Pokemon Legends Z-A might be in trouble… 

What are your thoughts on Pokemon Legends Z-A? Join the discussion over on the discord server! discord.gg/getmadz

See, I saw the lack of game play as a good thing. I take that as they're still working on it so when we first see it, it'll make a good impression. On top of that, there's the possibility it does come out early next year AND is more polished than you think. Development could be fast tracked by using what Arceus built as a base for this game. Meaning faster development but also expanding on what was there. Obviously it's still to early to tell, but I'm optimistic.

Honestly I kinda think the opposite weirdly. The fact that they aren't revealing their cards may mean they're developing it for later in 2025 and we'll get a gameplay trailer in like 3-6 months or something. Just a random, estimated guess though.

So excited to revisit the Kalos Region!

Back when Legends Arceus was announced it was clearly stated to be released in early 2022 but with ZA there’s no indication as to when in 2025 it would release so hopefully it’ll be around the holidays

I am fully convinced that the only reason it's coming out next year and not this holiday season is because the "Switch 2" is delayed to early next year, as the rumors say. I think if the switch 2 was coming out this year, Z-A would also come out this year.

As Michael of MANDJTV said: "Kalos will have its day."

How did you make this so quickly? I’ve seen animators do stuff this fast before but damn

Game: Gets announced and all we know is that it exists This dude: "The game might be in trouble"

Several factors to note: • The trailer was made in the same style the X and Y trailers came when announced, with a slight Legends twist. • GameFreak has three teams, non-pokémon, Pokémon Dev A, and Pokémon Dev B. Development Team B made Legends Arceus, and likely began working on this the moment they finished that game as GameFreak isn’t known for giving workers breaks… • Legends Arceus was given an early 2022 release date when announced, this is just 2025, meaning the release date is likely beyond Q1, prolly Q2 at earliest. So the lack of gameplay when we’re further than a year away from release, especially given the early Legends Arceus trailer got crapped on for its gameplay quality, is a good sign. So glad the game might have 3 and a half years of development time.

I REALLY hope Game Freak doesn't mess this up. X & Y was my first introduction to Pokemon so Gen 6 has a special place in my heart. Not only that but a Kalos sequel was probably the most demanded Pokemon game ever, it's now confirmed to be a Legends game, AND they have to make sure they get the Mega designs right. There is so much hype around this project that their previous works make it very worrisome that they will not meet those expectations. I hope that they do but as always I will keep myself low to the ground before settling comfortably.

I feel like when it comes to the release date situation, when PLA was announced it was given a distinct “early 2022” release timing, along with about 5 minutes of gameplay. Whereas with PLZA, they’re giving a broader 2025 release timing and no gameplay for a reason, I think they really just wanted to show the fans what’s next for the series and we might not even get anymore info until this day next year. Honestly my guess is we could be getting a summer Pokémon game (maybe like July or august?), but really hoping for holiday 2025 to get the absolute best product possible! Edit*** I meant I’m feeling like PLZA could be releasing summer 2025, not a game for this summer haha

I didn’t watch the Pokémon Presents, thanks for summing it up!

Let’s see. Leakers got 2022 wrong 2023 wrong 2024 wrong Not wasting time with them. Especially when they are doing the same with Switch 2.

I think the fact that the trailer showed no gameplay is a sign that they're not rushing it this time. I would say the game will come up in the latter half of 2025. I also think it might coincide with a switch 2 release

pokemon Z is real is what really matters here also first

Bro it’s been like 4 hours, let me be happy

How can the Switch 2 be “delayed” if it was never officially announced?

I think your concerns are valid. I share a lot of them, it could very well be in January. This is copium, but it could be possible that they can't really share gameplay right now, because if they do, they would sort of reveal the Switch 2, if that makes sense. Like, the game looking way too good for what game freak is able to achieve with the current Switch. Another thing is that people was shitting on Legends Arceus when that was announced, because it looked like it would run like ass, but on release it did have some performance improvements and looked a bit better. So I think they just learned that lesson.

game been in development.. this is just a reveal trailer.. why would they show gameplay for a game that is almost 2 years away. esp thats gone be for a console that isnt released or announced yet.

While I find the mega evolutions return great news, I was honestly hoping a legends game that would take place in older time periods of pokemon. Which was why I was hoping for a Johto regional game as that game was filled with historical ideas we could have seen.

