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

[Greninjaman]

I wonder if we will be able to customize our own house. I doubt I will do much with that aspect of the game.

 

[LEMONSORBET6812]

I wonder if we will be able to customize our own house. I doubt I will do much with that aspect of the game.

Oml that wud be fun

 

[Greninjaman]

Oml that wud be fun

Well, if its something you enjoy then of course you will find it fun.

 

[BorealRookidee]

Terrarium
That’s wat it’s called

but
If we were to get a terrarium like thing that would take care of the biome problem
I’ve thought of a canonical reason too
So, if this takes place in “post-AZ firing ultimate weapon Kalos”, people might have built an underground bunker with enough biomes to sustain most of the Pokemon
Like a nuclear fallout

It's actually the Terarium. It's a pun.

 

[Vengeful Ghost]

If we’re lifting premises from French history, Paris as a city didn’t come about until the reign of Napoleon III. I think we could be drawing inspiration from that. We’re in essence making modern Kalos except well Over 150 years in the past.

 

[BorealRookidee]

Also I saw it pointed out elsewhere that the "A" in the logo looks like the Ultimate Weapon:

 

[adr1504]

Well, gotta say I'm new here, but what can I say? Hope y'all are doing fine. This will also act as my first post here.

Despite being new, well, I feel tempted to give my two cents about what I saw and think about the teaser, heck, I was among the people expecting something related to Unova/Gen V, and, to be honest, not even dissapointed, I was half expecting a Legends game, but not what we got delivered, talk about a nice surprise seeing Gen VI getting love, I was aboard the potential Legends Johto/Unova, but seeing Kalos taking the spotlight is cool too.

Judging by the looks of the trailer, and the contrasts between past and future, with all that Tron-esque holographic spectacle, one might signal as it being present Lumiose City, and the urban planning sketches, as seen by the look of the paper, dating from a distant past, these are kinda obvious conclusions, but it seems quite interesting given that we will witness Lumiose's growth and modernization.

As put previously on this thread, this pretty much mirrors the Haussmann restoration works on Paris, and this also kind of sets the game in the 19th century, along PLA too, given that PLA has quite the obvious inspiration from Meiji Japan and Hokkaido's colonization process by the Japanese, both endeavors taking place at the mid to late 1800s.

Which, imo, set a bit of a connection to PLA, well, the Japanese are quite fond of Paris, and back in the Meiji era, the newly founded Imperial Japanese Army was trained by French military advisors, also, frenchmen acted as advisors and commanders too in the Republic of Ezo, which was a splinter state that existed in Hokkaido shortly before the Japanese annexed it altogether. I can see some parallelisms between the settings, Lumiose being an exhuberant city, while Jubilife is a new town amid a pretty much barren wildland, reflecting their regions' respective status, Kalos, being France's counterpart, was already established with a long, rich history, meanwhile Hisui getting gradually urbanized culminating in its current form as Sinnoh, as what happened to Hokkaido.

Now, respecting stuff relating to AZ and the Ultimate Weapon, both the Kalos War and the Weapon's use being explicitly put in a timeframe corresponding to our Bronze Age makes it difficult to me seeing something related to both events, but since the Pokémon universe has a cloudy historical timeline, and given the Pokémon world's advanced technology we can asume of it being in the future, but I'm just reaching here. But since there's a war mentioned on both X/Y, the closest analogue event if we get something like that on PLA-Z is the Franco-Prussian War.

I might be making points out of thin hair, but as a history nerd, I feel compelled to draw historical parallels if I find them.

Cheers!

 

[zoroarctic]

Didn't catch any of the Presents, but did see the news on the X-Twitter. I definitely did not expect a Kalos-based Legends game, but I'll take it.

Also, this was the best thing I saw today (wasn't sure where to put it, so here it is):

 

[Cainhxrst]

I'm beginning to think the game may actually take place shortly into the future for a few reasons:

-it would give a valid, easy explanation for why Lumiose is way bigger and more detailed than how it was back in X/Y.
-the futuristic imagery combined with "urban redevelopment" just seems like a really bizarre choice to use for the trailer if this is supposed to take place around the 1800's or early 1900's.

 

[Dr. Turtwig MT]

I have to wonder given the redevelopment angle are we going to be designing biomes for the people and Pokemon. Will we be incharge of designing a water/tundra biome for water and ice pokemon, with a mountainus/grassy biome for rocky and grass pokemon.

 

[Mr. MoonStone]

I have to wonder given the redevelopment angle are we going to be designing biomes for the people and Pokemon. Will we be incharge of designing a water/tundra biome for water and ice pokemon, with a mountainus/grassy biome for rocky and grass pokemon.

I’d imagine both, which would be extremely cool to experience.

