#Quasartico

[touristbree]

🔎Legends ZA Trailer 1 Analysis🔎

We finally have a trailer for Pokemon Legends: ZA, and I am absolutely hyped for the game! Kalos was my first region and it’ll be fun to go back to it in such a creative way. We don’t know much, but we do have plenty to examine from the trailer and accompanying advertising.

Everything below is spoilers for today’s present.

The Setting

[ID: First Image shows a Bunnelby and fletchling running down a street in Lumiose that’s been overgrown with plants. “The Wild Zone” is named in the image.

Second: The player character running down a similarly abandoned street, there’s a car left behind and more plants around]

It’s interesting that one of the wild zones looks like an abandoned street in Lumiose city, the stores are still intact and there’s an entire car left behind, implying that this was a recent change. Wild zones are clearly very new editions and I wonder how much of the city was set aside for them, and what happened to the people who lived and worked in those areas.

[ID: An overview of as street covered in black and blue, futuristic scaffolding over very old looking buildings]

I noticed some construction scaffolding in the background and I have two theories about them:

1. Decoration: The scaffolding is just there for decorations in one part of the map to make it look like it’s actively under construction and provide more interesting spaces for battles.

2. Changing Map: Over the course of the game's story, scaffolding will appear over old buildings, cover them up, and then they get removed to reveal new buildings.The city evolves over the course of the story… but is that a good or bad thing?

Quasartico Inc.

[ID: a large modern looking building with the Quasartico logo on it]

We get introduced to Quasartico Inc. and it’s CEO Jett, and everyone is in agreement that she is the villain of this new game. We don’t know her plans, but we know she wants to modernize Lumiose City, we see a lot of construction at one point and an abandoned street in another, this bitch is gentrifying this city.

In the trailer we get a look at AZ’s hotel, it’s an old building that I think will be under the threat of being demolished to make way for a new modern building. My only reason behind this is that AZ is living his best life with his Floette and that the player living there makes it an emotionally important location, threatening it would establish Quasartico as a major villain in the game.

[ID: A comparison between the Looker Bureau im the trailer and in XY. Same being walls and tiled floors, the kitchen is more detailed in the trailer, there’s a board on the wall with notes about the city and papers and a laptop on the desk]

We also know that someone is keeping an eye on them, we get a quick glimpse at the Looker Bureau office from the postgame of XY. In the background there’s a board covered with notes and a map of the city meaning whoever is living here is keeping an eye on all the urbanization. When I first saw the trailer, I thought it had to be Emma from the XY postgame, but examining it a little closer I’m not as certain; Looking closely I noticed the picture of an Espurr on the desk, clearly meant to be Emma’s friend “Mimi”. The fact she’s in a framed picture gives me 4 theories:

1. Mimi died and this picture is in her memory, Emma is still at the Looker Bureau.

2. Looker is in the Bureau again and the picture is a reminder of Emma and Mimi.

3. Theory 1 but Looker has the picture.

4. I’m overthinking this, Mimi is fine and Emma just has a picture of her pet.

Conclusion

This game is looking amazing and it’s getting all the time it needs to marinate, I can’t wait to see who makes an appearance and I can’t wait to be introduced to the new cast of characters.

[daystarvoyage]

ITS OFFICIAL POKEMON FANS POKEMON ZA IS COMING

Too bad where not getting GEN 10 And Pokemon black white remakes though sigh which are great potential titles

but ill give pokemon za a try along legend arceus when i get a switch 2 lets chat

[tahobitz]

[jadeazora]

The story is set in Lumiose City, where an urban redevelopment plan is underway to shape the city into a place that belongs to both people and Pokémon. Compared to Lumiose City as it appeared in the Pokémon X and Pokémon Y games, released in 2013, more greenery now adorns the city, alongside facilities with a cutting-edge feel. In Lumiose City, spaces frequented by people—such as shopping arcades, cafés, and restaurants—coexist with more natural areas, such as waterfronts and verdant parks. At the center of Lumiose stands Prism Tower, the very symbol of the city.

While visiting Lumiose City during your travels, you’ll come to stay in an old hotel named Hotel Z. This hotel will serve as your base as you and the new friends you’ll meet in Lumiose tackle all sorts of incidents that will occur in the city.

As part of Lumiose’s urban redevelopment plan, driven by a large corporation called Quasartico Inc., the city has been outfitted with “wild zones” in an effort to help humans and Pokémon share the city. These areas are constructed using cutting-edge technology to give Pokémon places to live. Within wild zones, you can battle Pokémon and catch them by throwing Poké Balls.

