Pokémon Legends: Z-A was unsurprisingly the star of the show on Pokémon Day 2025, with the year-long radio silence since the first reveal finally coming to a close—and there was plenty to take in from the showcase.
Following the success of 2022’s Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Legends: Z-A brings the Pokémon franchise back to Lumiose City in Kalos, a region first introduced in X and Y, with the 2024 reveal teasing the long-awaited return of Mega Pokémon.
Not much was detailed about the game in the many months that followed, however, until a flood of information was provided in Pokémon Presents on Pokémon Day 2025. To make sure you didn’t miss anything, we’ve detailed everything we learned in this guide.
Everything we learned about Pokémon Legends: Z-A
We’ve detailed all the major news revealed about Pokémon Legends: Z-A and you can use the table of contents above to be taken immediately to the area that most interests you.
Starter Pokémon
With no precise release date announcement for Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the stand-out announcement of the show was the reveal of the starter trio for the title: Chikorita, Tepig, and Totodile.
Johto duo Chikorita and Totodile follow Cyndaquil, who was a starter in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, as receiving some well-deserved extra love but, unlike it’s predecessor, Legends: Z-A‘s starters will not all be from different generations.
The reveal lacked much further information but, given the return of Mega Pokémon is a huge draw in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, it would be a huge surprise if we didn’t see Mega Meganium, Mega Feraligatr, and Mega Incineroar.
Mega Pokémon are back
A hint of the return of Mega Pokémon in Pokémon Legends: Z-A was shown at the end of the first teaser trailer on Pokémon Day last year and, unsurprisingly, it was officially showcased in the new trailer—although no new Mega forms were shown.
Instead, the trailer showed a bunch of returning Megas: Mega Lucario, Mega Kangaskhan, Mega Absol, Mega Sableye, Mega Altaria, Mega Ampharos, Mega Gyarados, and Mega Gardevoir, along with both Mega Charizard forms.
With no new regional forms shown during the trailer, it seems likely that new Mega Pokémon will be a big drawer in the title, although we’ll need to wait a while longer to see if that’s true.
New battle style
A revamped approach to the battling system will feature in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, with moves having varying levels of reach—so you’ll need to make sure you are within the right distance in order for attacks to land.
Attacks also have areas of effect, which can be avoided, with timing and positioning crucial to being victorious. While we saw an element of this in Pokémon Legends: Arceus where wild Pokémon would attack the trainer, it did not apply to battles, so this is a significant change.
Lumiose City is the location
Last year’s reveal teaser showed we’d be heading back to Lumiose City in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, but there were question marks on whether the game would be solely based in the city, or whether the rest of Kalos can be explored—and the answer is the former.
Wild Pokémon are found in Wild Zones spread throughout the city, and they’re designed to “give wild Pokémon habitats where they can thrive.” Each Wild Zone is numbered and the highest shown in the new trailer was eight.
The rest of Lumiose City is also available to explore, including the rooftops of buildings where wild Pokémon can be fought, battled, and caught.
Catching mechanics
The beloved catching mechanics introduced in Pokémon Legends: Arceus make their return, with the ability to catch Pokémon directly without engaging in battle. If they do need to be weakened, the new battle mechanics are utilized.
Against wild Pokémon, the mechanics are somewhat comparable to Scarlet and Violet, where you could select a Pokémon in your party to eliminate a wild Pokémon for quick XP, although it looks significantly more detailed with move selection and avoiding attacks.
Promotion match announcement
The end of the details shown for Pokémon Legends: Z-A were perhaps the most intriguing, as it showed a character being woken by a buzz on their Rotom phone with an alert that read: “This is a promotion match announcement.”
There wasn’t much shown to expand on what was shown, although it did remind me of the battle system used in the Pokémon Journeys anime where Ash had to fight other trainers to increase his rank, gaining promotion to higher tiers.
That’s merely speculative at this point though and we’ll have to wait for more precise details to be announced.
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