Pokémon Legends: Z-A is the next entry into the Pokémon Legends spin-off series that aims to re-explore a setting from a previous game but from a different perspective. The first game in the series, Arceus, took players back to the Sinnoh region from the Diamond and Pearl games. However, it was set 200 years before the events of those games, allowing players to see how the region had evolved, and even how its Pokémon had changed and adapted over the years.

There is a lot fans already know about Pokémon Legends: Z-A, from its setting of Lumiose City from the X & Y games to its story of how the city is undergoing an urban redevelopment plan in order to better accommodate the lives of Pokémon and its existing inhabitants. However, as much as players may be excited to revisit Lumiose City, Pokémon Legends: Z-A has already fumbled its interpretation of it by not sticking to the precedent set by Pokemon Legends: Arceus a few years before.

Lumiose City Map Compared To X & Y

There Are Some Key Differences

Lumiose City’s map in Pokémon Legends Z-A hasn’t been completely revealed. However, via the official Pokémon Legends: Z-A website, players can see an illustrated version which reveals that the city is significantly larger than the version from X & Y. While Lumiose City was impressive in X & Y, a lot of space was taken up with areas where players couldn’t go. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case with the Z-A version, as, in the game’s first official trailer, we get to see far more expansive streets with shops that can be visited and areas for battling wild Pokémon.

Naturally, considering that the entirety of Pokémon Legends: Z-A is set within Lumiose City, players can expect a far more expansive version of it. It also helps that this is running on the Switch – and potentially the Switch 2 – and not a 3DS. So, there will naturally be more details and areas for players to explore that were absent in X & Y, which is just one of the reasons why Lumiose City is a great setting for Pokémon Legends: Z-A.

Pokémon Legends Z-A’s Map Hasn’t Changed Enough From X&Y

It Is Mostly The Same In Terms Of Structure

However, while Lumiose City is certainly bigger in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, it isn’t really different. That is largely because it doesn’t look like Pokémon Legends: Z-A is set that much longer after the events of X & Y – there are even characters from X & Y in Z-A. The city looks almost identical from screenshots and the aforementioned map, which is a huge shame, especially considering that Legends Arceus seemed to imply that the series would focus on a different time period that completely changes how the original region looked.

It isn’t that Pokémon Legends: Z-A had to be set in the past – as much as the word “legend” quite literally implies it will be – but that it needs to do more than just replicate the region from a past Pokémon game on a new console. It is great that Game Freak has put so much effort into bringing Lumiose City to life, but it feels like a waste when it just looks like a remastered version of a city from the 3DS era, rather than taking the opportunity to do something new and daring.

Arceus Shook Up Sinnoh In A Major Way

It Made It Feel Like An Entirely New Region

Perhaps we were spoiled with Pokémon Legends: Arceus and its hugely different interpretation of the Sinnoh region. It took recognizable elements of the region from the Diamond and Pearl games – namely Mt. Coronet – while stripping it back, focusing on what the region would have looked like hundreds of years before its inhabitants had constructed enormous cities and robbed it of its natural beauty. There’s something rather blissful about exploring the ruins and forests of Pokémon Legends: Arceus and slowly getting an idea of how the region could change so drastically from the ambitions of the game’s main characters.

Exploring what a region was like before the protagonist of the original game arrived there or how it changed after they left was seemingly what made the Legends games different from the mainline ones. However, evidently, that concept was a one-time deal, as Pokémon Legends: Z-A is seemingly not set far enough into the future or past for Lumiose City to feel substantially different. That is disappointing, especially as the region has plenty of history briefly touched upon in X & Y that could have been explored in greater detail in Pokémon Legends: Z-A.

Z-A Needs To Change Lumiose City More

It Needs To Make It Feel Different, Not Just Bigger

In an ideal world, Pokémon Legends Z-A would have changed Lumiose City more. It is possible, especially as the game’s narrative is centered around an urban redevelopment plan, that the city will evolve across the course of the game, expanding in a myriad of ways that are both visually and functionally interesting. However, even were that the case, it’s hard to imagine Lumiose City looking little more than an updated version of the X & Y version, rather than an entirely different place that either grew from that or was the inspiration for it.

It would have been fascinating to have seen an 18th-century version of Lumiose City inspired by Paris during that era, or even a hyper-futuristic one that explores how technology has impacted the world of Pokémon and people’s reliance on them. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case, which feels like a missed opportunity. Hopefully, whatever Legends game comes after Pokémon Legends: Z-A does more with its setting than merely updating the original ever so slightly.

Source: Pokémon.com