In previous titles in the Pokémon video game series, Pokémon took action once per turn. In Pokémon Legends: Z‑A, Trainers and their Pokémon will move around in real time during battles, and Pokémon will unleash their moves when their Trainers command them to. In addition to type matchups, there will be new gameplay mechanics to consider, such as the precise timing for swapping out your Pokémon or using moves, the different lengths of time moves will take to launch, and how big an area the moves will impact. This unprecedented style of Pokémon battling is one of the most thrilling parts of this title.

You’ll make a friend who lives and works at Hotel Z, supporting the owner however they can. They may come on strong at times, but they like helping people and Pokémon. They’re quite skilled at Pokémon battles too.

AZ is a man who stands over nine feet tall. He’s the owner of Hotel Z and claims to be three thousand years old. He quietly harbors a strong determination and will. His Floette is also said to have lived for three thousand years. She always accompanies AZ.

Jett is the CEO of Quasartico Inc., a large corporation driving Lumiose’s urban redevelopment plan with the aim of shaping the city into one that belongs to both people and Pokémon. It seems she hopes to deepen the bonds between Pokémon and people, and Vinnie is her secretary, he always seems busy and has a reputation for being a fast worker. (I'm automatically suspicious of these two, moreso Jett, but hopefully they surprise me with Sycamore being the villain or maybe Malva? I don't think AZ will be our only returning character.)

The rest of the info we're given is just a bunch of general info on the starters, Zygarde, and Megas. Cool that ORAS Megas were confirmed tho, like I knew they would be in there, but I'm still curious how many there are, like will we see any Hoenn Legends or are they saving that for Legends Delta?

[thedragonhermit]

Me, desperately trying not to get my hopes up for any reference to ORAS in Legends ZA.

Also me:

Quasartico.... Quasa.... Quaza.... Rayquaza, the first Pokémon to Mega Evolve.......

[anistarrose]

I thought for sure that Jett (the ambiguously evil hot old lady) was named Jett because she runs Quasartico, and quasars are well-known for often giving off radiation jets, with the Quasartico logo even resembling two jets and an accretion disk if you squint. But I just checked Bulbapedia, and. Apparently a couple other languages just named her variations of "Avion," which is. French for airplane.

[lorekeeper-backset]

Hold up!

Quasartico.

Quasar

You know what else has Quasar in its name?

RAYQUAZA BABY! ZINNIA CONFIRMED!!

[okeana-aster]

Okay so I think all Pokémon fans (and even non-Pokémon fans) have seen the Legends Z A trailer by now. And there's one thing I wanna say. It's that the humans' hypocrisy stays consistent in the Pokémon world.

They say that this urban redevelopment plan is to turn Lumiose into a city for both humans and Pokémon, but their way of doing that is by putting the Pokémon in separate zones, which the humans can enter at any time to catch the ones that live there.

And only the captured Pokémon, so the ones that obey humans, can walk side by side with them outside of these zones. They may be turning Lumiose into a city for both humans and Pokémon, but it's definitly more for humans than for Pokémon.

But I'm not saying that it's a bad decision from Game Freak to make it like that. It's actually very consistent. Humans in the Pokémon World have had this twisted idea of harmony between humans and Pokémon since the very beginning of the franchise.

I mean Game Freak probably doesn't actually consider the way humans treat Pokémon to be hypocritical, but it is and they've kept it consistent throughout the years.

And it makes sense with the franchise's ecological themes to show the human race's hypocrisy and the imbalance between humans and Pokémon, with humans invading the Pokémon's habitats and catching them for themselves, with no respect for the Pokémon in question and what it wants, hidden behind this false narrative of humans and Pokémon living in harmony.

If humans and Pokémon truly lived in equality and harmony, then Pokémon would either also be allowed to break into people's homes and catch them, or the actual solution, no catching at all for anybody and Pokémon and humans actually walk together side by side.

Yes, I know I'm overanalying and "it's not that deep", but it makes a lot of sense narratively and with the horrors that we've seen humans commit towards Pokémon, like the Devon Corporation still actively draining the Life Force of who knows how many Pokémon to this day in order to use it as the energy source of the machines they create.

And by the way, draning a Pokémon's Life Force is a horribly painful process which can lead to a Pokémon's actual death if it's completely drained (makes sense. No life without Life Force).

