Nintendo Holiday Event – Pokémon Legends: Z-A Demo
Over the past weekend, my family and I attended a Nintendo of Canada holiday event for media and influencers. During our 3 hours at the event, we got to play a ton of games, most notably Pokémon Legends: Z-A. I was really excited for this one despite some reservations, so what did I think of it after about 20 minutes? Let’s take a look!
The Pokémon demo was split between two different stations. At one station I was able to play through the game’s day-time phase, catching and battling Pokémon within the city. The second phase was a night-time phase, where I was able to battle trainers and earn points.
I’ll admit that as much as I love Pokémon Legends: Arceus – it might be one of my favourite Pokémon games of all time! – I wasn’t sold on the idea of realtime fights with Pokémon and trainers. So to say I went into the demo with some hesitations was an understatement. Obviously I haven’t played enough of the game to really let you know how it is, but the 10 or so minutes I got to experience the city was a lot of fun. During my session I was able to obtain an alpha Houndoom and an alpha Pikachu, but of which put up a good fight that was equal parts stressful and exhilarating.
I’m still not 100% sold on this real-time fighting mechanic that is being introduced here, but I think with time I will come to love it. 10 minutes was not enough time to fully grasp the systems at play here, and with more time when the game releases I think I’ll have a better idea whether this was for me or not. That said, these 10 minutes went by fast, and when it was over I desperately wanted to play more.
Thankfully, that was an option! The other kiosk introduced me to Lumiose City, but at night. Here, we entered a battle zone and attempted to take down as many trainers as possible within a set amount of time. Scattered around the area were coins and cards; coins, I was told, were used to purchase things within the game. The cards were little tasks you could try to compete within the time frame and within the area to earn extra points. This might be as simple as sneaking up on someone and using a water type move to using knocking out an enemy Pokémon with one hit. I quite enjoyed these mechanics again, but like with the day-time experience, will need more time to really grasp the idea of real-time battles. Again, the demo ended way to quickly and I cannot wait to experience more.
Article By Adam
