GameFreak brings us new spin-off Pokemona - Legends Z-A, koji nas ovaj puta vodi u Parizom inspiriran grad Lumiose. Cijela game odvija se upravo u gradu, i I already am po prvom traileru was pomalo skeptičan, pomislivši: „Ovo su neka gradska djeca.“ Pokemoni su mi oduvijek značor avanturu, putovanis and research divljine, and not beton, reklame i promenade between kafića i visokih zgrada. Still, fromlučio sam potisnuti your own skepsu i dati im šansu.
Totodile, I choose you!
Tourism with evolutions
After a short character creation that, I admit, has never been more detailed, we arrive as tourists in Lumiose, and soon things go downhill for us. After a rival (Taunie or Urbain, the opposite gender of yours) jumps you to shoot a commercial for the hotel he lives in, you are soon robbed by a Pokemon.
In your search for it, you come across the owners, old rivals of your rival who are looking for revenge. Here, Taunie gives me one of her Pokemon, and after I win, she just gives it to me because she "sees we make a great team"? I know Pokemon are a world of trust and friendship, but I wouldn't exactly give a beloved Pokemon to a random tourist I just met on the street.
Night falls, it's time for battle!
You quickly realize the extent to which your rival has the upper hand and is practically pulling the action behind him. You soon find yourself embroiled in Team MZ, a group that lives in an old hotel led by a mysterious owner who, of course, owns a Pokemon that is thousands of years old.
The main narrative framework revolves around the Z-A competition - evening battles on the streets of Lumios, where parts of the city become literal war zones. By winning, you collect points and climb through the ranks, from Z to A. It sounds ok on paper, but in practice such a city really doesn't make sense. What if I just want to go to the bakery, and someone jumps me at the first zebra and asks for a fight in the name of the city's honor?
The story is simply shallow and the atmosphere artificial. The game also introduces the concept of sneaking and ambushing, which is a nice mechanic, but in the context of an organized city competition, it seems insidious.
Pro tip: any RPG where you call yourself My Dude becomes 10x funnier
Everyone loves me, I'm funny to everyone
Side quests exist, but they are functionally reduced to similar tasks. NPCs treat you like a legend in the first minute. Almost every dialogue showers you with compliments, gifts and attention. Someone constantly gives you pokeballs, potions, praises your perfect technique... as if you've already saved the world, and you haven't even entered the second quarter. Most of the dialogue offers the illusion of choice and a sense of false interaction with the characters: options between “Yes” and “Yes, of course”. I love having the freedom to confirm the same thing twice.
The biggest novelty is the fights
Real-time battles are the biggest change and bring refreshment. We have finally moved away from the classic move template. Each Pokémon has four moves that are mapped to keys, with a cooldown. It resembles an action jRPG or a simpler MMO. It's nice that you no longer have to delete old attacks when you learn new ones, now you just choose which four you want to have active, which gives flexibility and rhythm.
The tactics are still there, a diverse team means, but the balance is thin. I got through most of the fights by spamming moves. I never lost in single player. Not once. For something that should be an innovation, it feels like a step backwards when it comes to challenge. Pokemon games have been light for a long time, but here it seems that the chess-like, competitive approach that was present earlier is still being lost.
It's time to "manly" attack Daniel from behind, Totodile. Everything to win!
Mega evolutions: a familiar thing in a new guise
Mega evolutions are back, and it's honestly one of the best moves Game Freak has made. Not only as a nostalgic return, but also as a mechanical refresh. Mega evolutions are temporary boost forms that certain pokemon can achieve. Each Mega Form uses a new energy system that recharges during fights and can be used multiple times, which adds a nice tactical layer.
Some Mega evolutions look really nice
Some of the new Mega forms look great, especially Dragonite, Gardevoir and Lucario. However, there are a couple of obvious omissions. Starmie looks like the designers ran out of time so someone just said "give him longer legs and hey". Also, announcing DLC for a game before its release that has certain mega evolutions and stories locked behind it is just plain rude.
…but this is wrong. WHO approved this?
Holographic wilderness in the middle of an empty city
The city of Lumiose looks huge on paper, but in practice, every city district is more or less the same. The game tries to introduce a sense of verticality through the ability to climb and jump off roofs, which at first seems like an interesting freedom of movement, but those roofs also start to look identical very quickly. The same five air conditioners, the same gray brick, the same two NPCs staring at nothing.
City exploration boils down to running around relatively empty streets and looking for quest markers. There are no spontaneous encounters, no hidden stories around the corner, no sense of discovery. Every point of interest is already marked, and everything else is scenery. A city that should breathe simply doesn't.
The Pokemon catching system from Arceus returns, but it's greatly simplified here. In the city there are so-called wild zones, small, hologram-enclosed arenas scattered around the city that serve as habitats for Pokemon.
These zones often don't make sense within the city's infrastructure, and act more like a theme park for catching Pokemon than an actual habitat, as if they're there solely for the players. One zone is literally in the middle of the cemetery. Also, the game offers you a refund of all spent Pokéballs, which eliminates a good part of the challenge. Hunting is still fun, but now it's more procedural than spontaneous.
Technically not good enough. Again.
Graphically, Z-A is a strange mix. The character and interior design is the best so far, but the city is gray, empty, without any identity, with washed-out textures without details. Wild zones look like abandoned neighborhoods, the streets between them act like placeholders, and the Pokemon look kind of… plastic to me.
On the Switch 2, it does all of this at 60 fps. On the old Switch – no. Drops below 30 are frequent, textures lag, characters get stuck in the air. Cutscenes without voice acting are sterile, empty, sometimes uncomfortably quiet.
When I look at what all the other games are getting out of the Switch 2, I can't help but think: Z-A looks like it came out in 2005. And not in the good hand of nostalgia, but in the bad hand of negligence. Anyone who knows anything about video game design understands that a lot more could have been done here.
We are in the wild zone, which is basically a regular neighborhood, but with a little more grass.
Tolerance must have some limits
Pokémon Legends: Z-A pokušava be korak naagod, pokušaj da se series pomakne s mjesta, but inporno vuče korijenis andz prošlosti. Real-time borbe i Mega evolucije su dobar početak, but sve the rest djeluje pohuntingično, nedovršeno or samo... dovoljno.
Fans will buy the game anyway. Because it's Pokemon. I understand that this is a spin-off, but this is still one of the richest franchises in the world. I love Pokemon. Sincerely. But I can't recommend the Legends Z-A at full price of €70. There is too much that "can pass", and too little that deserves praise. There's fun here, of course… but we deserve more.
