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I don't recall exactly how the custom started, but I consistently call all my Pokemon characters Malfunction.

Be it a core franchise title or a spinoff like Pokkén Tournament DX along with Pokémon Go — the name always stays the same. Malfunction alternates between male and female characters, with black and purple locks. Sometimes their style is flawless, like in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the latest installment in the enduring franchise (and among the more fashion-focused entries). At other moments they're confined to the various school uniform styles of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. But they're always Malfunction.

The Ever-Evolving World of Pokémon Titles

Much like my trainers, the Pokemon titles have evolved across releases, some cosmetic, some substantial. However at their core, they remain the same; they're always Pokemon to the core. The developers discovered a nearly perfect mechanics system approximately three decades back, and has only seriously tried to evolve on it with entries like Pokémon Legends: Arceus (different timeline, your avatar is now in danger). Across every version, the core gameplay loop of capturing and fighting with adorable monsters has stayed consistent for nearly as long as I've been alive.

Breaking Conventions in Pokémon Legends: Z-A

Like Arceus before it, featuring lack of arenas and emphasis on creating a creature catalog, Pokémon Legends: Z-A introduces multiple deviations into that formula. It takes place completely in a single location, the French capital-inspired Lumiose City from Pokémon X and Y, abandoning the expansive journeys of earlier titles. Pokémon are meant to coexist alongside people, battlers and non-trainers alike, in manners we have merely glimpsed previously.

Far more radical is Z-A's real-time battle system. This is where the franchise's near-perfect gameplay loop undergoes its most significant transformation yet, swapping methodical sequential bouts with something more chaotic. And it is immensely fun, despite I feel eager for another traditional entry. Though these changes to the classic Pokemon recipe sound like they form a completely new adventure, Pokémon Legends: Z-A is as familiar as every other Pokemon game.

The Heart of the Journey: The Z-A Championship

When first arriving in Lumiose City, whatever plans your custom avatar planned as a visitor are discarded; you're immediately recruited by the female guide (for male avatars; Urbain for female characters) to join their squad of trainers. You're gifted one of her Pokémon as your first partner and you're dispatched into the Z-A Championship.

The Royale is the epicenter in Pokémon Legends: Z-A. It's similar to the classic "arena symbols to final challenge" advancement from earlier titles. However here, you battle a handful of opponents to gain the chance to participate in a promotion match. Succeed and you will be elevated to a higher tier, with the final objective of achieving rank A.

Live-Action Battles: A New Frontier

Trainer battles occur at night, while sneaking around the assigned battle zones is very enjoyable. I'm always attempting to surprise a rival and launch an unopposed move, since everything happens instantaneously. Moves function with cooldown timers, indicating both combatants may occasionally attack each other at the same time (and defeat each other simultaneously). It's a lot to get used to initially. Despite playing for nearly 30 hours, I continue to feel that there is plenty to learn in terms of employing my creatures' attacks in ways that complement each other. Positioning also factors as a major role in battles since your creatures will follow you around or go to specific locations to perform attacks (certain ones are distant, while others must be up close and personal).

The live combat causes fights go so fast that I find myself sometimes cycling of attacks in the same order, despite this amounts to a suboptimal strategy. There's no time to pause during Z-A, and numerous opportunities to get overwhelmed. Creature fights rely on feedback post-move execution, and that data remains visible on screen in Z-A, but whips by rapidly. Occasionally, you can't even read it because taking your eyes off your opponent will spell certain doom.

Navigating Lumiose Metropolis

Away from combat, you will traverse Lumiose City. It's fairly compact, although tightly filled. Far into the adventure, I continue to find unseen stores and elevated areas to explore. It is also rich with character, and fully realizes the concept of creatures and humans coexisting. Common bird Pokemon inhabit its pathways, flying away when you get near like the real-life pigeons obstructing my path when walking in New York City. The Pan Trio monkeys gleefully hang on streetlights, and bug-Pokémon such as Kakuna cling to trees.

A focus on urban life is a new direction for Pokémon, and a welcome one. Even so, navigating the city becomes rote eventually. You might discover a passage you never visited, but you wouldn't know it. The building design lacks character, and most rooftops and underground routes provide minimal diversity. Although I never visited the French capital, the model behind Lumiose, I've lived in NYC for nearly a decade. It's a metropolis where every district differs, and all are alive with uniqueness that provide character. Lumiose City doesn't have that. It features beige structures topped with colored roofs and flatly rendered terraces.

The Areas Where The Metropolis Really Excels

In which the city truly stands out, surprisingly, is inside buildings. I loved how Pokémon battles in Sword & Shield occur in arena-like venues, giving them genuine significance and importance. On the flipside, fights within Scarlet and Violet take place in a field with few spectators watching. It's a total letdown. Z-A strikes a middle ground between the two. You'll battle in eateries with diners observing while they eat. An elite combat club will invite you to a competition, and you will combat on its penthouse court with a chandelier (not the Pokemon) suspended overhead. My favorite location is the beautifully designed base of the Rust Syndicate with its moody lighting and magenta walls. Various individual combat settings overflow with personality missing in the overall metropolis in general.

The Comfort of Repetition

Throughout the Championship, as well as subduing wild Mega Evolved Pokémon and filling the creature index, there is an unavoidable sense that, {"I