Summary
- Pokemon Legends: Z-A promises action-packed battles and exploration, with leaks suggesting new Mega Evolutions.
- The potential Grass/Fairy type for Meganium in Z-A could create challenges for Feraligatr and Emboar’s secondary types.
- A Fairy/Fighting/Steel trifecta for secondary types could be bad news for both Feraligatr and Emboar.
While it may be disappointing for some fans to have to wait until late 2025 for a new mainline game after a longer delay than usual, Pokemon Legends: Z-A seems to promise action-packed battles, a lot of exploration within Lumiose City, the return of Mega Evolutions, and more. Players will have a lot to look forward to, and it seems that Pokemon Legends: Z-A will feature an unexpected Mega for a Gen 1 Pokemon, according to leaks. It’s unclear now what the game will do with its starters at this stage, be it new forms or Mega Evolutions, but either way, Chikorita may make another starter’s life harder.
Pokemon Legends: Z-A has a lot to live up to after the issues with Gen 9 games and the smashing success of PLA‘s new gameplay loop, meaning it may have to behave like the best possible mix of these games to find its own niche. The battles seem different and interesting enough to achieve that, so there will be a lot riding on the shoulders of new critters, forms, and Mega Evolutions. If Chikorita’s Disarming Voice move in the trailer is any indication, it may paint an odd picture for the remaining starters, but for different reasons.
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Pokemon Legends: Z-A May Not Be Able to Repeat Legends: Arceus’ Best Trick
Pokemon Legends: Z-A looks to make some distinct changes from Legends: Arceus, and in doing so could prevent the game from repeating one feat.
Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s Starter Trio’s Type Combinations May Already Be Clear
One of the most common trends in modern mainline Pokemon games is that the three starters have a secondary type that either makes them stronger or weaker against attacks of the remaining two types. An example is Gen 9, where Meowscarada is Grass/Dark, meaning it’s weak against Skeledirge’s Fire, but strong against its Ghost-type. Likewise, Skeledirge is weak against Quaquaval’s Water, but takes no damage from Fighting moves, and so on. As such, if Pokemon Legends: Z-A‘s Meganium is Grass/Fairy as Disarming Voice suggests, this may determine the secondary types for Feraligatr and Emboar.
Secondary types for starters usually either follow no particular trend, such as Gen 5 where Samurott and Serperior both had one type and Emboar was Fire/Fighting, or they try to create a trifecta of sorts. In this case, a trifecta with Meganium being Grass/Fairy could mean that one of the remaining critters has to be Fighting, and the other Steel. Since Emboar is already Fire/Fighting, it would need a different type combination, so Fire/Steel in this specific case. Likewise, Feraligatr would then need Fighting as a secondary type for the same reasons. If this happens, Pokemon Legends: Z-A‘s starter trio may have a hard time shining.
Fairy, Fighting, and Steel form a sort of trifecta due to Fairy being strong against Fighting, which deals twice the damage to Steel, which is in return effective against Fairy. This is a “half trifecta” because not all these types are also resistant to one another.
Why Meganium Being Grass/Fairy Would Be Bad News For Feraligatr and Emboar
Gen 9 just had a Water/Fighting starter with Quaquaval, potentially making a new Feraligatr form with this combo less appealing, whereas Fire/Steel would have a 4x weakness to Ground that may make Emboar less appealing in battles unless it also has great stats and abilities. It’s possible that Meganium won’t be Grass/Fairy or that it won’t determine the types of both Feraligatr and Emboar in Pokemon Legends: Z-A, but considering that these type combos have never been used for a starter trio, it seems plausible.
Another option would be to have a Dark-type Pokemon among the starters to be weak against Fairy, but this would be the third mainline game in a row to do it, making it unlikely. There is also an argument for Emboar to have the unused Pokemon type combo of Fire/Fairy, instead, but it seems unlikely if Chikorita’s moves and appearance are anything to go by. As such, if Meganium ends up having Fairy as its secondary type, it may spell trouble for its fellow starters, forcing Game Freak to make different choices with the trio.
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