Earlier today, the latest Pokémon Presents aired as part of the celebrations for Pokémon Day 2024. In that video, we saw announcements for all manner of games and adaptations, ranging from new content in Pokémon Sleep and Cafe, to content involving the Pokémon Horizons anime and trading card game.
But there was one announcement that was the most interesting of them all. One reveal which excited Pokémon fans worldwide.
That being, a brand-new Pokémon Legends game! Yep, the series is now continuing with Pokémon Legends: A-Z, a new game based around generation 6 and the Kalos region. Here’s the trailer if you haven’t seen it already:
As you can see, it’s pretty ambiguous about what the game itself entails. There’s no gameplay footage to be had here, with the entire video consisting of an animatic showing various battles and NPCs in Lumiose City. Because of this, we only really know that it’s set in Kalos, that generation 6 Pokémon are clearly featured in some way, and that the game is being released in 2025.
But that’s all interesting info in and of itself. Why? Cause here’s the thing…
Pokémon games tend not to get very long development cycles. Indeed, as a rule of thumb, just about every game in a Pokémon Presents is a title meant to be released that year, with most cases even given a release date of within months of the presentation airing.
So, to see this game get a 2025 release date opens up a few very intriguing questions. Namely:
- Is this game actually getting the development time it deserves?
- And is this game also being released for the Switch 2?
Both seem fairly plausible. For the former, both Game Freak and the Pokémon Company know that feedback on their games has been on the negative side in recent years, with everything from Sword and Shield to Scarlet and Violet getting slammed for poor graphics, poor performance and a litany of bugs. So, there’s a definite possibility that they’ve decided to give the guys at Game Freak more time for titles like this and generation 10, just so they’re not as blatantly janky and unfinished as the last few generations have been.
Meanwhile the latter makes sense given the 2025 release date. According to credible sources, that’s the Switch 2’s release this year, with rumours stating it was actually delayed to that point to provide both supply for shops and games for the console’s launch period. Having a new Pokémon game available for that system early on (even a spinoff like this one) would be huge for its sales, and make perfect sense for everyone involved.
There are also a few other interesting titbits we can gleam from promotional posts and press releases too. Such as this one from a tweet by Nintendo of America about the game:
Watch to see the reveal trailer for #PokemonLegendsZA, a new adventure set entirely within Lumiose City, coming to #NintendoSwitch in 2025. https://t.co/HHIlcwKvno
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 27, 2024
As you can see, it says the game is set ‘entirely’ within Lumiose City. That’s interesting. Could we really have an entire Pokémon adventure set in a single big city?
Honestly, we wouldn’t have thought so (especially not within the Pokémon equivalent of France), but apparently that’s what we’re getting.
And it gets more interesting with these hints about the story from the official website:
A new adventure awaits within Lumiose City, where an urban redevelopment plan is underway to shape the city into a place that belongs to both people and Pokémon. Please look forward to seeing it for yourself.
So, this implies it’s not set in the war from X and Y’s backstory, but might be within the period directly following it. This would fit in well with the title, which all but confirms the character AZ will be involved in some way.
The fact it’s called Pokemon Legends: AZ heavily indicates this guy will be involved
It also seems to feature the return of Mega Evolution as well, a mechanic introduced in generation 6 that was dropped from generation 8 onwards. That’s expected given the region, though makes us wonder if any other such forms are going to be included in this game as a result.
And that in turn also brings us to another possible inclusion:
AZ’s Floette (the Eternal Flower Floette)
The unused Eternal Flower form of Floette left unused in X and Y onwards
Since in the backstory of Pokémon X and Y, this special form of Floette was the main Pokémon used by AZ, which perished during the war and got revived later thanks to the Ultimate Weapon.
But it’s no ordinary Floette. No, it’s a super powerful variant, with a massive 125 special attack stat, plus other stats on par with minor legendaries of the era. It also comes with a devastating Fairy move called Light of Ruin, which has a base power of 140 and does 50% of the damage dealt in recoil.
Hence it only makes sense that this Pokémon would make a comeback during this game.
Either way, that’s the new game for you. It’s another Pokémon Legends game set in Kalos, with a release date of 2025. So, what do you think about it?
Are you excited to revisit Lumiose City this time around? What characters and story elements from X and Y’s backstory will make an appearance here?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below, on social media, or on our Discord server today!
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