Legends Z-A Pokemon Legends Z-A General Speculation & Discussion

[Articfoxgamez]

One thing I know I'll like for sure with these games is the customization. Whether it takes place in the past, present, or future, I'm 99% sure the character customization in this game is going to be awesome. Paris is a fashion hub, Pokemon X and Y, while not having as diverse of a fashion catalog color-wise as the later games (SMUSM and SWSH), had the widest arrangement of different types of fashions. I am so excited to see what they'll for this game.

And then there's that 1% of me that's worried they'll pull a SV and stick you in an unchangeable organization uniform for the entirety of the game, even after you've beaten it. Please for the love of Arceus GF do not do this to me in Kalos.

worst case scenario they just do what PLA did and make 90% of the clothes the same design just with different colors and patterns.

 

[Defiant]

Someone on Youtube has pointed out, the woman in the cafe, where the Furfrou is featured, is talking on a smart phone, so it's 2008 (5 years before XY) at the earliest, but most likely set in the future.

Maybe it is set in 2025, so 12 years after XY?
Another thought if it was originally meant to be 2024, that'd be 11 years, the characters are 11 aren;t they in game, so they'd be born during XY, and now going on their own adventure.

 

[Aulos]

After looking at the trailer a few times I am reasonably confident this is in modernity sometime after XY. It's hard to tell but the fashion of the amorphous NPCs is a bit too new for a PLA timeframe: Look hard enough and you'll see travel backpacks and baseball caps.

For the record, this is preferable for me. During the leaks phase I was so intrigued by the idea of a BW3 not so much because of more Unova but because of the "retroactive sequel" element: Seeing a much longer passage of time and how it affects the setting and characters.

All this to say: If this game has adult Emma in a prominent role I am going to kneel harder than anyone has ever kneeled before.
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I am manifesting. So hard.

You're right that the trailer gave off very modern vibes. That's a bit bizarre to me. Are they completely deviating from the style of Legends Arceus? Can't understand why they'd call it a Legends game and not something else if it's set in the present time with completely different gameplay.

I'll take a game set in Kalos in any time myself, but I find this odd.

 

[Articfoxgamez]

I mean, Legends has been a single game up till now, that's not enough to make any sort of pattern.
My prediction is that legends was never meant to mean "Game set in the past" but rather just... "A sub series of games set in old reigons with more experimental gameplay", the subseries where they try things out they dont wanna risk flopping with a main first game of a generation.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Another question on the city idea is how is it going to work in terms of biomes?
People have suggested parks for grassy areas, but what about desserts, mountains, ice/snow areas, fire/lava etc?

This is my main concern too. A game taking place entirely in a city might have some variety/diversity issues if not designed intelligently. I could see the Power Plant or a similar type of place in Lumiose where you could find Fire and Electric types, and some cemeteries/catacombs (it's well known that there are ancient catacombs below Paris so they could replicate that in this game) for Ghost types, but some types might be difficult to accommodate. Rock/Ground I guess maybe some rocky areas in the parks, but Ice would be especially tricky. Maybe there's a Cold Storage type of place somewhere or there's dynamic weather and we get more Ice types in the snow, but both of those are difficult to imagine.

I don't think we'll see XY's 450 Pokemon roster available in the main campaign, as it sounds like a lot for one city, I think it will be around 300 composed of: Most of Central Kalos + the most notable ones from Coastal and Mountain + Megas from ORAS (Loppuny, Sharpedo) + regional forms (maybe, see below) and random additions.

Yeah, I'm conscious of this too and I'm not expecting XY's full 450 either. LA only had a little over half of that number, so they probably will trim the rosters down with the excuse of "Oh, this is just Lumiose City, not the entire Kalos region". That being said, a lot of people complained that the Kalos Dex had too much Kanto, so if they trim a lot of the Kanto Pokemon out, I think that might soften the blow a bit. I'd have to think about which ones might be good cut candidates. 300 seems a bit ambitious compared to LA, but maybe they'd be able to get away with that much.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

I am so excited for this! I loved Legends Arceus, which more or less singlehandedly carried Gen 8 on its back for me, so naturally I'm stoaked for a second entry! And it's set in Kalos, no less!

