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

[Shaymin]

I don’t know how to make the Forbidden Donut but I’m pretty sure it gives Shining Power and Alpha Power level 3.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/73609/pokemon-legends-z-a-mega-dimension-switch-2-review

Perhaps due to the base game getting a delay in order to create a Switch 2 version, Pokemon Legends: Z-A has broken Fire Emblem: Engage’s record for fastest expansion pass completion in Nintendo* history. This has led to a lot of accusations that the Mega Dimension portion of the DLC was somehow content cut from the main game. Once those accusations are cheerfully rejected, the result is a fun extension of the main game that also resolves a lot of things that have been concerns with Pokemon games post-3DS for someone like me who hasn’t met a Pokedex I haven’t tried to 100% complete.

The DLC is clearly designed as postgame content, as the first battle I encountered after downloading the 2.0 update was at level 75. Following the battle, Team MZ falls into an area dubbed “Hyperspace Lumiose” in order to save a young girl named Antha who is accompanied by the mythical Pokemon Hoopa who seemingly cannot battle, but can use its dimension warping abilities to move the player in and out of Hyperspace Lumiose on a temporary basis thanks to the power of donuts. A massive portal to Hyperspace Lumiose opens up over the centre of town, and as the player completes objectives in Hyperspace Lumiose portals open to new Rogue Mega Pokemon who thankfully can be dealt with 3-on-1, though some of the later Rogue Megas have levels of power the main game never touched. The end goals are simple: close the giant portal and help Antha discover a legendary Pokemon she ran into on her way into town.

It really feels like the DLC was designed specifically for handheld play, since the time limits for exploring the zones start out low and it takes until the endgame before you have the materials to give a lot of time to exploration. The donut system borrows some elements from the sandwiches of Scarlet and Violet in that with enough power you can unlock enhancements like higher item drop rates, damage buffs / reduction, and perhaps most importantly for the Internet at large enhanced shiny and Alpha Pokemon rates. But getting to the point that you can do these high-end donuts requires clearing through the main story quickly in order to unlock more powerful donut ingredients, which are usually gated through clearing a research. Playing Mega Dimension eventually unlocks 80 different side quests, and if I managed to clear 20% of them in my playthrough I’d call that a success even accounting for ones that unlock new Mega Stones and clothing options I made sure to gun for. I meant to go through the city on my Switch 2 file and get all of the TMs I didn’t get during the playthrough, but didn’t even have time to do that.

"Hey Corbeau, you know what the difference is between you and me? I make this look good."

There is a challenge aspect to the Hyperspace Zones since in order to proceed you have to complete three objectives (except for sidequest zones) similar to the Professor’s research in Pokemon zones and later on battle objectives in zones that are similar to bonus cards that might have been picked up through the Z-A Royale. On a side note, for those of you who didn’t want to grind through the 1000 battles to get to the final Professor research rank of 50 in the base game, the DLC does offer research points for the new Pokedex (roughly 130 Pokemon), new ranks for the “Mega Pokedex”, and awards points for exploring zones which means you’ll more than likely get the endgame reward of the Shiny Charm. If you did excessive postgame grinding to get this, I am so sorry.

In addition to freeing you from multiple battle breakfasts at the restaurants, Mega Dimension also brings some other things that resolve annoyances I’ve had - in some cases, for years. The game throws experience candy at you like it’s going out of style so you don’t have to buy it using the Mega Shards, but also unlocks a grip of new moves that can be bought with shards you will pick up by the gross in hyperspace zones. Without getting into spoilers for some of the stuff that shows up later on in the game and in the DLC’s “postgame” (after the credits roll) there are now only six Pokemon out of 1,025 that are not permanently available on a Switch and two of them will likely become available when Scarlet and Violet stop getting Tera Raid updates. (At least two Pokemon use never-expiring internet Mystery Gifts to unlock which will technically be unavailable if Switch games lose internet access the way DS and 3DS games did, but given the Switch 2 is using the same infrastructure it may still be running at the end of the next decade. If we make it that far.) The Z-A battle system even allows for moves that I’ve never touched with a ten foot pole to have use in story battles such as the old “one hit KO” moves, which are now TMs in Mega Dimension. And I did enjoy running double battles - with other trainers - using the Z-A battle system which is used for that first battle and some of the sidequests.

It's Sonic's 30th anniversary, so here's the Pokemon tribute to "Living In The City".

There were a couple of things that did annoy me in the course of the playthrough, one seemingly technical and one aesthetic. I was using the returning Staraptor for a good portion of the playthrough as my main item gatherer since being a Flying type it could get to floating item boxes easily. And it was the first shiny I found in the DLC, too. Multiple times, I would lock onto an item in the environment, commit the attack, and Staraptor would fly off a couple hundred metres in the other direction to the point where I had to call it back and repeat the attack. I’m not sure if this is intentional or not but it’s really annoying under a time limit and I never had that problem in the main game. The aesthetic problem is that Lumiose doesn’t have much environmental variety to begin with, barring sewers (gross), and if you don’t roll a sewer zone you just get a cityscape but with extra gray. It’s not exactly beating the “drab” accusations. That said, the new music is enjoyable, with particular notice to one song that was pulled straight from Legends: Arceus for a well-earned reason near the end of the story.

I’m not sure which of the DLC campaigns for Pokemon we’ve gotten in the last 12 months I prefer, but they are similar. Both Mega Dimension and the Indigo Disk focus on double battles and high level combat plus bring in Pokemon that were hard-to-impossible to get on Switch before. Though I do like replaying the Indigo Disk, so the Z-A twist on the format is definitely worth grabbing after you’ve had your fill of the main game. Just remember to do all the sidequests first, since the first thing they advertised for Mega Dimension - the Mega Raichus - requires completing a side quest with another side quest as an unlock.