Summary
- Pokemon Legends: Z-A features a battle royale tournament at night, elevating the game’s day-and-night cycle.
- The introduction of online PvP would enhance the player experience and offer unique rewards within Lumiose City at night.
- The game’s dynamic battling system presents an opportunity for a new PvP battle royale mode, akin to Elden Ring Nightreign.
Today, a new Nintendo Direct was held ahead of the one on April 2 that is going to be all about the Switch’s successor, and with it came another Pokemon Legends: Z-A trailer that showcased more returning critters and never-before-seen features. While exploration and Mega Evolutions took center stage for most of the trailer, showing how players will be able to access the rooftops of Lumiose City, it was revealed that there will be something strange going on at night in Pokemon Legends: Z-A. This was teased at the end of the previous trailer, with the Rotom Phone lighting up at night, and it seems that Pokemon Legends: Z-A will feature a tournament of sorts with trainer battles when the sun goes down.
This is an interesting spin on the day-and-night cycle of some classic Pokemon games, and it’s a step-up from Pokemon Legends: Arceus, which only featured a handful of trainer battles. Instead, Pokemon Legends: Z-A‘s battles will be part of a larger in-game tournament where players have to rank from Z to A and defeat opposing trainers as if it were a battle royale of sorts. This is a unique twist for Pokemon games, and now it’s only missing one feature to shine like no other.
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Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s Battle Royale Tournament Needs Online PvP
Pokemon Legends: Z-A‘s Mega Evolutions will be a great way to make each battle more fun and interesting for players, especially if one of the goals is to rank up to Rank A to unlock special rewards from the night tournament. Since battling will be such a prominent part of the game, it would only make sense to offer some sort of online component to go hand in hand with the battle royale tournament. With this, players could spawn in Lumiose City at night in random spots and have 1-on-1 battles with other trainers, and the kicker would be that none of them is AI.
Instead, this would be a proper PvP tournament, and Pokemon Legends: Z-A‘s Lumiose City would be the arena within which the battle royale takes place. This could have an online ranking system as well that also goes from Z to A, rewarding players based on their placements and offering some kind of in-game items or currency. PvP battles in Pokemon games are nothing new, but the main format for VGC is double battles with preset fields and turn-based, static combat. Pokemon Legends: Z-A alters this formula in a big way already, so having battles against other players online would be something like never before.
How Legends: Z-A Could Be The Elden Ring Nightreign of Pokemon Games
For example, players can have their Pokemon dodge attacks in Legends: Z-A, something that was never possible in the series before – not even in PLA. Having a much more dynamic battling system in place lends itself to new possibilities, and one of them is to adapt this concept to PvP battles rather than just AI-powered trainers. As such, the game could draw inspiration from Elden Ring Nightreign‘s battle royale approach in the sense that the Lumiose City map may shrink as time goes on until only one player remains in the tournament, gaining rank-up points and rewards.
PLZA Going Multiplayer Would Kill Two Birds With One Stone
It would kill two birds with one stone, as players could experiment with the new battling system in PvP, all while also introducing a battle royale mode to Pokemon for the first time ever. Arguably, PLZA already does it with its trainer battles, but it would be a different beast entirely if done with player vs. player battles. Pokemon Legends: Z-A is dissimilar to PLA on many levels, and its focus on battles can elevate it to the “sequel” status through and through. Alas, there is no confirmation of whether PLZA will have online functionalities, but PLA did, at least in small part. As such, there is hope for a full-fledged PvP battle royale mode for the game, but fans will have to wait and see.
