Pokemon Legends: Z-A Director Was Previously CG Director on Pokemon Legends: Arceus

Pokémon Legends: Z-A has won an award at the recent Famitsu Dengeki 2024 Awards as the most anticipated title for 2025. The game beat out other nominees, including Grand Theft Auto 6 and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. In addressing this award, we have also now learned that Pokémon Legends: Z-A is being directed by Haruka Tochigi.

Tochigi has released a statement where he thanked Famitsu for the award, while also speaking about development on Pokémon Legends: Z-A being in the final phase. In the statement, translated by X user Lewtwo, Tochigi has said that Pokémon Legends: Z-A is undergoing its final fine-tuning.

“We’re very grateful and honoured to receive this,” said Tochigi. “Being awarded even before we ever show published [gameplay] videos showed us the high expectations of the main series.”

“We, the Pokémon Legends: Z-A dev team, have been putting in daily effort to deliver the new game. The release is just around the corner – please wait a little longer!”

“Pokémon Legends games are filled with [new] attempts by Game Freak,” his statement continues. “As was the case prior, to bring new surprises for player experience, [Pokémon Legends: Z-A] will ‘Mega Evolve’, incorporating new battle mechanics and plenty of gameplay elements unique to urban environments; it’s in the final fine-tuning phase now. Look forward to a new adventure in Lumiose City.”

Pokémon Legends: Z-A will be the first time that Tochigi heads up a major game in the franchise. He originally joined Game Freak back in 2013, and worked on the mainline Pokémon games as an artist. He is also credited as the CG director on Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

While we haven’t yet seen much in the way of extended gameplay for Pokémon Legends: Z-A, a gameplay trailer was released back in February that gave us an outline of the title’s main setting of Lumiose city. The trailer also revealed the three starter Pokémon in the game: Chikorita, Totodile, and Tepig.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A was originally announced all the way back in February 2024. Since then, Nintendo had confirmed that the game will take place entirely within Lumiose City, which is situated in the Kalos region. The game is coming out on Nintendo Switch some time this year.

For more details about Pokémon Legends: Z-A, here are 10 new things we’ve learned about the game. Also check out why we’re excited about the game despite the lack of details.