Current Events > Pokemon Legends Z-A General 2: Dancing With the Star(yu)s *potential spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

How even is the online? Is it fun? Is it always just a free for all and not a 1v1?

This is a game I could see having a strong 2v2 mode

It's three or four player versus as far as I recall.

I finished the main story, kind of (credits rolled but there's still stuff after).

My thoughts broken down to what I didn't care for, some QoL improvements I think that could be made, and what I liked:

THE BAD
I actually didn't care for the battle system. I think it's really boring and less strategic than the turn based games. Status moves don't really do much in this game (can you even inflict the megas with status effects?) and the stat changing moves take too much time to use for how short they last. Given that in trainer battles, knocking out your opponent basically resets your CDs, I never found a use for them and even when I tried I would get knocked out or taken to a one-hit scenario. Also with the lack of abilities a lot of Pokemon lost their identity in the game, in my opinion.

I don't like the dodge mechanics of the game, either.

Also the way the environment can block your moves (both literally AND the fact that your own Pokemon will get "stuck" on it) is actually insane, unintuitive, and unfun. It hurts my heart that my Pokemon are idiots.

THE QOLs
I think some QoL changes to be more fluid with gameplay are

• having an "auto heal" function. Unlike past entries, you're going to take damage, you're going to get status'd, and it's going to happen frequently. A way to quickly heal would be nice.
• A quicker way to get around. I really like exploring Lumiose but towards the end of the game I just wanted to get it over with. I wish there were a bike/skateboard or something to make movement speed a little faster.
• If a Pokemon evolves through an item, it should still show in the party list but when you go to evolve that's when it prompts you for the item. This one's kinda small but I feel like it made sense to me (and perhaps to kids playing that might not want to go through their stones or look things up)
• Please make it more obvious when a Pokemon learns a new move and doesn't have space. I feel like every level up I just glued my eyes to the left column because I didn't want to accidentally miss a useful move. Also on the subject of moves, they should really do a move pass with TMs (Flaaffy can learn Ice Punch... but not Thunder Punch? And Feraligatr can't learn Ice Punch at all? Huh?)
• I think Pokemon that are fainted should be guaranteed captures. It's really annoying that they're not, especially given that Pokemon don't continuously respawn (they should).

THE GOOD
I loved exploring Lumiose City/having the whole game take place there. It felt really cozy and I loved going up on the roofs and jumping around with Rotom. The only critique I'd have is that there's so much loot piling up that it never felt exciting to find. I never felt "oh wow I'm glad I went here" it felt kind of repetitive after a while.

The way side quests were presented is probably my favorite aspect of any Pokemon game to-date. It was really cool, felt like you were living in the city and making friends, and gave many forgotten/overlooked Pokemon a little moment. It really made me think about how some people say "every Pokemon is someone's favorite Pokemon!" and a lot of the side quests made me smile. Definitely the highlight of the game for me.

Overall it was pretty fun, but by the end I was getting kind of bored. Also I was going to use spoiler tags but I don't actually think anything I wrote was particularly spoiler-ish. If anyone disagrees I can edit my message. I'd give it a 7.5/10 overall.

random_man9119 posted...

I didn't get help yet but I'm cool with waiting... It's my night off so I'm home all day

Holy long work day. Heading home now and good to go in 20 minutes if you still need it. Feel free to shoot me a DM.

Phanir posted...

Holy long work day. Heading home now and good to go in 20 minutes if you still need it. Feel free to shoot me a DM.

About to eat dinner so it might be a bit but I'll DM you when I'm good

Kaldrenthebold posted...

How even is the online? Is it fun? Is it always just a free for all and not a 1v1?

This is a game I could see having a strong 2v2 mode

It's a free for all with typically 4 players. You bring 3 pokemon and whenever one of your pokemon is knocked out you get a 2-3 second timer before you respawn. There is mega energy throughout the map that you can grab to speed up getting your mega. At the end of the match the game gives you points based off of your rank, how many pokemon you KO'd, if you mega'd first, if you knocked out a mega and a few others.

It isn't that hard to rank up I got last one game and only KO'd 3 pokemon and I still got rep to improve my rank.

Now is it fun. That is all subjective. For me no. It is way less tactical then the traditional system and as I complained earlier it really sucks when another opponent sneaks in the KO on the pokemon you were battling. I had a match where one guy had a Metagross and I had nothing to counter it and the other 2 players had, from what I could see where fletching, heracross and sableeye. That guy would beat me and then easily clean up the other 2 before I could respawn. Then mega to beat me again and KO the other two. I ended up in 2nd with 6 KO's and he had 10.

