Pokémon, a franchise world-renowned and undeniably great overall, hasn’t met even the low end of expectations recently with their new release, “Pokémon Legends: Z-A.” But is PL ZA a bad game? 

PL Z-A is the second game in the Pokémon Legends series, the first being “Pokémon Legends: Arceus” (PLA), often regarded as one of the best games in the Pokémon franchise. 

PLA encompasses a visually stunning world, new redesigns of old Pokémon with new moves, and new overworld gameplay. Gone were the days of having to engage in a battle to catch Pokémon; with the release of PLA, you could catch them from the overworld. 

Not only could you catch Pokémon from the overworld, PLA introduced slight changes to the combat and shiny indicators. Shiny indicators would allow players to know whether a Pokémon was shiny or not just by sound and look, as opposed to having no idea before encountering a Pokémon whether it was shiny or not such as in previous Pokémon games. Certain moves in combat had a strong style and a swift style, amplifying the speed or power of an attack. Additionally, shinies would now make a noise when they appeared near the player in the overworld, which had never before been done in a Pokémon game.

PL Z-A brings back many of these features, but with an entirely new combat system. Instead of a turn-based combat like the old games, in PL Z-A, it is done in real time, in which you command your Pokémon’s moves at any given moment. This version of combat replicates the combat seen in the Pokémon anime.

So what could possibly be the reason for this game not meeting expectations? Simple, on top of the game being $60 for the Nintendo Switch and $70 for the Nintendo Switch 2. Additionally, some of the content people expected to come with the game has to be paid for as an additional download. 

Some of the most important mega evolutions–being new forms of Pokémon that can be transformed during battle–have been locked behind a paywall, and that has fans furious. PL Z-A is one of the few Pokémon games to have mega evolutions, and the ones exclusive to this game make it special. Those being new forms of Pokémon only obtainable in PL Z-A. However, when players need to pay extra for it on top of the already expensive price, the disappointment makes more sense. People paid a lot of money for what felt like only a partial game. 

But does this make the game itself bad and an unenjoyable experience? No. The game is fun, it brings new life to the Pokémon genre and has enough content in the base game for the majority of players. The combat is fun, the overarching story is decent enough to play through and the free mega evolutions all players get access to are cool, even if the rest of them are locked. 

The game offers a free shiny, which is normally uncommon. This has only been seen in a few Pokémon games beforehand. 

The game is a great game for new people entering the media and old players who want to be reunited with their mega Pokémon. 

Pokémon games have somewhat been disappointing to the majority of Pokémon players in recent years. “Pokémon Scarlet” and “Pokémon Violet,” for example, were seen as sloppy with a lot of performance issues. They also didn’t prioritize quality of life for players and lacked interesting Pokémon. However, the state of PL Z-A right now may give the series a chance. It’s an innovation in battling that could lead the way for other new mechanics or creativity in other aspects of Pokémon, making for new and enjoyable games.

While Nintendo is a billion-dollar company that should realistically be able to make Pokémon games better than what is being delivered, the joy is still there. PL Z-A is not a bad game in itself; it’s just underwhelming given where it’s coming from.