Topic: Pokémon Legends Z-A

@OmnitronVariant yeah, the battle system beats the traditional turn-based battles in terms of strategizing, I think, even if it lacks the depth of team building in vgc/doubles.

I've reached the point where you can unlock the two star restaurant gauntlet and it's BRUTAL without building specific counters to certain teams and even individual pokemon if you're just overleveling and brute forcing the fights.
Those have you fight several trainers in a row (first was 3 teams, second is five, apparently it goes up to TEN) without healing during or in between battles outside of held items and moves that heal your pokemon.
It's pretty fun.

I'd argue the game in general becomes waaaay more involved after hitting rank F, they offer more mega fights in between chapters, LONGER chapters/story missions, there's actual dungeons now apparently. The game really lulls you into a sense that it's just flipped legends Arceus but the general structure/gameplay gets very engaging after that point. And then you get the really fun, more involved battle mechanics that start to open up on top.

I'll repeat what I said about the graphics but the game is really surprising me with how well designed it is and the only real downside in that regard is that I already wish Luminose was just a little bigger. I already got all regular Cannari plushies through exploring and there's not really surprises in the city itself at this point, but I also don't think I unlocked all wild zones and I feel like there's gotta be something more beyond "what you see" after reaching rank D and doing that mission.

I always thought Arceus is a bit overhyped - even though it was pretty fun overall - but ZA is legitimately a goodass videogame, imho.

@OmnitronVariant Ah good to know it slows down later on. I think I am about to fight the guy who ranks you up to D (the big muscle dude?). So I'll see if fights get better after him as right now they are just a pure mindless spam fest, zero strategy whatsoever.

@Pizzamorg I love the battle system but I do agree with you for main gens I think I would prefer standard turn based. Also if they bring the new system to main gens then there is nothing to differentiate the Legends series.

I have the exact same feeling. I also thought Legends:Arceus was overhyped. It was fun in the beginning to have these large open areas to freely roam in, with true 360 degree movement, which was still restricted in Sword/Shield at that time ( except the two later DLC areas ).
But it just turns into a gimmick real quick, since the areas were just large and boring with little surprise and interest.
So I quickly got bored and never managed to reach the end.

For me, I like the more condensed area of Lumiose City in Legends:ZA with all its verticality, hidden nooks and cranies. You also don' unlock access to everything (including two undisclosed areas as to not spoil anything) until much further into the game.

The later wild areas also get a bit bigger and more interesting with verticality. Though, some early Wild areas had also some nice veritically too.

Also, I think is a big general misconception, is that there are plenty of Wild Pokemon outside the wild areas (especially later on in the game and when you unlock more roof and "other" access) you can catch and some Pokemon cannot even be found in the wild areasm, but outside of it, like certain roof tops and "other" areas.

So all in all, for me, Legends:ZA is better and way more fun for me and I cannot wait what they will add in new content, areas and more Pokemon with the upcoming Mega Dimensions DLC.
I think, after that, they game is really going to open up.

After a few boss battles I would say those are definitely the weakest part of the game. They're easy in the sense that you can just dodge attacks, but getting the little energy things is kinda long and annoying. I'm not really a fan of the way they implemented the plus moves either.

@FishyS I deffo think they are a big step up though to rolling about on the floor throwing bags of dirt boss battles in Arceus. At least it actually feels like a real part of an actual Pokemon game, rather than some weird unrelated mini game you were forced to do before every battle.

Those Guardian battles were the most annoying thing in Arceus and one of the reasons I never finished game, next to the monotonous nature of the game itself.
The constant dodge rolling and bag throwing was just repetitive and some of these fights were infuriating and annoying.

The rogue mega evolutions in ZA are way more fun, natural and feel like actual boss fights.

I would say the boss battles were also the weakest part of Arceus but there were two main positives over Z-A:

There was interesting lore related to each boss rather than 'here is suddenly a random boss' and there weren't very many of them.

Mechanic -wise though? I would say neither are particularly interesting, although I agree they feel less random in Z-A since the normal mechanics are partially built in.

@FishyS I do feel mechanically they get more interesting as they go along, it is nothing earth shattering, but it starts as big pokemon do a big hit and roll out of the way. But then it starts introducing unique quirks to the Rogues to match their Pokemon, which present (admittedly very minor) additional challenge and problem solving needed.

Although Mega Hawlucha? That might be THE hardest fight in the series. That brother spammed those wind blades so unrelentingly and forced you so far back the targeting system just full on breaks, I failed that fight so many times the game asked if I wanted check points 😂 And that might sound negative, but I actually like a Pokemon game with mechanical difficulty, rather than just what they'd usually do with introducing some trainer at the end who could unfairly cheese the turn order somehow and beat you that way. This is genuine skill issue in the best way.

@Jeronan Agree 100 percent. It is part of the reason why I feel like Arceus was so overrated, because people on here were losing their minds over those boss battles at launch, and youre literally just rolling about in a circle. So tedious.

Those boss battles were dumb but they were easy and there were very few of them so they didn't really lower my opinion of the game.😆 Essentially just non-memorable.

I really liked the Guardian battles in Arceus. That game overall is my favourite Pokémon game since Ruby, for me it just hit all the right notes for what I've always wanted Pokémon to be about, ever since playing Red for the first time in 1997. I don't think Z-A will top Arceus for me, but it's very close and I'm not at the end yet. I also don't find the boss battles difficult so far (I'm rank D), but they've been fun and varied. Just have to pay attention and learn patterns before you start aggressive play.

As someone who enjoys the turn-based aspect of Pokémon, the footage I saw of PLA's boss fights turned me off from Arceus for a long time 🤣. I'm more willing to play games that aren't turn-based now that I've gotten older, but at this rate I'll have to skip Arceus because I'm too busy with other games (like Z-A, which I'm intending on getting next spring).

Wow, visiting the museum was so worth it. Definitely visit the upper floor, if you want to see some lovely easter eggs. Little stuff like this is it what makes this city feel alive.

I got my first two shinies of this game on the weekend: A shiny Scatterbug on my Switch 1 OLED and a shiny Trubbish on the Switch 2

I love the boss battle here, although I was most annoyed by a certain boss that keep splitting themselves up. Gods, it moved so fast and I keep failing to hit it.

The rest is pretty fun, gives a bit of different flavor after samey fight.

@Jhena The museum is really good, yeah! I like how a lot of the historic details have become "distorted" with time as well

@OmnitronVariant
Yep. By the way, I am really glad that you like Z-A. I also enjoyed the Guardian battles in Arceus and the last battle, which you unlock by completing the Pokédex, was really cool.

@Jhena Oh yeah that final battle was amazing! Thinking about it makes me look forward to replaying the game some day. I hope the game receives a patch to bump handheld resolution + performance on Switch 2, but even without it, it remains a really great game.

On the topic of Z-A, it keeps adding breadth and depth to the world as I progress, and I love seeing the city changing, including the characters in it and old Wild Zones being populated with new people. And the fashion game is incredible this time around

@OmnitronVariant
A Switch 2 update would be great. I hope it will happen someday. It is a great game indeed.

I started the game yesterday, and frankly, I've been enjoying it a lot more than I was expecting after some negative reactions. I didn't have any technical issues, but there is something I would like to know just to be safe...

You know how in Scarlet/Violet, when you finished playing for the day, it was better to close the game completely instead of leaving it on sleep mode due to issues that could happen because of a memory leak? Can anyone confirm if it's safe to leave Legends Z-A on sleep mode overnight? (For reference, I have the Switch 2 version.)