Pokemon Legends: Z-A Breaks a Long-Time Tradition in the Franchise

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In Pokemon Legends: Z-A, each Pokemon Center has its own unique nurse, a significant departure from previous games where all nurses looked exactly the same. Unlike earlier titles, Pokemon Legends: Z-A gives these characters individual names and appearances.

Released in 2024 for both the original Switch and the new Switch 2, *Pokemon Legends: Z-A* takes players to Lumiose City, a bustling, French-inspired area within the Kalos region. This new *Pokemon* game breaks from tradition with its real-time battles, where a player’s positioning and timing are key to victory. Beyond the updated combat, the game also features a redesigned Nurse Joy, offering a fresh experience for long-time fans.

Pokemon Legends: Z-A Has Finally Introduced Unique Nurses to Pokemon Centers

Players of *Pokemon Legends: Z-A* have noticed that the nurses at the Pokemon Centers in Lumiose City are no longer all identical. While they still share the classic uniform and red pigtails, each nurse now has unique features like different skin tones, eyes, and mouths, giving them more individual personalities. They even have names – one, Bien, can be battled in a side quest. This change fits with *Pokemon Legends: Z-A*’s approach of making characters more diverse and distinct than in previous *Pokemon* games.

The recent reveal of names for Pokémon Center staff has caught many players off guard. For decades, these characters were generally anonymous. Names were only used in a few games, like *Pokémon Yellow* and *Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu* and *Eevee*, which drew heavily from the animated series. In those games, Nurse Joy was a defined character, rather than just a nickname fans gave to all the Pokémon Center nurses.

Fans are hoping the changes in *Pokemon Legends: Z-A* are a hit. Critics generally seem to like the game, giving it an average score of 81 on OpenCritic, and many praise its fast-paced battles and engaging gameplay. However, some players have found the story and graphics underwhelming, and feel the game doesn’t offer enough new ideas. It’s still uncertain how Nintendo will continue to support the game and whether it will achieve the same level of success as other *Pokemon* titles.

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2025-10-16 20:39