Pokemon Legends Z-A breaks series' decades-long tradition

Pokemon Legends Z-A has broken a decades-long series tradition by introducing real-time combat mechanics. While its predecessor, Legends Arceus, provided a certain level of movement during battles, this time, players will be able to lead their Pocket Monsters away from an incoming attack.

Let's look at the new battle mechanics of Pokemon Legends Z-A and how much of a departure they are from the series' traditional turn-based JRPG features.

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Pokemon Legends Z-A is a huge departure from tradition for the series

A battle in Pokemon Black 2/White 2 (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Back in 1996, when Pokemon Red and Blue made their way to the Game Boy, the games implemented a simple turn-based battle system. This involves players each taking a turn to select a move they would use. The moves would then be used based on the user's speed.

This system hasn't really changed over the decades of Pokémon's existence despite greater graphical fidelity and stronger hardware. There could even be an argument made that, besides a few minor gimmicks like Mega Evolutions and Z-moves, playing a single Pokemon game would be the same as playing all of them.

Pokemon Legends Z-A looks to change that with its battle system. While there still is a turn-based system, it's now possible for players to get their Pocket Monsters to dodge incoming attacks. At this point, we don't know if all critters can dodge at the same rate, or if their speed will have any impact, just like it did in Pokemon Legends Arceus.

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This isn't the first time Pokemon has tried to tweak its battle system

Rhydon using Strong Style in Pokemon Legends Arceus (Image via The Pokemon Company)

The Pokemon battle system first changed in the previous Legends game.

For the first time, a Pokemon sorted its attacks into two action categories — Strong Style and Agile Style. Strong Style moves were more powerful but would move at a slower speed. On the other hand, Agile Style attacks were generally weaker but let a critter move on consecutive turns.

Despite the introduction of Strong Style and Agile Style, the combat remained strictly turn-based. Yes, the player had the opportunity to move the trainer character around in-game, but the impact was minimal in actual battles.

This makes Pokemon Legends Z-A the first game to implement any form of actual real-time combat in the series.