I’m really worried that Pokémon Legends Z-A is only going to add new Mega Evolutions, as I can’t help but feel like regional forms and new Pokémon would be more exciting

I think I’m the only person in the Pokémon community who feels this way when it comes to new Pokémon being introduced in Legends Z-A, but I can’t help but worry that the only new creatures we will get in-game are Mega Evolutions.

To me, the joy of a new Pokémon comes in creatures that I can see 24/7 instead of only appearing for a time-limited period… using an item. The idea that I can walk around and discover brand new Pokémon I have never seen before or get a new evolution for a pre-existing Pokémon is half the fun for me. And while the idea of new Mega Evolutions is fantastic, the idea that it is the only new Pokémon we might be getting fills me with a bit more dread than I’d like.

Of course, it was always going to be hard to make new Pokémon in Z-A make sense. It is based in an already existing region in modern day, so the idea that a new Pokémon existed in the region that we didn’t see the first time we played Pokémon X and Y on the Nintendo 3DS all those years ago feels like a cop out, but its not unheard of for new species to be discovered to this day in the real-world, so why not in the Pokémon world too?

With Mega Evolutions seeming to be the new evolution method, I do wonder if the team could make a Kalos regional form work in some way. As the game is set in a technologically advanced city, I feel that some Pokémon, such as Porygon, could evolve into forms that adapt to these advances, or even Pokémon like Rotom, which would be superb additions even if they were standalone versions.

I look, for instance, at Eternal Flower Floette, which is a form of Floette only found in Kalos that is begging to hint at additional Kalos forms we could have (and it would be nice to be able to play with this Pokémon again, considering it was only obtainable via events in the past).

Kalos was also the last region to introduce a new Eeveelution with Sylveon, so it would feel right to return to the area to expand and provide us with more Eevee evolutions for other typings. Although I know this is just wishful thinking, rather than anything concrete.

Pokémon Legends Z-A only gave us a small fraction of new Pokémon to discover, whether it was regional forms like Hisuian Pokémon or new evolutions entirely. So I hope Z-A will follow suit and is hiding its biggest surprise behind the bi-weekly Mega Pokémon reveals… fingers crossed.