UK Charts: Pokémon Legends: Z-A Sales Almost 50/50 Across Switch And Switch 2

Wow, that split for PL:ZA was a little in favor of Switch 2, which surprised me! I must admit that I am interested in the game because I hear that the combat is amazing. I’m still going to wait, though, as I’d prefer to wait for a full edition that includes all of the DLC. I also don’t want to purchase Pokémon games from Day 1 (-ish) anymore.

The Mario Galaxy pack’s success is also very encouraging. Replaying Galaxy 1 has been so much fun, and I’m eager to start Galaxy 2 after that.

It is not just these wild places where @Reprise Pokemon can be found. Pokemon can also be found outside in large numbers. For instance, there are certain special Pokemon that I can only find on rooftops.

I believe it’s a little misleading for people to read about small wild areas and think that’s the only place to explore and find wild Pokemon.

Furthermore, the verticality of some of the Wild areas you unlock much later in the game makes them much larger and more engaging.

It also fits in well with the story, explaining why there are initially so few wild areas and how they gradually increase, as well as why Pokemon can be found outside of them. Again, to avoid giving anything away, I won’t go into detail here.

You don’t immediately unlock every area, just like in the old mainline games. Not all roof tops and other areas are accessible until much later in the game (I won’t go into too much detail so as not to give anything away).

Though size isn’t everything, the game area isn’t as large as that of the newest mainline games or Legends: Arceus.

Towns, gyms, and other features were strewn all over the Paldea area in Scarlet/Violet, and Pokemon were spawning everywhere. You spend a lot of time in a dull landscape simply getting from point A to point B.

The restricted space of Area Zero appealed to me, and I found the Biome in DLC2 to be much more fascinating.

Because Lumiose City is so vertical and has so many secret nooks and crannies, the map is much more interesting in this instance.

That is far more appealing to me than simply having a large, open area with a few trees scattered throughout and some Pokemon like Legends: Arceus roaming around.

That becomes dull to me far more quickly than Legends:ZA.

For that reason, I find that I enjoy Legends:ZA much more than I did Legends:Arceus, which I was never able to finish because I became disinterested really quickly.

It’s a prevalent issue with a lot of these big open world games. Like CD Project Red with Cyberpunk 2077, very few are able to do it exceptionally well.

@Jedrus_Lilac I hope the online criticism doesn’t have a big impact on this game. Generally speaking, the game is good, and the majority of hate videos I’ve seen are from people who have acknowledged in their videos that they haven’t played it and won’t purchase it due to what they see—that is, without actually playing the game and thus missing the gameplay.

Yes, Game Freak has to fix a few things, but they’ve made sure the game runs well and released an entertaining and addictive update to the series mechanics. Unbelievably, Z-A also has a higher Open Critic score than the most recent Digimon release. Not to set them against one another, as many are doing, but simply to show that instead of two series fighting, we should be happy that two excellent games in the same genre came out close to one another and that they are sufficiently different from one another to be worth playing.

At this point, there is more of an online backlash for clicks than genuine enthusiasm for the IP. Are there problems with Z-A? Game Freak has already addressed other problems from the previous generation, and while there are certain things they need to improve, the game’s fun factor is unquestionably there and strong. Given how quickly they release games, they’re producing higher-quality games than you might anticipate and using their intellectual property more creatively than, say, Madden or COD does annually.

@eltomo The issue with a lot of reviewers is that. They either play only a portion of the game to be able to post a review on the first day of release, or they simply speed through it, finish the story, and ignore the majority of the rest.

Even after playing the game for more than 30 hours (and barely making it to rank C), there are a lot of side missions that are easy to overlook that grant access to new areas or unlock new “stuff” (I won’t go into specifics so as not to give anything away).

The majority of these reviewers probably missed the majority of these, so they never had a chance to explore and experience everything that this game has to offer.

There is a ton of content in this game. Based on my observations from the streamers I follow, you can easily spend 25 to 30 hours playing this game just by completing the Story.

That is, if you have no interest in any side missions, finishing the Pokedex, or achieving the highest research rank in order to obtain the Shiny Charm or other in-game items. which could easily give the game at least fifty hours more.

This so-called “small” map of Lumiose City is packed with activities and content.

Therefore, once more, people must stop obsessing over map size!

I would prefer a smaller game map that is interesting, dense, vertical, full of surprises, and offers a ton of activities. than a large, flat, open map with hills, trees, and a few small caverns scattered throughout, along with some Pokemon that roamed around, which was Legends: Arceus.

@Reprise, after just a few hours of play, you have barely progressed past the tutorial phase, are still at a very low rank, have only unlocked a small number of Wild areas, and are unable to access many of the lower and roof areas.

