Alongside confirming when its next Pokémon Presents stream will take place, Nintendo announced that Pokémon Legends: Z-A will be hitting both the Switch and Switch 2 on October 16th, 2025. We still don’t know too much about the game (though that will likely change in July during the Presents stream), but Nintendo has confirmed that the next-gen version will contain “improved graphics and frame rates.” That’s pretty big, especially considering the last few Pokémon games on Switch have run pretty poorly.
#PokemonLegendsZA arrives October 16, 2025!
In addition to the #NintendoSwitch title, a #NintendoSwitch2 Edition will offer improved graphics and frame rates! The digital and physical versions of #PokemonLegendsZA can be upgraded to the #NintendoSwitch2 Edition via upgrade pack pic.twitter.com/DqAcfYPxiK
— Pokémon (@Pokemon) May 28, 2025
Legends Z-A will be a spinoff similar to what Pokémon Legends: Arceus was, just set entirely in Lumiose City. The game will also shift to real-time combat, though not in a full-on ARPG style. Players will still select moves for their Pokémon to use, but there won’t be turns to cancel things out. If you’re quick enough, you can get multiple attacks in before your opponent does anything. That even plays into the game’s “Battle Zone” district, which lets trainers traverse the city at night and randomly attack other Trainers.
Until we learn more, it’s anyone’s guess just how upgraded the Nintendo Switch 2 version will be. It’s pretty obvious it will feature up to 4K output and possibly 60 fps playback, so it should provide the dire upgrade Pokémon games have needed for quite some time now.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