PleaseletmehaveMegaFlygonandMegaLuxraynowGameFreak...

 

[Articfoxgamez]

So I did some math

We currently know of 106 Pokemon in this game assuming every pokemon (And their evo's) that were seen in this trailer are in the game
38 Non Kalos pokemon seen in trailer (All of which are avalible in X and Y)
And then the 72 Pokemon added in gen 6
If PLZA had the same number of pokemon as PLA that would leave 132 more pokemon we dont know (Including new ones)

Also yeah, they have to cut a sizable chunk of X and Y's pokedex for this game, its a shame but oh well.

Also remember the Pokemon don't live here normally, city is being revamped so that they can. I'm sure they can give an explination for how ice types are now able to live in Lumiose without needing an icy area nessecarily.

 

[Greninjaman]

Question: what Pokémon were seen in the trailer? I recall Pyroar, Pikachu, and Gyarados. Don't really remember the rest...

 

[Sakuraa]

My first thoughts on this are that I'm not too interested. I didn't enjoy the first Legends game and I never cared too much for Mega Evolution. That said, I'll wait for more information before forming an opinion. At the very least, it's nice to see Kalos back in the spotlight. It's one of my favorite regions.

 

[Zinkling]

New game, leak season...It's good to be back...

I'll start off by giving my guesses for the starters: either regular kalos starters with mega evolutions, or Scorbunny/Popplio/Snivy with different final evos. Just based on vibes. I think Popplio would become a mime.

i know most of us are sold on piplup being the water starter but omg PLEASE primarina is my favorite starter i'd cry tears of joy if it got a regional form! the mime idea's really cute too. also ironic considering primarina being a songstress haha

honestly, i'm thinking the kalos starters might get mega evos even if they aren't the starters we get at the beginning. it'd be kinda disappointing if no native gen 6 pokemon got megas and the kalos starters seem like an obvious choice

 

[Articfoxgamez]

Question: what Pokémon were seen in the trailer? I recall Pyroar, Pikachu, and Gyarados. Don't really remember the rest...

I dont know the specific pokemon but the evo lines overall were

Spoiler: Spoiler to Save Space

Arbok Line
Raichu Line
Victreebell Line
Steelix Line
Starmie Line
Gyarados Line
Eeveelutions
Dragonite Line
Whishcash Line
Absol
Hippowdon Line
Krookodile Line
Talonflame Line
Pyroar Line
Florges Line
Gogoat Line
Furfrou
Aegislash Line
Hawlucha
Klefki
Pinsir
Heracross
Ariados Line

 

[Articfoxgamez]

Curious if we will get every Mega Pokemon or if some will get left out, at the very least I hope they include all of the non-kanto ones, since the Kanto ones got to exist in Let's Go.

If it was all of that would be... 40 extra Evo lines that I'm too lazy to count how many member of there are. The most likely exclusions are the mega legendaries and mega starters (Which I'm fine with being an exception with the "All non-kanto ones" thing)

 

[Greninjaman]

Still have to wonder if we will outright be unable to leave the city. Would Lumiose be more of a hub town/city like Jubilife in that we could go to different areas? I feel that we can leave the city, it just would be to specific areas (like in Legends: Arceus).

 

[LEMONSORBET6812]

I think we’re getting a new legendary because of the “A” in Z-A
The leaf patterns don’t match Yveltal or Xerneas so my theory is that maybe it is an opposite to Zygarde
Maybe an alpha (as in the Greek letter) Pokemon kind of like a beginning Pokemon as a counterpart to Zygarde’s end-ish theme, but that might be totally wrong because Z isn’t the last letter in the Greek alphabet
But it is in the English alphabet
So I’m not sure
Wat do u guys think?

 

[Articfoxgamez]

Curious if we will get every Mega Pokemon or if some will get left out, at the very least I hope they include all of the non-kanto ones, since the Kanto ones got to exist in Let's Go.

