One of the highlights of the upcoming Pokemon Legends: Z-A is its real-time battle system. Not only is it almost completely different from the mainline series, it’s also quite different compared to what the previous Legends game did. You may have seen bits of it from the raid-like Rogue Mega Evolution fights from the Pokémon World Championships 2025.
But now, The Pokemon Company has shown an official video of its four-way trainer battles in action. While the video itself is pretty busy, but there’s a general takeaway from the video of just under two minutes. Essentially, you get a four-way fight that’s a bit like Smash Bros in 3D but without the verticality. You get three minutes to KO as many opposing Pokemon as possible.
Like the Nintendo party game, there are items littered around the arena that you can collect and use to your advantage. Some of these fill up a meter that gives you access to Mega Evolutions when applicable. Also like Smash Bros, when one of your Pokemon gets taken out, you also get respawned alongside your partner. That being said, your team of three all remain accessible.
Four-player Link Battles are available via local wireless, as well as online. The latter needs a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, as you may have guessed. For both, there’s also the choice of Private Battles that other players can only join via a Link Code. You can check out the trailer for yourself via the embedded video, or by hitting the link below. Pokemon Legends: Z-A launches on 16 October.
(Source: Pokemon Asia / Youtube)
