Pokémon Legends: Z-A

Pokémon Legends: Z-A is an action role-playing game developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company. It launched worldwide on October 16, 2025, for both the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch 2. The game is the second entry in the Pokémon Legends sub-series after Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and it serves as a sequel to Pokémon X and Y.

The story unfolds entirely inside Lumiose City in the Kalos region, five years after the events of X and Y. A company called Quasartico Inc. is redeveloping the city, which now includes Wild Zones where Pokémon live alongside people. The player arrives as a tourist, receives a starter Pokémon, joins a small group called Team MZ based at Hotel Z, and gets drawn into a mystery involving Rogue Mega Evolution, where wild Pokémon suddenly Mega Evolve and go berserk. The Legendary Pokémon Zygarde also takes an interest in the player along the way.

Unlike most earlier Pokémon games, battles happen in real time rather than in turns. Positioning, dodging, and the timing of each move all matter, and Pokémon can move around the field during a fight. Players collect Mega Energy in battle to Mega Evolve their partner for a short time. At night, Battle Zones open for the Z-A Royale, a citywide competition in which the player climbs from Rank Z toward Rank A by challenging roaming trainers, who can also ambush the player in return. Rogue Mega Evolved Pokémon are fought as real-time boss encounters.

Beyond the single-player campaign, the Battle Club offers multiplayer for up to four players, including Link Battles and Ranked Battles that reward exclusive Mega Stones at certain ranks. Character customization returns with expanded options, and the game supports Pokémon Home for bringing in Pokémon from several earlier titles. A paid expansion, Mega Dimension, released on December 10, 2025. It centers on the Mythical Pokémon Hoopa, takes players into an alternate Hyperspace Lumiose, and adds new Mega Evolutions, including two Mega forms of Raichu.

The game was revealed during a Pokémon Presents broadcast on February 27, 2024, initially as a Switch exclusive, and an upgraded Switch 2 version was confirmed in April 2025. Critics generally praised the real-time battle system, while some felt the city setting limited exploration. Metacritic lists mixed or average reviews for the Switch version and generally favorable reviews for the Switch 2 version. The game sold more than 5.8 million units in its first week, and Nintendo reported 13.31 million copies sold as of September 30, 2026.