I waited over a decade for my favourite Pokémon to get a Mega Evolution, and Pokémon Legends: Z-A lastly gave it to me. I dove headlong into the RPG upon launch, spending each spare second I may in Lumiose Metropolis, however now that I’m almost carried out with every thing the sport has to supply, I’m beginning to really feel my working and leaping by means of the streets of its Paris-inspired setting shift to a light-weight jog. As I catch the previous couple of monsters within the enlargement’s dex and cross off the remaining sidequests, my steps sluggish as I watch for my Mega Raichu, flying behind me like he’s Superman, to catch up, savoring just a few extra seconds together with his golden, two-tailed, superpowered type.
A good friend of mine who additionally occurs to be one of many largest Dragon Age followers I’ve ever identified was visiting me in New York Metropolis just a few months again, and I used to be shocked to study that she hadn’t completed 2024’s The Veilguard, regardless of being constructive on it. She defined that, particularly after every thing that’s occurred to BioWare up to now 12 months, she felt like seeing the credit roll on this newest entry would imply the top of a “second” of her life, as Dragon Age’s future appears murky at finest. I form of understood, however a part of me can also be of the thoughts that seeing one thing by means of to the top is simply half the expertise. Sitting with it and analyzing its complexities is simply as necessary. However finally, you exhaust your self of all that reflection and transfer on to one thing else. My reluctance to place Z-A within the rearview mirror helps me perceive the place she was coming from, and why folks typically decide to not end video games they deeply admire and revel in. It’s comforting understanding that you simply haven’t hit that endpoint but, even when it means you’re depriving your self of one thing you like.
I’ve been writing about Legends: Z-A for months right here at Kotaku, and I can really feel that a part of me that likes to critically analyze and have interaction with these video games making ready to maneuver on as subsequent month’s inevitable Era X announcement on Pokémon Day approaches. This recreation has been a extremely compelling experiment , letting Sport Freak mess around with real-time battles and a single-city setting, and I really want the studio would launch one other main DLC enlargement or one thing to maintain it going. However I additionally acknowledge it’s carried out what it wanted to do. I don’t want extra for extra’s sake. In actual fact, with most online game franchises, I want issues to go away without end after they’ve run their course.
Pokémon is a bizarre outlier for me on that entrance as I’m at all times all the way down to discover a brand new place on this universe, and since Sport Freak took a 12 months with no new recreation or DLC pack in 2024, the hole between Scarlet and Violet’s expansions and Legends Z-A felt painfully lengthy. So even when Mega Dimension hadn’t given Raichu two a lot wanted Mega Evolutions, I’d have been squeezing each drop of Pokéjuice out of this recreation. However on prime of that, my superhero rat simply acquired right here, and I’d be shocked if Mega Evolution confirmed up within the subsequent pair of RPGs we’re most likely getting our first glimpse of subsequent month.
I put over 120 hours into Legends Z-A and its DLC. I had Mega Raichu by my facet for about 60 of these hours, and that also doesn’t really feel like sufficient. Raichu and I’ll inevitably meet up once more within the subsequent recreation, but it surely certain hurts understanding I waited all this time to have him Mega Evolve only for it to solely final a few months earlier than we transfer on. Lumiose Metropolis might not be fairly to have a look at, however I nonetheless love hanging out with its bizarre residents who say odd shit and love this metropolis with all their coronary heart. I’m not able to say goodbye simply but.
So now, to make it final just a bit bit longer, all I can do is bide my time. I’m booting up my Change 2 much less typically. I’m doing menial duties and wandering in locations I’ve already seen dozens of instances. So long as there’s an incomplete quest or a Pokémon I haven’t added to my Pokédex, I’ve a cause to come back again. The data that it’s not over is someway extra comforting than having one much less recreation on my backlog listing.
