Pokémon Legends Z-A is changing the franchise's core gameplay loop a lot. Some of these changes are for the better and are helping to elevate it, while others seem potentially detrimental. Of course, it all remains to be seen as the game isn't out yet, but there are some changes that we already know will be either for the worse or the better. For example, the game's single-setting location as opposed to exploring an entire region is a significant change that will completely alter how players approach exploration, something that has been at the core of Pokémon since the start.

Legends Z-A's biggest changes range from curious to somewhat worrying, in my opinion, especially as while we've gotten a handful of trailers, we're yet to really see the game in action outside of combat. However, there is one major change that I feel could be to the game's detriment, because it ruins a core theme of the series that I have personally had a fondness for since I was a child. Fortunately, it has the opportunity to replace it with something just as interesting, and I hope Game Freak jumps at the opportunity to do just that.

Pokémon Helped Me Overcome A Childhood Fear

Moving Towns Was Never Easy

When I was a child, I always hated the idea of moving towns. Despite being rather young, I appreciated the loss and dread that comes with it. I was fortunate that I got to stay in one town for a good couple of years, but eventually, my dad got a new job, and we had to move. I knew I'd be leaving behind my friends, school, and the house I grew up in, all of which I really didn't want to give up. It was my home, my whole life, and at eight years old, that's incredibly important.

Around the time we were told we would be moving, I started to get really into Pokémon. My older brother had always played it, and I had dabbled in Pokémon's best spin-off game, Mystery Dungeon, but it wasn't until then that I finally got to try FireRed. I found it a soothing experience, even despite a large portion of it being dedicated to knocking unconscious random creatures I happen to bump into. During that somewhat tumultuous time in my life, Pokémon offered a safe place to unwind. However, more importantly, it also taught me the wonder of embracing adventure.

Pokémon has always been about venturing out into the unknown on a quest to both better yourself and grow your understanding of the world around you.

Pokémon has always been about venturing out into the unknown on a quest to both better yourself and grow your understanding of the world around you. You start in the smallest town in the game and eventually find yourself in vast cities, exploring mysterious forests, and even tussling with villains. It is a heightened reflection of real life, Pokémon's most beautiful locations a metaphor for traveling to the most wonderful places on earth, its daunting cities representing moving out, and its general sense of adventure attempting to instill in children a lust for more excitement.

The progression of Pokémon's exploration is more than simply just going from point A to B, or at least it was when I was first moving home, and it remains the case in my late twenties. Like all good Nintendo games, it makes one yearn for adventure, a more exciting life full of interesting characters, the occasional challenge, and to see new sights. I find myself yearning for that now, having never really acted upon the spark that Pokémon set ablaze within me as I watched my parents pack our lives into boxes and drive us to our next adventure.

Pokémon Legends Z-A Removing Multiple Towns Is A Shame

It Robs The Series Of An Exciting Element

Pokémon Legends Z-A completely removes that aspect of Pokémon by shifting its setting away from a large explorable region to a singular city. Of course, Lumiose City in Legends Z-A will be massive and host to a plethora of interesting and unique locations. I'm sure the story will also be full of adversity, and Legends Z-A's villain will also offer enough challenge for the player to overcome. However, while the franchise's foundations are there, the thrill of moving away and adventuring across unknown lands has been abandoned.

I sincerely hope Legends Z-A's single-city setting doesn't set a Legends Z-A's disappointing setting, as it still encapsulates that core principle of adventure.

I get the impression that Legends Z-A has improving Pokémon's outdated elements. It is a mechanical revolution, one that certainly seems innovative, but in the process abandons the identity and soul of the series. That may sound a tad dramatic, but moving so firmly away from the series' foundations is extremely disappointing.

Pokémon Legends Z-A's Single City Location Has An Advantage

Getting Used To A New City Is Exciting

That's why I sincerely hope Game Freak makes the most of Legends Z-A's changed setting. While there won't be the excitement of exploring somewhere new and the sense of adventure every other Pokémon game has strived to imbue in its players may be lost, Game Freak can still explore the fears and joys that come with moving towns. Getting used to an entirely new city, one who's every street feels completely foreign and impossible to navigate at first, is an adventure of sorts. It is also something a lot of children and adults eventually face, myself included, multiple times.

There's a lot of untapped potential in this type of story in video games, at the very least. It is an important story to be told, one that can be explored via a nuanced narrative or through gameplay. The slow unlocking of parts of the city would allow players to slowly ingratiate themselves and come to with every street, shop, and landmark. They'd be able to become regulars at certain cafés, visit the same parks each day, or even just know how to get from location to location without the need for a map.

I'm not suggesting that Pokémon Legends Z-A should be a life sim - although a Persona-style Pokémon game would be fun. Rather, I hope that Game Freak realizes the potential of delving deep into the scary and fun parts of moving somewhere new. Honestly, I could also do with the reminder, as I find myself frequently at a crossroads wondering where to go next. Pokémon Legends Z-A doesn't have to change the world, but if it even helps one person as Pokémon did for me all those years ago, then it'll have more than made up for what it has abandoned.