Buy Now
| Buy on |
|
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
- Unscored
-
Oct 24, 2025If you took out the branding and populated it with generic creatures instead of marketable pocket monsters, Pokémon Legends: Z-A would be rightly seen as a sub-mediocre and sloppy RPG, the kind with 115 "mostly negative" user reviews on Steam. Game Freak knows how much grace the public affords Pokémon and has taken the absolute piss with it, churning out a cheap budget game with a premium price, expensive DLC, and a ten buck markup to get a decent framerate...The audacity of this exploitative cash-in is honestly quite disgusting. At least Ekans is in it.
| This publication does not provide a score for their reviews. | |
| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
| These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation. | |
-
Oct 14, 2025Oddly enough, Pokémon Legends: Z-A delivers a mostly polished, fairly challenging and compelling game —this isn't your average gimmicky merchandising-making machine. I enjoyed the story thoroughly and found the new combat system to be deep and interesting even beyond the scope of competitive-minded players. It's a great surprise overall, opening up new questions on how the franchise will evolve beyond its no longer unwavering roots. [Recommended]
-
Oct 22, 2025Z-A is a game of trying new things and hoping for the best. Not everyone agrees on what the best course of action is, but nevertheless, Lumiose City has to move forward and carve out a future for itself, much like the Pokémon franchise has been trying to do in recent years. It has started abandoning long-held traditions, both in the games and elsewhere, in the hopes that it can be something greater than the corporate machine has forced it to be for so long. Maybe not every change is going to work for everyone, and it will take time for a series that was stuck in its ways for so long to find its footing.
-
Oct 21, 2025Pokémon Legends: Z-A takes its own steps forward, and is met with similar roadblocks as its predecessors. It can’t escape from the weight of players having been here, done this before. I’ve evolved Totodile up to Feraligatr before. I’ve caught Pikachu before. I’ve had an entire team of Eeveelutions before. I’ve caught Legendaries and completed a Pokédex before. I’ve named my trainer Glitch and given him purple hair before. I’ve been doing everything Pokémon Legends: Z-A offers for years at this point, yet I can’t stop from doing it again. Pokémon is still able to grab hold with Krabby-like claws and not let go. Such is the delight and burden of that near-perfect formula from 1996.
-
Oct 21, 2025Pokémon Legends Z-A improves on its predecessor, Arceus, by making battles just as fun as the previous entry made catching. The Z-A Royale and the mystery of Rogue Mega Pokémon mean exploring Lumiose City is a consistently rewarding delight, especially when every corner feels carefully curated with Pokémon quests, items, and more. While visual fidelity is no match for Arceus’ better artistic direction, Z-A runs flawlessly. Plus, visually, both Lumiose City and the title’s character designs have moments of brilliance. Altogether, whether exploring Wild Zones to uncover Pokémon, steamrolling through battles, or leaping across rooftops, Pokémon Legends Z-A is a consistently and brilliantly rewarding entry in the Pokémon franchise that hopefully heralds the start of a new standard.
-
Oct 14, 2025Z-A makes a strong showing as the Switch 2’s first major Pokémon debut, illustrating how this series is at its best when it gets experimental. And hopefully some of this good energy gets channeled into the next generation of Pokémon games.
Awards & Rankings
There are no user reviews yet.