As the story goes on, you unlock more and more Wild areas; however, once the credits have rolled and the story is finished, you do not unlock the final Wild area or areas. In fact, it is a component of post-game content.

Only much later in the narrative do two “other areas” (which I will not reveal) become accessible. As a non-spoiler alert. Despite playing the game for more than 30 hours, I have only just attained rank C. I have yet to unlock this second “other” area.

Indeed, after a few hours, you haven’t even seen the first mega evolution and have hardly touched the surface.

@Jedrus_Lilac I was completely annoyed by the game’s opening sequence, which makes a compelling case that many Pokemon players wear too much of an adult hat. After that, I check to see how my 8-year-old feels, and he doesn’t mind at all because he kind of needed that section. Nevertheless, this game is incredibly entertaining and possibly the most addictive in the series, even with an adult hat. The game is a really fun experience once it lets you just play.

Pokemon games, in my opinion, are not a sham. More than that, they are an annualized release, and based on the leak, it is evident that Game Freak is working on eight projects concurrently. As a result, their developers are producing more intriguing results than most other games with comparable development cycles, like COD or the EA sports titles. Additionally, essentially, anyone who wishes to witness the franchise’s advancements in a meaningful way might want to think about delaying their purchases for a few years. For example, the change would be much more obvious if you went from Let’s Go to Z-A. I mean, to use COD as an example once more, if players don’t take a break from the series and come back to see the gaps, all COD games feel the same to them.

On the other hand, I would consider Pokemon engaging in cash grabs once they have Beavis and Butthead skins. Funny.

@Jeronan In fact, critics gave the game very positive reviews. It has a Metacritic rating of almost 80, which is higher than the most recent Digimon game, as someone else mentioned. The players’ and fans’ own reactions are overwhelmingly negative. It is becoming very exhausting for game journalists to be hateful without any basis in the actual issues facing the industry.

Furthermore, it’s not really fair that those who are forming opinions have only played the game or even just the main plot. The majority of players, both young and old, only really play the main plot and a small portion of the side content, so if the main plot of the game isn’t enjoyable, it’s the game’s fault and not the players’. Since the main story receives the majority of the game’s funding, shouldn’t it be the most significant component of the game?

Additionally, first impressions do count, and I disagree with the notion that you must finish a game before you can form an opinion about it. If you were a professional critic, things would be different, but hey, they got the game pretty well, so that’s not the issue. Like all other contemporary Switch Pokémon games, this one has an incredibly lengthy and heavily railroaded tutorial, which makes a very bad first impression. It’s all Game Freak’s fault; given the amount of backlash they got for doing the same thing in ScarVi and SWSH, they ought to know better by now.

In conclusion, the map is objectively small, not “so called.”. In less than seven minutes, you can complete the map’s entire circumference. That is quantifiably small, and regrettably, it is not as closely packed as you assert. There are hardly any buildings outside of the main narrative that you can enter. To be fair, I agree with you that ScarVi’s map was too empty, dreary, and bare; this one is better. Although I think it and the game in general are not nearly as awful as the internet makes them out to be, I do think that people have a right to be dissatisfied with the finished product, and GF/Nintendo should have anticipated this appalling reaction.

@horizonisland While seasoned Pokemon players may detest the lengthy tutorial, I, as a poke-vet, thought it was okay and didn’t mind.

They add a lot of new elements that they believe need thorough explanations, such as the updated combat system.

You can complete it in about 30 minutes if you move quickly through the dialogue, and you can have the dialogue in about an hour. I’m good with that.

I really enjoy this game so far, and after more than thirty hours, I’ve barely gotten to Rank C. The storyline of the game is also pretty good for a Pokemon game.

This is done with a limited number of side missions, story, exploration, and wild areas. And then I’m still unable to access a number of places in the city.

The fact that you hardly see any Pokemon outside of the first few wild areas that open when you first start the game is also cool; however, as you advance through the Story, more wild areas are added. Additionally, wild Pokemon are increasingly appearing outside of these designated wild areas. Actually, it’s a part of the plot and a pretty cool way to gradually get more Wild Pokemon outside of the Wild areas.

Unfortunately, I believe that this needs to be said or spoilt because it gives the impression that Pokemon is only found in a few untamed places and Lumiose City is deserted. Indeed, this is true during the game’s early hours, when there are just five wild areas and hardly any wild Pokemon in the city (yet). This is the root cause of the widespread misunderstanding that is being propagated online, in my opinion!

At least Gamefreak deserves some recognition for that as well. In addition to making the game much more engaging, it encourages you to continue exploring the city’s roofs, lower underground areas, etc. particularly in the post-game.

