It's taken a good 25 years, but it seems like Game Freak is finally willing to catch up with the rest of the world. With the announcement of a second game in the spinoff Pokemon Legends series, which eschews the traditional top-down, grid-based formula in favor of a more modern, open-world approach, Game Freak seems to be shaking off some of the stagnation that's recently plagued the studio. Pokemon Legends Z-A, the next Pokemon game, will be a departure in more ways than one, forgoing the sprawling nature-based exploration of previous titles by taking place entirely within the Paris-inspired Lumiose City introduced in 2013's Pokemon X and Y. The city will, obviously, be completely remade and expanded to hold up to modern standards.
I couldn't ever have foreseen Pokemon restricting itself to a single enclosed urban environment or introducing freeroaming of this scale. If you want a little but of GTA in your Pokemon, though, keep an eye out for Pokemon Legends: Z-A's release sometime in 2025. Yes, this means it will potentially have to go up against GTA 6 itself.
No, I don't know what the name means.
