We finally know when Pokémon Legends: ZA will appear in Pokémon Timeline

When Pokémon Legends: ZA was first released, We immediately started speculating that it would take place in the Pokémon timeline. We know, not where: it takes place entirely in the city of Lumiose in the Kalos region of Pokémon X and Y . But considering that Legends: Arceus is a time-travel narrative that reaches back hundreds of years into Sinnoh's past, we have high expectations based on the trailer that ZA will be in Lumiose City's future for many, many years.

We were wrong! We now know exactly when it happens, and it's not as big a deal as you might think.

We've been playing Pokémon Legends: ZA for review, and now the ban has been lifted. So, based on first-hand experience speaking to multiple characters (most of whom we unfortunately can't quote or feature directly due to ongoing embargo restrictions), we can confirm that ZA takes place five years after the events of X and Y. This isn't a time travel narrative, it's a direct sequel that provides a follow-up to many of the characters and situations introduced in X and Y.

For example, we already know you can hang out with AZ, a 3,000-year-old man who plays a key role in X and Y. We also know that Mable, a former member of Team Flare, takes on the role of a Pokémon professor in the game and sends you out to capture Pokémon and take on various challenges. Other characters you'll remember from “X” and “Y” will also appear, and some of them have undergone drastic changes, but we can't and won't spoil them just yet.

Pokémon Legends: ZA is actually a big deal as a direct sequel. The interrelationship between different games and regions in the Pokémon universe has been true for years. While there were some direct sequels before (Red and Blue was followed by Gold and Silver, Black and White was followed by Black and White 2, etc.), later games introduced time travel (Legends: Arceus), alternate universes (Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire), and basically every game hinted that the locations and monsters from all the other games existed in the same world, but the events that occurred in those games may or may not, depending on which game you played. If the timeline of “Pokémon” were stretched out, it might look even more ridiculous now than the timeline of “The Legend of Zelda”.

But if you've ever wondered what happened to most of the main cast of X and Y five years after the events of the game, then just know this: it's just a simple sequel! In hindsight, we should have seen this coming when they named it after X and Y.

mine Review of Pokémon Legends: ZA is in progress It's live now, if you want to check out my impressions from the first 24 hours, a full review will be posted next week. I also wrote about how Nurse Joy's job is now open to people who, after 27 years at ZA, don't look the same as the original Nurse Joy.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter at IGN. You can find her posts at BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Have a story tip? Send it to [email protected].