Pokémon Legends ZA is an Embarasment

Article at a glance:
Nintendo has completely lost touch with what made their games special — and Pokémon Legends ZA is the proof.
This isn’t just another disappointing release; it’s a lazy, overpriced mess that insults fans’ loyalty.
If GameFreak and Nintendo think this is acceptable for a $70 game, then Pokémon deserves better than them.

I hate what Nintendo has become so much. And what makes it worse is that somehow there are still people who defend them. The Switch 2 is an overpriced mess of a console, which Nintendo has the right to brick, mind you, if you’re caught modding a game. So you technically don’t even own the hardware. And yet despite all that, it sold insanely well. I don’t review games here often, but Pokémon Legends ZA is such a mess that I have to talk about it. And in my defense, it is anime adjacent.

So welcome back to another review, and today, I will rip into Pokémon Legends ZA. As you can tell, I am very frustrated by this game, and I have some stuff to get off my chest. So let’s get started.

My Thoughts on Pokémon Legends ZA

This game has almost no redeeming qualities if you ask me. Sure, Scarlet and Violet and Arceus had bad graphics too, but those were actually fun games. Scarlet/Violet looked and ran terribly, but there was a fun game underneath it. And Arceus had some unique ideas and a great story backing it up. ZA has exactly none of those qualities. It looks worse than Scarlet/Violet, the story is boring, and the “revolutionary gameplay” takes out all the strategy and replaces it with mindless button-mashing.

The whole map of this game looks like it hasn’t finished rendering yet. It still has no voice acting because Nintendo is allergic to voicing their characters for some reason. And I don’t even want to hear the “oh, hardware limitations” excuse. You can play Genshin Impact FOR FREE on a damn smart fridge. And that free game somehow looks, feels, and plays much better than this 70$ cash grab. Pokémon fans deserve better. ALSO, I don’t remember Breath of the Wild and Xenoblade looking this bad despite being Switch games.

This is absolutely the bare minimum. It’s the kind of mediocrity only brand loyalty could protect.

And the gameplay… oh god, the gameplay. I am not exaggerating when I say that the gameplay just boils down to mindless button-mashing. In the turn-based combat, you had to think about what move you wanted to do. There were risks like wasting a turn, which could give you enemy an advantage. But now with this cooldown-based system, the only thing you have to worry about is types. That’s not even all. The NPCs don’t move around at all, the world doesn’t react to the story, and there are no consequences for missing a ball throw. You just get them back.

I… I am baffled at how bad this game is, and then Nintendo has the audacity to ask 70$ for THIS. Have some self-respect, you DESERVE better.

This alone should tell you everything you need to know; mind you, the Pokémon user score was worse yesterday; it was 3.6

That is all for now

How is it that we can have Digimon: Time Stranger and Palworld in a similar vein show GameFreak what they could do with these games, but GameFreak just refuses to listen? OH YEAH, and the Palworld situation. Nintendo is literally jumping through hoops to bully out extra money from Poketpair. God, I hate what Nintendo has become so much… And it’s not like GameFreak lacks talent, just go look at Beast of Reincarnation.

Anyway, enough ranting. I will take my leave here. I’ll go back to playing Hades II. See ya.