Devon is doing that, and nobody does anything about it. Probably because nobody's aware. They're doing this under the noses of everybody, and even worse, everyone uses the things that they power with Life Force and put on the market, completely unaware of the many Pokémon that either died at worst or suffered immensly at best for this product to get in their hands. Products like all the various kinds of Poké Balls.

So yeah, the harmony between humans and Pokémon has always been a big fat lie that the average trainer believes in without question as they catch Pokémon, believing that it's a normal thing to do, all while the powerful companies like Devon and Quasartico maintain that lie for profit. And the Lumiose's urban redevelopment plan is yet another addition to that lie.

[gem-plush]

Taking place in the entirety of a city, assumably making the ceo of Quasartico the villain, making man made habits for pokemon, the rivals literally being named (sound a likes of) Urban and Townie, the "Urban redevelopment plan", the fucking anti homelessness bench

This game's gonna be about gentrification

[kamikazia]

So I'm excited for Pokemon Legends: 'ZA version but I want to share the funny history around the setting.

Let's clear up some of the known things first: Lumiose City is based on Paris. Within Pokemon Legends, we know that the city is undergoing an urban renewal project under corporate leadership. With Pokemon Legends: Arceus, they explored an earlier time period than what Japan underwent in Hokkaido, though it represents a mish-mash of different historical periods.

However, in Pokemon Legends: Z-A? All we know is that it takes place after X/Y, due to the presence of Floette and AZ. What does that mean?

So, given that X/Y featured Looker, and he was featured similarly in Sinnoh, we can assume that takes place in relatively modern day. Which means Pokemon 'za is set in *our* future.

Now, let's talk about Paris. Paris has actually undergone MANY urban development projects, but the one I know the most would be the Haussmann Renovations. It parallels well with Lumiose in Legends despite the huge time gap: both cities are undergoing huge renovations, and there's a figurehead to both of these renovations (Haussmann himself for his aforementioned renovations, Jett for Lumiose) with seemingly endless wealth (Jett runs a company called Quasartico, while Haussmann was supported by Emperor Napoleon III) and these renovations being something to completely CHANGE the image of the city (Haussmann defined the modern borders of Paris and was known for his architectural extravagance, and Jett is redesigning the city to balance the way of life between Pokemon and People.)

What does not get mentioned is that the Haussmann Renovations, while looked fondly upon now-a-days, were followed by several events:

Haussmann's political downfall and eventual removal. This gave the legislature a lot of legitimacy that leads to...

The downfall of Emperor Napoleon III and subsequent rise of Adolphe Thiers after the Emperor's loss at the Battle of Sedan.

The Paris Commune, a communist revolt led by Louis Charles Delescluze, taking over due to

The Bloody Week, a week-long battle and massacre of hostages on both the side of the Communard forces and the French Third Republic.

Marx and Engels being inspired, and describing it as the first Dictatorship of the Proletariat

The destruction of a majority of Haussmann's renovations.

So, we see a corporate overlord in charge of redesigning the city of Lumiose. Some people are already theorizing she's the villain, which I'm not 100% sure if it's true. BUT if it is?

I'm gonna be eyeing this game for parallels. Not because I think Pokemon would knowingly design a communist game. But because I think it would be hella funny if they, either purposefully or accidentally, did so.

[kooldewd123]

some highlights from the pokemon website:

so we're not from lumiose city, and the way it's phrased makes me think we're probably not from kalos at all. also, "old hotel?" are we substantially in the future or did AZ take over a hotel that was already old?

elaboration on the battle system. basically more of what I was expecting from what we got in the trailer.

our rival already has an established relationship with AZ at the start of the game, which is interesting to note

bios for the quasartico characters. don't really have a read on these guys yet.

zygarde's taken an interest in us, as has been the case for the past few box legendaries, but we don't have any real indication as to what its role is as of yet.

sounds like it's just the mega ring for us again. I don't think we'll be able to customize it, judging by this.

[faline-cat444]

We're still kind of aiming for the stars,eh?

Last major detail we have been provided with right now is that the development plan is thanks to Quasartico Inc.,an important factor to note in that name is "Quasar".Other variants thanks to what languages are easy to look up being Quazar,Quasarstelar,and Q-Asar.As for what exactly a quasar is...

