Pokemon YouTuber finds “proof” Legends: Z-A will be set in the future

Since Pokemon Legends Z-A was announced, fans have been debating what time period the game is set in. Now, a theory from a Pokemon content creator suggests the answer was revealed back in X and Y.

While Pokemon Legends Arceus was quickly established as a game set in the distant past, pinning down its follow-up’s era is more challenging. The trailer’s Tron-esque aesthetic and the teased Lumiose City “Urban Redevelopment Plan” indicate it takes place in the future, but the developers have yet to reveal any details about this return to the Kalos region.

The mystery has led to plenty of fan theories, with one from Pokemon YouTuber Light proposing that an easily missed line from the Gen 6 games actually confirms that Legends Z-A are set in the future.

As he explains, an NPC in X and Y mentions a device that can transform people into Pokemon. Light compares this to the Synchro Machine from Scarlet and Violet’s Indigo Disk DLC, which essentially lets trainers synchronize their minds with the Pokemon.

Light also points out a building on the map with the same logo as the Synchro Machine, which could be a Synchro Laboratory. That leads him to conclude that Legends Z-A will take place in the future.

The YouTuber also suggests some features that could arise from this theory: “So I would like [there] to be a fusion between Let’s Go feature from SV and the Synchro Machine feature.

“In this way we could ‘farm exp’ by ourselves [being] a Pokemon and more stuff.”

While the theory, particularly the connection between the Synchro logo and the map icon from the trailer, is compelling, there are certainly reasons to question the X and Y connection.

For one, back when those games were released in 2013, players speculated that it was meant as a reference to Bill from the Kanto games rather than an indication of a future mechanic. In the Gen 1 games and their remakes, the inventor accidentally combines himself with a Pokemon during an experiment, requiring the player’s help to return to his own body.

While Pokemon is known for including nods to future games – X and Y’s Strange Souvenir, for example, was a clear tease for Sun and Moon’s Alola region and its guardian Pokemon – the odds of them hinting at a 2025 game back in 2013 are pretty low.

On top of that, as one commenter on Light’s post mentions, the Pokemon timeline is pretty unreliable: “In XY, Fairy type is considered to be a recently discovered type, but Fairy type already existed in [Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire] and PLA, which are considered to be older than XY.”

While there are plenty of signs pointing toward Pokemon Legends Z-A taking place sometime in the future, trainers will have to wait for the developers to confirm more details ahead of the game’s 2025 release.