There’s been quite a lot of talk recently about the lack of voiceover work in Pokemon Legends: Z-A, and I can understand why. Game Freak has made some pretty decent strides with its cutscenes, depicting characters that animate realistically right down to their facial expressions and mouth movements. Yet they don’t actually talk. It’s weird in practice to see such well-constructed scenes play out in near total silence, but that’s actually not my biggest gripe with the residents of Lumiose City.
If you go into a real-life busy city centre in the middle of the day, one thing you’ll notice is that most people will probably be walking somewhere. Whether they’re darting from shop to shop, slowly ambling along in chattering groups, or even taking a few steps backwards to pick up the sausage that’s slipped out of their hotdog bun, everybody’s moving. Heck, it’s the reason why cities are often described as ‘bustling’ – it literally means ‘full of activity’.
Not in Lumiose City, though, oh no. You take a stroll through Legend: Z-A’s environment, and you’d be forgiven for thinking Medusa had run amok and turned almost everybody to stone. They just stand still, and it’s so creepy, man.
Now, I want to acknowledge right off the bat that this isn’t a new thing; NPCs have always been averse to movement in Pokémon games. But there’s just something about Z-A that makes it more noticeable than ever. My theory is that because Lumiose City is the only major environment, anything that detracts from its sense of place is immediately more glaring. You could almost forgive previous entries for similar infractions because their towns and cities were simply part of a much larger world. Here, the city is the world.
There are so many people, too. I’ve honestly never seen a wider selection of NPCs in a Pokémon game, and the fact that 99% of them stand completely still makes for some seriously weird, unsettling imagery. They’re not just on pavements too, but in the roads, sitting down for a sip of coffee (not actually drinking though), or standing on the grass, facing in seemingly random directions. It’s like that scene from M. Night Shyamalan’s cult classic The Happening where everyone suddenly stops dead in the middle of the street (I’m joking about the ‘cult classic’ bit – it’s a stinker).
I know everyone’s made a big fuss about the buildings in Z-A, and I get it, they’re pretty awful. But in my opinion, you can get away with quite a lot if you actually make it seem like your environment is busy with activity. Go back to the first 3D GTA games if you don’t believe me. The cities there may look pretty crude by today’s standards, but of the few pedestrians and vehicles that those games are able to handle in one go, the majority of them are moving in some way. It makes a huge difference.
It’s not just an aesthetic thing, either. One of the biggest mechanics introduced in Z-A is the ability to sneak up on your fellow trainers and land a move on their Pokémon before they’ve even had a chance to respond. So if I can do that, why can’t they? It would make navigating the Battle Zones so much more interesting and engaging if I knew that an NPC could get the drop on me at any moment. It’s yet another indication that in the world of Pokémon, you’re the hero, and everyone else is just surface dressing.
I’m not completely down on Legends: Z-A. I think the overall structure of having specific zones for catching and battling is quite interesting, and the character customisation is frankly the best it’s ever been. But man, I’m so tired of these games feeling so lifeless all the time. Its environments are supposed to convey a sense of excitement and positivity, and I just feel like I’ve been plunged into the middle of a horror movie.
I don’t know… Maybe I’ve been spoiled by games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Hitman: World of Assassination. Or maybe Game Freak needs to get a grip and start making its worlds feel a bit more alive. It’s not much to ask, right?
Am I crazy in thinking this, or do you agree? Should more NPCs in Pokémon games actually start moving and living their lives, or are you happy for them to just stand around and wait for you to interact with them? Let me know with a comment in the usual place.
