As a lifelong Pokémon fan, this game is fairly standard. It does a few things to shake up the formula and has direct incentives to interact with the world. Though it attempts to provide more lore to the world of Pokemon, it fails to make an emotional impact due to its lackluster presentation, however, the slightly different take on battles makes it stand apart from others in the series.

The story for Z-A centers around rogue mega evolution. Something has been causing wild Pokémon to mega evolve and lose control and it’s up to you and friends to stop it. You’re the new kid on the block and you join team MZ on a whim, pledging to help them with the mega evolution pandemic. Throughout the story you’ll compete in the Z-A Royale to become the top rank, training your skills so you can help save the city. Different groups have their own reasons for battling in the Royale and while their backstories don’t get much explication, it serves to help flesh out the city of Lumiose. The Rust Syndicate and Quasartico both compete in the Royale while Looker Bureau and the Pokémon Lab focus on other aspects. There aren’t any gym leaders per se, but each rank has a top-ranked trainer you’ll need to defeat to climb and their designs and type specialties essentially make them gym leaders in all but title. This setup does lead to a climax that was pretty wild, but the road to get there wasn’t too exciting.

Battles are completely different from the main series games and Arceus. They’re no longer take-turn, instead relying on actual movement and cooldowns. It recontextualizes some moves as setup can be dangerous and whether a move tracks or not becomes a huge player. Moves like protect and detect are essentially parries, which changes how they function completely. Dodging attacks is the name of the game now, and this can be finicky. You don’t directly control where your Pokémon goes, which is definitely a problem. They follow you, but this indirect control causes some frustration with actually avoiding moves. To attack, you have to hold ZL to target the enemy then use a face button to choose an attack. It’s pretty clunky because moving your character during battles is essential as the other Pokémon can hit you, and sometimes you’ll need to turn and run the opposite direction so it makes targeting difficult. Either allowing for direct Pokémon control or having the targeting be a toggle would remedy this issue, however throwing the right Pokéball to catch Pokémon is also a struggle. To change the Pokéball before throwing it, you have to hold ZL to target, then hold ZR to ready the ball and then use the left directional buttons to change your ball. It’s very awkward and I wonder why they didn’t use the same control scheme as Arceus, even though it was difficult to get used to at first, it made a lot more sense.

Obviously the city doesn’t look great and the smaller scale of the game should have warranted more in the design of Lumiose, but there are some areas where a true style emerges. The AZ Hotel and Museum being the highlights for me. Hotel AZ has a really cozy, artistic style within and the Museum displays the history of the region in a caring way. The city itself lacks personality outside of these areas however. Flat textures coat walls and floors in a way that feels antiquated. Given the esteem that the name Pokémon carries, I find this lack of care to be insulting. The 2D games had more personality than the 3D entries and this game does little to change that argument.

The world does feel more alive than other entries however, and this is because of quests. NPCs across the city will request things of you and you’re incentivized to do them because the rewards are meaningful. There’s no one-stop shop for battle items, and even some Pokémon are hidden behind questlines at first. While some are simply, “bring me this Pokémon,” others involve an entire self-contained storyline centered around a haunting or quest for the perfect apartment. None of them really stand out, but the decision to put the items back into the world instead of just a storefront definitely gives them a purpose.

Exploration also includes platforming challenges that are quite frustrating at first. Scaffoldings litter the city and the construction company rewards those that complete their challenges with colorful screws you can exchange for prizes. These are dolls that passively increase your catch rate and other benefits. It’s an extra layer to the experience that further incentivizes interacting with the world and I think it was a great touch. The issue is the controls. Initially you only have a dodge roll which you can use to reach distant platforms, but no actual jump. Eventually you get a Rotom ability that gives you a sort of double jump, but it controls strangely and comes much too late in the experience. If you had that option from the beginning or an actual jump button, it would have made these platforming challenges less of a frustration.

Customization is another huge part of the culture in Lumiose city and this iteration of it is no different. There is a plethora of clothing options to choose from and some even have different color variations allowing for even more expression. Some quests will even unlock new items for you, so fashion really weaves itself into your experience. Who doesn’t want to look cool?

Music is absolutely fantastic overall. I’m not a huge game music connoisseur, but it really hit me in this experience. The arrangements of older songs and the newer tracks all give a cozy, vacation feeling and the climactic moments are punctuated by tracks that match the swell of action. It did a lot of the heavy lifting in the crafting of the world for me.

There are no new Pokémon, but there are new megas and most were just okay for me. While megas are the fan favorite of all the different gimmicks Pokémon has gone with over the years, most of them aren’t anything special. The starters’ megas all make sense type-wise and Emboar’s fits what it is, but the other two lack innovation. I think this can be said for most of the megas, they make sense (or are funny) but there’s something lacking in their presentation. None of them had that “wow factor,” but are serviceable additions and give life to some of the less powerful Pokémon.

Pokémon Legends Z-A was an experience that I enjoyed, despite its lack of innovation. The characters had great designs and interesting personalities, but the lack of any real animations minus a few instances, kept them from really making an impact. The change up to the battle mechanics does well to revitalize the viability of moves, but the clunky control scheme holds it back from being revolutionary. While the world likes visual depth, the incentives for exploration and quests keep it from feeling empty of personality. With all this being said, Pokémon fans will undoubtedly enjoy their visit to Lumiose, but will likely still feel unsatisfied once their journey is complete. Pokémon games always seem to lack in one aspect while excelling in another, but this entry finds itself in the middle of the road, not pushing the series forward but also not backtracking on the path already laid.