Pokémon has been a huge part of my life, from the trading card games and anime to the plethora of video games. I my brother getting the Game Boy Advance SP for his birthday and watching him play FireRed for hours on end, dreaming of the day I could play it myself. I my grandmother surprising me with Pokémon Black on the DS, completely unaware of what a Pokémon was, but knowing it meant a lot to me anyway. I spending countless nights under the duvet playing Pokémon, hoping my parents wouldn't catch me.

I'm not alone in my love of Pokémon, of course. Unfortunately, neither am I alone in my declining interest in the franchise. Pokémon may have been a big part of my life during my formative years, and I'm grateful for that, but I'd be lying if I said it was still just as important to me. I've gone from unequivocally loving anything remotely associated with it to critiquing it endlessly, hoping the next Pokémon game fixes the franchise for the better. Which is why my desire to skip Pokémon Legends Z-A both baffles me and makes perfect sense.

I Love The Pokémon Games

I Have Since I Was A Child

While not as big of a Pokémon aficionado as so many others are - I do have a Squirtle and Turtwig plush, but that's about as far as my collection of Pokémon media goes - I have always had a genuine fondness for the series. I would catch episodes of the show on TV as a kid before school, or, when recording live TV was still a thing, would trawl through my backlog of assorted episodes from vastly different seasons and arcs and still absolutely love it. I even had three Pokémon movies entirely in French without subtitles and watched them religiously.

When it came to the games, I'd play everything from the mainline entries to the very best Pokémon spin-offs, especially Mystery Dungeon on the Game Boy. My siblings and I would battle each other; my sister and I attempted to beat the Battle Subway on Pokémon Black and White numerous times; I would also frequently escape the darker moments of my life to distract myself with sessions of grinding in Pokémon or searching for the elusive Garchomp. No matter how bad it gets, much like Doctor Who, I will always love Pokémon.

Pokémon has been getting worse, and for a long time now.

However, Pokémon has been getting worse, and for a long time now. It wasn't even just the better Pokémon-like indie games that capture the spirit of the original games while offering something fresh and new to sink our teeth into.

Pokémon Legends Z-A Is Changing Too Much

It Doesn't Feel Like Pokémon Anymore

It is then hypocritical of me to skip Pokémon Legends Z-A due to it changing too much of the series' core formula, and yet here we are. It isn't like I haven't been suggesting that Pokémon should copy RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles or vastly improve its narratives to be more in line with JRPGs. I want Pokémon to change and move beyond the self-imposed shackles it has been tied to for so long. However, I guess when it comes to actually seeing those changes in motion, I realize it's more important for it to improve what it already has.

Pokémon may be outdated in a lot of ways, but there is something about the formula it has been using since the very start that isn't just nostalgic, but also extremely comforting. In the same way that Ubisoft games serve the same function as popcorn movies, Pokémon has always felt familiar, assured, and predictable. There's a novelty to that, a purpose and function that feels somewhat similar to the safety cozy games provide. Pokémon Legends Z-A's many changes threaten to remove that sense of familiarity, rather than improve upon it.

It reminds me of Nintendo's approach to both the Animal Crossing series with New Horizons and even the modern Zelda games with Tears of the Kingdom. Both games took what worked about their predecessors and complicated things with additional mechanics that may have elevated one aspect of the experience, but interfered with and worsened others as a result. They didn't elevate the gameplay loop that fans have enjoyed those series for, but rather changed them. It is a gamble that can work, and has in some cases, but in these it, at least in my opinion, didn't.

Nintendo is very much in its mechanics-focused era, with Mario Kart World introducing tricks that make it a more skill-based affair and alienate part of its fanbase. TOTK, as aforementioned, added a swathe of new gameplay mechanics rather than honing in on the exploration and atmosphere that made BOTW so special. New Horizons' focus on crafting and gameplay innovations stripped it of the communication aspect that made the series so special in the first place. I'm worried that Legends Z-A's changes could hurt the core Pokémon experience in the same way.

Pokémon Legends Z-A Could Still Be Incredible

It Has A Lot Of Potential To Change Pokémon For The Better

Of course, the changes Pokémon Legends Z-A is making could absolutely be for the best. As much as I feel Legends Z-A is wasting its setting and is still lacking the fundamental features Pokémon should have implemented a long time ago, there is a lot of promise in what has been shown off so far. From the intriguing Battle Royale mode to its single-city location that could allow for a deeper exploration of themes the series hasn't been able to tackle yet, there are a lot of exciting ideas in Pokémon Legends Z-A that I genuinely believe could be game-changing.

Pokémon Legends Z-A's combat changes are also numerous and significant, perhaps the biggest change the game has made to the series, which could influence how Game Freak approaches combat in future entries, much like how Legends Arceus changed how players interact with the open world. While I'm not opposed to Legends Z-A switching up the series combat, I do think it will prove to be the most controversial addition, especially if it isn't as good as Nintendo's other first-party title, Xenoblade Chronicles, of which Z-A seems to be copying verbatim in this respect.

I also find that there is a lot of Legends Z-A to succeed, especially with, despite its enormous sales numbers, how much goodwill Pokémon Scarlet and Violet lost for Game Freak. I fear that rather than perfecting the original formula, such as by making the experience more cinematic, adding voice acting, increasing the variety of Pokémon, and making turn-based battles more visually complex while stripping away the features that have made the series so painfully easy, Legends Z-A is just changing it in the hopes of moving on from the series' past mistakes.

As much as it pains me to say it, I think all of this, the change in identity, the mechanical approach to innovation rather than driven by a will to improve what already exists, the contentious additions, and the mounting pressure, will make me skip Pokémon Legends Z-A and see how its success or failure affects the series' future. Of course, like the aforementioned Doctor Who, the stuff I enjoyed still exists, and I can return at any point. And who knows, maybe one day I'll play Pokémon Legends Z-A and realize how horribly wrong I was this whole time.