Pokémon Legends: Z-A Officially Confirmed to Bring Back a Popular X and Y Character

During today’s Pokémon Presents, we saw a ton of new footage of Pokémon Legends: Z-A, including a brand new Mega Evolution. But for lore nerds, what was far more interesting was the official, confirmed appearance of a very popular character from our adventure in Pokémon X and Y. And yes, I’m going to spoil it for you below this video, so don’t keep scrolling if you don’t want to know.

If you watched today’s trailer, you’ll know this isn’t much of a spoiler: Emma, from Pokémon X and Y, is officially confirmed for Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Emma has been a part of fan speculation ever since the game was announced, and theories about her presence in Z-A have only multiplied over time.

For some context, Emma is a young girl in X and Y who is adopted and trained by Looker, a detective in Lumiose City who’s become a fan-favorite character after multiple game appearances. At the end of X and Y, Looker effectively hands over the keys to his Looker Bureau to Emma. We’ve already seen that the Bureau appears in this futuristic Lumiose, so it makes sense that Emma would be running it. What’s more, her design suggests she’s still running around the city as the crime-fighting Essentia, based on the outfit under her jacket.

https://twitter.com/poke_times/status/1947648245611536839?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

That said, Emma’s presence does beg some questions. When exactly is Pokémon Legends: Z-A set? We don’t know! Emma is definitely older in her Z-A appearance, but probably not so much older that there would have had time to essentially rebuild Lumiose from the ground up, from its X and Y aesthetic to the futuristic city appearing in Z-A.

Have there been time-traveling shenanigans? Is this Emma’s daughter, also named Emma? Probably not that second one. Maybe the denizens of the Kalos region are just really, really fast at building cities.

https://twitter.com/SerebiiNet/status/1947648427816308992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

It’s also worth pointing out here that another familiar face from X and Y appeared during today’s trailer, albeit one that’s maybe a little less instantly recognizable. If you spotted Mable, the new director of the Pokémon Research Lab, you might have recognized that she’s a former member of Team Flare. She’s uh, not exactly the most moral of people in X and Y, so it will be interesting to see if she’s reformed since then or if there’s something unsavory going on at the research lab.

There were other reveals during today’s trailer, including brand new characters like Naveen, Lida, and either Urbain or Taunie. We also saw a brand new Mega Evolution, Mega Dragonite. Pokémon Legends: Z-A is coming to Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 on October 16, 2025.

You can catch up on everything shown during today’s Pokemon Presents right here.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.