Legends Arceus was specifically marketed to come out early 2021, this game was just marketed for 2025, not early 2025

Last Gen I played was 2 (Silver) everything after that I didn't want to play, then Soul Silver came out and I was through the moon. After SS again I didn't play but my childhood draged me back (Mega man X, Dragon ball Z and Pokemon) to witness Gen 6 so I had to get X and prayed for Z but my prayers weren't answered... TILL NOW WITH POKEMON LEGENDS Z-A and I know who the main character is gonna be!

The fact they’ve stated the entire game will take place within the walls of Lumiose City is kind of worrying. Like that entirely eliminates the opportunity to explore the region (Powerplant, Train Station, ect)

I think those concerns are completely valid. That said, the first trailer for legends arceus got very mixed responses because the gameplay showed crappy framerate but was fixed in the second trailer. Maybe that among other reasons is why we didn't see gameplay for legends z-a.

It’s a standard reveal trailer. Temper your expectations until the gameplay trailer, but no reason for concern. They’re just saying 2025 to give themselves the freedom to push it back a few months if they have to. They’re just making sure the gameplay is where they want it to be before showing it off.

Technically, we don’t know when they started on it.

The thing with this is that last year we only really got DLC for SV and we seemingly arent getting anything this year, which means they may be focusing entirely on this (Not counting Project Bloom, of course), and if that's the case, I'm cautiously optimistic. There's a LOT of potential here.

The fact that this game is coming next year and that there's no other remake filling the gap for this year means that 2024 will be the first year in a VERY long time in which there's going to be no new Pokémon games, either by Game Freak or by some other third party, and that's very unusual. They usually aim for at least one if not two games per year, be they remakes, mainlines or other kind of major releases. Based on this and on the fact that SV news was dealt with extremely quickly at the very beginning of the Presentation and was never mentioned again, my theory is that Legends Z-A was always planned to release in 2025, but there was probably something else related to SV planned for 2024 (maybe a new DLC?), but given the poor performance on those games they decided to just scrap that project entirely and announce this now, hoping that people would get excited for this new big thing and forget what happened with gen 9. This would explain the lack of gameplay in the teaser (because it was announced earlier than planned, so they still don't have much to show) and gives me hope that the game will actually run smoothly this time, since they don't have anything else to work on for 2024 (except gen 10, of course, but that was always gonna happen next year no matter what).

Just gonna say I love the Mii News opening

Both SV and PLA specified a general window time frame instead of just “x year” so I don’t think it’s going to be too early next year, I just hope they actually let it cook this time.

6:37 imma stop you right there, I checked and seeing the legends arceus trailer it said “coming out early 2022” but legends z-a says “coming out 2025”

You do need to remember that the mainline dev team does not handle Arceus and the other Spinoff games. So have a bit of faith in them, hopefully they make the game look way better than their first entry, and still functional of course. Just, have faith in Legends, cheer it on, be there for it! Because we all know they're probably going to make this their last legends spinoff game ever. Knowing TPCs history with the rest of their beloved spinoff games... (Colusseum, Mystery Dungeon, Ranger, Conquest, Pinball, Stadium, Trozei)

I feel bad for the developers of Pokemon from Game Freak and Nintendo in the Pokemon Company, they're being constantly rushed by their superiors, but hopefully the higher-ups changed their mind, realizing that the times have changed, and the 3 year dev period that worked just fine from Gen 1 and so on, doesn't work as well in the modern day.

For me this will probably end up being my favorite Pokemon game. I grew up with Kalos and I’m just so hyped for this

My thoughts are that I'm excited for the game, but also kind of mixed. X/Y didn't get a "3rd version" to expand the Kalos region's content, so it's good to see that Legends Z-A could potentially be that version. I loved Legends Arceus in the gameplay department (seamlessly aiming Pokeballs, fast paced battles, etc). However, me being mixed is from the bad optimization in Scarlet/Violet. Hopefully with this game releasing next year means that Game Freak will invest more time developing the in-game engine as well as evolving the gameplay (controls, updated online like the PSS system in the original X/Y, etc). Good video as always. 👍

