Going through Pokémon Legends: Z-A’s story was worse than playing the Pokémon X and Y Mega battles slugfest. I felt like a kid, but in a bad way, as the game didn’t seem to understand that 31-year-old adults like me can understand emotions in a character’s expression without it being zoomed in on the screen for 10 seconds.
The actual gameplay was equally mind-numbing. All 35 Main Missions made me feel like Legends Z-A was more worried about showing bad-looking characters were actually good people than making an interesting story that could compensate for the game’s shortcomings. For instance, the entire game world is a single city that looks the same in half of its areas, and catching every Pokémon is extremely easy.
But the endgame changed my mind completely when the grind for Mable’s Research Rewards and Side Missions made me think the game would get even more tedious.
Legends Z-A’s Side Missions are pretty good
While I was tackling the gargantuan task of defeating 1,000 trainers for Mable’s tasks, I decided to check some Side Missions I had left behind—essentially, all of them. Since I knew some of them had Pokémon battles, I could work toward the trainer battles goal while also clearing Side Missions, in case there was a reward for completing all 120 when the DLC comes out.
Ignoring the Side Missions was a mistake I’m afraid new players might also make. Most quests are easy and dull, but many teach the player about a deeper mechanic that will stay relevant for the rest of their playthrough and the entire endgame. That’s something that didn’t exist in such high numbers and as easily accessible in previous games.
For example, one quest explains how Detect and Protect have the same function of nullifying an opponent’s attack, but Detect has a shorter cooldown. In another quest, the NPC teaches you how some Pokémon evolve only when Friendship is maxed out. A third one has you chase a Froslass that, in the end, drops the Dawn Stone you need to evolve a Snorunt into it.
This kind of information in previous Pokémon games is usually restricted to NPCs that you’re not encouraged to interact with, like those who stay in houses or randomly stand in specific buildings. In Legends Z-A, this knowledge is saved for the very interactions you are slowly offered as Side Missions. It means that new players can learn more about game mechanics as they play, instead of being forced to check guides or interact with NPCs randomly until they find what they want.
For example, when I played Pokémon Crystal again earlier this year, I wanted to find where in the game I could learn that trading a Scyther holding a Metal Coat would let it evolve into Scizor. I just couldn’t. In Legends ZA, some quests teach you how to evolve certain Pokémon, like Galarian Slowpoke and Eelektrik. While one can say this ruins the discovery experience, let’s not pretend we all discovered how to evolve Scyther in the 2000s by trial and error. That information for me and many of my friends came from a guide or someone else who had read a guide. Getting that information in-game is far more fun.
One-grind-fits-all
I’ve completed the 1,000 trainer battles needed to get the Shiny Charm by playing a couple of dozen battles in the Infinite Z-A Royale every day. Having a reason to play Pokémon daily was exciting, and even though battles were repetitive, I would switch my active Pokémon from time to time to shake things up—even though my Tyranitar had the perfect moveset for most battles.
What made the Infinite Z-A Royale an interesting grind is that it’s also all you need for anything you want to do in the endgame. If you want to hunt Shiny Pokémon, you need to clear those 1,000 trainer battles, and the Infinite Z-A Royale is a fast and easy way to do it. Or if your thing is getting Apriballs for cool Pokémon-Pokéball combos, you can only get them from Reward Matches, which you can play after you get 50,000 points in the Z-A Royale. Do you want to farm items and experience for ranked battles? Reward Matches give you Bottle Caps, some trainers give you Vitamins, and collecting Prize Medals becomes an easy money farm as well. And guess what happens if you want to farm experience? Yep, the Infinite Z-A Royale is where you’ll find the strongest opponents in the game for a lot of XP.
Let’s compare that to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet farms. For money, you have the Item Printer or the Ace Academy Tournament. For meta-competitive play, you need Tera Raids to get Tera Shards to optimize your team, which also gives you candies for experience. For Battle Points, you need to complete the missions on the Indigo Disk DLC. That’s three different grinds that are specific to one thing you want to do, which will force you to grind way more if you change your mind and want to dive into something else later.
When the Legends ZA DLC Mega Dimension comes out, the game may also get new grinds that the Infinite Z-A Royale won’t cover. But for now, while you have other farm options, you don’t need to do anything besides defeating players in the Infinite Z-A Royale.
I learned to love Legends ZA
Legends Z-A went from a game that ruined my expectations early to go beyond what I thought it could give me in the end. I’m now excited to play the DLC soon, but I still can’t help but wonder how Legends Z-A could’ve been as good as Pokémon Legends: Arceus if it had a better story and more complex exploration.