[sir-adamus]

so Jett's totally running a front for some remnant of Team Galactic right?

the company being named Quasartico Inc is already raising some flags

plus the logo even has some reminiscence to the Galactic and Galaxy Team logos

hedging bets right now - Jett and Vinnie are using the urban redevelopment of Lumiose to dig up something powerful underneath the city (the A of the title, at a guess) and that's why Zygarde's taking interest (and will seem to be an antagonistic force early on)

[angst-and-fajitas]

Legends ZA thoughts!

-lumiose city lookin modern here! So i guess this isn't going to be a historical setting game, then?? But I'm really loving seeing the city in full graphics, it's beautiful!! (Also i am VERY EXCITED to put my trainer in outfits again, the kalos fashion was some of my very favorite back in X and Y)

-CHIKORITA IN THE STARTERS LETS GOOOO!! Always been one of my faves, but the meganium line kinda suffered from just not being super battle viable or versatile, so im really excited to see if we get a cool regional variant final evolution with meganium, like we did with the Hisui starters!

-THEY LET ME GET ON THE ROOFTOPS....BANGIN

-AZ is back?? and HES WEARING A STUPID LIL SUIT AWW (and he's finally got some mobility aids for being SO OLD) and he owns a hotel?? YOU GO GRANDPA GET THAT BAG

-it sounds like the game takes place in...just the city? There might be some merit to that; they have the opportunity to make the city feel really big and fleshed out, rather than stretching all their focus across the region! But if they dont really dig into the city, it also has the opportunity to become a really flat, generalized environment that lacks visual interest. We'll have to see how it goes.

-Quasartico is def gonna turn out to be evil, sorry i dont make the rules

-AOE damage and move range will be a really fun combat feature I think, it's more grounded and realistic (I CAN ACTUALLY DODGE LIKE IN THE SHOW)

I'm excited to see mega evolution return!! I really hope this means we're gonna get more new megas!! (PLEASE universe i am still praying for torkoal to get either a regional form or a mega)

[aceoflilies]

Extended Z-A thoughts (below a spoiler cut)!

I KNEW it was future, suck it. I suppose this means “Legends” as a series refers more to reinterpreted gameplay and locations.

The connection between two Johto starters and the MCs looking like Ethan/Lyra is driving me crazy. We are tourists, so maybe it’s just a shoutout? It’s an interesting crossover all the same.

If the rivals/friends being “you but genderswapped and with weird hair/eyes” is nothing more than a lazy way of designing the rivals, we riot. Either make them looking like you be something interesting and plot-relevant or just commit to designing one good character.

Side note: Urbain and Taunie are stupid fucking names.

I do hope there’s character customization this time as well—it’s Kalos, ffs!

Going to be very sad about losing the ability to wildly traverse all over the landscape. Let me Sneasler up buildings, who needs teleportation?

Starters are. Meh. Going with Chikorita in the hopes she gets some nice power bonuses and maybe a new final/mega evo. At least they got all the bad ones out of the way for later games—

AZ is snazzy as hell. Love his stupid little bow tie/vest. The hotel looks fancy. Nice and historic in a very modern city.

Swablu’s in the game! So I know part of my team already. Might go with a “cute mons” theme and use Slurpuff too.

Wonder how much, if at all, the Pokédex will expand. (Minus the starters.)

Not huge on the artstyle. Feels too Detective Pikachu for me. Also is it me or does it make the MCs look like they’re in their 20s? Is that intentional?

At the least, the buildings look better than S/V. Low bar.

UI looks piss-awful. Has to be said.

Mixed feelings on the battle system. Maybe I’ll warm up to it, but… I doubt that. I come to Pokémon for a turn-based RPG, not something that depends on my reaction time constantly. Are anime battles cool? Yeah. Do I want to play them? No, not really.

Nice to see Lumiose expanded with new destinations. I just hope the Wild Areas are actually big enough to give a sense of exploration. Not given much hope from what we’ve seen but it is a very small snippet. Literally.

Looker Bureau is cool. No extra thoughts there.

Hopefully talking to AZ can reveal some more of Kalos’s history. Also, it seems like a pretty near future—hopefully Flare and XY events get referenced to a story-significant degree.

Can’t wait for Zygarde cells to be mandatory Koroks. (Joking. Don’t make this real ZA.)

Zygarde “taking an interest in you” makes me feel like they’re the -Raidon of this game. In a “non-battling companion until late game” sense.

Jett and Quasartico being the evil team is obvious as hell. Would be nice to see it subverted but. Not high hopes. Bets on Vinnie secretly being good.

