Pokémon Needs To Cut Down On Tutorials And Trust Its Audience

By Chris Carter

Published 5 days ago

Chris is A Gaming Editor at ScreenRant. He has been a professional writer since 2009, and has written for top TV, comics, movie, and video game outlets like Engadget, Polygon, Destructoid, and more. He brings with him an expertise in every game genre, no matter how niche or mainstream.

You may know him as the former Managing/Reviews Editor of Destructoid, where he published hundreds of game reviews across every genre, including MMOs, sports games, and Metroidvanias.

Find Chris on Twitter @_SRChris.

Summary

followed

Followed

Thread

Pokémon Legends: Z-A is out, and there's a lot to like about it. While I was pensive at first, being stuck in a city the entire time, I quickly grew accustomed to it after seeing just how expansive Lumiose is this time around. The main problem is that it actually takes forever to explore it.

A core focus of Legends: Z-A is battling, but it's unfortunately wrapped up in a long string of tutorials that prevent you from getting out there and having as much fun as possible. While things do eventually ease up, and you're gradually given access to the whole city, that "time to fun" ratio needs to be considerably adjusted in future Legends games, not to mention the series at large.

If You're Giving Us A City, Let Us Explore It

Lumiose Is Interesting, But It Takes Too Long To See It

After I booted up Pokémon Legends: Z-A and was shown the splendor of Lumiose City, I remembered when I first encountered the Paris-like locale back in Pokémon X and Y. Although the visuals were a lot more limited compared to Z-A, I was still taken aback at how large Lumiose was, and wished I could run around in a fully-realized version.

That reality was finally realized with Z-A, but you're not allowed to see Lumiose in all of its glory until you play a ton of the game. While excessive tutorials are commonplace in Pokémon games, this felt considerably different, as many areas of the city were arbitrarily gated off until I finished a select number of story missions.

It's one thing to actually see barriers and get annoyed by that gated sense of exploration, but it's another to be constantly pestered by NPCs to "not explore too much." As a spinoff, Legends games don't need to adhere to the same design principles as the wider-net mainline entries, and I hope Game Freak considers adding some slack in this department going forward.

When the game gets going, it really opens up. I loved exploring Lumiose's various construction sites for collectibles, finding new sidequests (many of which give you really good rewards or unique Pokémon), turning in research data for rewards, and battling it out to the top rank.

Pokémon Legends Z-A Might Be Too Slow For Some

Get Us Into The Action Faster

Game Freak has a long road of development ahead of it, as many Pokémon games are no doubt in the works, from mainline entries to side projects. With each passing generation, it seems that many advancements are made at a snail's pace or even regress on occasion. This series makes money hand over fist, yet surprisingly, it hasn't received a bigger budget or more time to breathe, which could prevent people from getting fed up with the IP.

For a spinoff, Pokémon Legends: Z-A is successful with a lot of what it's trying to do. I can get used to these "single-locale" side games, as long as the zones are interesting to explore. Lumiose City nails that to a degree, but it just takes way too long for that concept to come to fruition.