Pokemon Legends: Z-A - An Innovative Evolution While Staying True to Its Origins

I'm not sure exactly how the tradition started, but I consistently call all my Pokémon trainers Malfunction.

Be it a main series game or a side project like Pokkén Tournament DX and Pokémon Go — the moniker never changes. Glitch alternates from male to female characters, featuring black and purple hair. Sometimes their style is impeccable, like in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the latest addition in this enduring franchise (and one of the most style-conscious entries). At other moments they're confined to the assorted school uniform styles of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Yet they're always Malfunction.

The Constantly Changing Realm of Pokemon Titles

Much like my trainers, the Pokémon games have transformed across releases, some cosmetic, some substantial. But at their heart, they remain identical; they're consistently Pokemon to the core. Game Freak discovered a nearly perfect mechanics system approximately 30 years ago, and just recently seriously tried to evolve on it with games like Pokémon Legends: Arceus (different timeline, your character faces peril). Throughout every version, the fundamental mechanics cycle of catching and battling alongside adorable monsters has stayed consistent for nearly as long as my lifetime.

Breaking Conventions in Pokémon Legends: Z-A

Similar to Arceus before it, featuring absence of gyms and emphasis on creating a Pokédex, Pokémon Legends: Z-A brings several changes to that framework. It takes place completely in a single location, the Paris-inspired Lumiose City from Pokémon X & Y, ditching the region-spanning adventures of earlier titles. Pokémon are intended to coexist alongside humans, battlers and civilians, in ways we have merely glimpsed before.

Even more radical is Z-A's live-action combat mechanics. This is where the series' near-perfect gameplay loop experiences its biggest transformation yet, swapping deliberate sequential bouts for more frenetic action. And it is immensely fun, despite I find myself eager for a new traditional release. Though these alterations to the classic Pokemon recipe seem like they create an entirely fresh experience, Pokémon Legends: Z-A is as familiar as every other Pokemon game.

The Core of the Journey: The Z-A Championship

When first arriving at Lumiose Metropolis, any intentions your created character had as a tourist are discarded; you're immediately enlisted by the female guide (for male avatars; the male guide if female) to join her team of trainers. You receive a creature from them as your first partner and are sent into the Z-A Royale.

The Championship is the epicenter of Pokémon Legends: Z-A. It's similar to the classic "gym badges to Elite Four" advancement from earlier titles. However here, you fight several trainers to earn the chance to participate in a promotion match. Succeed and you'll be promoted to the next rank, with the ultimate goal of achieving the top rank.

Real-Time Battles: An Innovative Frontier

Trainer battles occur at night, and sneaking around the designated combat areas is very entertaining. I'm constantly attempting to get a jump on an opponent and launch an unopposed move, because everything happens instantaneously. Moves function with recharge periods, indicating both combatants may occasionally strike simultaneously at the same time (and knock each other out simultaneously). It's much to get used to at first. Despite gaming for almost 30 hours, I still feel that there is much to master in terms of using my Pokémon's moves in ways that work together synergistically. Placement also plays a major role in battles as your Pokémon will follow you around or go to designated spots to perform attacks (some are long-range, while others need to be up close and personal).

The live combat causes fights progress so quickly that I find myself sometimes cycling through moves in identical patterns, despite this amounts to a suboptimal strategy. There isn't moment to pause in Z-A, and numerous opportunities to become swamped. Creature fights depend on response after using an attack, and that information is still present on screen in Z-A, but whips by rapidly. Occasionally, you can't even read it because taking your eyes off your adversary will spell immediate defeat.

Navigating Lumiose City

Outside of battle, you will traverse Lumiose Metropolis. It's fairly compact, though tightly filled. Far into the adventure, I continue to find new shops and elevated areas to visit. It is also rich with character, and perfectly captures the vision of creatures and humans coexisting. Pidgey populate its sidewalks, flying away when you get near like the real-life city birds obstructing my path while strolling through NYC. The Pan Trio monkeys gleefully hang on streetlights, and insect creatures like Kakuna cling to trees.

An emphasis on city living represents a fresh approach for the franchise, and a welcome one. Even so, exploring Lumiose becomes rote eventually. You may stumble upon an alley you haven't been to, but you wouldn't know it. The building design lacks character, and many elevated areas and underground routes offer little variety. Although I never visited Paris, the model behind the city, I've lived in NYC for nearly a decade. It's a city where every district are the same, and they're all alive with uniqueness that provide character. Lumiose City doesn't have that. It features beige structures topped with colored roofs and simply designed terraces.

The Areas Where The Metropolis Really Excels

Where Lumiose City really shines, oddly enough, is indoors. I adored the way creature fights in Sword & Shield take place in football-like stadiums, providing them genuine significance and meaning. Conversely, battles in Scarlet and Violet take place in a field with two random people watching. It's very disappointing. Z-A strikes a middle ground between both extremes. You will fight in eateries with patrons watching while they eat. A fancy battle society will invite you to a competition, and you will combat in its rooftop arena under a lighting fixture (not Chandelure) hanging above. The most memorable spot is the elegantly decorated headquarters of the Rust Syndicate with its moody lighting and magenta walls. Several distinct battle locales brim with character that's absent from the larger city as a whole.

The Comfort of Repetition

Throughout the Royale, along with subduing wild powered-up creatures and completing the Pokédex, there's an inescapable sense that, {"I