Why Is It Called Pokemon Legends: Z-A?

Pokemon Legends: Z-A was revealed at yesterday’s Pokemon Presents, and we have questions. Mega Evolution is back, for starters, but how and why? Will Mega Kangaskhan ravage our competitive teams again? Will Game Freak change Mega Blaziken’s ability?

Then you’ve got the wider questions. Why remake Gen 6? We all thought Black & White remakes were on the cards, and some were hoping for Legends: Celebi. What time period is this set in? My best guess is the industrial revolution of Kalos, as the Prism Tower is turned on and electricity replaces Lumiose’s gas-powered Chandelures. Is this Pokemon Z? I mean, one of the games is. Nearly. And what does that name even mean? That’s the question I’m going to dive into right here, right now.

Pokemon Z was always the inferred third entry to Pokemon X & Y, akin to Pokemon Emerald or Platinum. X & Y left plenty of mysteries yet to be unravelled, including multiple locked doors that never opened, and the accompanying anime focused on Zygarde, a Gen 6 Legendary Pokemon that was never actually available in the games it supposedly originated in.

All this suggested that Pokemon Z was coming. After a few years, and especially after Sun & Moon came and went, fans gave up hope of it ever materialising or their questions ever being answered. And yet, a decade after X & Y launched, we seem to have some version of Pokemon Z.

Pokemon Legends: Z is Game Freak’s exploration of Kalos’ past. Much like Legends: Arceus explored the Hisui region, an ancient iteration of Sinnoh, we’re going to Kalos’ past – or is it the future? I’d love for us to find the first ever Mega Stone and watch the Prism Tower being lit for the first time, but that’s all speculation. While the trailer was very futuristic for the most part, I believe this is due to Luimiose’s rapid advancement in technology to the era we know today, rather than from there going forward.

I think this because of the olde timey parchment blueprints we also see in the trailer. We’re heading to the past, but not quite as far as Arceus took us. This is Kalosian Revolution-era Lumiose, not chilling with its feudal Gauls.

Why is the time period important for the name? Because Pokemon Legends: Z isn’t alone. This is a bold decision from The Pokemon Company, seeing as Arceus released as a standalone game without a partner and was a success. Pokemon Legends: Z would be the logical Gen 6 follow-up. This means that Pokemon Legends: A is equally important. And that’s because of AZ.

AZ is a character in Pokemon X & Y. Inexplicably a giant, and carrying his own special Floette with an unavailable exclusive move, he was a character presumed to be further explored in Pokemon Z. That’s not Pokemon Legends: Z. That’s the Pokemon Z that was never made. He is a veteran of a great war and wants to stop Team Flare’s plans to unleash the Ultimate Weapon that will destroy the world because it’s bringing back his trauma. It’s a heavy subplot for a kid’s game, but an important one. AZ’s name is strange. He’s not called Az, he’s called AZ. Ay-Zee. Or Zed, but nobody says that because all Pokemon lore YouTubers are American or something.

While we don’t appear to be travelling far enough back in time to see the war itself, perhaps AZ has a part to play in the Gen 6 Legends games. If so, then why spell his name backwards?

My main theory at present is that these letters have been intentionally reversed. Remember, this isn’t Pokemon Legends: Z and Pokemon Legends: A, it’s Pokemon Legends: Z-A. A-Z is the alphabet, it’s start to end, or if you’re a British person around my age, it’s the roadmap your parents would always carry under the passenger seat of the car. Z-A not only eschews Pokemon convention for paired games, it eschews the common sense of going forwards. We’re playing Z-A because we’re travelling backwards.

I really think it’s that simple. We’re travelling back in time and seeing Kalos’ past. There’s room for more interpretation, though. Perhaps we’re going to see Zygarde’s relation to Arceus, and trace back the history of Legendaries to the God Pokemon itself. Honestly, it would be awesome if the Legends games were an opportunity for Pokemon to establish the lore and tell people exactly how Arceus created the universe through different stories in different regions. We could see the different religions pop up as we did in Legends: Arceus, and how they influenced the teams we know today. We could see how the Pokemon universe was made, how it comes together, and how our favourite towns, characters, and monsters came to be. However, it’s worth noting that, while the Z has Zygarde’s hexagonal pattern, the A doesn’t resemble Arceus at all. In fact, it resembles the Ultimate Weapon.

It’s time for a little conspiracy theory: AZ, who first used the Ultimate Weapon 3,000 years ago, shares his initials with Area Zero in Paldea. Was the great crater caused by the Ultimate Weapon? The special AZ’s Floette that was never released had its exclusive move Light of Ruin updated in Scarlet & Violet.

Pokemon is often at its best with subtle environmental storytelling like this. Pokedex entries for different Corsola forms and Zoroark talk about pollution and extinction over the centuries, convergent and divergent evolution are both shown in regional monsters, and Legends games are a chance to expand on that, while answering all those questions from X & Y. We know so little about this game and yet it’s so exciting, so full of possibilities. I’m certain Pokemon Legends: Z-A will answer most of the questions posited in this article come 2025, but for now it’s asking just one more: are you on board?

Next: I Still Dream About The Leaked Australian Pokemon Game