Pokémon Legend: ZA – First Impression of the Battle System
Blog Andrew Joseph 15 Aug , 2025 0
This week is the Pokémon World Championship in Anaheim, the first playable demo of Pokémon Legends: ZA. I had the opportunity to play two different ten minutes of Pokémon legends: za, though I still stay a lot of In the question, I did play enough to make some first impressions of the mechanic I was most curious about: its combat system.
But first, there is a big problem next to it, and many of you have no doubts: I played Pokémon Legend: ZA Demo on the Nintendo Switch 2, and it works well and looks better than the new switches of the Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet for the new Switch 2 version. Of course, this is just a demo, so I didn't try to extract distances, nor did I test it with dozens of wild Pokémon on the screen.
Back to the demo: Part of my match was set in the early game of the fourth major mission: the fight took place in Za Royale. Here I entered the battle zone on the map marked by the red area where I needed to win enough tickets in the trainer battle to get the challenger's ticket, which is what I needed to participate in the promotion competition. Winning the ZA Royale promotion match will upgrade my ranking from Z to Y.
We already know this core game loop and I think we will be participating repeatedly until we reach the A ranking and get a fuzzy prize for a single wish. It's a fun enough system to roam the streets of the booked area at night, facing other star-studded coaches. In the expected Pokémon fashion, a trainer meets you and the battle begins – but in Legend: ZA, if Coach, attack When you're not looking, it means your opponent's Pokémon gets a free first attack on your Pokémon, and that's it return A key blow to guarantee.
Personally, I found it to be a very rude tactic that went against Pokémon's friendly competitive spirit, but of course, I took advantage of it myself when my fashion teammate Lida suggested I give it a try. The tight corners of city streets mean it’s easy to be surprised, but it also provides you with the opportunity to squat and dive into your target.
The battle begins seamlessly, just like in Legendary Arceus, but Legendary: Za deletes the slightly modified version of Legendary: Arceus for the core turn-based mechanic we are most familiar with. Instead, ZA is a complete real-time operation. At least, that's where it comes.
To attack, you essentially use Z-targeting by holding the ZL button and then pressing the face button to guide the Pokémon you use. Whether you're fighting, launching a fight or directing your Pokémon to attack obstacles – like some of the rocks I saw at the beginning of the mission, my Pokémon wasn't strong enough to break.
As expected, each Pokémon knows four moves at a time, and this is the one you can access on four facial buttons. Surprisingly, these actions don't seem to have PP (power points), meaning they can be used unlimitedly and, considering the cooldown, this is a new mechanic for Pokémon's skill-based action games. Different actions have different cooldowns, but the actions I can enter early in the game are relatively short (about six or seven seconds), and the short “casting” time is not conveyed in any menu.
Regardless of these limitations, once my Pokémon attacks the first one, I almost always can attack with another move. When the cooling goes down, these actions will be “filled” with the color indicating when you can attack it again, but I want the feedback to convey the feedback more clearly. I ended up just using almost all the action available, spinning meaninglessly. Apart from these four attacks, you cannot instruct your Pokémon to dodge or perform any other actions, although Pokémon may miss the attack if the opponent is too far from the attack range.
The combat action appears on the right side of the screen, informing you of things like performing attacks, weakening, and critical hits. However, the lack of feedback from the attack does not seem to exist, so I can see the learning when The best attack time can be a bit difficult.
In the battle of the trainer, you can't damage or hit for your Pokémon (I tried it. Marip still fainted.) But you able Injured in battle with wild Pokémon and the more dangerous rogue large-evolved Pokémon (Legends: Another core game plot device in ZA). (And you still can't get hit with your Pokémon, at least that seems to be it.)
Demo My Part Two After following the 10% dog like Zygarde, which is absolutely comparable to the evolution of Rogue Mega, part of another early game mission, this time it's ninth. Somehow the small Zygarde takes you to the absolute roof, but obviously, your character closes his eyes as the screen fades away and suddenly you are on the roof.
Anyway, you don't have the ability to develop Pokémon on your own early in the game, so the mysterious AZ gives you a huge ring, a Lucario and Lucarionite Mega Stone so you can face Rogue Mega Absola without having to explicitly hand over your ass.
In this battle you have to dodge to avoid the attacks of your opponent, as absolute yes Come to you – not just your Pokémon. I found it a bit troublesome to balance attacks and avoid enemy attacks because you can only attack when locking targets with ZL, but you can't sprint or dodge while targeting. I'm sure it's me playing more muscle memory, it's my muscle memory, but it feels strange that such movements are limited by such limitations.
There is also a secondary goal to note when confronting the evolution of Rogue Mega Pokémon: You must collect large power balls to boost enough energy to evolve your Pokémon and continue to collect them so that your Pokémon doesn't develop. Attacking the rogue's large evolution Pokémon forces a large ball of power out of it, and then you have to pick yourself up. This is a very clever way to force you to put yourself in danger and use the Dodge mechanic.
This battle is more fun than the trainer’s fight, and considering all the extra things I need to worry about besides pressing the attack button. Another thing I noticed is that while you can't tell your Pokémon to dodge, they Will be When you do not lock your opponent, you will be back to you by default. So if you Start avoiding enemy AOE (Effects Area) attacks, as long as you give them enough time to retreat, your Pokémon will do the same.
Overall, Legend: Za isn't like a full action game to me, but rather like MMO, casting time, cooldown time and behind-the-scenes math happen. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I do hope Legend: Za becomes challenging enough to make me radiate commands more intentionally and consider switching Pokémon at the right time. I can see potential, but only twenty minutes of early game, and now it's time to tell if this real-time combat system will scratch the strategy – the wonderful Pokémon game is usually too early for me.
I did briefly explore the last minute housekeeping service of the menu: Pokémon has a common six-state spread, without ability (like Legend: Arceus), but Do It has the nature of its statistics (Different In the legend: arceus). I also found a store that sold mints to change those natures as I completed my ninth story mission.
Like I said before, I have a lot of problems, Very Passionate about playing more Pokémon: ZA, but for now, we have to wait until October 16 to learn more.
Casey Defreitas is the deputy editor of IGN Guides and has been catching PokandSince red and blue. Catch her social @shinycaseyd.