I am starting to get sick of Rotom phones. If I wasn’t already. Tech in the Pokémon world is supposed to feel like it’s constantly evolving… and here we are, stagnated for years and years.

Curious about the promotional match warning at the end. Not too much to go off of, though, so we’ve just got to wait and see.

[csolarstorm]

Legends Z-A: Lumiose City Life Simulator

I'm really ambivalent about the new Z-A trailer. The quality looks great and I love the new characters and it hints at a good story but on the other hand...that's it. I can't wait to play it, definitely. But as a trailer...it certainly was a choice to leave out any new Pokemon, megas, or any hint about what the conflict might be.

Or, should I say, any dramatic hint. There's no stinger about a brewing conflict. We already know the story is about Quasartico's Redevelopment Plan. (Love the name Quasartico, btw. It sounds Spanish!) And Jett and Vinny are clearly either antagonists or red herrings. There are no innocent CEOs in the Pokemon world. Just like real life!

But I love Jett and her cosmic aesthetic. I hope there's a new regional Pokemon form that goes with her aesthetic, otherwise I'd think Rayquaza, especially since she's the CEO of Quasartico, but she doesn't seem like a dragon lady, and Rayquaza's kind of busy with Pokemon Horizons.

Oh, wait, Purugly actually would work well! One of the Purugly design elements is their moon-shaped head. I could see her with a big fluffy cat.

I suspect that if the main character does clash with Quasartico, it'll be a more nuanced clash of perspectives like in Legends: Arceus, and also Scarlet and Violet. It'll probably be you and Zygarde vs Quasartico for some reason, though I'm not sure why welcoming wild Pokemon into the city would anger Zygarde. Or maybe Quasartico are the good guys, and we're fighting another faction that doesn't want wild Pokemon disrupting city life.

Or, maybe Quasartico is gathering Pokemon into the city in order to drain Pokemon of their life energy!

Anyway.

What does a guy do with himself after finally earning forgiveness for his atrocities after roaming the earth for 3,000 years? Live in a human zoo? No, I'm not talking about Simon Petrikov!

The thing to do is open a hotel, of course!

It's bizarrely perfect. AZ is like an unsettling cryptid bellhop crossed with a nice old grandpa that could tell you the most epic stories about his life. And I'm sure some of those stories will play a role in the game! AZ and Eternal Flower Floette even look like they should run an aging, gothic hotel. I can imagine a bouquet of Eternal Flowers in a painting in the lobby.

Another reason this fits is because X and Y were filled with Hotels, even though you couldn't do a lot with them. I think in development they were originally they were supposed to take the place of Pokemon Centers, but when that didn't happen they just kept them anyway. But don't quote me on that.

Z-A is not at all what I expected. I was expecting Haussmann's renovation of France, not "AZ and Eternal Flower Floette are friendly characters here to help you at your home base".

Beyond that, there's not much else to say. Taunie-Urbaine is cute. They remind me of someone, but I can't put my finger on it. Wait, are they maybe related to Viola?

I really want to be more excited about Pokemon Champions, but without the National Dex (at least on Day 1, it might happen eventually) I just don't see a point in getting excited over a battle simulator, even if you can use all the various gimmicks against each other.

Although, I admit it would be cool to use my Pokemon from Switch for battles on my phone. It's ironic because the big advantage of battle simulators used to be that you could use your GBA/DS Pokemon on TV, and now that Pokemon games are on TV, here's a game that will let you battle with your TV Pokemon on your phone.

You know, the other weird thing about the trailer was that it didn't even feature Zygarde that much. (Yes, parts of it were briefly in the trailer.) The website at least says that Zygarde has "taken an interest in you". Such a tiny hint. Does Hotel Z and its new owner have more to do with the title than Zygarde itself?

Look at the Super Mario Odyssey style city parkour, lol.

I'm nervous that the game doesn't have Ride Pokemon. Otherwise, why would they show the player character teleporting up buildings or double-jumping buildings with their Rotom Phones? It would be an odd choice for the region that introduced Ride Pokemon! Gogoat was basically made for that gimmick, solely in Lumiose City not to mention!

I hope we can at least ride %10 Zygarde or Gogoat down the street!

All in all, this game feels like Pokemon Legends meets Detective Pikachu. Not a comparison I thought I'd make. We'll see how it compares to Legends: Arceus when Z-A comes out later this year, but for now, I'm just looking forward to that comfy Parisian city life and the parkour that comes with it!