Board 8 > Pokemon Legends: Z-A: The Topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

This still comes out tonight, right?

Yessir

already out in most of the world

All spoilers below are mechanics/design choices, not story.

Seen some really cool stuff so far while watching Australian streams. It's simple, but being able to use your Pokmon's typed moves when out in the wild is really cute and something I wanted in Pokmon since I was a kid. It's where HMs naturally should have gone.

Performance also seems acceptable to excellent, even on Switch 1, a massive step up from what I saw of SV and PLA. I really like a lot of the new character designs too, I think they've leaned a bit more into fanservice in places. There are a few gratuitous shots for specific characters (you will 100% know what I mean when you see them), which struck me as odd for Pokmon.

On the other hand, the real-time battles look incredibly jank. It's genuinely really funny to see and kind of cute, but I feel like the system has absolutely zero staying power or replayability. The Pokmon on the opposing team move much more snappily than yours (both around the world and when actually attacking). I'm also pretty confident that you can win a lot of battles by just standing in a janky spot and spamming ranged moves. Some of the pathfinding around scenery and obstacles is amateurish, the sort of thing you might've seen in a PS2 game. It's disappointing given they pretty much removed all wild exploration in exchange for focus on battles.

Anyway glory to Mega Falinks!!!!!

Had to go with Totodile for this one

I bought it at midnight release but I can't play before Sunday.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/918a5eb7.jpg

I picked Chikorita

Seems fun so far but it's kind of annoying how that girl keeps calling you if you try to explore. How do you even know where I am? Kind of creepy tbh

Took too long but I think they finally cut me loose to run around and it is enjoyable

I realized you can burn those bushes or whatever and use Psychic moves on the sludge stuff to clear them and it feels really intuitive and cool

Preordered last night, should be able to play after work. I had originally thought I was going to pick Chikorita or Totodile as my starter, since I always pick Cyndaquil in Johto games and Tepig was my starter in Unova. But Emboar has the coolest Mega of the three, so idk anymore. Might make a snap decision based on vibes.

JonThePenguin posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/918a5eb7.jpg

Comparing the ending of a Pokmon game to Mass Effect 2 is actually insane. Now I'm very curious, though my expectations are admittedly not very high.

mcflubbin posted...

Comparing the ending of a Pokmon game to Mass Effect 2 is actually insane. Now I'm very curious, though my expectations are admittedly not very high.

I watched it. Feels more like DBZ than Mass Effect 2.

I was not whelmed.

Nintendo can do DBZ. Wouldn't necessarily have expected it from Game Freak.

17 hours? Feels like I'm going to be screwing around for 70 hours before I finally decide to proceed through the actual story XD I love games like this. I've already got a Victreebel that I evolved from an Alpha Bellsprout, it's kicking ass.

Dont forget to go to Mystery Gift for your Ralts and Gardevoirite gift!

mcflubbin posted...

Comparing the ending of a Pokmon game to Mass Effect 2 is actually insane. Now I'm very curious, though my expectations are admittedly not very high.

It's Serebii, he simps for anything Pokemon so hard. I absolutely do not expect to be blown away lol

3 hours in and Id say that this feels a lot more fluid than Arceus. Definite gameplay improvements. Im not totally sold on the its all in one city thing given how few wild zones there appear to be (unless more pokemon get added to them as you go, thats TBD).

My knee jerk reaction after my first online ranked battle is that the ranked battles are incredibly fucking bad.

How did they not realize that you cant pick any pokemon in your current party when youre forming online teams? Current party is an automatic option but unless you only have three pokemon in it you cant even use it

I started it up today. Running around the rooftops is pretty fun so far. It seems like they might be putting in more of an effort to make certain Pokemon require a bit more exploration to find. Like the Abra on the roof can be found right away after getting the research tasks, but it takes a bit of exploration to get there.

WazzupGenius00 posted...

My knee jerk reaction after my first online ranked battle is that the ranked battles are incredibly fucking bad.

How did they not realize that you cant pick any pokemon in your current party when youre forming online teams? Current party is an automatic option but unless you only have three pokemon in it you cant even use it

P sure this was a "feature" in S/V too. YOu had to remove pokemon from your active party to make them eligible for your online party.

I cannot believe that they tested this game in full.

You could be battling an Alpha Pokemon and have it down to low HP and been chucking balls continuously trying to catch it... and then...

OOPS

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f70effc6.jpg

Everything gets reset.

SUPER COOL! (And yes, this exact scenario happened to me)

Yes, I get that the game warns you that night or day is approaching. That's no excuse for what you were just doing gets completely reset. I was watching my friend battle and about to catch a Hawlucha. It goes INTO the Pokeball and then POOF, nope, it's daytime now and that Hawlucha you were battling and about to catch is now a Pidgey LMAO

Zigzagoon posted...

I cannot believe that they tested this game in full.

i mean s/v is a pretty clear indicator they fucking suck at testing

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/2c5a4e43.jpg

I was gonna start this last night, but I decided I want to go for the platinum in Hades 2 instead, so I'll get to this when I get to it lol

Zigzagoon posted...

I cannot believe that they tested this game in full.

You could be battling an Alpha Pokemon and have it down to low HP and been chucking balls continuously trying to catch it... and then...

OOPS

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f70effc6.jpg

Everything gets reset.

