Share your opinions below.
Iāve been playing it all weekend and Iām having a ton of fun! Granted, itās very difficult for me not to enjoy a Pokemon game but Z-A has surprised me in some good ways
5 Likes
I havenāt started yet myself but Iāve seen a lot of play. It looks really fun. The graphics are not amazing as per any pokemon game, but the battle style seems innovative and I appreciate the Legends title variations on the main series
1 Like
The game is ugly but really fun ! I really like it.
2 Likes
Iām having fun with it too
- I enjoy all the QoL improvements
- Smooth HD on switch 1
- Iām impressed at how much work they put into each unique NPC, they all look like mainline characters
6 Likes
I have not played it yet but Iām disappointed with the mega evolutions for a lot of pokemon that seem like lazy designs. Starmie, Excadrill and Feraligatr to name a few. Some are good like frolass and dragalge with more complex and evolved designs, but Iām surprised more effort is not put in. Iām hoping the game is fun but it does appear a bit clunky.
1 Like
They missed the mark 100% and have a D+ for effort in terms of map design. Itās completely underwhelming.
They gave us a singular city but donāt have deep underground areas filled with magneton and voltorb? Come on.
No rich city life with multiple unique shops or buildings?
99% of the buildings are just un-enterable painted on textures.
The mechanics are good, and itās fun to battle, but itās also too easy to level - have thousands of Rare Candyās on the floor everywhere you go.
The game is definitely made for kids, which is fine. The hand holding is very tiresome.
My 6 year old loves it though. Itās his first proper pokemon game playthrough.
Personally I think from company that grosses billions $ per game release, they are milking us at this point with their measly $13M development budget + Switch 2 version at 70ā¬ yet paid DLC already available if you pay more.
Come on gamefreak at least use some lube.
10 Likes
Caught a giant red eyed Pikachu on a roof, evolved it to a giant Raichu who looks so dopey running slowly after my character
10/10
1 Like
I played through the main story and enjoyed it a lot. I still feel like there is so much to do though, so I will be playing lots more! I played on the Switch 2 and never felt any lag or delays. Load times are very quick.
I donāt think I like it as much as Legends Arceus, but it was still a very unique and refreshing Pokemon game. The new real-time battle system is fantastic. It takes getting used to, but itās very fun. I love how the environment influences the battle and how different moves are effective at different distances. The Z-A Royale makes level grinding actually enjoyable, although you donāt need to do much grinding anyways.
I am a big Mega fan so all the new megas are very cool. Lots of nice designs and I like how relatively accessible most of them are early on. Itās much different from XY where you had to wait until the postgame to get a buch of the mega evolutions. I think lots of the designs are cool, some better than others but thatās how things work. I personally think the ālazy designā criticism is overplayed, in 10 years everyone will criticize the new Pokemon Gamefreak puts out by saying ālook how inventive and unique Mega Starmie and Feraligatr were, why canāt we have more of that?ā
On the negative side, I feel like the city is too small. Not having anywhere āwildā to go and seeing no differences in scenery or climate in a Pokemon game feels wrong, and the city doesnāt feel big enough to compensate for that. I want every building to be open and interactable if theyāre going to keep Lumiose at the size it is now. Pokemon are also too hard to catch. Alphas should not be breaking out of Ultra Balls AFTER I defeat them. Having to save before attempting a catch is annoying. Maybe I just need to level up my stupid Canari plushes though.
3 Likes
I am waiting for Switch 2 to drop in price or buy one second hand to play. I am excited to play :3 but paying $550 for a switch just to play this game only is too much hehe
Triple, you regularly drop more than this on your weekly FOMO purchases. Youāre not fooling anyone 
11 Likes
Iām enjoying it. Compared to scarlet and violet it feels much better but that is a low bar. The combat is fun but I wouldnāt want this to be the permanent āPokemon experienceā.
TBH Iām really excited for Champions. My boy Metagross will be S Tier again.
1 Like
will very likely be the first PokĆ©mon game I donāt pick up, (although I only have PokĆ©mon dash and rumble because they were so cheap at a used game store years after release.)
The battle system looks fun, but I donāt think itās enough to carry something that seems so underdeveloped. One basic area that has less modeling effort than a Dragon Quest game from 2004 is just kinda too much for me to deal with playing for more than a little bit of time
I really like Arceus so a bit disappointing that I donāt feel like picking it up
3 Likes
Game runs great on switch 1
2 Likes
Legends Arceus was my favourite āmainā series PokĆ©mon game since Black & White and one of my favourite games on the Switch so I was really excited for Z-A.
Overall the game feels like a solid 8/10 for me so far (6 hours in on Switch 2). I really miss the sense of exploration and seeing PokƩmon in the wilderness and different environmental from Arceus. The lack of Ride PokƩmon is also a huge omission.
As a positive, the game runs and loads super smoothly on Switch 2. I enjoy the shake-up of the battle system (wouldnāt even hate if Gen 10 games used it), and exploring the city and traversing the rooftops is still fun.
Unlike Arceus (9/10 for me) I canāt see myself rushing to replay it again within a few years, but maybe with proper DLC on the horizon for Z-A that will change as Iām a big fan of Pikachu and we are getting Mega Raichu forms in that.
They finally made a game that wouldnāt look dated in the 2010s, more than a decade too late.
I have lost all hope for a good mainline pokemon game in my lifetime.
1 Like
People give fifa/nba2k players crap for taking in the same game every year, but I think pokemon fans are worse. If this were any other franchise, itād be ridiculed for this level of quality in 2025, especially while being the highest grossing franchise of all time.
Pokemon is the video game equivalent of iphones. What once was revolutionary has become stagnant and relies on a loyal fanbase to eat up each new marginally better copy year after year.
2 Likes
Thatās what I needed to hear
2 Likes
I am enjoying my playthrough. Which is the main goal of playing video games, for me at least.
The graphical/technical issues are excusable because I am enjoying the story and having a great time building my team, completing challenges, and interacting with the characters. I am enjoying it more than SV and almost as much as Arceus. That being saidā¦.
The graphical/technical issues are inexcusable from the standpoint of this being produced by a multi-billion dollar company that is printing money at a rate far beyond their wildest imaginations, whose long, long term future is dependent on continuing to ride that train as far as they can.
The continual stripping back of core Pokemon game mechanics for the sake of these alternative-timeline games will eventually wear people down and make it harder to sell more classic Pokemon experience games because everything is super convenient and simple compared to a regular game.
Itās also that the game presentation is lazy. Scene transitions and even in-scene movement is black screen instead of action occurring (Example: When you learn to use the hover function with your Rotom Phone to go between buildings, Taunie isnāt shown going between the buildings, it literally cuts to black and then she appears on the other side with you. This is done for a TONNE of this type of character movement and it gets so annoying when you realise itās happening). This ādo as little as possibleā philosophy is present throughout the entire game.
All in all, I worry about the seemingly inexhaustable goodwill that the Pokemon *game* franchise has built up being slowly chipped away if the production value does not increase with the next cycle of games.
4 Likes
I donāt know where the idea that Pokemon isnāt being ridiculed comes from. Whether you agree with the criticism or not, I would say almost every game since Sun and Moon has been roundly and thoroughly criticized by fans.