Pokémon Legends Z-A release window revealed alongside new trailer

After a year of no news following its announcement on Pokémon Day 2024, Pokémon Legends: Z-A finally has a release window, with the game set to be released in late 2025.

The release window for the new game was announced during a Pokémon Presents livestream that took place today celebrating Pokémon Day — the anniversary of the series’ first release date in Japan. It was announced in a new trailer for the game, the first one to show more than a concept teaser, which gave us our first good look at the game.

As previously announced, Pokémon Legends: Z-A will take place in the Kalos regions’ biggest city, Lumiose, and is seemingly set after the events of Pokémon X and Y, during a period of high-tech redevelopment. The game will have players catching Pokémon similarly to Pokémon Legends Arceus in new zones sprinkled throughout Lumiose City called Wild Zones.

Also revealed in the trailer were the game’s starter Pokémon, Totodile, Tepig, and Chikorita, who players will be able to choose from at the start of the game.

The game will also see the return of Mega Evolution, a mechanic first introduced in Pokémon X and Y – the first games to feature Kalos – that sees Pokémon temporarily evolving beyond their final forms to get a boost in strength and a new design. The trailer didn’t show off any new Mega forms, but it did showcase a wide range of existing Mega forms, suggesting most, if not all, of the Mega Pokémon from X, Y, Omega Ruby, and Alpha Sapphire will be returning here.

One big change revealed in the trailer is a new battle system, which now utilizes real-time mechanics. Each move will have its own range and area of effect, so positioning will be important, and moves will charge up over time, making the combat system similar to something like Xenoblade Chronicles.

The game comes after a rocky release with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, which were slammed upon release in 2022 by fans and critics alike for their bugs and performance issues. The issues were so bad that Nintendo, the game’s publisher, apologised for the games’ state, and last year saw the release of no new Pokémon games, a move seen by many as evidence of a longer development time for Z-A.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A will be released on the Nintendo Switch, and will be playable on Nintendo Switch 2 via backwards compatibility.