Pokémon Legends Z-A Review: Lumiose Finally Makes Pokémon Feel Like a City

I have spent a decade telling people the next Pokémon would be the one that remembered cities. Pokémon Legends: Z-A is the first time I did not feel like a liar at 1am on a Melbourne tram, holding a Switch 2 that was finally doing 60 frames in a place that had streetlights.

This is an original GamePlayer review. I played the Switch 2 Edition as the main save and the Switch cartridge as the control. The scored object is the game; the version note is the asterisk Australians actually need. Hub: /games/pokemon-legends-za/. If you typed "pokemon za review", you are in the right URL — /pokemon-za-review/ points here.

Lumiose, not another region tour

Z-A never leaves Lumiose City, the Paris-shaped Kalos capital from X and Y, five years later. Wild Pokémon have pushed into the streets. The city's answer is Wild Zones — fenced pockets of habitat that look like a planning overlay drawn by someone who has sat through a real council meeting.

You arrive as a young adult. People talk about rent. That should not feel radical in 2025 and it did. Team MZ adopts you. Days are civic errands. Nights are the Z-A Royale, a ranked street tournament that is the game's excuse to make you stronger without a gym badge pilgrimage.

The story is about who a city is for. That sounds like a press quote. In practice it means side requests from a Furfrou groomer, a café that cannot get Trubbish off the bins, an electrician, a perfume maker, more than a hundred little civic jokes. Some are thin. Together they make Lumiose feel inhabited in a way Paldea's open fields never did.

I will not pretend the architecture is a looker. The same cream facades tile the map. You cannot enter most buildings. Interiors, when they exist, are warmer than the streets. The joy is not the skyline. The joy is the rooftop that hid a single rare spawn after a stupid piece of parkour, and the alley that waited until night.

If you wanted another continent, this will feel small. If you wanted a Pokémon game that knows what a block is, it is the brief.

Battles: the turn-based religion, translated

The feature is the fight. Turns are gone. You move. Your Pokémon follows. Hold ZL and they square up. Short-range moves are fast and rude. Long-range moves wind up. Protect is a parry now. Hazards are shapes on the ground. Paralysis makes the room feel drunk. Mega Evolution is a meter and a mood, not a once-a-league cutscene.

I came in expecting button mash. I stayed because type charts still matter and positioning is a second language you already half-spoke. Rogue Mega fights are the exam: bullet-hell floors, clones, the trainer getting swiped because you treated yourself like a spectator.

The Z-A Royale is the opposite exam. Ranks are easy. Sneak attacks delete the first Pokémon. At one point the story yeets you up a comical number of ranks because otherwise the game would be a hundred hours of street battles. I understand the edit. I still felt the joke.

Wild Zones and Alphas are where the new system earns dinner. A big monster calling friends is a better difficulty curve than another gym leader with three potions.

I still want turn-based Pokémon to live. I also want Legends to keep this. Arceus rewrote catching. Z-A rewrote the other half. That is a studio finally using the subtitle.

Performance, versions, the Australian hardware fork

On Switch 2 I played a whole campaign without writing "the floor ate my Pokémon" in my notes. Sixty frames, fast loads, pop-in that is rude but no longer a punchline. On Switch 1 the same city is the compromise copy: playable, softer, the version you buy if the dock is still OLED and you are not ready to argue with a retailer about stock.

That is the buy advice. The Switch 2 Edition is the game I scored in my head. The score on the page is the game, with a note that the older hardware is how a lot of this country will actually meet it.

Voice acting is still missing. I can live without it in menus. I cannot live with a climactic cutscene of mouth-flap pantomime. Pokémon is too rich for that bit now.

Consensus, credited

According to IGN's Rebekah Valentine, Z-A is 8/10 — Game Freak "hitting its stride in Pokémon’s 3D era" with a battle overhaul that "works surprisingly well." That is the weather I felt in Lumiose at night.

Press Start Australia called it "an enjoyable, yet flawed return to Kalos" that does not quite catch Legends: Arceus. I am slightly kinder on the battles and slightly ruder on the repeating streets. Capsule Computers — another Australian desk — scored it 8/10 and dinged the same trio I did: zones, Lumiose's limits, no voice.

We are not averaging those numbers. Our 8.1 is a Melbourne save that kept opening the map for one more rooftop.

Australia: eShop, EB, JB, which SKU

This is a Nintendo exclusive. There is no Steam wishlist to hide in.

Live prices move. The pattern we have seen since launch: standard Switch around the mid-$80s to $90 AUD, Switch 2 Edition nearer $109, with an upgrade pack if you already own the older SKU. Confirm on Nintendo eShop AU, EB Games, and JB Hi-Fi before you screenshot a number into a group chat.

Physical still matters here. If you want the box on a shelf next to X and Y, EB and JB are the hunt. Digital is the "I am in Lumiose tonight" button.

For the rest of the handheld pile, Z-A sits next to Silksong and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond as the Switch 2 games that actually asked something of 2025. The Nintendo archive is the filter.

Verdict

8.1/10. Pokémon ZA — yes, that is this game — is the urban Pokémon I had been writing IOUs for. Buy the Switch 2 Edition if the hardware is already in the house. Buy the older SKU only if you are willing to meet Lumiose halfway. Skip it if you wanted a region tour and not a city argument.