Pokemon Legends: Z-A Could Finally Let Lumiose Shine

I wrote recently that I was vaguely confused about 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon's decision to set a Legends game (in my mind, a game defined by open exploration of expansive spaces), 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:entirely within a single city. Not just any city either, but one as populated, centralised, and modern as Paris, which is what Kalos' Lumiose is directly based off. However, this was not due to any particular problem with Lumiose. On the contrary, it's 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:one of my favourite Pokemon settings, and I consider it to be vastly underrated. So let's set aside its suitability for a Legends game for now, and just celebrate Lumiose.

The most recent Pokemon Presents was a fantastic array of crowd-pleasing. With only one major game reveal and little detail on exactly what this game is (not to mention all of the spin offs left waiting in the cold), it was not a Pokemon Presents for the ages, but everything that was present (wahey) struck the right chord with fans. Legends was back. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Megas were back. Pokemon Z is real. Unova was left alone rather than chibified. And Kalos as a whole was getting a second chance. But little 🍸of this celebration seemed to be specifically for Lumiose, and that is emblematic of its place in Pokemon history.

Lumiose Tries Its Best To Bring Paris To Life

Despite being Pokemon's Paris, Lumiose's name is not up in lights. It's the centrepoint of Kalos, both geographically and narratively, but back in Gen 6 Pokemon games weren't capable of making a city feel grand. Ironically, it found this easier back when everything was 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:2D with the likes of Goldenrod. But with Lumiose, we had to settle for alleyways and often featureless꧋ streets with just a single interactable building.

Don't get me wrong - Lumiose was a sterling (or should that be Euro?) effort for what the 3DS was capable of, and Iꩲ admire the attempt to make it feel alive. While it's easy to criticise it as a system of generic alleyways these days, having a city connect in this way instead of just being a big town square made it feel much larger than it was (while being easy to get lost in, just like a big city in real life), and those taxi rides were a novelty, at least at first.

The Sterling/Euro 🍃comment above was a currency joke. Don't worry, it wasn't funny.

Legends: Z-A will allow Lumiose the space to sparkle as it always should have, especially if (as speculated) it's a launch title for the Switch 2. No longer restricted in the way the 3DS was, this new Lumiose could do away with tꦫhe alley-loading screen-alley design of old into a rich city that rivals the metropolises of modern triple-A adventures. With the Style challenges alreadﷺy giving Lumiose a flavour and personality of its own, there's a lot more to work with than just making the graphics look better.

Pokemon Legends: Z-A Could Be Past, Present, Or Future

Pikachu running past red Pokemon through a holographic blue city in Legends Z-A

This is why I hope the game isn't set as far back in the past as 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Legends: Arceus. It's unclear whether what we see in the Z-A trailer are blueprints of what Lumiose could be, or a cybernetic overlay indicating we're travelling to the future. The 'redevelopment committee' mentioned in the trailer doesn't clear this up either, as we could be part of the efforts to establish Lumi𝔍ose, or could be renovating it for a futuristic age. The problem with the latter is it means we still don't get to explore Lumiose in all its glory, because it won't exist yet.

Lumiose was ahead o🍒f its time in Pokemon, and as a result isn't as fondly remember🌄ed as it deserves to be. The worst thing would be for this to lead to Z-A tearing it down (or at least showing us it before it was built) rather than giving it a fresh spotlight. On the one hand, setting the game entirely within the city doesn't make much sense if you aren't going to use Lumiose itself. On the other, a great way to make a single setting capture a players' attention for an entire game is to have that setting transform before their eyes as it’s built up across the whole game. This would mean we wouldn't get to see the real Lumiose until late in the game, but I suppose better late than never?

That's how it feels about Lumiose finally getting some respect too - better late than never. It has always been one of Pokemon's most interesting cities, hamstrung by the fact it must be sliced up into tiny fragments in order to fit inside its own game. Z-A is an opportunity for Lumiose to show the world what it can do, and I hope that chance isn't 🔯taken away from it.