I went hard catching Pokemon today and got my Pokedex to 226/230, only missing Zygarde and the 3 trade evolutions that I can't do because I don't have NSO. Someone on Reddit did mention to me that it's possible I might have a 7-day free trial of NSO available to me if I were to try and subscribe today, so I'll go on the eShop later on and see if it's there. I don't think it will be because of how recently I was last subscribed (my last one ran out around this time last year IIRC) but it's worth checking. If I do have that free trial available to me so I can get the link trades done, then I'll start working towards the 1000 battles for the shiny charm.

Has this happened to anyone else? When you're sneaking up on an AI trainer in the Battle Zone, selected your attack and then right as you Pokemon is about to attack the trainer turns, detects you and the game decides you're the one caught off guard? Like, Blastoise is literally charging up Hydro Pump, how am I the one off guard? I've committed to this battle 5 seconds ago. Kind of annoying

Also I'm super glad I picked Chikorita. I always liked Chikorita but Johto is very unkind to Grass types.

gamerman57 posted...

Has this happened to anyone else? When you're sneaking up on an AI trainer in the Battle Zone, selected your attack and then right as you Pokemon is about to attack the trainer turns, detects you and the game decides you're the one caught off guard? Like, Blastoise is literally charging up Hydro Pump, how am I the one off guard? I've committed to this battle 5 seconds ago. Kind of annoying

Yes, it's very annoying. All you can do is try to position yourself better so you're more out of sight. Their detection is based on them seeing you, not your Pokemon.

I missed out on an Alpha Larvitar. I saw it and was about to engage with it, but day was turning into night in just a few seconds. When night fell, the Larvitar respawned as just a normal one.

MNThunder posted...

It's a free for all with typically 4 players. You bring 3 pokemon and whenever one of your pokemon is knocked out you get a 2-3 second timer before you respawn. There is mega energy throughout the map that you can grab to speed up getting your mega. At the end of the match the game gives you points based off of your rank, how many pokemon you KO'd, if you mega'd first, if you knocked out a mega and a few others.

It isn't that hard to rank up I got last one game and only KO'd 3 pokemon and I still got rep to improve my rank.

Now is it fun. That is all subjective. For me no. It is way less tactical then the traditional system and as I complained earlier it really sucks when another opponent sneaks in the KO on the pokemon you were battling. I had a match where one guy had a Metagross and I had nothing to counter it and the other 2 players had, from what I could see where fletching, heracross and sableeye. That guy would beat me and then easily clean up the other 2 before I could respawn. Then mega to beat me again and KO the other two. I ended up in 2nd with 6 KO's and he had 10.

Thank you for the write up! I enjoy the combat system but have concerns with it versus humans.

Kaldrenthebold posted...

Thank you for the write up! I enjoy the combat system but have concerns with it versus humans.

that's all correct on how it is right now, but the game is still new and people just rushed to get it but as the season go on it will get harder once people min-max thir pokemon and learn what's the most efficient way to fight

https://x.com/SerebiiNet/status/1983646039006703833

I slightly take what I said back but this will make it WAAAYY easier

I will say that free for all system is arguably better then 1v1 for most players. You can get last place and still get progress which I doubt would happen in a 1v1

Also this season ends in a week.

In the sewers trying to get a shiny skrelp. Got a shiny kelfki and patrat so far. Watchog's run is freaking hilarious.

Edit: And now just found a shiny noibat.

Biofighter55 posted...

that's all correct on how it is right now, but the game is still new and people just rushed to get it but as the season go on it will get harder once people min-max thir pokemon and learn what's the most efficient way to fight

https://x.com/SerebiiNet/status/1983646039006703833

I slightly take what I said back but this will make it WAAAYY easier

Does this mean currently greninjite is being nerfed to rank Y and wont be available in season 2, or is it still rank k is season one, but will also be available at rank y in season 2?

DodogamaRayBrst posted...

Does this mean currently greninjite is being nerfed to rank Y and wont be available in season 2, or is it still rank k is season one, but will also be available at rank y in season 2?

It feels like it means that if you don't get it by Nov. 4th you can get it in S2.

ReiRei89 posted...

In the sewers trying to get a shiny skrelp. Got a shiny kelfki and patrat so far. Watchog's run is freaking hilarious.

Edit: And now just found a shiny noibat.

You guys make finding shinies sound so easy. I've walked everywhere and have yet to hear any jingle. Hell, I don't even know what the jingle is ever supposed to sound like. I didn't hear any when I found the Shiny Mareep for that one sidequest.

Ivynn posted...

You guys make finding shinies sound so easy. I've walked everywhere and have yet to hear any jingle. Hell, I don't even know what the jingle is ever supposed to sound like. I didn't hear any when I found the Shiny Mareep for that one sidequest.

