Pokémon is a wildly successful franchise, being the most profitable franchise of all time. As a result, it’s no surprise that Game Freak, the company that develops Pokémon games, basically cranks out games on an industrial scale. However, in the last few years, Pokémon games have been subject to more criticism. This article will delve into the latest game that follows this trend, Pokémon Legends Z-A, released just a few weeks ago.
When Legends Z-A came out, everybody was extremely excited. Not only did the fan favourite mechanic of Mega Evolution make a return after 6 years, but it would be following a similar open world structure to that of Legends Arceus, a massive expansion to the lore and all. However, as Legends Z-A has a 3.3 on Amazon compared to Legends: Arceus’s 4.8, it seems to have failed to live up to that excitement. Why are these seemingly similar games receiving such different reviews? There are quite a few reasons, and I shall review what I find to be the most important reasons here. Spoiler alert: although I will try to avoid them, there still might be a few.
The first reason I think the games were so poorly reviewed is that they feel unfinished. As per the title, the trailers for the game featured balconies on the windows, yet in the final game, they were removed, probably due to loading difficulties. Even though Nintendo games are known for their loading difficulties due to their less powerful hardware, most fans felt this was particularly egregious, as it caused some to feel like Game Freak needed to spend more time optimizing their loading algorithm. Another point of contention for the poor visuals of the game was the Mega Evolutions. It was clear that they didn’t undergo the expected rounds of review and editing, and some core fundamental ideas felt half baked at times. For example, take Mega Feraligatr. Although the idea of Feraligatr gaining a massive jaw hood is interesting, the execution of this idea on the model clearly didn’t go through testing with an audience: some have even compared Feraligatr’s head to a toilet seat! Another example of this is Mega Starmie, looking derpy when growing longer legs. This one isn’t a problem of execution.. It just feels like Game Freak wanted a certain number of Mega Evolutions, so they picked a random Pokémon that was short, slightly changed the body, and called it a day. To Pokémon fans who were expecting an uptick in quality after Legends Z-A got delayed, this was extremely underwhelming and disappointing.
People also hated the monetization of Legends Z-A. As soon as Legends Z-A was announced, the 30 dollar extra downloadable content was also announced, putting Game Freak in an extremely bad light as it made it seem like they purposely withheld contents of the game to get a quick buck from Pokémon fans. Additionally, some Mega Evolutions, like Mega Greninja, are locked behind reaching a certain rank in online battles. Although it might seem like the main complaint is that these Megas are locked behind skill, the actual problem is that online battles require a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, starting at $3.99 a month, making it feel like Game Freak was just trying to force people to buy the Nintendo Switch Online service in order to experience all of the new Pokémon.
So what has Legend’s Arceus done differently? After all, there was content that was similarly locked in other Pokémon games, which you had to pay money for, and content was added 2 months after the game was released in the Daybreak Update. But why is Arceus more well received than Z-A? First, the timing and what was locked behind money in both games. In Legends Arceus, only two things were locked behind money, little storylines that would allow you to catch Darkrai and Shaymin. But little storylines are the key here: they weren’t massive chunks of post game content locked behind 30 dollars, but rather a small reward of the highly desirable Pokémon for longtime fans of Pokémon. Additionally, although looking back on Legends Arceus feels incomplete without the content added in the update, before it was released, it still felt like a finished game. The graphics, while subpar, were exactly what was shown in trailers and expected—there were no promised new additions to the game like Legends Z-A. As a result, it was a welcome surprise to find all of the new additions that Legends Arceus introduced, like a few new Pokémon and a few new moves. Since Legends Z-A promised so much more, though, discovering a similar amount of new content felt extremely underwhelming. In short, Legends Z-A overpromised and underdelivered, while Legends Arceus underpromised but overdelivered. Since humans don’t like to get things taken away from them, fans reacted to moderate surprise at Legends Arceus but indignant fury at what was lost in Legends Z-A.