I think it'll come out late 2025 this time around. Yeah they did something similar with Legends Arceus, but with that game I could immediately tell that someone at pokemon just had no faith in the game. It was revealed in the same showcase as BDSP, and the impression to me was that of "Here's the exciting nostalgia trip you've all been wanting for a decade! And also this new thing too I guess". Like it was BDSP that got the holiday release and a ton of coverage on the game's content, even though it's a remake and we already knew what would be in it. Meanwhile in Legends Arceus we knew literally nothing about it until right before it's release in January of all months, and less than a month after we learned of Scarlet and Violet (for pokemon it was literally just a filler game sandwiched between them and given no room to breathe). This time it kinda feels like they know that people are excited for a new legends game, so much so that they're willing to hype it up at least a year in advance from the name alone. It feels more confident, which makes me think they'd actually be willing to have it be their holiday release this time around, and not just dump it out ASAP to announce gen 10 that same year instead. Though of course, they could do that and still deliver an underwhelming game. An extra year is a lot for gamefreak, but for any normal game it wouldn't be nearly enough

My biggest issue with the news about this game is that the devs said the entire gsme is only going to be inside the city with no open world. It feels like its just gonna be a detective pikachu like game to me.

I forgot, what’s the song at 1:27?

I love the game is coming out in 2025 because the reason scarlet and violet where bad quality is because they rushed the game and now leaving this year blanc and then releasing a huge pokemon game with mega evolution I hope the Kalos starters get mega evolution because ash Greninja doesn't make sense when you are not ash So I am happy with pokemon legends Z-A

Glitches is a byproduct of modern gaming. Cyber punk and suicide squad had a development time of 7+ years and they were still hot garbage.

honestly i just hope that the shiny hunting is as good as it was in legends arceus

I think this creator and people need to know that they dont work on games when they get announced. They have already been working on the game for a while. They just announced it to people with a release date.

Might be in trouble? It just started existing!... Well I guess a lot of Pokemon stuff has been in trouble just by existing. Alright, go on.

COME ON! ALREADY? THE GAME WAS JUST ANNOUNCED THE ONLY THING SHOWN WAS THE REGION AND THE TITLE

I love the little boxart thing on your thumbnails so much.

2022 was 14 minutes... it's often very short

2:27 sun and moon didn't get sequels, ultra sun and moon are the 3rd enhanced version of sun and moon split into 2

Mind you it has been 3 years since the last Legends game and that said Legends game was held in high regard by the fans. I can understand if showed gameplay and then your concerns would be valid but it hasn't. I think it won't release till after January of 2025. I'm gonna say.... March the earliest.

SV didn't have gameplay in the first trailer either right? Just the security guard guy discovering a painting with the 3 starters on it?

It makes sense that one would assume jan 2025 for ZA given pla but they've specifically left the timetable to literally Jan 1 2025- Dec 31 2025 and I have a feeling they did that on purpose. As of right now, it's a good possibility that this could be next year's big game until they say otherwise.

I think they wanted to show as little as posible to get us theorizing and hyped for the next, true, trailer in a month. It is all to build suspense and get us wanting more

Dude the reveal trailer just came out. What problem could there be if we haven't even seen gameplay of it yet? You're making an ant hill out of a mole hill here. Just wait for further news instead of making videos of what has not yet come.

Yeah, that's the thing with me is that, even if people get very excited about it, I don't see any gameplay of the actual Legends Z-A game, so I'm being cautious and would laugh if it ends up being garbage as freak...At least I like the creatures so that'll be a plus, but won't be buying Pokemon games anytime soon so, there's that to consider. But I'll be there when it does launch the day before and watch it through the night. Man, it's the equivalent of the PS1 American Slogan "U R Not E/You Are Not Ready" back in 1995 (Considering this year is the Japanese launch of the PS1's 30th anniversary). Man, people have mentioned this for years and now they're hyped as heck to see this occur.

Bro were going back 3000 years

I still don’t get how people thought we were getting Gen 5 remakes this Gen…like guys do we not notice the pattern? Gen 2 Remakes in Gen 4 Gen 3 Remakes in Gen 6 Gen 4 Remakes in Gen 8 Like we did this in Gen 5 and Gen 7. We’ll get remakes of Unova in Gen 10

I can see this being a switch 2 launch title, they dont have a BOTW to pair with the finals as far as we are aware (maybe Metroid prime 4 but that seems too niche at this point) which would explain why we aren't seeing gameplay yet because they're want to do that at the console launch.

