Finished the Pokémon Legends Z-A story!
I grew up with the franchise, played every single mainline entry and I can easily say this was one of the best entries not just in recent years, but in general.
This will get long so I’ll split it up in segments:
1) The gameplay loop
They nailed it.
It’s SO hard to put this game down, and the amount of stuff to do at all times seems unbelievable considering everything takes place in 1 city out of a whole huge region.
I’ll be going somewhere for a main story mission, stumble upon a side quest on the way, which then takes me to a spot where I see a bunch of items to pick up, which then brings me to some rare spawn.
Everything is connected in positive feedback loops, and even 10-15 hours in you’re stumbling upon new street corners or spots you haven’t explored, even if you think you have.
2) The story
A love letter to XY.
Bear in mind I’m writing this before doing post-game, but if you played XY or other prior installments there’s just so many easter eggs and call backs, and it feels like it picks up on what imo was a very underdeveloped story in XY and closes up various narratives while keeping the tone lighthearted for the most part.
If this is your first Pokémon game you might feel a little confused, but they do try to explain past events.
If you expected it to have a darker tone like Arceus you might be disappointed, but there are moments where you’d be surprised at a cold turn or two.
Don’t wanna spoil anything, so I’ll keep it at that!
3) Music
Some tracks genuinely blew my head clean off.
The town themes, despite there only being 2, never got repetitive in 25 hours.
The fact that every important character has their own battle theme and it BANGS is insane.
The leitmotifs, the remixes - it’s all part of that love letter.
I’m already looping tracks nonstop, but please discover these for yourself while playing - it adds so much to the experience.
The franchise’s biggest strength stays consistent!
4) Battles
As a Xenoblade fan, I love the new system - ranked feels very fresh too, but even in the story the battles just feel a lot more dynamic and engaging, and that’s part of the amazing gameplay loop too.
I’ll do a deeper dive into ranked later, but I wouldn’t mind if this became a mainstay with Champions keeping traditional battling for competitive.
Protect OP.
5) Graphics
Rarely Pokemon’s strength, but I personally liked the style!
I’m usually not fussed with how buildings look if the character and Pokemon models moves look good, and they delivered on that very well this time. Thank god we’re done with ScarVi’s style.
6) Characters & new Megas
While I do wish there were more returning characters, the new cast is amazing and I genuinely can’t wait for them to get ported to the TCG.
Everyone’s got their fun tropes that sets them apart, but from designs to personalities I feel like this will be a very memorable cast that I’ll look back on fondly.
I managed to keep myself almost entirely spoiler free on the Megas and really enjoyed the vast majority of them, and even those that I didn’t like as much I feel will grow on me too.
Keep in mind I’m still missing some from post game!
7) Criticisms
My two main criticisms are:
- The tutorial
Felt way too handholdy this time.
I constantly wanted to just go explore, but the first 2 hours felt very limiting and I could already see people getting deterred from the rest of the game by that.
After the tutorial the incredible experience begins, but I do wish it at least allowed some exploring early.
- Switch 1 marketing
I met people at locals who would tell me they don’t wanna play on their Switch 1 cause they’re worried it’ll run poorly, or wait till they buy a Switch 2 constantly.
It runs great on Sw1, and that should’ve been properly marketed imo.
8) Overall
I’m in love with it. Easily Top 3 in the franchise for me, and a 9/10 overall.
Can’t wait to advance through the post-game!
Thanks for reading ✌️