Pokémon Legends: Z-A preview – Mega Evolution is so back

In a twist of events, whilst in Anaheim, California, ahead of Pokémon Worlds 2025, Radio Times Gaming got the chance to sit down and be amongst the first to play Pokémon Legends: Z-A ahead of its October release.

And, while this initial dive in was super quick, it’s been enough to get us extra keen for the whole package.

The hands-on demo for media and content creators behind closed doors was split into two halves of around 10 minutes each. The first was set in Legends: Z-A’s new big area for Luminose City, the Battle Zone, where, at night, Trainers battle it out to climb the ranks of the game’s Z-A Royale.

In order to earn enough points for a Challenger Ticket key item, we had to take on a handful of Trainers, which worked as a tutorial for the new real-time battle system.

While this at first may seem familiar to Legends: Areceus’ boss battles against frenzied Pokémon — which merely came down to dodging and throwing specific items — Legends: Z-A is the Pokémon series’ first full commitment to the concept of battles happening in real time.

Although it’s complete chaos at first, if turn-based Pokémon is all you’re used to, it soon becomes a lot more manageable — as both you and your Pokémon can move around, dodge and, of course, launch attacks of your choosing.

What's more, you can’t just spam whatever moves you like in rapid succession, as each has to recharge after use.

The time of each recharge is seemingly dependent on the power and use of each move. For instance, my demo partner Pokémon, Chikorita, needed what felt like around 10 seconds to recharge its Leafage attack, whilst it could use Growl in a much shorter time.

That alone opens up a plethora of strategic avenues, from getting used to running around, sorting teams and moves based on speed as well as power, and practicing the ideal time to switch out Pokémon in battle for a better type match-up.

Needing to keep track of an opponent Pokémon’s moves for dodging, my HP deciding whether to use Potions, and which attacks are ready to use, did feel hectic when getting used to the controls, but more or less became second nature by the end of the 10-minute section.

It turns out that this was essentially a warm-up to the second half of the demo.

After chasing Zygarde through the city outskirts for a short while, we got our first exposure to the game’s plot about rogue Mega Evolution.

For some mysterious reason, an Absol we ran into quickly Mega Evolved and started running amok — needing us to use our own Mega Lucario to stop it in its tracks.

The 'mon vs 'mon battles incorporate the same mechanics as the Trainer battles, but these rogue bosses were tougher to overcome overall.

Dodging was imperative, and a rogue Mega Pokémon could only be beaten by another Mega Evolution. You damage these bosses with attacks to get Mega-like orbs that can charge up your Mega Evolution meter.

It was simple enough to beat, since we had enough Potions in our party for survivability, but raw-dogging a fight like this without any healing items would’ve been especially challenging. That’s along with getting used to the boss fight-specific mechanics, like its larger-scale AoE (area-of-effect) attacks.

Additionally, as anarchic as this boss battle felt, whilst the new controls still felt generally fresh, the thrill of a battle like this felt like a triumph. Towards the end of the demo, everything seemed to kick into place.

Mastering the dodging of this angry Absol’s moves, pummelling it with the array of Mega Lucario’s Fighting and Steel-type moves — whilst getting enthralled with the pretty visuals and energising soundtrack — it truly immersed me for a moment into what those big real-time Pokémon battles in the classic anime must have felt like.

While on that train of thought, it got me even giddier as to what other cinematic battles might be ahead of me in the full game.

Still, it painted a fascinating picture of what the overall plot of Z-A is going to look like — giving it a ‘solve the mystery’ vibe from the Detective Pikachu movie, but with many more Pokémon battles.

As a bonus, Pokémon Legends: Z-A looked and sounded great on the Switch 2 as well — showing off a nice glossy aesthetic with all the Mega Evolution effects popping off screen.

It’s easy to think that Luminose City would’ve looked even better if the game didn’t have to be technologically compromised to run on the Switch 1 (the version of which we didn’t get to see).

Even playing as we were on Switch 2, the larger aesthetics, like the building assets around the city, still seemed a bit too plain, too flat, and too ‘copy and paste every window 1,000 times’.

Be that as it may, if you’re playing on the shiny new current-gen system, you’ll still be more than pleased with the overall gloss and the decent performance on the Switch 2 edition.

It's pretty, its packs a snappy integration into full real-time combat, and it looks to have an intriguing plot.

Pokémon players both keen and unsure about Legends: Z-A should now be more than excited, as far as first impressions go.

Granted, the opening slice we’ve seen was incredibly small, but it’s at least shown enough of the core experience to get our hooks in, and we're very eager to see more.

Pokémon Legends Z-A launches 16th October for Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. You can order your copy now.

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