Pokémon Legends: Z-A and Mega Dimension DLC

I thoroughly enjoyed the vast majority of my time returning to Lumiose City for Pokémon Legends Z-A. It does move the timeline forward as opposed to the original Pokémon Legends: Arceus which took place in the past. While it does serve as a sequel to the gen six XY games, it not bringing anything quite as fascinating as exploring an older Pokémon world just figuring out how to catch Pokémon requires it come up with a different gimmick to hook people. The game didn't quite provide something as fascinating as that.

However, I did enjoy the new battle system. It is a live action battle system that requires a bit of maneuvering of the player character to avoid damage in battles with wild Pokemon. It also has moves working on a timer based on the Pokemon's speed and strength of the move. It can be a challenge for people used to the pure turn based combat of the traditional Pokémon games. It is for that reason that although I loved the system, the niche score is only a six. It's a system some Pokémon fans will not enjoy as it does require a different set of skills than normal. It is one complaint that some fans had about the PL: Arceus in that too had a different combat system.

The overall game and the Mega Dimension DLC did have an engaging story. However, it's a story that if you're not familiar with the XY games that you won't get as much out of. It is one of the better Pokémon stories I have experienced if you have that familiarity. The DLC story in particular was heartwarming and did make me want to keep going to help out Ansha. She's the central figure of the DLC and I do not want to spoil her connection to an important figure from the XY story plus the larger Pokémon universe in general.

While the story is worth the price of admission, the gameplay did leave some things to be desired. There were too many times that I couldn't target the Pokémon I wanted to when there was a group of two or more. In a battle, that wasn't too much of a problem as the attacks will hit multiple targets close together even if it's a traditional single target attack. The problem comes in the catching. When you knock out a Pokémon, a catch window does open up. That is different from the traditional games, but this catch window does have them at their most vulnerable. If you fail to catch them, they do disappear. It can be a frustrating experience watching the Pokémon you were aiming for disappear because you couldn't get it locked onto it over its nearby friends.

As far as the Pokémon actually in the game, it does leave much to desire. 232 are in the base game. While it does make some sense since the game fully takes place only in Lumiose City, it's just a convenient excuse or the general trend of severely cutting the roster in the latest games. The legendary and mythical roster in particular is almost non-existent. This is changed a good amount by the Mega Dimension DLC. The roster grows by 132 and the legendary/mythical roster in particular adds some big names that are rare outside of events. The last two in particular, Keldeo and Meloetta, were ones I was really happy to get captured.

The last major hurdle you might need to get over to fully enjoy the game is how much "busy work" it requires. That's especially true of the DLC. It takes filling up a meter multiple times to even get the chance to catch Keldeo, Meloetta, and friends. That meter can up five plus runs of catching Pokémon and battling the same generic trainers. It isn't all bad as it is arguably the best way to catch these Pokémon in the rare balls. I was able to capture multiple legendary/mythical Pokémon in sport balls for example. All of the rare balls are in the game and while they're mostly RNG, they are pretty easy to obtain. The same goes for catching shiny Pokémon. The process isn't as easy as PL: Arceus, but I was still able to end up with twenty-two in my run with well over half of them in level, dream, sport, safari, and other rare balls.