Pokémon Legends: Z-A: Mega Dimension Review (Switch 2)

After hopping into my 20th Hyperspace in Pokémon Legends: Z-A’s DLC, Mega Dimension, I realised something. I’ve been doing the same things over and over again for the past few hours.

Now, I know the series isn’t exactly known for varying things, but it feels particularly egregious within a condensed DLC experience. And for the entire 10-15 hours I’ve spent running around these Hyperspace pockets, I can probably count on one hand what I’ve done.

This is a pretty chunky DLC in Pokémon terms — the main story can probably be beaten in around 6-8 hours, but there are a lot of new Pokémon, new Side Missions, and more to dig into, including after the credits — but the bulk of Mega Dimension feels like empty calories. Here I am, back in Lumiose City, a place I already got bored with fast because of its lack of variety, and now I’m running around the same handful of randomly-generated Hyperspace pockets over and over again just to fulfil research tasks and progress the story.

Yes, you read that right: randomly-generated. Mega Dimension is sort of a roguelite, and that stopped me from completely sleepwalking my way through every single dimension. For what the liminal pearly white snapshots of Lumiose City lack in variety, they make up for in a handful of other ways. They’re home to an abundance of new returning creatures. Not only that, the ‘mons in these spaces are all over level 100, with many reaching way beyond 150 in the later stages.

I’ve grown up with this franchise, and if you think I don’t still get excited whenever I see a Cubone running around carefree or even newer ‘mons like Sandygast bobbing around in the concrete, then I’m sorry. It’s especially exciting to see these Pokémon at levels way beyond the level cap. Who knew a gang of level 120 Mankey would be lethal? I watched six of them beat up my Feraligatr in no time at all. I got the same level of thrill encountering Alpha Pokémon in Legends: Arceus whenever I jumped into a level 180 dimension and found something I hadn’t caught before.

The higher levels in these dimensions is easily the best thing about this DLC. It makes catching wild Pokémon fun in a different way; no longer am I guaranteed to get something just because it’s a Meditite or a Sandile. It might beat me and my Pokémon up before I get a chance to weaken it a little or sneak up on it. In fact, I found the compact corridors and rooftops of Lumiose worked to the DLC’s advantage, because I had to be a little more thoughtful about how to catch things here than in the base game’s Wild Zones.

Catching Pokémon and dealing with high-level monsters are the highs; the lows are the repetitive maps, the annoying platforming, and the list of random tasks that you complete to build up research points. The grind only gets longer the further in you get.

There’s nothing compelling about awkwardly floating from one rooftop to another, or scrambling around to find the right ladder to get to the top of the building you’re aiming for. Destroying boulders, watering down sludge, picking up items, breaking Poké Balls, catching ‘mons I already have 10 of in my box, or fighting trainers à la the Z-A Royale. It’s all the same stuff in the same spaces I’ve spent hours and hours running around a few months ago.

These alternate pockets of Lumiose City exacerbate all of my problems with the city in the base game. The city lacks character, and in these spaces, it’s all just a blank slate of whiteness. There’s no real way to jump, meaning you have to drop and float and hope you land in the right spot. They’re a chore to get around, with no map and a time limit determined by the type of donut you feed Hoopa before jumping in. And there’s maybe only about six variations of these spaces. When I’m excited to see a sewer, of all places, you know something’s up.

The aforementioned donut making could be cute, and initially, it kind of is – Hoopa and new character Ansha are a delightful pair, and who doesn’t like donuts? But like exploring Hyperspace, baking is a chore. Using berries from the base game (and eventually, Hyper berries), you make donuts that determine how much you increase your Pokémon’s levels and the amount of time you can spend in Hyperspace, depending on the dimension’s star rank and the donut’s rank.

You need to make a lot of these, and you can only make one at a time. It’s Animal Crossing crafting all over again. Weirdly, there’s an option to make the exact same donut you just made, but if your Coba-flavoured confection was a test and you know how to make it better, have fun making one at a time over and over again. And if you don't have any great donuts available, well, get ready to run around the city or Hyperspace or buy them one by one from a vendor.

Luckily, what is great about the base game is still great here. The action-oriented combat is still largely excellent, perhaps let down by some of the chaotic forced double battles peppered throughout the story. The Rogue Mega Evolution fights are actually even better in Mega Dimension, because your foe actually moves around and engages with the space. I even lost to one of them because I jumped in unprepared and was shocked at just how fast it moved and how hard it hit.

When you’re fighting something that matches your level, or something that exceeds it, things get nail-biting, a scramble of defensive choices, Pokémon-swapping, and dodging. But when the DLC basically requires you to be level 100 in the first few hours, but still throws mandatory trainer fights at level 70 your way, it’s a little baffling.

The repetitiveness of Mega Dimension really does let the DLC down because, like with Legends: Z-A, there are some really good foundations here. A Pokémon roguelite could work really well, but there’s little variety to take much advantage of the randomness, besides the Pokémon you encounter.

The combat is great, but give me a set of consistent, high-level fights. Even the Side Missions are a step-up here, for the most part, but for every good battle, story of a city struggling with change, or brand new Mega Evolution encounter, there’s another fetch quest or “trail the Pokémon” task.