SUPER COOL! (And yes, this exact scenario happened to me)

Yes, I get that the game warns you that night or day is approaching. That's no excuse for what you were just doing gets completely reset. I was watching my friend battle and about to catch a Hawlucha. It goes INTO the Pokeball and then POOF, nope, it's daytime now and that Hawlucha you were battling and about to catch is now a Pidgey LMAO

It's not a Pokemon game if it doesn't have at least one design decision that no rational person would ever make.

I feel like they could have avoided the issue if they didn't have time passing, and instead you had to pass time by sitting on the bench (which you can do anyway). Also a clock would help. A lot.

Not a fan that they brought back forced trade evos, I loved having the Link Cord items in Legends Arceus. Just a pain in the ass to have to trade with people again.

oh no i have a fossil but can't find somewhere in the museum or the lab to turn it into a pokemon but i don't want to google where else it could be

tragedy strikes

Found a shiny Trubbish, can confirm that a sound effect for when a shiny is around is back and is pretty loud

i think the game just bugged out on me because in the first rogue mega battle the enemy just... stopped moving... after it hit half health

like it literally just stood there frozen

WazzupGenius00 posted...

Found a shiny Trubbish, can confirm that a sound effect for when a shiny is around is back and is pretty loud

Not only that, but they don't despawn. The game will keep track of up to 10 spawned shinies and keep them active until you either catch them, KO them, or scare them away.

They probably realized how awful it would feel for one to spawn on some neighboring roof and then it disappears by the time you find a way over there.

That's pretty nice, hope does that mechanic work with night spawns?

.

I'm having fun so far, my only annoyance at the day/night cycle so far has been a changeover while I was in on the middle of fighting an Alpha Gible.

I'm only getting to Prism Tower the first time, but I like this way better than Violet. There's no false pretense of "open world" - but I do wish I could change my hair and clothes already (which looks a hell of a lot better in this game than Violet, too).

I'm just gonna take my own pace but I do really want that Greninjite, and I know I can't reach rank K since that would've required me doing it before the game even came out stateside (because certain Japanese players would've already been level 50+)

BlueCrystalTear posted...

I'm just gonna take my own pace but I do really want that Greninjite, and I know I can't reach rank K since that would've required me doing it before the game even came out stateside (because certain Japanese players would've already been level 50+)

It's actually very manageable. I just did it while still being Rank Y in the story with a team of Beedrill/Vivillon/Emolga. It sets everything to level 50, and you don't have to be the strongest, you just have to try to hang back a bit and land the killing blow on already weakened opponents. I got third place in most matches (with a few lucky second places), but that was enough. Only three times did I do so badly that I lost points. I was finishing with 20-40 points in most matches, and it doesn't take much to rank up.

once you can Mega Evolve you can basically guarantee you get points even if you come in 4th place. It only took me 5 or 6 battles to reach rank K and I only won I think 4 of those and got 3rd or 4th the other times. Having a move that can hit multiple targets is very useful (Waterfall on Gyarados in my case)

Man, some alphas are like, too big to be able to hit smaller stuff, their hitboxes for some attacks arent low enough to the ground

Got shiny Dedenne yesterday.

We played like 9h of it yesterday. Has that Arceus thing of wanting to explore every little nook and cranny, but more nooks and crannies because of alleys, rooftops etc. However, less surprising stuff than Arceus on the whole because so much is contained to wild zones. I did get a Hawlucha very early on though.

I got my first shiny this morning. Spinarak >_<

Got a Shiny Aron!

Haven't seen any natural shinies.

I've seen one... Magikarp.

some of these rogue mega battles are annoying not because theyre hard but because when theyre firing a barrage of things and youre dodging your pokemon just fucking lags behind and gets hit by literally everything

I just call back my Pokemon if possible when the boss is doing some flashy thing they're bound to stand in.

Got a Shiny Emolga now.

Sorry Emma I have no time for your quests, I need to shop for better clothes

OK 4 of my team are set and I'm yet to find an Inkay for the 5th. I like having the 6th as a wildcard. (Emboar, Charizard, Hawlucha, Starmie, Malamar is the plan)

I really want to have Aurorus on my team but the fossil pokemon not getting Megas means it's kinda useless to have for rogue mega battles. I'll still keep it for miscellaneous battles though.

Also the fossil pokemon not getting megas is criminal quite frankly

Thanks for the tips, mnk. I'll play some of that tonight. I have the Beedrill, but need to find an Emolga. I'll figure out a third, but may just use the wild caught Vivillion.

The moment the game let me do what I wanted, I explored everything. Got some new clothes (where are short sleeve shirts?), found some of the screws, and I'm enjoying it. I don't feel restricted by my levels, and there are no gym leaders to solo with just a lower level Oricorio. Do need to find the item maniac and Mega shard repository.

The Emolga was not at all useful, I'm just saying it's the best I had, lol. It was basically just there to switch to in matches filled with Emboars/Charizards, and I dunno maybe I got a KO with it on a Gyarados or Greninja. If you just play a little further than I did before I went online, I'm sure you could find something else better. Even just a middle stage starter could probably do more damage than it.

Instead of Emolga get something that can learn whichever early Electric TM you get from Research rewards, I forget if its Thunder Punch or Thunder Fang

Hell of a first shiny.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/ad8f902b.jpg