What I did in the game: Pokédex: 230/230. Mega Evolution: 63/63. Mable's Research: 213/213. Side Quests: 119/119. Colorful Screws: 100/100.
The One Picture I have taken: Before an Online Battle. This is the only place where we can both see the name of my character (top left), along 3 Titles. One for getting all 213 Mable's Research (which include complete Pokédex), one for getting all Colorful Screws, and one for doing 100 Side Quests, which is not 119, but it's the best I can show in one picture.
What a week it was! When I received the game last Thursday, I wasnt sure if I would be playing it yet, since usually, I'm waiting for Pokémon Home support before starting. So I just tried the game to see how it runs on the Switch 2, and I was so hooked that I just couldnt put the game down for the entire week before I was able to 100% complete it. Which was a total surprise to me because when I first saw the trailers for the game, even though I'm a big X/Y fan (it was when I came back to Pokémon after leaving the series with Ruby/Sapphire), it looked so bland. There was zero excitement from me, and only reason I ended up buying it was because I really loved the previous Legends game, Arceus. So I was really caught off guard when I totally got addicted to it.
At first I wasnt sure about the city set-up. You quickly realize that the city itself is really small to traverse, plus many places just looked the same. There was indeed a certain blandness to it. But I think when it clicked for me is when you gain access to the city roof. Running around on the top of the city was really great, and it gives another perspective that I really enjoyed. Almost parkour-like. Still, for pure traversal and environments, it's a big step down from Arceus. But as soon as the game loop starts, you then quickly forget about it. Unlike many previous entries, including Arceus, there's never a dull moment here. The big thing in this game is the Z-A Royale, which like the name implies is a big Battle Royale event throughout the city. During the day, you explore, catching Pokémon, finding stuff, doing side quests, etc... But when the night comes, a section of the city becomes a Battle Zone, and once you enter, it's a free for all. Imagine the random trainer in previous entries who will battle you as soon as he/she gets eyes contact, but everywhere in the zone. And this is when the beauty of the battle system comes into place. Now everything is action-based and in real time. Think Xenoblade Chronicles. All your moves have cooldown, and your Pokémon will follow you around, allowing to avoid some AOE attacks. You can now also quickly swap Pokémons in and out with the D-Pad. Everything is quick and snappy. As you wins fight in the Battle Zone, you gain points until you reach your Promotion Match, and if you win, you Rank-up. As the Title of the game implies, you start at Rank Z, and you need to reach Rank A. Even though for story reason, they make you skip a bunch of ranks at one point (I would have prefered to really fight my way up by myself), the set-up is really cool!
Now, that was during the night, and as I said previously, during the day, you do the others stuff (even though you can also do them during the night if you want, but I was really busy just fighting all night long personally). For catching Pokémons, most of them are now inside Wild Zones, which are similar to Battle Zones, a limited place in Town where Pokémons roam around. And at first, I found it weird, because it felt really small, but even them started to grow on me. Since even story wise, they have a reason to be there, and it's really funny to see people being angry at them when more are added, cutting more and more section of the city for "normal" life. Plus, there's a nice little list of every Pokémons you need to catch, complete with a percentage rate and a crown if you get to 100% in a zone. Other than that, you just never run out of things to do. Quickly, you gain access to a list of Research Tasks, and many Side Quests. So the loop between the day and night was really great, and I never had any downtime throughout my 75 hours.
Last part of gameplay worth talking about are the Rogue Mega Evolution battles. Since this is a sequel to X/Y (taking place 5 years after), Mega Evolutions are the center of the story, and you will have to battle many of those Mega Pokémons who had gone rogue, and when it happens, you enter a Boss Battle phase, complete with patterns to understand, avoiding attacks, phases that changes said attacks. They're not overly difficult, but make a great spectacle. Just beware because the real danger here is not losing all your Pokémons, but really getting knocked out yourself (because yes, it can again happens here, and the Pokémons, even in the Wild Zones, are even more aggressive toward you. I died a few times being stuck in between the many attacks of an Alpha Pokémon alongside all the others).
If the gameplay was top notch for me, what about the graphics and the music. If like I said at first, there's a certain blandness to the city itself, and I feel there's maybe a lack of different NPCs in the town, I really love the model for the Pokémons and the important characters. In particular, I love how much customization you have over your own character, which was a given seeing as X/Y was where more complete customization was introduced I believe. Also, on Switch 2, it runs at a beautiful 60 FPS, and I didnt saw much pop-in. It played truly like a charm. As for the music, it was also really great! Really jazzy, and the different songs just flow from one to another when entering the Zones, the Battles, etc...
So yeah, after 100% completing it, I think I can safely say that gameplay wise, it was one of the most fun I ever had in a Pokemon game ever. I still miss the big open zone of Legends: Arceus or Scarlet/Violet though. If we could combine the gameplay loop of Legends Z-A to a bigger open world, it would be perfect for me. Because everything here to help the player have fun is included. And it's not only everything I've talked about above. We've gone back to the IV/EV/Nature system for raising our Pokémons, but like in Scarlet/Violet, you have access to everything to change stats to your liking. Be it Bottle Caps, reseting EV, easy to buy Berries and even Mints to change Nature. It's also the very first Pokémon games where I never used once Serebii.net to fill my Pokédex. I was able to 100% find them all by myself, which felt great (I only used Serebii for confirmation on the evolutionary lines). One thing though, even if there's only one version of the game, there's still Pokémon that evolves with trading. But if in Legends Arceus you couldnt trade, so they've added an item to use instead (the Power Cord or something, its been a while), there's no such thing here. There's actual trading taking place, so I was scared that I wouldnt be able to find anyone, but it was really easy, just use the number for the Pokémon you want to trade twice (like 0199 0199), and I was always able to find someone in seconds. And most of them were always kind enough to stick around so we could trade back our Pokémon, which is why I have a complete Living Pokédex in the game, with every Pokémons having me as their Original Trainer. Speaking of Online, I also did a few of Ranked Battles to get Greninja Mega Evolution stone, and if usually I hate Online Battles, this time they were REALLY fun. It's 4 players free-for-all where you get 1 point for every kill you get, and it's really a great chaotic mess. Loved it.
To conclude, I think if I would have to rate Legends Z-A, it would be somewhere between a 8 or a 9 out of 10. Maybe closer to 9. There's flaws in the city design, but it didnt killed my enjoyement of the game one bit. Even if it lasted 75 hours, it passed so fast and I never was bored for 1 minute. I just wish we could have the perfect Pokémon experience one day that will include everything great from all the past entries. In any case, I also did a completion video for it, which you can watch below:
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