Pokémon Legend: ZA officially confirmed to bring back popular X and Y characters

In today’s Pokémon Gift, we’ve seen a lot of new shots from Pokémon: ZA, including the brand new Mega Evolution. But for the legendary nerd, it's even more interesting to the official, confirming a very popular character in the Pokémon X and Y adventures.

If you watched today’s trailer, you’ll know that this is not a spoiler: Emma from Pokémon X and Y has officially confirmed Pokémon Legends: ZA. Emma Always part of fans' speculation Since the game was announced, theories about her existence in ZA have only multiplied with time.

In some cases, Emma is a young girl of X and Y, adopted and trained by Looker, a Lumiose City detective who became a fan favorite character after several matches. At the end of X and Y, Looker effectively handed the key to his Looker Bureau to Emma. We've seen the bureau appear in this futuristic accent, so it makes sense that Emma will run it. More importantly, her design shows that she is still based on clothing under the jacket, and is still the Essentia who fights crime.

The second director of the detective agency 🔍
“Matiere”

Small City 1☝️
Skilled detectives and Pokemon coaches❗️💡

Become a Matiere assistant and solve the requirements of those in need 🕵️#Pokemon Presentation #pokemongenda pic.twitter.com/zf0cnbrspe

-(Official) Pokemon Information Bureau (@poke_times) July 22, 2025

That is, Emma's existence does raise some questions. When is the Pokémon Legend: ZA SET? We don't know! Emma's ZA appearance is certainly older, but may not be that old enough that the futuristic city that emerged from X and Y aesthetics to ZA can essentially rebuild Lumose from scratch.

Is there a prank on time travel? Is this Emma's daughter also called Emma? Probably not the second one. Perhaps the residents of the Carlos area are indeed very quick to build the city.

Serebii Update: Official artwork of Emma & Mable by Pokémon Legends ZA https://t.co/nwladn57aq pic.twitter.com/zsdp9u36dw

– serebii.net (@serebiinet) July 22, 2025

It is also worth pointing out here that another familiar face of X and Y appears in today’s trailer, although it may be immediately recognised. If you spotted Mable, a new director of Pokémon Research Lab, you may have recognized her as a former member of the Flare team. She was um, not the most bizarre person in X and Y, so it was interesting whether she had reformed since then or something unpleasant happened in the research lab.

There are other revelations in today's trailer, including brand new characters like Navin, Lida and Urbyn or Tauni. So do we Seeing a brand new large-scale evolution, the giant dragon field. Pokémon Legends: ZA will enter the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 on October 16, 2025.

You can catch up with everything shown Today's Pokemon Gift is Here.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior journalist at IGN. You can find her post on bluesky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Is there a story tip? Send it to [email protected].