Pokémon Legends: Z-A Makes Change to the Series Some Fans Have Been Asking For Years

Pokémon Legends: Z-A has made a change to the series that Pokémon fans have been asking Game Freak and Nintendo to make for years. Pokémon has been around since 1996. Since then, there have been 122 different Pokémon games released, and 38 mainline games. Despite so many releases, despite so much opportunity for iteration, the series hasn’t changed much from its inception. 2022’s Pokémon Legends: Arceus is probably the biggest deviation from the core formula to date, at least from the mainline games. Pokémon Legends: Z-A looks poised to continue this.

This includes both big gameplay changes and small changes, like a change to how clothing works. After many requests throughout the years, Pokémon fans can now dress their character up however they please with no gender restrictions. This may seem like a small change, but that doesn’t mean it’s inconsequential. Many Pokémon players won’t care about this as it’s not relevant to them, but many players have been asking for this specific change for a while. And it looked like it would never be implemented.

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We recently went hands-on with Pokémon Legends: Z-A, where this change was discovered, as Game Freak previously said nothing about it. Despite being a tiny detail in a wave of new information on the Switch and Switch 2 game and impressions, it hasn’t gone unnoticed. To this end, many Pokémon fans are excited to finally have this option, as evidenced by posts on X about it getting over a million impressions.

“This is a very good thing, I just hope it doesn’t mean fewer options overall,” writes one Pokémon fan of the news. “Hell yeah,” adds another.

A third fan adds: “Yes! There was stuff I always wanted to wear for my character, but due to those genderlocks, I couldn’t, especially the Kalos jacket boys get vs the dress the girls get. I wanted the jacket over the dress.”

Of course, this doesn’t fundamentally change the quality of the game. As objectively speaking as possible, this doesn’t make Pokémon Legends: Z-A any better or worse of a game, but it does help improve the RPG experience for some players, which can go a long way. While it is surprising that Game Freak has finally implemented this option, it is a growing trend with RPGs. Per usual, Pokémon is a bit slow to react to industry trends.

All of that said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think, or join the conversation over on the ComicBook Forum.