Legends Z-A When will Legends Z-A take place?

[Juliyet]

There's been a lot of debate on when Z-A will take place, so I figured it'd be worth a discussion of it's own. When do y'all think it's taking place?

For a while I assumed it was gonna specifically be during the Paris redevelopment in the 19th century like many were speculation. But looking at the trailer again, I'm thinking basically the present, at most like a couple years after the events of XY. The woman near the Furfrou can seemingly be seen with a phone, so I think that's the earliest it could be. And the general look of Lumiose still feels pretty modern to me. And yes I'm on of those who thinks the blue line aesthetic for the trailer was just meant to be a blueprint thing.

The ones listed on the poll is not an exhaustive or detailed list, cuz that'd basically be impossible. Feel free to reply with your specific timeframe if it's more detailed than that

 

[BorealRookidee]

I think mid-to-late 1800s, probably shortly after PLA, and probably based on the Haussmann renovation of Paris. I don't think the one teaser trailer we have will represent the final game much, if at all. If it was meant to, they would have given us gameplay footage. The game is about building a future for Lumiose City, so the trailer shows us the future of Lumiose City - which is out modern-day Lumiose.

 

[FelipePR]

I'm betting it's in the 19th century, like Legends Arceus, or shortly after the events of the original game, XY. There doesn't seem to be anything very futuristic about the trailer, and the old Europe does not seem to me to be the most plausible place to approach such a topic.

I still think that both the past and the present/future will be important themes within the game and that, perhaps, it will be possible for the player to influence both.

 

[Volphied]

The woman near the Furfrou can seemingly be seen with a phone,

No matter how much I look, I've yet to see this phone the woman is supposedly holding. I find it hard to imagine that Gamefreak would use a generic instead of Rotom phone, and that one phone has a shape distinctive enough to make it obvious from afar.

 

[FelipePR]

No matter how much I look, I've yet to see this phone the woman is supposedly holding. I find it hard to imagine that Gamefreak would use a generic instead of Rotom phone, and that one phone has a shape distinctive enough to make it obvious from afar.

You meant that the game will be set in a parallel reality? With technologies closer to our universe than those used in the franchise?

Ok, I believe you mean to say that the images in the trailer that refer to the present/future are merely illustrative, a reflection of the consequences of urban redesign from decades/centuries before?

 

[Volphied]

You meant that the game will be set in a parallel reality? With technologies closer to our universe than those used in the franchise?

No, I'm betting on it being set in the 19th century. But I do expect that time travel will play an important part, maybe even more than in Arceus.

I'd be very disappointed if Z-A is set after XY, as that would essentially turn it into a sequel (the same way B2W2 was a sequel to BW) which I think would be very uninspiring.

 

[BorealRookidee]

No matter how much I look, I've yet to see this phone the woman is supposedly holding. I find it hard to imagine that Gamefreak would use a generic instead of Rotom phone, and that one phone has a shape distinctive enough to make it obvious from afar.

Generic smartphones without Rotoms are known to exist in the Pokemon universe, multiple can be seen in the Gen 7 games. Of course, it seems logical to think that they were made obsolete with the widespread adoption of Rotom Phones.

 

[Scruffyjay]

Saw somebody say mid-20th century based on fashion trends. I'm thinking that. Or the future.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

I'm thinking it'll be in the past, either 1800s or 1900s but somewhere along those lines, I think taking place in the past is going to be Legends' games throughline as far as time setting is concerned.

The reveal trailer had no gameplay footage, but it started out being written and drawn on old school parchment paper and ended with a parchment paper drawing of a Lumiose City map. I think everything in between was an animated "visualization" of the Lumiose City we are aiming to create which is the Lumiose City of the modern world that the redevelopment aims to eventually realize: one where people and Pokemon coexist in it in harmony. It, like Arceus's first trailer, still used parchment paper drawings as part of it which suggests it happens in ancient times.

Notably the first parchment paper drawings we see in the trailer are not only old school paper but the things are literally being drawn out with pencils and pencil sound effects.

I think Legends games are what the "Legends" moniker implies: legends, stories of the past, and most specifically they are legends of stories in different regions of how people and Pokemon came to see one another as friends and partners. Especially since this game started out with the statement of not only an "urban redevelopment" of Lumiose City, but a "vision of beautiful coexistence between people and Pokemon". This puts it in a similar place to Arceus and likely in a similar time period, not just because of the Haussman redevelopment basis but also because this implies it's taking place in a time when Pokemon and people did not yet fully live in harmony like they do in the modern contemporary Pokemon world.

If anything the main thing differentiating this from Arceus aside from the region is not going to be the time period, but rather the setting and environment. While Arceus took place in the untouched wildlands of Sinnoh, this game takes place in an urbanized setting in Lumiose City in Kalos and is dominantly going to be an urbanized environment that we explore.