Pokemon Legends: Z-A Should Keep One Protagonist Trend PL…

From setting to story and everything in between, there are countless questions surrounding the upcoming Pokemon Legends: Z-A, set to release some time next year. That said, 2022's Pokemon Legends: Arceus did establish plenty of new mechanics that may serve as trends throughout future Pokemon Legends titles, and some of the ways the game handled the nature of its protagonist should certainly be re-used in Pokemon Legends: Z-A and beyond.

Playing as an early-adolescent protagonist is something of a staple among Pokemon games, though that doesn't stop the franchise from appealing to people of all ages. Pokemon fans in the 90's filled the Running Shoes of the 11-year-old protagonist Red in an adventure around the Kanto region, a character who quickly became a Pokemon Champion and single-handedly toppled an organized crime syndicate along the way. Nearly all future Pokemon titles would feature main characters of similar ages who would consistently find themselves countering world-threatening events, though Pokemon Black and White and their sequels Black 2 and White 2 do feature slightly older protagonists at the ages of 14.

How Pokemon Legends: Arceus' Protagonist Differs From The Rest

Pokemon Legends: Arceus also features a slightly older protagonist, implied to be around the age of 15 during the events of the game. This likely makes them the single oldest main character throughout all the core-series games, which fits perfectly with the slightly more mature theme of the game itself. While Pokemon Legends: Arceus is by no means a particularly dark or gruesome game, it does involve wild Pokemon attacking the player character themselves, also including battles which pit the protagonist against powerful boss Pokemon. The responsibilities that the main character is forced to bear and the actions they must take practically necessitate a slightly older age - even if they aren't yet fully-fledged adults.

Not every Pokemon protagonist's age is known for certain within the games' continuity, so it's difficult to be sure who the oldest protagonist is.

An Older Pokemon Legends: Z-A Protagonist Could Complement The Game's Tone

While little is yet known for sure about Pokemon Legends: Z-A, there is reason to believe that it would similarly benefit from featuring an older protagonist. It's known that Pokemon Legends: Z-A will be taking players back to the Kalos region -- specifically, during a period of significant renovation for Lumiose City. It's likely that the city will develop throughout the course of the game, and if the player is to be involved in its construction -- perhaps even being employed by the as-yet unknown group responsible for the urban development program -- it would make sense for their avatar to be more of a young adult, perhaps even older than the protagonist of Pokemon Legends: Arceus.

The Case For Pokemon Legends: Z-A Pulling The Time Travel Card Once Again

All that being said, there are a number of potential factors that may or may not play into the age of Pokemon Legends: Arceus' protagonist. Among these is the somewhat divisive theory that the game's protagonist is actually the very same Lucas or Dawn that players took the role of during the original Gen 4 Pokemon games and their remakes, who was transported to a different timeline or time period a few years after the events of the original games. While seasoned theorists generally agree that this isn't the case, there are pieces of evidence that support either side of the idea, and the theory has never been definitively proven or disproved by canon material.

With that in mind, it is within the realm of possibility for Pokemon Legends: Z-A to pull a similar trick with its protagonist. If the upcoming Pokemon Legends title is to be a love letter to the Gen 6 games just as Legends: Arceus was to the classic Gen 4 titles, it will almost certainly feature player characters that resemble Calem and Serena, the protagonists from Pokemon X and Y. While it's possible albeit unlikely that Legends: Z-A could re-use the time-traveling protagonist idea, if the game turns out to be set during the present or future era, fans could certainly entertain the prospect of Calem and Serena returning as older playable characters.

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