Pokémon Legends: Z-A
Challenge: Engage in criticism of this game without mentioning “windows” or “voice acting.”
Legends Z-A excels as a prototype of the new kind of Pokemon city we could get. Sidequests integrated with the city. Imagine if modern cities had locations like the museum, the sewers, the abandoned laboratory and some – some – of the key wild areas.
The Battle Royale is initially an extremely compelling gameplay loop, working alongside the new battle system to create a sort of mini-stealth hunt-and-deploy tactics game. Unfortunately, LZA does not want to put in the time to keep this compelling for more than 30% of the game, so it eventually becomes a barrier to progress rather than an end unto itself. Still, I want a version of this real-time system to return.
On the whole, this does not reach the revelatory heights of Legends: Arceus. Limiting you to Lumiose shouldn’t be a main part of the reason, but the limitation is felt due to the initial lack of wild areas. Imagine if there were unique Pokemon and battles to be found in the museum, the old building, Quasartico, etcetera. But the wild areas are the limits of ingenuity for this game.
Still, if you’re a Pokemon fan who’s been enjoying the Switch era and not a weirdo who gets personally enraged whenever the Nostalgia Factory fails to hold up a mirror to your imagination and clone whatever $300 million production budget chimera you’re imagining, then Legends Z-A is worth your time. There are great Pokemon to find, a fun new battle system to engage in, and some discussion to be had about the dangers of nostalgia.
Also, I don’t care about windows. I hope the windows in Gen 10 are even worse.
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