Even if you’ve never played it Pokémon Before the game, you may be able to figure out how type charts work. The type of water spray is weak, water is weak against grass, and grass is weak against fire. Type duel is basic Pokémon Fight, before you get stuck in the weeds of statistic chords. I have Pokémon Type chart memory for about 25 years.
That still didn’t stop me from making mistakes in rookies Pokémon Legend: ZA. I panic and sent the weeds to the NPC’s Pidgeotto, which was very weak. Obviously, it had a sound.
Not me Forgot How type matching works. But the combat system Legend: ZA At least very different from what I used to be, at least with Pokémon. This is the second legend Derivative series, starting in 2022 The Legend of Pokémon: Arceus,and legend The game is still like the main RPG Pokémon Games, they are mechanically and structurally with typical Pokémon formula. and ZA Further than it Arceus Do it: This is the first one Pokémon RPGs fight in real time rather than turn-based combat.
In the main series, you can turn and choose the action, spend some time thinking about the options – the attacks used correctly, whether to switch to another Pokémon, what the opponent might plan – before locking in something and seeing its effect. exist Legend: ZAOn the other hand, you face your opponent more directly. There was no waiting for both opponents to lock in their action. You simply use a face button to select Pokémon’s movement and the movement goes out.
This is a huge departure in the past 30 years Pokémon game. I’m used to it Pokémon Just like a chess game, I slowly moved forward a few steps. exist ZAI had to think about the same type of matches, statistics and everything else but got up quickly. I spent some time adjusting.
My demo before the 2025 Pokémon World Championships in Anaheim, California was split into two parts, each lasting about 10 minutes, all seemingly early in the game and focused on the new combat system. In the first part, I tried Za Royale’s hands, which allowed me to fight the NPC trainers around Lumiose City at night. In the second I absolutely struggled with a rogue giant and it felt like Pokémon Classic 3D version Zelda boss. In the second part of the demonstration, I began to master this style of combat, which at first became a tempting challenge: re-impression Pokémon Part of my brain.
The first big change I have to fight with: Since the battle ZA It is real-time, and the action is on the cooling timer. You can’t just spam over and over; you have to figure out what else you can do while you’re waiting to use the attack again. Even when facing opponents at very low levels, I found myself relying on state actions like Growl, which lowers the attack statistics of opposing Pokémon as a buffer, while my other actions are in cooldown. This brought more hits to my Pokémon and took me some time to cool down and think for me.
Using such states to move is not uncommon when playing the core Pokémon High-level game, but this is Very Early in the game, it was unusual with the regular Bellsprout. I didn’t have enough time in the demo to really play, but I could see myself carefully selecting each Pokémon move to solve this cooldown, such as making sure I protect more Pokémon to block incoming attacks. In other Pokémon Games, if I were building a highly competitive team, I would definitely teach me the Pokémon sanctuary, but I would almost never just play the main story.
Image: Pokémon
Not that kind of battle Legend: ZA It’s ruthless. (I did get smoked by Pidgeotto, but in my defense it is also 10 levels higher than Pokémon on the team.) But after years of every main line Pokémon Playing the game the same way, operating at least in autopilot and muscle memory in early games is an exciting challenge Pokémon For different.
Fighting with Rogue Mega Absol – A wild, wild absolute that can develop on its own, similar to NPC’s battles in this way, but more hands-on. Unlike fighting with other coaches, Wild Pokémon can damage your Pokémon and characters, so you have to dodge and move physically in the arena while choosing Pokémon’s moves, focusing on everyone’s health, and juggling cooldowns. (Using items like potions is also cooled.) Logging in hit rate on rogue giants causes it to drop a sphere of “giant energy” that you have to run and pick up in order to charge the gauge for it, evolve toward the large, and do more damage.
It’s even balanced, but I don’t feel it’s overwhelming in some way. In this case, I have a Lucario that I can use and it has super effective action while also resisting Absal’s attacks, which helps. Lucario already knew about protection, so I had to take advantage of the strategies I had formulated in Za Royale. And, it’s also a more common familiar boss fighting style, even if it’s different Pokémon. It’s more involved than the trainer’s fight and feels more dangerous, but I feel competent in relatively fast situations (especially compared to the Pidgeotto incident).
Maybe this is just a typical learning curve and I will soon develop an updated autopilot for easier part ZA. But I really like to think positively Pokémon In some ways, I can usually save for competitive matches. I hope the game will last longer than the demo and I will base it on that Pokémon Knowing that I’ve accumulated over the years, not just passively bent it.
Pokémon Legend: ZA The Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 will be released on October 16.
