We learned a lot of new information about Pokemon Legends Z-A on Pokemon Day, but one hidden detail is just how huge the map for Lumiose City is.
Pokemon Legends Z-A seems to take place entirely within Lumiose City, sometime after the events of X and Y. So, unlike Legends Arceus, this game is taking us into the future, not the past.
I was initially disappointed about this single-city setting, as Lumiose City from X and Y is big, but it doesn't have much life to it. Traversing it was more a chore than anything else. But with the new parkour mechanic and absolutely huge map shown on the Z-A website, I'm now quite excited to explore it. Hopefully this game won't have the same bug X and Y did where if you saved in certain parts of Lumiose City your game was bricked.
The map shows the city split into different segments of a circle, like slices on a pizza, with Prism Tower in the center. This is the old fifth gym from X and Y. The city is undergoing "an urban redevelopment plan is underway to shape the city into a place that belongs to both people and Pokemon."
There are wild zones where Pokemon have been reintroduced to the city and can wander freely, just waiting for you to capture them. This should be a lot easier for nuzlockers and shiny hunters too, as it looks like they'll be dazed for a few moments when you get their health down to zero rather than being knocked out and disappearing like they used to.
There's even a hub area now, a hotel run by ZA, the mysterious giant who's Florette returned to him at the end of X and Y after 3,000 long years apart. I hope we get to decorate our room.
It'll be interesting to see this more urban take on Pokemon. We've had an extreme desert setting with Pokemon Colosseum, my favorite spin-off in the series, but normally the focus is on nature, like in Legends Arceus and Sword and Shield.
If you want to know more, check out everything announced at Pokemon Presents.