IM GETTING MADZ

Here yall go!!!

I really hope the best for PLZA, this game has me so hyped that im retaking my pokemon X savefile lol

The difference between the legends Arceus reveal and the legends Z-A reveal is is that in the legends Arceus reveal trailer it said early 2022 and now it only says 2025

My prediction is that PLZA is the 2025 game, I’m not sure when it’ll release but mid year or later would be my guess. Regardless it’ll be the game for the year and generation 10 will be announced for Pokemon Day 2026 to celebrate the 30th anniversary and released for that holiday season. I’m guessing BW & B2W2 remakes or follow ups will come out after between 2027-2030.

legends z-a gonna be the new clash of clans

I’m pretty happy because y was the 1st Pokémon game I beat good video Madz!

This is also the generation that introduced the new fairy typing. It would be cool if we get some side story that delves into the origins of fairy pokemon.

Sun and Moon DID NOT get a sequel.

Now, I can’t deny the possibility the game could be early next year, but if we’re talking being realistic… the fact we have no gameplay gives off major vibes that it’s a later release for next year. And stick with me, I’ll circle back to caution in the optimism. The fact we only got an announcement with no gameplay gives me a strong impression they didn’t have a working build for the game, which in turn would imply it’s slated for mid-to-late 2025. And this is a combination of a gut feeling and looking at other past games, but 2026 is Pokémon’s 30th anniversary. And I’m very doubtful Gen 10 ALSO releases next year in 2025 leaving their big 30th anniversary to have at best DLC or a cash grab Gen 5 remake. After all, their 20th anniversary was Sun and Moon, a brand new generation that also paid a lot of tribute to Gen 1. So my line of thinking is Legends Z-A is their one mainline release for next year, and will be a mid-to-late release, as said. My gut feels like September-to-November as their holiday title, but I could just as easily see a summer release. And then, in 2026, we get Gen 10 to celebrate the 30th anniversary on a new console in a big way. Of course, as stated above, we’re not out of the woods yet on rushed releases being possible. The mainline release during the 25th anniversary was BDSP, after all, and while I did say I doubt they’d do a cash grab Gen 5 remake… they could still do it and have Gen 10 the year before. And there’s also just the chance the game is still an early release and they just withheld gameplay footage for the sake of building suspense or something. I really don’t think they’re going to pull a repeat of Legends-Scarlet and Violet, though. Z-A is very likely to use some of the groundwork of Arceus, so there’s no reason to believe the game wouldn’t have shown gameplay footage if it was an early release. And saving Gen 10 as a Switch 2 exclusive for the 30th anniversary seems too juicy for them to pass up. I’m gonna stress I think there’s every possibility of a rushed release, but I’m predicting Z-A next year and Gen 10 the year after.

I haven't watched the video because I'm in class right now so I'll edit this when I actually watch it but I have a few things to talk about beforehand. If the entire game is supposed to take place within Lumiose, then how are we supposed to catch wild pokémon? Cities don't tend to have a huge animal population aside from birds and rats and whatnot, so how is the "gotta catch 'em all" supposed to apply here? Granted we haven't seen any gameplay but it's still something to think about. Also, when does this game take place? It talks about a city redevelopment plan, and Paris had one in the 1800s, but then the trailer switches to a neon, almost futuristic look. The japanese twitter account apparently stated that "the city looks different from last time," but that honestly doesn't give us much. I'm still excited but this is looking like it's going to be a MASSIVE jump from previous titles so far, even more than Legends Arceus was.

Look dude, I get the concern, but personally I think you're thinking way too negatively so early, especially how fast you upload this video

The difference is that it seems Pokemon isn’t producing a big game at all this year, going back to when Arceus was coming out was BDSP, while yes it was worked on y ILCA, they still used Game Freaks recourses while they were working on Arceus

I think the lack of gameplay is a good sign, look at GTA 6, that’s been worked on for almost a decade and the gameplay leaks looked nowhere near complete, if you rush to complete a visually appealing build just for a trailer it might negatively effect those vital early stages of development, by all means they should take their sweet time showing us what it’s all about

Is it only me or does it seem like the whole map is only lumiose city and there are only 5 parts of lumiose city to explore?

Will Z-A take place in the future this time?

