanservicey fun of a many years later sequel in regards to characters aging up, XY Lumiose locales and the broader Kalos setting being affected by the passage of time, etc

 

[Kin+ak (✧∇✧)]

I went to Paris. I Go almost every year Because It has the #1-2 airports of France. anyways I fear Most of the quests will be about chasing rats away

 

[Pikachu315111]

I know it's too early to really have knowledge on it but what if they pull a PLA Forces of Nature and have the Tapus in Kalos this time around, and even go as far as to add a fifth member to them a la Enamorus?

But the Tapus are very much connected to Alola's lore and both are based on Hawaii & its mythology. The Forces of Nature meanwhile had very loose connection to Unova, they're based on Kami (Japanese gods; possibly also djinn/genies (Arabian spirits)) with a secluded location in Unova that would feel more at home in one of the Japanese-based regions. They stuck out like a swore thumb, and felt much more appropriate in Legends: Arceus (I'm sure there's some theories floating out there that they originally were Hisui Legendaries but got chased out and settled in Unova; though I think it was established they fly around the world, at least Enamorus does).

Honestly, I'd rather they gave Kalos a proper "lesser" group of Legendaries instead of taking an existing group and adding a new member. Like the one ones I would have felt fit were the Swords of Justice, but they got a special side quest in Crown Tundra (to allow for a Keldeo appearance) and Paradox counterparts, so GF accidentally played them out.

Also, just because they have 5 Plazas doesn't mean they need to give each of them a Legendary Pokemon. Sure do "something" with them, but it doesn't need to be a Pokemon representation (then again Gen VI did give us 3 Mythicals so use them and make up two more Pokemon, heck if they throw in Magearna it would just be one). I could just as much see us having to like chase a Legendary around the 5 Plazas or need to go to each Plaza to solve a puzzle to unlock a Legendaries location.

I don't know specific dates and I'm too lazy to look it up

From my first post on page 6:

Guessing it'll be based around the time of Paris' World Fair, Exposition Universelle (1889), where the Eiffel Tower was introduced?

 

[Samtendo09]

As much as I am excited for the game, I do feel worrisome regarding Mega Evolution.

On one hand, it’s nice to see it come back after it’s absence from mainline games since Gen 8, and the potential of it being in Gen 10 since Scarlet and Violet allows all Legends: Arceus Pokémon to be transferred and use in these games. As many said, there’s also a possibility multiple Kalos Pokémon getting their own whole new Mega Evolution, and not just Diancie.

On the other hand, knowing Game Freak, it might accomplish an even worse power creep in Gen 10 than before, and might harm competitive even worse than Gen 9 already has. Especially if the likes of Mega Kangaskhan, Mega Gengar and Mega Lucario aren’t nerfed accordingly. Do not forget the infamy of CHALK teams that plagued Gen 6 and 7.

If GF doesn’t handle Mega Evolution more delicately than before, many people might get sick of Mega Evolution or at least felt it overstayed their welcome this time. Considering that GF successfully tell us more about Arceus without telling everything about it, though, a better lore for Mega Evolution regarding Kalos would help.

 

[pika pal]

If GF doesn’t handle Mega Evolution more delicately than before, many people might get sick of Mega Evolution or at least felt it overstayed their welcome this time.

"See? This is why we dexited Megas. You silly consumers need to stop questioning our decisions and just buy the games we give you!"

 

[CTNC]

I like the idea of the game taking place entirely in a city. It's like if a game had a completly urban reigon if you think about it. Not sure if it's a good idea though. It probably depends on how well they make the parks feel like they're not too urban nor too wild.


I haven't been looking at other sites for speculation, so I wouldn't be surprised if I wasn't the first guy to say this. If anything, I'd be shocked if no one else said this. PL:A had new forms for Palkia and Dialga. Zygarde already has 3 forms, but Xerneas and Yveltal both have 1 form. (I know Xerneas technically has 2 because it only has rainbow horns in battle, but should that really count?) With a certain mechanic granting super powerful forms returning...

If the idea of Mega Xerneas terrifies you, remember it won't be able to hold a Power Herb... unless Game Freak makes it so you don't need Mega Stones any more like the last two gimmicks. They've been pretty bad with game balance lately, (I mean even more than usual) so maybe you should be afraid.

 

[Axiemeister]

i don't think a return of mega evolutions to the games used in competitive is gonna be the move for gamefreak, or at least not without an overhaul of a level they have been historically averse to pulling off. though with some legendaries losing BST in gen 9 maybe they will finally realize they can and should do that as needed every gen