Skip to main content

Pokémon Legends: Z-A brings the series back to Kalos next year

Lumiose City in Pokémon Z-A
The Pokémon Company

The Pokémon Company revealed during today’s Pokémon Presents showcase that Pokémon Legends: Z-A will be released in 2025.

The show, which was held on Pokémon Day, the 28th anniversary of this popular RPG franchise, also contained a plethora of announcements about new Scarlet and Violet Tera Raid battles, Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket. and updates for mobile games like Pokémon Go, Pokémon Sleep, and Pokémon Masters EX, Pokémon Cafe Remix, and Pokémon Unite. The most notable announcement from the show was its closer, Pokémon Legends: Z-A.

The teaser trailer for Pokémon Legends: Z-A begins with a city of people and Pokémon slowly being sketched out before it all starts to take shape virtually as a Pikachu runs through it. At the end of the trailer, it zooms out to reveal that it’s Lumiose City, which you’ll recognize from Pokémon X and Y, released on Nintendo 3DS in 2013. The game’s title, Pokémon Legends: Z-A is then revealed, and The Pokémon Company confirms that it will be “releasing simultaneously worldwide in 2025” on Nintendo Switch.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A releases simultaneously worldwide in 2025!​

Although this trailer does not show any gameplay, we can gather from it that this game will be a successor to both 2022’s Pokémon Legends: Arceus, a more open-ended Pokémon game, and 2013’s Pokémon X and Y, which were the first Pokémon games in full 3D. Pokémon X and Y never received a remastered entry, sequel, or expansion like the other games in the series, so Game Freak is finally giving the region of Kalos a revisit. From the texture on the Z, it looks like the legendary Pokémon Zygarde could play a major role in this game, too. “An exciting new adventure awaits players within Lumiose City, where an urban redevelopment plan is underway to shape the city into a place that belongs to both people and Pokémon,” a press release teases.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A is in development for Nintendo Switch and will release sometime in 2025.

Tomas Franzese
Tomas Franzese is a Staff Writer at Digital Trends, where he reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…
Pokémon Presents August 2023: how to watch and what to expect
Pikachu drinks coffee in Detective Pikachu Returns.

The Pokémon Company will hold yet another Pokémon Presents today. This presentation will likely feature games like Detective Pikachu Returns and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's upcoming expansions. If you want to watch this Pokémon Presents as it airs live today, we've outlined where and how to do that, as well as what you should expect from the livestream.

When is the August 2023 Pokémon Presents
The August 2023 Pokémon Presents airs at 6 a.m. PT today According to The Pokémon Company, the presentation will last about 35 minutes. This makes it the longest Pokémon Presents yet, as these livestreams usually hue closer to around the 20-minute mark.
How to watch the August 2023 Pokémon Presents
Like the Pokémon Presents that came before it, today's showcase will air on The Official Pokémon YouTube channel. You can watch the livestream below.
Pokémon Presents | 8.8.2023
What to expect from the August 2023 Pokémon Presents
The description for the event states that this Pokémon Presents will feature "Pokémon news and a spotlight on the latest happenings across the brand it comes to games." When it comes to upcoming games, there are multiple things that are almost guaranteed to show up here. Detective Pikachu Returns launches on October 6, and our only real look at it so far was in the June Nintendo Direct. As such, this would be an excellent place for a deep dive into its gameplay and story, showing how this game evolves on what the 2018 3DS game established.

Read more
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: shiny hunting guide
Shiny Azumarill.

It's already a major task to catch all the Pokémon in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, or any of the games for that matter, but GameFreak introduced another factor completionists will need to account for starting in Generation 2, that being shiny Pokémon. These are very rare forms of Pokémon that feature alternate colors of their regular, non-shiny forms. They never have any numerical or mechanical differences from their regular versions and are only differentiated based on their color and rarity.

Shiny hunting has been around since shiny Pokémon were introduced, but the methods and odds of encountering them always change from game to game. They are still present in Scarlet and Violet, but the open-world format has made hunting them slightly different. If you want to know how to get the best odds of finding these rare Pokémon, here's everything you need to know about shiny hunting.
Shiny hunting basics

Read more
Pokémon Presents February 2023: how to watch and what to expect
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet protagonist holding glowing Poke Ball

Pokémon Day 2023 is nearly upon us, and it will bring another Pokémon Presents showcase full of exciting announcements regarding the long-running series. As Pokémon Scarlet and Violet were quite successful despite technical problems, a lot of fans are curious to learn what's next, both for those individual titles and the franchise as a whole.
Pokémon fans who want to learn about the series' future should certainly tune into this presentation. If you're wondering how to watch it and what kinds of announcements to expect for the first Pokémon Presents of 2023, we've rounded up all of that information here for you.
When is the February 2023 Pokémon Presents?
This Pokémon Presents showcase will start at 6 a.m. PT on February 27, which is Pokémon Day, as well as the 27th anniversary of the series. The Pokémon Company says the presentation will last "around 20 minutes." 
How to watch
The February 27 Pokémon Presents will be officially live-streamed on the main Pokémon YouTube Channel. We'll embed the live stream below ahead of the presentation. Other sites and Pokémon-themed content creators will likely be co-streaming the event as well. 
https://twitter.com/Pokemon/status/1628032454295531522
What to expect
Unfortunately, The Pokémon Company was light on giving any real hints as to what we'll see during this Nintendo Direct-like presentation. But if this showcase falls in line with previous Pokémon Presents live streams, then we can expect it to give us an overview of all the big Pokémon titles coming out this year. Currently, we don't know if any brand-new Pokémon games are launching in 2023; if there aren't, then hopefully we'll see some DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. 
Some leaks may have also spoiled some of the Pokémon Presents' surprises. Leakers have found data for more new Pokémon forms that could potentially come to Scarlet and Violet via updates. Meanwhile, fans found mention of Spike Chunsoft in the new Pokémon Together website's source code, so it seems likely that a new Pokémon Mystery Dungeon from that developer is coming soon. Regardless of what's actually announced, February 27 is shaping up to be a really exciting day for Pokémon fans. 

Read more