I beloved Pokémon Legends: Z-A, however a recreation in each stage of its improvement is inevitably going to make you would like a studio had been capable of implement each thought it had into the ultimate product. The notorious Recreation Freak Teraleak from final yr has given us a fairly thorough have a look at Legends: Z-A’s journey from design doc to completed recreation, and whereas it’s attention-grabbing to see these screenshots and items of check footage, it additionally has followers weighing in on Recreation Freak’s processes and sharing how they really feel concerning the remaining product now that they’ve seen how the sausage was made.
YouTuber TurtleBro compiled all his findings within the Teraleak right into a feature-length video that goes chronologically by way of Legends: Z-A’s improvement recordsdata relationship again to 2022, shortly after work on Legends: Arceus had wrapped up. Some recordsdata are from so early within the course of that Recreation Freak was utilizing Legends: Arceus’ Irida as a placeholder for the participant. These screenshots and movies present some lower content material and options, like extra constructing interiors to discover, having the ability to use overworld skills round Lumiose Metropolis, and even some extra multiplayer modes that had gamers throwing Poké Balls at each other, dodgeball fashion.
Maybe most shocking in these early builds is a a lot increased stage of environmental element than we see within the remaining recreation. Legends: Z-A was memed to hell and again for its flat-textured buildings, and among the first items of footage TurtleBro exhibits off embrace home windows and constructing buildings which might be far more detailed. In January of 2023, many of those belongings had been swapped for one thing just like the flat ones we’ve within the recreation now, and inner notes counsel this downgrade was a “burden” on the workforce. It’s right here you possibly can see a variety of the sport’s preliminary ambitions get pulled again, although some issues, just like the real-time, action-based fight system, began to take form right here, albeit in a extra third-person shooter fashion than the command-based one we’ve now. By March of that yr, the workforce was on observe to ship the sport we bought, and morale began to enhance.
There’s one side of the event timeline that’s type of fascinating contemplating 2024 was the primary time in fairly a number of years since there wasn’t a brand new Pokémon recreation or enlargement: it seems like Legends: Z-A was function full by June 2024, and Recreation Freak spent round 16 months on polish earlier than it launched the sport on October 16, 2025.
TurtleBro speculates that the rationale the sport’s visuals had been intentionally downgraded was to offer the workforce the yr to spend refining the sport with the intention to keep away from an enormous efficiency fiasco just like the one which surrounded Scarlet and Violet in 2022, although others who considered the sport much less charitably suspect Game Freak may have just shelved Legends: Z-A for over a yr and moved onto a brand new challenge, relatively than utilizing that point for significant iteration. It’s unclear, nonetheless, as the event particulars cease at this level; the Teraleak occurred in August, and thus, we don’t have any extra of those design docs that may affirm the workforce’s considering.
Total, it’s an enchanting have a look at how Legends: Z-A went from idea to completed recreation, and TurtleBro does an important job of evaluating photos of elements of the sport from early in improvement to what these elements look and play like within the precise, launched recreation you possibly can play in your Change or Change 2. Try the complete video beneath:
I do mourn among the stuff we misplaced within the improvement course of, however that’s the chance you’re taking if you have a look at unfinished work. The video places the leaks we’ve seen from the upcoming Pokémon Wind and Wave video games into perspective, serving as a reminder that a number of of the mechanics and ideas these leaks have revealed might not make it into the ultimate product, both. We’ll know for certain when these video games are revealed, which can doubtless occur for the collection’ thirtieth anniversary subsequent yr.
