A new Pokémon Legends: Z-A demo has revealed that Game Freak is ditching a feature that has been in every mainline Pokémon game since Gen 1. The new PL:ZA mechanic completely overhauls combat in a major way.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A Ditches PP to Perform Attacks
When Pokémon Legends: Z-A was first revealed back in 2024, I didn’t realize how much of an action game it was going to be. Even when Game Freak revealed that the RPG would not have turn-based combat, I figured it would still have the typical combat limitations seen in every generation.
According to the new Pokémon World Championship demo, however, Pokémon Legends Z-A will no longer have PP (Power Points).
What this means is you can now spam your Pokémon moves as much as you want during a battle and never run out. The way the game balances this is that every move has a timed cooldown after it’s triggered. Many attacks have low cooldown times, though, as we learned from press who got their hands on the demo. So, essentially, a lot of Pokémon attacks can now be spammed like a hack-and-slash game.
Removing PP from a Pokémon game is a pretty big deal. The mechanic always forced players to micro-manage their teams. For example, you could end up in big trouble if you were deep into a Gym and ran out of PP for your strongest attacks. But in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, it truly is about action-based combat, and who can hit first.
That’s not to say the game is without Pokémon‘s classic strategy element; players still have to know which Pokémon and moves are super effective. If anything, you now have to think on your feet even more to quickly swap Pokémon. Of course, this can be difficult while you’re being attacked in real time.
PL:ZA Has a 4-Player Online Battle Mode
Back in July, Nintendo accidentally leaked Pokémon Legends: Z-A‘s online mode. At the time, we didn’t know what it would entail. However, at the Pokémon World Championships, Game Freak revealed that PL:ZA will have four-player online battles. In the Z-A Battle Club, four users will compete to see how many Pokémon they can take out in a time limit.
The new action-based combat ditching PP makes a lot more sense given this new mode. After all, the flow of battle might slow to a crawl if a bunch of your attacks were rendered unusable.
In the new mode, you have three minutes to attack the other players’ Pokémon, and whoever has the most knockouts when the timer runs out will be crowned the victor. Based on the new trailer, Z-A Battle Club looks like complete chaos.
The removal of PP is probably the biggest change in the Pokémon series since Legends Arceus introduced free-aim Pokéball catching. It will be interesting to see if Game Freak will implement this new system in Gen 10, or if this will only be featured in the Legends series.
Regardless, Pokémon Legends: Z-A feels like the first true evolution the franchise has had in over a decade. PL:ZA is basically the combat from the Pokémon anime, but now in game form. I’m not complaining, it looks awesome!
The post Pokémon Legends: Z-A Removes the Series’ Longest-Running Feature appeared first on VICE.
