Pokémon Legends: Z-A’s endgame is pretty hectic, so by the time you reach the post-game, you might be overstimulated and overlook some of the ways things have changed in your home base of Hotel Z. There’s an entirely missable epilogue of sorts for a character that even gives you a free Pokémon with ties to someone from Pokémon X and Y. We’ll start with a spoiler-free explanation of where to go and what to look for, then we’ll dive into the details.
As soon as you beat the final boss, the credits roll, and when you’re finally given back control of your character, you’ll find a Poké Ball sitting on the table in your hotel room. It’s entirely possible to miss and walk right past it because Legends: Z-A doesn’t direct your attention to it, but this Poké Ball contains a Pokémon you’ve already met on your journey, and a note from an old friend. Now that you know where to go, let’s unpack this.
The Poké Ball has AZ’s Lucario, which you used much earlier in the game to learn how to use Mega Evolution. But this Lucario wasn’t always AZ’s. The 3000-year-old war criminal (who has never done anything wrong in his life) was gifted this fighting/steel monster by “a certain trainer” who hoped it would be able to keep him safe in Lumiose City. If you examine Lucario’s stats, you’ll see its original trainer is listed as Korrina. If you don’t know or remember who that is, Korrina is the fighting-type gym leader in Pokémon X and Y. She also gave the player a Lucario in those games as well. While Korrina doesn’t actually appear in Legends: Z-A, she’s still indirectly helping the player out.
Alongside Lucario’s Poké Ball, you’ll find a letter from AZ written before his passing. In it, he reflects on his 3000 years, including when he originally received his partner Floette, the Kalos War thousands of years prior that led to the events of Legends: Z-A, the first time he saw a Pokémon undergo Mega Evolution, and when he saw the “dark day” fall over Galar, the region in Pokémon Sword and Shield. This is in reference to what is colloquially known as the Darkest Day, in which a Legendary Pokémon called Eternatus caused the Pokémon of the region to undergo forced Dynamax transformations, which turn Pokémon into kaiju-like giants. The monsters nearly destroyed the region, but the entire event came to an end when the two Kings of Galar defeated Eternatus. The event was “recreated” in Sword and Shield, but AZ was alive for the original one.
By itself, this might just seem like a bit of extra world-building, but given that we know through the Teraleak that the next Legends game may be a historical Galar game, AZ might appear in a future game, despite his death in Legends: Z-A. Even if we never knew anything about the leaks, this line would likely have sparked speculation that the next Legends game would go back to the past like Legends: Arceus. It feels like Game Freak is still solidifying what the Legends moniker means, and if it keeps bouncing around the timeline like this, maybe the subseries will just be a place for the team to experiment and fill in lore gaps without any hard rules.