What method are you using to hunt? If you want super easy shinies go to zone 3 and hold down on the control stick to go up and down the building. It's fully afk-able and can get you an average of 5 shinies per hour. The only problem with this method is that it's very limited in Pokemon but this is a very easy way to get shinies.

DodogamaRayBrst posted...

Does this mean currently greninjite is being nerfed to rank Y and wont be available in season 2, or is it still rank k is season one, but will also be available at rank y in season 2?

right its still rank K and it seems the it will available at rank Y as some as season 2 starts

Puglia77 posted...

What method are you using to hunt? If you want super easy shinies go to zone 3 and hold down on the control stick to go up and down the building. It's fully afk-able and can get you an average of 5 shinies per hour. The only problem with this method is that it's very limited in Pokemon but this is a very easy way to get shinies.

....method?

I'm kinda just running around Pokemon spawn points.

Ivynn posted...

....method?

I'm kinda just running around Pokemon spawn points.

That will help you see more Pokemon, and seeing more Pokemon rolls more chances to spawn a shiny, but it's still a 1/4096 chance without the shiny charm. A lot of people use methods to spawn as many Pokemon in a fast amount of time to speed up the amount of chances you get for shinies. The fastest way to do that is in zone 3, you spawn something like 20 Pokemon every 3 seconds. So after 1 hour you've spawned thousands of Pokemon and the shiny spawned would have easily rolled within that hour.

I did the the three rogue megas and now I have to fight Canari. I assume she's a electric type user so I'm leveling the alpha Krokork I caught earlier.

I wish I had to fight Canari again.

Ok I kinda giggled when Lida was given a water stone and it was this big emotional moment like it was some rare item. Meanwhile I have like 15 of them in my bag lol

Puglia77 posted...

That will help you see more Pokemon, and seeing more Pokemon rolls more chances to spawn a shiny, but it's still a 1/4096 chance without the shiny charm. A lot of people use methods to spawn as many Pokemon in a fast amount of time to speed up the amount of chances you get for shinies. The fastest way to do that is in zone 3, you spawn something like 20 Pokemon every 3 seconds. So after 1 hour you've spawned thousands of Pokemon and the shiny spawned would have easily rolled within that hour.

What if I want a specific Shiny of a mon not found in Zone 3?

DodogamaRayBrst posted...

I wish I had to fight Canari again.

best girl

Ivynn posted...

What if I want a specific Shiny of a mon not found in Zone 3?

Fast travel to a Wild Zone to reset the Pokemon inside if you want something from a specific Wild Zone...

Outside of WZs, you can despawn and respawn stuff by walking far enough away from it

random_man9119 posted...

Outside of WZs, you can despawn and respawn stuff by walking far enough away from it

That's what I'm currently doing to try and get a Shiny Ralts, but I was at it for an hour and nothing.

Ivynn posted...

That's what I'm currently doing to try and get a Shiny Ralts, but I was at it for an hour and nothing.

Most I can say is keep at it... Was at it for almost two hours trying to get a Shalpha Spritzee to no results... Well, I did get a Shalpha Pansear but that's a sad consolation prize lol

Ivynn posted...

What if I want a specific Shiny of a mon not found in Zone 3?

If the Pokemon spawns 50 meters from any bench, you can go to a bench and use the night/day cycle to reroll that Pokemon as much as you want. When you fly to a wild zone, it places you in front of the gate and 50 meters from that radius the Pokemon will also reroll. Something like Dratini though, since it spawns on rooftops you have to find a spot where you can go 50 meters away from it to spawn it and run back to 70 meters away from it so that it despawns. When you get 50 meters away from it again it will respawn and reroll.

There's a stupidly easy Beldum method too when you get to that part of the story. In Lysandre Labs, go up to where Beldum spawns and as long as you're not being targeted, fly back to the warp point of Lysandre Labs. Then go right to where Houndoom is and use the teleporter. As long as you can hear Beldum's cry from the other side of that teleporter, you can keep going back and forth to reroll Beldum and Metang (and all other surrounding Pokemon) and it takes like 2 seconds each roll.

Ivynn posted...

You guys make finding shinies sound so easy. I've walked everywhere and have yet to hear any jingle. Hell, I don't even know what the jingle is ever supposed to sound like. I didn't hear any when I found the Shiny Mareep for that one sidequest.

Just look up ZA shiny hunt clips on youtube if you want to hear the jingle




PowerOats posted...

TC, why didn't you convince Gamefreak to bring back the Gen 3 Megas?