 

[Articfoxgamez]

Maybe, but you know a lot less specific than that. less "Heres one biome where you find all the pokemon of X type". Even the Terarium wasn't really like that (Other than arguably the snow area, and even then it had chargestone cave)

 

[Bolt Strike]

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

A few issues with this list.

For one, I think what you're seeing as an Ariados might actually be a Floette. Beyond that, you mention Whiscash and IDK where you're seeing that.

Also, there's clearly an Emolga and Crobat there, and there also might be a Vulpix but it's hard to tell.

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?

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.

I mentioned earlier that I think the Z-A name is specifically hinting towards a theme of ends and transitions into new beginnings (which would tie into my theory that this game is a cross-gen release on both the Switch and its successor rumored to release next year). The game revolving around the redevelopment of Lumiose City might represent this as well, with the game seeing the end of the Lumiose City that they know and its transition to a new form.

And yeah, the assumption is that the "A" represents a new legendary, its leaf motif doesn't seem to match any Pokemon that currently exists.

but
If we were to get a terrarium like thing that would take care of the biome problem
I’ve thought of a canonical reason too
So, if this takes place in “post-AZ firing ultimate weapon Kalos”, people might have built an underground bunker with enough biomes to sustain most of the Pokemon
Like a nuclear fallout

Yeah, I don't think we're getting Fallout: Pokemon Edition here, that's a bit too dark for Pokemon. I know Kalos' lore is among some of the darkest in the series, but they're not going to go full on nuclear radiation with this game (doubly so when the developer is based in a country that was a victim of such an attack, which could lead to an ugly controversy they'd probably rather avoid). A Terarium esque biome isn't really necessary and doesn't fit the setting very well.

 

[Scruffyjay]

just realized I've been calling it PLAZ all day instead of PLZA and seemingly nobody noticed. help me


Also interesting that it almost spells plaza

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

This tweet was shared and it suggests Legends Z-A could take place in the 1960's. It would be interesting to see what customization options there would be.

https://twitter.com/GlobinGoblin_/status/1762484349016952935?t=fGqijlfQNOkIgVvIfq6K8w&s=19

 

[BorealRookidee]

This tweet was shared and it suggests Legends Z-A could take place in the 1960's. It would be interesting to see what customization options there would be.

https://twitter.com/GlobinGoblin_/status/1762484349016952935?t=fGqijlfQNOkIgVvIfq6K8w&s=19

Paris also underwent reconstruction in the 1860s, and the clothing in the trailer seems to fit that time much better IMO.

 

[Yung Dramps]

-it would give a valid, easy explanation for why Lumiose is way bigger and more detailed than how it was back in X/Y.

I highly doubt there will be an in-universe explanation for Lumiose City being so much bigger, nor is one really needed. The explanation is the unstated out-of-universe one: Lumiose was always meant to be this immense canonically, the XY version was just the best approximation that was possible on the hardware while also having an entire region surrounding it. Think how the anime portrays it, that's probably what they're going for

 

[Scruffyjay]

I've seen people throwing around the idea of future Lumiose. I'm cool with that too. Even better if some disaster happened and that's why we have to redevelop it.

 

[Phosphene]

I've fallen out of the Pokémon sphere these past few years, but was lucky enough to watch the Pokémon Presents on the bus ride to lab. I skipped through most of the video because it seemed like all mobile game stuff, but was really surprised to see a new game set in Kalos (and all in just Lumiose City too)! The mega evolution symbol along with the mega evo jingle legit gave me chills haha. Really hoping that Flygon finally gets its mega.

Some jumbled thoughts:

• The fact that the trailer refers to this as a "redevelopment plan", the cyberspace look of the trailer, and the futuristic logo makes me think this game will take place in the future. The first Legends Arceus trailer was clearly set in the past, even going as far as to say that people and Pokémon still lived apart, which is the complete opposite vibe of this trailer.​
• As for the setting itself, I don't think I'd mind it if the game is truly set in just Lumiose City. The recent open world Pokémon games have struggled to maintain my interest--I feel that they're too empty though perhaps I'm playing them wrong--and I'm hoping that a potentially smaller setting will allow for richer/denser environments.​
• I think this game may have several changes from Legends Arceus. I think abilities may have a comeback in this Legends entry--I can't see Mega Kangaskhan without Parental Bond for example.​

 

[Bolt Strike]

I highly doubt there will be an in-universe explanation for Lumiose City being so much bigger, nor is one really needed. The explanation is the unstated out-of-universe one: Lumiose was always meant to be this immense canonically, the XY version was just the best approximation that was possible on the hardware while also having an entire region surrounding it. Think how the anime portrays it, that's probably what they're going for

My main issue isn't the size, but the description of it being a "coexistence between people and Pokemon". You don't really see that in XY Lumiose City, it's primarily a manmade environment for humans, you don't really see much in the way of natural environments for Pokemon. I don't really get the vibe that present day XY was designed with that vision.