Leaked footage from the Pokémon Legends: Z-A Gamescom demo has given us a closer look at a new combat feature. The PLZA mechanic has our Pokémon protagonist becoming the true villain of Lumiose City.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A New Sneak Attack Revealed in Demo
It’s time for Team Flare to move over, as the Kalos region has a new antagonist! According to new footage from the Pokémon Legends: Z-A demo, players will now be assaulting other Trainers from behind. Who said the Z-A royale was fair? While Game Freak revealed PLZA would have a free-form sneak attack in previous trailers, footage from the Gamescom demo has given us a clear look at the mechanic in action.
In the new clip, the player is seen sneaking up on a Bunnelby only to then send out their Fletchling to sucker punch it in the back of the head. Yeah, it’s as brutal as it sounds. The new mechanic actually looks a bit cruel when in action. Seriously, I actually felt really bad for Bunnelby in the new footage. Although, according to The Pokémon Company, enemy NPCs can actually attack you from behind as well.
So it seems like the Z-A Royale competition truly is the Poké-verse version of Fight Club.
While sneak attacks have been in the franchise before, they’re usually reserved for wild Pokémon. For example, in 2022’s Pokémon Legends: Arceus, you could sneak up on Alphas to try to capture them without a fight. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet also allowed you to take Pokémon by surprise by initiating battle from behind.
But even then, you didn’t actually attack them. In PLZA, you can literally one-punch knock out an unsuspecting Pokémon from behind without them even seeing you. Whic,h if I’m being honest, is kind of rude.
PLZA Is an Action Game More Than RPG
The more we learn about Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the more I’m starting to realize it’s an action game. At the Pokémon World Championships, for example, we learned that PLZA has removed PP (Power Points). Meaning, we can now spam our Pokémon attacks as many times as we want. Granted, moves are now on a cooldown timer. But it still means that battles are now all about button presses and quick action maneuvers.
Game Freak also recently revealed that the Speed stat will now determine your abilities’ cooldown. So I can only imagine how chaotic battles will get for trainers who put all their efforts into maximizing their Pokémon’s SPD stat. According to journalists who played the game, lower-level moves have almost no cooldown at all. So it already appears that early-game battles will descend into button-mashing.
This isn’t the first time The Pokémon Company has actually shown off sneak attacks in PLZA. We actually got our first look at the feature in the March Pokémon Presents Nintendo Direct. However, this recent Gamescom demo footage has given a second, closer perspective of the mechanic in action.
And I’ve got to say, it’s kind of brutal that you can just attack another Trainer’s Pokémon from behind. But then again, Trainers also willingly enter Battle Zones knowing those are the rules. It will be interesting to see how aggressive Pokémon Legends: Z-A trainers will be towards us. After all, there doesn’t seem to be any fairness to this competition.
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