Pokemon Legends: Z-A Reviews
Pokémon Legends: Z-A is a release heavily focused on battles. While its story and graphics don't particularly stand out, the addictive gameplay, dynamic combat, and fun online mode make it a must-play title for both veteran fans and newcomers.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Pokémon Legends Z-A also offers a unique experience for the Pokémon license, in which players will share their time climbing the ranks of the rankings, completing the Pokédex by traveling to all the wild areas even if it means crossing paths with formidable Pokémon Barons, completing secondary missions with multiple rewards, and appeasing Mega-Férox who serve up nervous battles of great intensity. This is the first time that we explore a metropolis without leaving it, players will have reason to be disconcerted and regret an exploration that is much less engaging, even if the game benefits from an unprecedented verticality by offering the rooftops of Illumis as a playground. Nevertheless, the adventure is convincing overall and will keep us on the edge of our seats for a good thirty hours, more for the most completionists.
Review in French | Read full review
Real-time combat and strong storytelling make Pokémon Legends: Z-A a bold step forward, even if restrictive zones, Lumiose’s limits, and no voice acting hold it back from true greatness.
After the success of Pokémon Legends Arceus, fans hoped that Pokémon A-Z would breathe new life into the series, but the opposite appears to be true. The story takes place entirely in Lumious City, an atmospheric, empty city without charm or depth. Although the new action-oriented combat system is a nice addition, it lacks variety and quickly becomes monotonous. The limited world, dull graphics and lack of interaction with Pokémon ensure that the magic of the franchise disappears. Pokémon A-Z is simply not worth seventy euros and shows that Game Freak urgently needs to find a new direction.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Pokémon Legends: Z-A is an overall strong step forward for the series, as it utilizes past mechanics alongside interesting new changes to great effect. The visuals are still underwhelming, and it takes a good while to get going, but other than that, this really does feel like the Pokémon Z we thought we’d get so long ago, but with plenty of exciting modern twists.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A is an excellent title for fans of the franchise, featuring dynamic and strategic combat, a captivating story, and enjoyable gameplay. Despite below-expected graphics and the lack of Portuguese localization, the battles and the franchise’s signature charm deliver an engaging and promising experience
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Pokémon Legends: Z-A departs from the mainline Pokémon titles and succeeds in telling its own story, with a very engaging battle system. It has a great gameplay loop that kept me hooked from start to end, and plenty to find in a small city. While not perfect, it feels like a new take on Pokémon, with elements I'd love to see carry over to the next mainline installment.
Pokémon Legends Z-A is a welcome change of pace in a series that’s been running for almost 30 years. Here’s hoping the Legends games continue to serve as testing grounds for new ideas, and that the core mainline games can bring some learned lessons in exciting ways.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A represents a step forward for the series, offering a fresh and, above all, entertaining experience that makes hours of gameplay fly by like minutes. The only real obstacles lie in its outdated game engine and a level design that sometimes hinders the player, undermining the overall experience and lowering the game’s value. Nevertheless, there is strong hope that this marks the new direction Game Freak intends to pursue for future titles, and that the studio will finally set aside its now overused engine to deliver a game that, both visually and technically, truly lives up to its name.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Pokémon Legends: Z-A mega evolves the series in an exciting new direction, and is one of the best games I've played on the Switch 2.
Mega Evolution! By embracing a real-time combat system that fits the series perfectly, the new title raised its pure fun factor to modern standards. While improved graphics and optimization shine, the small-scale maps, repetitive content, and lack of the forward-looking vision fans expected from the Legends series hold it back.
Review in Korean | Read full review
Pokémon Legends: Z-A continues to experiment with the main formula. The new active battle system is a great refresh, but it gets a bit lost in the grayness of the city and the repetitive missions toward the end.
Review in Unknown | Read full review
Pokémon Legends: Z-A is another bold experiment from Game Freak. It may not fully succeed in building a cohesive, immersive world, but its innovative battle system and exciting new Pokémon make it a fascinating step forward.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A shows that Game Freak benefits from stepping outside its comfort zone. The urban adventure in Illumis brings a breath of fresh air with its vertical exploration, real-time battles, and revamped Mega Evolutions. The game remains visually modest, but offers excellent fluidity on Switch 2 and generous content. While not revolutionary, it's a masterful and enjoyable evolution that gives the series a nice dose of energy and modernity. I really enjoyed the experience and am happy to see that the team has made solid improvements to enrich its Pokémon Legends spin-off series. I sincerely hope that Game Freak continues down this path, as I'm becoming more and more attracted to this formula.
Review in French | Read full review
Pokémon Legends ZA is a game designed to make you angry. Not because it's difficult or poorly designed: in terms of gameplay, even though it doesn't innovate much and instead relies on tried and tested formulas (real-time battles add a little extra excitement), it works. Aesthetically and technically, however, we are talking about a title that borders on indecency, and no, it cannot be blamed on the Nintendo Switch. ZA is a potentially very interesting video game, trapped inside a terrible shell.
Review in Italian | Read full review
So where does that leave us? For me, Pokémon Legends Z-A is a strong, positive step forward in the “Legends” branch of the series.
Pokémon Legends Z-A is a hilarious game that captivates you for hours and offers tons of things to do, with an entertaining and dynamic combat system that never feels repetitive, as well as an interesting story. A combination of things that kept us glued to the controller for the nearly 25 hours it took us to finish it.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Pokémon Legends: Z-A sets a new technical benchmark for the series, achieving a smooth 60 FPS on the Switch 2 while revolutionizing combat with an engaging real-time system. Despite its strong narrative cohesion and challenging boss fights, the adventure is slightly muted by the absence of voice acting and the overly simplified 'wild zones,' which remove much of the excitement of natural discovery.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A is a perfectly decent game, but it needed a little more planning and better ideas. The new combat system works very well in many cases, but in some cases it fails completely. The plot itself is quite schematic and follows a repetitive pattern throughout most of the game, which works to the detriment of this game. However, overall, it is not a bad game by any means, but simply contains elements that needed modification or improvement.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Pokémon Legends: Z-A successfully balances the mechanics that worked in its predecessor, incorporates other essential aspects of the main series, and presents a highly entertaining adventure alongside the pocket monsters through Lumiose City. The title isn't perfect, of course, but with an innovative combat system and such a well-represented exploration of human-Pokémon interactions, it's impossible not to see Legends: Z-A as a major step in the right direction for the franchise. Now, the expectation is that the next generation of games in the main series will follow the same path of creativity and exploration seen here.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review