If it was all of that would be... 40 extra Evo lines that I'm too lazy to count how many member of there are. The most likely exclusions are the mega legendaries and mega starters (Which I'm fine with being an exception with the "All non-kanto ones" thing)

I counted anyways, 69 Excluding starters and Legendaries, 91 including them...
So maybe dont include them all after all? Would only leave 63/41 unkown Pokemon. Then again the game could have more Pokemon than PLA did IDK.

 

[Kallyle]

I’m a bit skeptical about Legends: Z-A taking place in the future, mostly because I’m not quite sure how Game Freak would handle wild Pokémon. However, taking into account that theory @Bolt Strike has about it being a cross-platform transitional title and @Defiant having a theory about this being after Zygarde wrecks Lumiose City, I think that I might have constructed another possible plot basis:

What if something happened to the Kalos region’s ecosystem as a whole? Perhaps we’re part of the Kalos Restoration Committee: a group that has to figure out a solution to rebuild the region’s society (starting with Lumiose City) without angering the Legendary and Mythical Pokémon? This could actually justify the premise of taking place in the future while still being limited to a single city: the area that encompasses Lumiose City (and its perimeter that will probably get integrated into New Lumiose) is probably the least affected by the ecological disaster.

As to what exactly happened, perhaps someone had the bright idea to “borrow” the Infinity Energy tech from Devon Corp. which attracted the foreign Primal Legendary Pokémon causing Xerneas and Yveltal to enter a power struggle with them over the natural energies of the Kalos region. This would give Game Freak a good excuse to give us all of the Mega Evolution Pokémon, including the ones introduced in ORAS!

Anyone else on board with the post-apocalyptic Kalos idea?

 

[FelipePR]

First- I have one major problem with the Idea of PLZA being set in the past, the trailer focused on the idea of a Redevelopment plan where Humans and Pokemon can better live together, we see tons of what looks like wild pokemon in the trailer, if the game takes place entirely within the city there much be Pokemon to catch.

I don't disagree given how the trailer is more focused on the current/future city of Lumiose, but I believe that the issue is still open to interpretation and, for now, it is not yet possible to put the hammer down definitively.

On the other hand, in the Portuguese Official Pokémon YouTube Channel, the secret project is only described like an urban development plan for the city, and not a redevelopment one. I wonder, how is it described in other languages, especially in Japanese?

Note: When we come across ZA we think of AZ and, immediately, of the region's past history. However, doesn't ZA mean both future and past (or an inversion of these)? That is, AZ is an immortal being, who was born three thousand years ago (A) and who will probably be alive until the end of the Kalos region (Z). I think that Gamefreak, through the alphabet, is playing with terms past and future and, I believe, that both will be important within this Pokémon Legends.

 

[Greninjaman]

At the end of the trailer, they should an overhead shot of the city. How does it compare to the map of the city from XY? Are they the same or are they different?

 

[LEMONSORBET6812]

I’m a bit skeptical about Legends: Z-A taking place in the future, mostly because I’m not quite sure how Game Freak would handle wild Pokémon. However, taking into account that theory @Bolt Strike has about it being a cross-platform transitional title and @Defiant having a theory about this being after Zygarde wrecks Lumiose City, I think that I might have constructed another possible plot basis:

What if something happened to the Kalos region’s ecosystem as a whole? Perhaps we’re part of the Kalos Restoration Committee: a group that has to figure out a solution to rebuild the region’s society (starting with Lumiose City) without angering the Legendary and Mythical Pokémon? This could actually justify the premise of taking place in the future while still being limited to a single city: the area that encompasses Lumiose City (and its perimeter that will probably get integrated into New Lumiose) is probably the least affected by the ecological disaster.

As to what exactly happened, perhaps someone had the bright idea to “borrow” the Infinity Energy tech from Devon Corp. which attracted the foreign Primal Legendary Pokémon causing Xerneas and Yveltal to enter a power struggle with them over the natural energies of the Kalos region. This would give Game Freak a good excuse to give us all of the Mega Evolution Pokémon, including the ones introduced in ORAS!

Anyone else on board with the post-apocalyptic Kalos idea?

The “apocalypse” might be AZ firing the ultimate weapon

 

[Greninjaman]

The “apocalypse” might be AZ firing the ultimate weapon

Makes sense.