Pokémon Legends: Z-A Is A Big Leap Forward, But It's Not Enough

I really like Pokémon. I grew up with it, and Pokémon Yellow was one of the first games I ever made the conscious decision to buy. It holds a special place in my heart; I've played most of the games, also dabbling in the TCG and thoroughly enjoy the TV shows. That's especially true now my kids have started to show an interest. After hating Pokémon Violet, I was excited about this new take on the series, and to play it myself, along with another playthrough with my little one.

I'm going to detail some spoilers here, so don't read on if you've not played much yet and want to stay clear of them.

The core concept is that you've wound up in Lumiose City, where Pokémon and humans are living side-by-side. Mega Evolutions are important but also dangerous, wild areas have been set up in the world, and you get railroaded onto a team to fight your way up from Rank Z to Rank A by fighting numerous trainers. When I say railroaded, it's because the first couple of hours give you very little say in what you're doing, and it sucks. You're given a glimpse of this beautiful city, then told to ignore a lot of it.

Well, at least you know what you've got to do. You get to settle into the rhythm of doing side quests and Pokémon catching during the day, then battle at night. When do you sleep? Who knows. You go through a few ranks until you end up chasing a specific Pokémon. Then you end up jumping from rank V to rank F because the game can't even commit to the central idea. Would it become boring? Maybe, but skipping that many feels deeply unrewarding in its own way, too.

The battle system is new here, and again, comes so close to being fun. You get to run around giving orders in real time, with some moves repositioning your Pokémon so you can avoid incoming attacks. This is a woefully underutilised aspect of the whole thing, though. You can avoid some attacks, but most simply swivel to hit you. It feels more like just hitting abilities on cooldown than anything tactical. Sure, it's got better interactivity than turn-based battles, but only just. There are also platforming sections to get colourful screws, and put briefly, they're not worth it.

Z-A's story is entertaining at least, although it once again lacks punch because we're robbed of voice acting. Pokémon makes more money than anyone can possibly actually wrap their heads around, yet time and time again, we find ourselves playing games that feel like they're at the behest of tight budgets. I don't understand, and I don't know if I ever will.

Despite my above complaints, I still like Pokémon Legends: Z-A. It's nice to see another experimental entry in the series, but it never completely commits to any of its ideas. The finished game lacks punch on every level. It's a lot of fun, but I constantly find myself wanting more. Pokémon in this state simply doesn't deserve the crown on the creature collecting front, not when in the last month alone we've got the excellent Aethermancer and Digimon Story: Time Stranger. That's to say nothing of fantastic other titles like Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, Siralim, and more.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A is good, it's just not great. Fans deserve a game that's fully realised, not another one that clutches at greatness, flirts with it, and then fumbles the rest. I continue hoping that we eventually get better than this, and at this point, I'm convinced I will keep being disappointed.