I’m happy to hear that you’re enjoying the game so much, @Jeronan. My initial comment was motivated by my annoyance at how uninteresting and slow the game’s opening was. SWSH, PLA, and ScarVi all made me feel the same way, and in spite of their many shortcomings, I ended up really enjoying the first two. Of course, I’m still playing the game, and I hope you’re correct about how much better and more developed it gets with time. My stomach turns every time I see the flat balcony textures that are adhered to a lot of the buildings in the game. This makes me wonder if the many outspoken critics of the game are correct. As I play this game more, I do hope to see something really positive. However, I have heard that the story gets really good, so that gives me some hope. I do, however, adore Pokémon in spite of everything.

Thanks for the advice, bro, @iLikeUrAttitude. LOL, you’re right. Since I don’t yet have a Steam Deck and prefer to play on handheld devices, I sincerely hope Time Stranger will be portable to the Switch 2. I’ve read a lot of reviews about that game, but it seems to have its own problems as well. However, it still has a better appearance and is far more ambitious than the Pokémon games on the Switch. ZA only has 230 Pokémon, which is a ridiculously small number, whereas Time Stranger has nearly twice as many, even though it will only sell a small percentage of the copies. As a teenager, I also adored Digimon Cyber Sleuth on the PS4.

Regarding TPC: Google claims that because it appears to be the general agreement among fans, but I don’t believe it to be true in the slightest. Since there isn’t much “primary source” material on the subject, particularly when it comes to the last ten years of Pokémon, it appears that the main focus of this conversation is being driven by “trust me, bro” internet dweebs who want to clear their beloved, innocent Nintendo of any wrongdoing. Nevertheless, based on what I mentioned in my initial comment, what we DO know about the TPC from corporate and legal filings appears to demonstrate how much control Nintendo actually has over this franchise.

Actually, @horizonisland tbf about monster numbers. Many Pokemon in the ZA roster receive mega evolutions, which essentially means that new models aren’t included. Although they appear on the roster, Galatians Slowpoke and its variations as well as Alolan Raichu are not included.

The roster of Digimon Time Stranger is heavily boosted by recolors. Despite being only minor model edits or recolors, Goblimon/Sharmamon/SnowGoblimon and Gotsumon/Icemon/Meteormon are distinct monsters. It would be similar to claiming that Pokemon has 460 monsters based solely on Shinys.

The number of distinct monsters is most likely fairly close between Digimon’s recolors being counted and Pokemon not counting Megas.

Pokemon Legend ZA’s greatest advantage, though, is its more amazing animations and dynamic battles, where the monsters move around and make contact with their physical attacks. In contrast, Time Stranger monsters appear to be hitting the air because they are animated and only attack the camera rather than moving when they use physical attacks.

@Jeronan It’s true.

I apologize if this is off topic, but I discovered that the game only contains 230 Pokémon in total. I learned this before I even played the game for the first time when Serebii began to report on it on Wednesday. Naturally, Mega Evolutions are not included in this, which somewhat mitigates the effect of that. I was devastated to learn that it actually has about 13 fewer Pokémon than Arceus. However, I am partially to blame for that since I assumed that since this game is a sequel to Arcues and X and Y still have the largest single Regional dex in the entire series (with over 450 Pokémon excluding National Dex/post-game Pokémon), there would be a ton of Pokémon in it, perhaps 400 or 500. I obviously had far too high of expectations in that area. In my own mind, the game has faced a significant challenge since learning that. Although there are a lot of side quests in the game—more than 100, to be sure—and a lot more than ScarVi’s zero, I’m not sure how many of them are truly good. I suppose I will have to test it out for myself because I enjoy playing the game, and it has always been my intention to give it my all. I sincerely hope that this game will be good, as I mentioned before!

I wanted to express my gratitude for you having a conversation with me as well. You are very polite and respectful, which is uncommon on the Internet.

@Dr_Lugae You’re accurate. Since I haven’t played a Digimon game in a long time, I must admit that I have forgotten just how many palette swaps there were and still are. Though not as severe as Digimon, the Yo-Kai Watch games on the 3DS, if anyone remembers them (? ), had a similar issue. However, aside from that, Yo-Kai Watch 3 is still a masterpiece, and the series is still, in my opinion, criminally underappreciated. I do appreciate that Game Freak has made a commitment to never pad out the Pokédex numbers with palette changes or small redesigns, with the possible exception of some of the less exciting Paradox Pokemon (like Scream Tail or many of the upcoming ones), or even Silicoon and Cascoon. ).

For a moment, I actually forgot about Mega Evolutions, but in my opinion, they aren’t exactly the same because they are only temporary forms that change back after a battle, they don’t have a Pokédex number, and most importantly, you can’t see or “collect” them in your PC box (although you can, of course, collect the mega stones themselves). It is true, however, that this does significantly raise the number of models in the game. I appreciate you bringing that to my attention.