Video Game Review: Pokémon Legends: Z-A & Mega Dimensions DLC

Old dog finally learns the trick it should have years ago.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A

Pokémon is undoubtedly the biggest juggernaut in entertainment history. It’s bigger than Star Wars, bigger than Mickey Mouse, bigger than Harry Potter, bigger than the entire MCU. And while I respect a publisher’s fear of altering too much of a known formula for an established IP, no single entry will derail this franchise. When Pokémon Legends: Arceus released, it temporarily assuaged my exhaustion with Pokémon’s turn-based combat. The game, while still turn-based, took some liberties with catching and including the player character in the world, blurring the lines between the trainer’s gameplay and their Pokémon’s. The follow-up games, mainline entries (Scarlet and Violet) reverted to norms with undesirable results. But finally, the toe Game Freak dipped in that pool of live action Pokémon gameplay with Legends: Arceus has become a full dive. Pokémon Legends: Z-A is the step I’ve wanted the franchise to take for the longest time. And while there are still some kinks to work out, there’s a lot to be excited about.

This is the first full action Pokémon game (and no, I’m not counting fighting games with Pokémon characters or Pokémon Unite). That’s right, no more PP. Instead, the game gives each attack a cast time and a cooldown to ensure a balance between the strongest and weakest. Traditionally, a move like Fire Blast would only come with 5 PP before needing to be recharged; now, it simply has a longer cooldown time and a slightly longer cast time than weaker moves. This creates a new dynamic within the gameplay. You could use Fire Blast, but it might not be ready even after your next attack. Do you wait it out, reposition, and use it again, or do you try to get another two attacks during its cool down? (Fire Blast has a higher chance to miss, so I’m not suggesting you use it—just an example). When fighting wild Pokémon, you’ll find that you draw aggro before your mons do. It’s completely possible to get knocked out this way, and adds an extra layer of immersion to the gameplay, especially early on when facing down a powerful alpha Pokémon or rogue mega-evolved mon. Dodging wild Pokémon attacks while commanding your own to unleash on an opponent can be incredibly satisfying and kept me entertained throughout the entirety of my run.

That said, the combat still needs work. The pathfinding system can sometimes be egregious (which rears its head particularly in the Mega Dimensions DLC that I’ll get to later). Sometimes your Pokémon will line itself up behind a wall or a fence before firing off its move (only to hit into the building instead), sometimes the Pokémon will take a weird path to get to another part of the map before unleashing their attack, wasting your precious speed advantage over an enemy while they pelt your Pokémon in the back. Sometimes they’ll fall off a roof mid-attack. Heck, sometimes a Pokémon just won’t attack. I think what happens is they take so long to follow a path that the system just cancels out the attack you selected initially. When you choose to attack again, it works fine, but it wastes time. This mostly occurs when fighting in the city environment; arenas aren’t problematic.

Another issue I have with the battle system is entering my inventory. Most of the time it works well, but sometimes the game simply won’t let you access it when you need to (and this happens in a lot of the intense mega fights). The game essentially puts a freeze on your inventory access if a Pokémon is mega-evolving. I don’t know if it’s because they may or may not show a mega evolution cut scene (which becomes annoying after the first time you see it). Sometimes there is no mega evolving, and I still can’t enter my inventory. I just have to shrug my shoulders and swap my Pokémon out instead of using a potion and heal them later when it works again.

Legends: Z-A takes place in Lumiose City, and while not as large as a traditional Pokémon game world with all its regions, it makes up for that by expanding the city, incorporating rooftop exploration and placing wild Pokémon zones throughout the map. The world is bright and welcoming, even if some environments are underwhelming. Considering that Pokémon games always sell millions upon millions of copies, it’s a shame they won’t put more effort into hiring more people to help make the games look better. Some buildings are simple boxes with textures on them. Look at the screenshot above. I mean come on, Game Freak, you can do better than that. You’re charging full price for these games, so don’t give us a budget effort. Luckily, the Pokémon animations look good, as do the models themselves. It’s fun to watch my hulking alpha Dragonite float around behind me on the map.

One of the main gameplay mechanics of Legends: Z-A is an oldie they introduced over a decade ago with X and Y: Mega Evolution. Most of the Pokémon you’ll find throughout Z-A can mega evolve, which is necessary to help quell the rage of rogue mega evolved Pokémon. At night, you try to climb the Z-A Royale list. You start and rank Z and climb your way up to; you guessed it, rank A! You do this by entering battle zones at night and challenging other NPC trainers. You can pick up cards that give you mini quests to fulfill that fill your challenger ticket bar faster (for instance, land five psychic-type attacks on unaware opponents). Sneaking up on an opponent and landing a critical move is fun, though sometimes the game randomly makes you get caught unaware by an opponent and stuns you momentarily. This would only make sense if you were sneaking, and they caught you, but sometimes I’m running full at them for a battle and I get the de-buff anyway. Once you have a challenger’s ticket, you can face your next ranked opponent. This is the closest thing the game has to gym leaders, and many of the higher-ranked characters get used throughout the narrative and into the DLC.

For those of you worried about EVs and IVs, worry not. They’ve included it all. There are some specific Pokémon moves that have been altered to work in an action-paced setting, so you may find one of your favorite moves isn’t what it used to be. It’s also wonderful to have access to your Pokémon boxes anywhere you go.