I highly doubt it'll release in January, I fully expect this to be an announcement with no gameplay BECAUSE it'll be a holiday release. Pokemon almost never misses the holiday release window, Legends was the first time in ages, and it seems as though it was very likely due to Covid delays, and BDSP was supposed to release more spread out from Legends. This will also line up well with the next generation being the year after, which would be 2026, the 30th anniversary of Pokemon

You miss the difference tho. We don't have another game. Plus they didn't say early 2025 (for PLA they said early 2022). So with that info right now we have to expect this game at least don't coming out until march 2025 or so. Maybe even late 2025. The next pokemon presents will show how that will maybe alter or not.

How do you get these animation out so fast

X and Y were my first games, so I’m really happy they’re finally getting a (pseudo) third game! Btw if ur wondering I’m a junior in high school, these games are older than u think.

I dont know if I'm excited for ZA tbh, don't get me wrong Kalos deserves a redemption arc but All the hints towards Unova recently and the references to Johto throughout the Present my expectations were somewhere else

I just hope it isn’t as repetitive as legends arceus, like I still haven’t beaten it just because I got bored

Ah yes, the exact same day as the announcement, the doubters come to spread the negativity. Let's just be excited and curious for once and leave the issues for later

Honestly, a lack of gameplay is a good thing. It could mean theyre taking more time on the game rather than rushing it, and considering it's coming out next year seems more likely. Yes, legends arceus came around the begining of the year, hut it didn't also have another game with it. Also even when it did announce LA they stilled showed gameplay Besides, Legends Arceus is like, the most beloved pokemon game we've ever have in a long time. And that game has like the same amount as the others. There was noticeably flaws, but the game was still fun

Maybe they realized every time they show early gameplay it gets cooked for how it looks? Maybe they wanted to have one game announcement that didn’t split the internet in half.

i’m very curious in how this game’s going to turn out especially if it’s set just in the city, lots of possibilities but also they’ll have to get a bit creative i’d imagine.

06:05 click here to start the video

-More Trainer battles -PvP -MegaEvolution -Give us more lore on the war, the weapon etc. -City Builder that allows you to send pokemon to do special tasks and be useful inside the world and adding variety and freedom to your main hub. I find it infinitely more likely that this will take place directly after the firing of the weapon and the fallout caused by it. Imagine, rebuilding the City while dealing with the newfound MegaEvolutions roaming about

“Catching pokemon to build the city…” Holy shit they’re making palworld. That would be cool but it would be so fucking funny. All those fans calling Palworld “uninspired” only for pokemon to copy mechanics from it 💀

5:07 Pokémon: Building Midgar That !@#$ pizza! 🍕

Wow, you were right on the presents! Thanks for anpther upload madz!!!

just hoping and praying they finally add voice acting 🙏😭

It’s 100% been in development for a while and the lack of gameplay is probably because if they show you something and it’s not like that in the game people get mad or the opposite if they show gameplay and it’s super buggy people will have low expectations so what do they do? Just don’t show gameplay until the development is closer to being finished the close to releasing (tho u really want some gameplay for this game because of the “will take place entirely within luminous city” and I want to know what they mean by that and how it’s gonna work

the gen 2 jebait was real

1:33 there actually IS a mobile Pokémon TCG game also on PC called the TCG Online and it is official, it was just exclusive to android *tablets* , no idea why but it's nice to see them make a new game more suited for mobile

It’s actually legends A-Z named after the character from X and Y

I feel the lack of gameplay might be cause the game is coming in Late 2025, since there are no games scheduled for 2024

Since it gonna be released next year i hope it's a release title for the new switch as it seems it will be coming out around march (as rumors/news go)

There is a Pokemon TCG app that lets you open packs and compete online, it's just janky. It looks like they found a new developer and are porting it over.

Nah the animation they showed shows that they have the world basically already made and finalized but they probably haven’t gotten into the details yet😅 i just hope you Can go inside every single building. Least they Can do with such a small map

Brother, how tf are u this quick??? And this high quality too????

This game just got announced of course we have no gameplay yet

i can understand your concern for this game. since the start of the Nintendo 3DS era, GameFreak and The Pokemon Company have been really struggling with both there main and side Pokemon Games so i can understand why some are worried for this game, especially since it's finally address people wanting a new Kalos game that brings back Megas