Z-A’s Demo Can Ease One Concern No Trailer Can

As Pokemon Legends: Z-A‘s October 16 launch date approaches, fans will have two opportunities to try out the game early and see what Lumiose City has in store. Fans attending either the Pokemon World Championships or Gamescom can demo Pokemon Legends: Z-A during the events, getting a hands-on experience with the title just months before release. While the demo likely won’t showcase every ace the game has up its sleeve, it has the chance to showcase something that the trailers for Legends: Z-A don’t do any justice.

When Pokemon Legends: Z-A was announced to be set entirely within the confines of Lumiose City, the immediate concern was how the limits of a city would affect the game’s map size. Without the rest of the Kalos Region to support it, Pokemon Legends: Z-A‘s map will need to find ways to make Lumiose City feel as vast as Legends: Arceus‘ Hisui. The upcoming demo opportunities will be the first chance players will have to truly see if the Lumiose City map size lives up to expectations, even if it’s just a slice of the full pie.

Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s Upcoming Demo Opportunities Can Shed Light on Lumiose City’s Size

Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s Map is Promising, But Trailers Can Only Show So Much

With the entire Hisui Region available to players in the form of five main open zones, Pokemon Legends: Arceus set the standards high for its successor to capitalize on. Each of Pokemon Legends: Arceus‘ zones felt like a distinct environment with a wide variety of terrain for players to explore:

Obsidian Fieldlands
Crimson Mireland
Cobalt Coastlands
Coronet Highlands
Alabaster Icelands

In contrast to the diverse, open environments of Hisui, Pokemon Legends: Z-A will need to overcome the concrete jungle of Lumiose City to make its map feel worth exploring. So far, the trailers for Legends Z-A have showcased how packed the city is with content, such as Wild Zones for players to catch wild critters by day and battle trainers in the Z-A Royale by night. Additionally, the ability to scale buildings and jump between rooftops paints a bold picture of the ways Legends: Z-A aims to overcome its Lumiose City limitations, but how effective these tricks will be at making the map feel as open as Legends: Arceus can’t really be shown in trailers alone.

Even if it’s a Demo, Players Can Get a Good Feel of Lumiose City’s Scope

The map of Lumiose City from Pokemon Legends Z-A.

Pokemon Worlds Championships – August 15-17
Gamescom – August 21-24

Although fans attending these events on these days may only see a slice of Pokemon Legends: Z-A from its demo, the details of that experience may be able to inform how the game as a whole feels. With Lumiose City segmented into what appears to be five different areas, the comparisons to Legends: Arceus‘ map are easy to spot. Even if the demo only allows players to explore one of these areas—or even just a section of one area—players should still be able to get a feel for the map as a whole by extrapolating from there.

Movement will be another important detail that will hopefully be on display in these Legends: Z-A demos, since the trailers haven’t shown any Ride Pokemon like Legends: Arceus had. While things like climbing, gliding using the Rotom Phone, and teleporting from specific spots on the ground to the rooftops of buildings are confirmed to be in the game, it’s unclear if these are the only new mobility options in the game or if there are more to the game’s movement mechanics that allow for free-roam level traversal akin to Scarlet and Violet. Pokemon Legends: Z-A may be opting for more of an emphasis on battling over exploration to stand out from its predecessor, but this should become clear from the upcoming demos if that is the case.

Currently, these demos are only open to Pokemon Worlds and Gamescom attendees, with no confirmed plans to release the demo for wider download.