There isn’t much going on in the story. It’s a typical “save the city” trope, but with a Pokémon skin. It’s not abysmal by any means, and I thank the heavens there isn’t anything so terrible as Team Star from Scarlet and Violet, but there isn’t too much here that will stick with me in the coming years. The characters are fine; some deliver some well-timed zingers, but mostly just serve the narrative. One thing I find bizarre is that there is absolutely no voice work. Why? This is 2025 (well, 2026 now, but the game released last year), so there is no reason for there not to be. It works in some games, but when characters are moving their mouths and no dialogue comes out, it’s odd.

The side quests are a mixed bag. Some are clever and genuinely made me laugh, while others are quite simple and boring. You never know which one you’ll end up with, unfortunately. A few were long and tedious, while others were engaging and well thought out. I particularly enjoyed engaging in the wild zones and catching everything available; it reminded me of the mainline games, and I always jumped over to a new spot whenever it was introduced.

The game ran smoothly (though I was on Switch 2, so I had a little extra processing power to back me up). Minus the in-game issues, I had no performance problems or stutters like I had with the last few entries in the series. Collecting Pokémon was a breeze, and battling was fun and intense. While there are still many things Game Freak should address with the Pokémon pathfinding, this is a massive step toward creating a more immersive experience with this series. I hope we get more advances in this direction instead of the uninspired Terastallization they introduced in the last games. With the power of the Switch 2, I also hope to see better effort from the developers to make the world look like it’s part of the number one entertainment IP in the world. There is a lot of good here, and I’m hoping it becomes great. If you want to see what a live-action Pokémon game plays like, it’s right here; it’s fun, and it runs well. If you remember wishing you could be more like Ash from the anime, controlling your mons around a battlefield, give this game your support.

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The Math

Objective Assessment: 7.5/10
Bonus: +1 for full-action gameplay. +1 for Pokémon designs and animations.
Penalties: -1 for poor Pokémon pathfinding. -1 for having to watch mega evolution a million times.
Nerd Coefficient: 7.5/10

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Maybe save your money.

Mega Dimensions Review

I purchased Mega Dimensions for two reasons. One; because of my desire for mega evolutions that weren’t in the main game (that I thought were going to be, but I’d been misled by the advertisements), and two; because I had just about finished the main game when the DLC came out and was still enjoying the experience. Plus, I know myself; if I didn’t play it immediately after I finished the game, I would never have gotten to it. And to be honest, I wish I had saved my money.

That’s not to say that this DLC is broken or unplayable. It’s fine if you want something to do, but it is an expensive something to do that feels like a cash grab. At the price of thirty steep dollars (which is the most I’ve ever paid for a piece of DLC) I was hoping for something really neat, maybe an expansion to the map or a completely new zone. Instead, you get to enter the hyperspace Lumiose, which is essentially just recycled pieces of Lumiose with a different skin that you have to visit repeatedly. At first, exploration was interesting, but once I discovered it was simply a grind, it felt more and more like a chore.

They introduce two new characters with the content, one to help you with mega battles, and another that makes donuts to feed Hoopa, which allows the player to traverse hyperspace. The gameplay loop here comprises finding berries to craft donuts, which allows you to enter hyperspace, which allows you to research the other dimension (through minor tasks like catching Pokémon, battling, destroying floating Pokéballs) which allows you to find better berries. Once you progress through the story, you can create better donuts. All the Pokémon in hyperspace Lumiose start out at over level 100, so using your donuts will give you a level buff. You want to be at level 100 to maximize their effects; this content isn’t really feasible without having high-level mons.

The problem is the story is not enticing, and after a while, I simply wandered hyperspace Lumiose for better and better berries, but the whole thing is RNG. You’re not guaranteed the good berries. Worse yet, the donuts you make get random abilities, so if you want a specific ability (which is more important at higher levels) you lose out if you don’t get lucky (unless you save scum it by loading a backup save).

Besides increasing your level a certain amount, the donuts have other perks as well; calories being paramount. The more carbs a donut has, the longer you can stay in hyperspace. That’s right; the player is timed each time they go into hyperspace. The better the donut, the longer you can stay. But the higher the difficulty of the zone, the quicker your calories drain before getting ejected from the other dimension. This wouldn’t normally be a problem, and on the lower levels it isn’t. But on the higher levels, when my energy was draining incredibly fast and every single move counted and I saw my Pokémon take a random, unnecessary path around some area to come to do its move, or worse, whiff the move completely, I lost my mind a bit.

I finished the main part of the Mega Dimensions DLC. There was, as to be expected, a powerful Pokémon at the end of the trail, but the thing is, there’s even a bit more beyond the main DLC storyline. Rayquaza is teased early on, and I know Groudon and Kyogre come first, but I just can’t get myself to care. The donut system is bad, the story isn’t great, the flaws in the gameplay are exacerbated in the timed segments, and it’s expensive. It works mostly, which is fine, but it’s a grind. If you decide to pick this up, do yourself a favor and use Mewtwo and have it use psychic on all the floating Pokéballs in hyperspace. You’ll thank me for it.

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The Math

Objective Assessment: 5/10
Bonus: +1 for cool new mega evolutions.
Penalties: -1 for RNG/Grind. -.5 for high price, repetitive content.
Nerd Coefficient: 4.5/10

Posted by: Joe DelFranco - Fiction writer and lover of most things video games. On most days you can find him writing at his favorite spot in the little state of Rhode Island.