With the Pokémon World Championships currently taking place, various media outlets and content creators have gotten to play Pokémon Legends: Z-A and experience its unique new combat system ahead of its release.
The demo consists of two parts: an early stage of the Z-A Royale and a battle against Mega Absol, a Rogue Mega Evolved Pokémon.
Key takeaways from the Pokémon Legends: Z-A demo
Here are some interesting notes we’ve learned from the demo:
- Held items return after being removed in Pokémon Legends: Arceus
- Attacking will involve holding the ZL button and using the face buttons (A, B, X & Y) to attack
- Some attacks will be able to be launched from range, while others will require your Pokémon to close the gap with its opponent to attack at closer range
- Attacks have no PP, but do have cooldowns similar to MMOs
- Move cooldowns persist when a Pokémon is switched out, meaning you can strategically swap out team members when moves are ready
- Mega Evolution can be triggered after its gauge is full
- You can get a guaranteed critical hit when sneaking up on an opposing Trainer and attacking, but they can do the same to you
- You are able to sprint and dodge as a Trainer during battle — which comes in handy as the Rogue Mega Evolved Pokémon will often be targeting you
- Status effects, such as Poison, will linger after battle
Demo impressions
Below you’ll find videos and excerpts of different impressions and, when applicable, a link to read the author’s full thoughts.
Austin John Plays
Serebii
The battle system, as originally revealed, is different from past traditional main series games in that it has a real-time system. You can send a Pokémon out at any time and when locked on to a Pokémon, a display will appear in the bottom right, this is your move selection. Rather than selecting each move through a menu, it instead is done with the face buttons on the controller with each button corresponding to a move the Pokémon has, so the B Button will be one move, the X button another and so forth. The moves are then done on a cooldown before it can be used again, so you could rapidly unleash an onslaught of moves but it will then mean you have a bit of a wait time and your Pokémon will be vulnerable.
Nintendo Life
I’m relieved to report the combat, from what I’ve played, feels like just the thing the series needs to take it into the next generation. I’ll always have a longing for the turn-based battles that have been prevalent for the last nearly-30 years, but there’s no questioning the fact that this series has needed some reinvention and this new real-time battle system has certainly captured my attention.
TheGamer
…my first impression of the new battle system is overwhelmingly positive. I can’t wait to see how moves are reinvented and interpreted in this new real-time battle system and the kind of interesting builds and strategies players will be able to come up with. We may see surprising new utility for defensive and mobility-focused moves, and I can’t wait to see how hazard and weather-changing moves are interpreted.
IGN
I was pretty much always able to attack with another move as soon as my Pokémon was done attacking with the first. The moves will “fill up” with color as the cool-down counts down, indicating when you can attack with it again, but I do wish that feedback was more clearly communicated. I ended up just using almost all of the moves available in rotation pretty mindlessly. You can’t instruct your Pokémon to dodge or perform any other maneuvers besides those four attacks, though Pokémon can miss attacks if the opponent is too far from the attack’s range.
It seems like the impressions about the new battle system, which is one of the major features of Legends: Z-A, is getting pretty good press so far! Let us know what you think after looking at some of these early previews in the comments below.
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