I'm not the TC, but they most likely are back in the DLC anyway

I don't think that announcing dlc expansions before the game is out is bad unless it's basically day one dlc.

Buuuut... if you make a mega evolution pokemon game and you strategically withhold a couple of megas for said dlc.

:/

Ivynn posted...

That's what I'm currently doing to try and get a Shiny Ralts, but I was at it for an hour and nothing.

You can use benches to change the time which resets the spawns and saves the game. There is a spot near Magenta Sector 7 and 8 where two ralts spawn and on the building above their is a bench. If you have an controller that has auto mode you can afk there, if not then manually doing it works.

Twinklestar posted...

Just look up ZA shiny hunt clips on youtube if you want to hear the jingle

Took until I found a 4th video before I found a clip that didn't include some dumbass talking head talking over the damn thing!

Got me a shiny Absol while scouring rooftops. I was an idiot and immediately fainted it, but got it on the first ultraball.

Ya know with how many artist NPCs there are, especially with the side quests, Im kinda shocked Smeargle isnt in this game

Too bad Krookodile didn't 't get a mega, I like Krookodile

I am very upset the following pokemon did not get megas:

Pangoro
Aurorus
Noivern
Dedenne
Clawitzer

Calwings posted...

Someone on Reddit did mention to me that it's possible I might have a 7-day free trial of NSO available to me if I were to try and subscribe today, so I'll go on the eShop later on and see if it's there.

So yeah, turns out I did have a 7-day free trial available to me! So I got that and got the trade evolutions done that I needed to, now I'm at 229/230 for the Pokedex. Now I just need to go farther into the Infinite Royale to unlock the final post-game quest to catch Zygarde, then I can focus on completing the 1000 battles and any other remaining Mable Research tasks to get the shiny charm.

DodogamaRayBrst posted...

I am very upset the following pokemon did not get megas:

Pangoro
Aurorus
Noivern
Dedenne
Clawitzer

I would have loved to see a mega Roserade myself, and me catching a shiny Budew only made that desire even stronger. Also, I want to see a mega Vanilluxe or Klefki just to piss off the people who don't like those designs. I think they're funny.

Ive never understood the Vanilluxe hate. Its cute and there are way more ridiculous designs

Watchog's run is stupidly funny. I decided to temp slot the shiny one I have into my team while I am hunting for shiny skrelp.

Calwings posted...

So yeah, turns out I did have a 7-day free trial available to me! So I got that and got the trade evolutions done that I needed to, now I'm at 229/230 for the Pokedex. Now I just need to go farther into the Infinite Royale to unlock the final post-game quest to catch Zygarde, then I can focus on completing the 1000 battles and any other remaining Mable Research tasks to get the shiny charm.

I would have loved to see a mega Roserade myself, and me catching a shiny Budew only made that desire even stronger. Also, I want to see a mega Vanilluxe or Klefki just to piss off the people who don't like those designs. I think they're funny.

Flygon. For me

BlueBoy675 posted...

Ive never understood the Vanilluxe hate. Its cute and there are way more ridiculous designs

It's mostly just boomer genwunners screeching "They're runnin outta idears!" at every objectmon from later gens while also conveniently ignoring that their precious gen 1 had Voltorb and Exeggcute.

My issue with Vanilluxe is the weird second head.

I have just one Canari plush upgrade left and Im one screw short. Im assuming that means there is only one screw left to find in the whole city. Yeesh

Unless more canari plushes unlock after you upgrade all the initial ones to level 3 I have something like 10 screws more than I would need.

Calwings posted...

It's mostly just boomer genwunners screeching "They're runnin outta idears!" at every objectmon from later gens while also conveniently ignoring that their precious gen 1 had Voltorb and Exeggcute.

as someone who played the first games when I was like 7 in the 2000s I just look this up and Vanilluxe is cute

and I never liked voltorb lol like I get the concept he looks like a Pokball, doesnt mean its a good Pokemon

every generation including the first had ehhhh Pokemon

actually I think the first had the most hit or miss Pokemon

BlueBoy675 posted...

I have just one Canari plush upgrade left and Im one screw short. Im assuming that means there is only one screw left to find in the whole city. Yeesh

Nope. You only need 80 Colorful Screws to max out all of the Canari plushes from the exchange, but there are 100 in total you can find in the city. There is a special reward for finding all 100, but it doesn't have any gameplay function and is purely cosmetic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID8LDNIiZ1I

Calwings posted...

It's mostly just boomer genwunners screeching "They're runnin outta idears!" at every objectmon from later gens while also conveniently ignoring that their precious gen 1 had Voltorb and Exeggcute.

Back in my day we had good Pokemon! Like rock with arms, literal ball, and pile of goo!