Mega Dimension is frustrating, overpriced, and doing little to evolve Pokémon as a series
Not even my favorite Pokémon (Raichu) getting TWO Mega Evolutions—or an entire DLC themed around my favorite pastry (donuts)—could make this feel like anything other than a mediocre cash grab to me.
What I played
Besides the new core gameplay loop of the Mega Dimension zones, there are some side quests, new characters, donuts, and new Mega Evolutions.
I played till I hit credits on the DLC, but I didn’t do any of the “postgame” DLC content (catching the four or so legendary Pokémon that require lots of grinding).
I think this was about 15-20 hours. My save file is nearing 100 hours on record, but I forgot how many I had before starting Mega Dimension.
Things I liked
Of the quests I did, I thought the writing was great, probably even better than the main game. I liked it quite a lot in Scarlet/Violet, too. That part of Game Freak is doing well.
The donut creation UI is extremely beautiful—though it’s clumsy to actually use when it matters.
Mega Raichu X and Y are super cute. Actually, quite a lot of the new Mega Evolutions are cute or cool, and I just love seeing the new guys.
The Rogue Mega Evolution battles are overall pretty fun, but the controls are still a little awkward at times. I think if they continue these, they could be really fun in another game or two.
Jacinthe and Lebanne continue to be the writing highlight of the game for me.
Things I did not like
The entire base gameplay loop of Pokémon Legends Z:A is grinding timed missions with randomized objectives in random areas in order to rank up. At least the Wild Areas are less random and not timed, and the platforming/exploration areas of the base game are not timed either.
In Mega Dimension, everything is on a timer. And early on, that timer is offensively short. Sometimes as low as two and a half minutes. In a game where Pokémon routinely get stuck pathfinding for 10 seconds, then have their attack miss, then have the attack go on cooldown for 12 seconds, this is infuriating. You also have to pay in-game currency for the privilege of entering one of these new randomized portals.
Each Mega Dimension portal requires a donut to enter. Donuts require berries to craft and are consumed on entering the portal. Each donut gives calories according to its ingredients, and each portal has a difficulty rating that causes it to consumes calories at a different rate. Basically, harder portals require more calories.
Each portal gives you three randomized objectives. Each objective you complete gives you research points needed to advance the DLC. If you can complete all three objectives, then a Golden Pokéball will spawn. If you can find and destroy that Pokéball before the timer runs out, you will get a fantastic reward of high ranking berries. By the latter half of the DLC, failing to destroy the golden Pokéball during a run constitutes a massive resource failure, and your punishment is to grind lower level portals until you can get more high ranking berries the hard way again.
This entire DLC is $30, which would be fine if it felt like half-again a new game, fresh and interesting. But it’s worse than a Symphony of the Night “upside down castle” segment, since it’s littered with random shitty obstacles, an interminable grind, buggy gameplay, punishing time limits, and randomness on top of randomness on top of randomness in a way that feels low even for Pokémon.
In Pokémon Legends Arceus, stealth was an extremely fun and viable way to catch Pokémon. In this game, something has changed about the Pokémon AI to make this extremely challenging. Most Pokémon are so alert that it’s nearly impossible. Dopier Pokémon like Slowpoke can be sneaked up on, but most will almost instantly be alerted to your presence even from quite a distance. Additionally, Pokémon routinely detect you through hedges, bushes, walls, and even buildings, with zero line of sight. It’s extremely frustrating considering that you’d think a nearly 100% city locale would be perfect for stealth, but they ruined it. AND the DLC introduces tons of randomized objectives for “catch 3 Pokémon without being detected”, which is really hard when the Pokémon all detect you from 50 feet away and scream to alert the entire herd lol.
The action combat system is absolutely not working for trainer battles for me at all. The 2v2 trainer battles with mega evolutions are insufferable. Half the battles are just unskippable transformation cutscenes that nullify any in-progress attacks. Battles are too fast and chaotic to even think about type matchups while I’m fighting.
The maps for the different portals are very much not created equal. Combining maps, objectives, and creatures (presumably) fully randomly is so hot right now with how much “roguelike” has become the magic pixie dust of game design for the past while now (I’m a bitter old who remembers when roguelike games were actually somewhat like the game rogue)
What’s next?
Something has been rotten at Game Freak for a while now. I liked Sword/Shield decently well, though I was worried about the direction they were hinting at with the wild zone in it—the preview of Scarlet/Violet.
Somehow Pokémon Legends Arceus was a freak accident, a miracle, a nearly perfect unique interesting Pokémon game that gave me hope for them not losing their way. So this game being as bad as it was really crushed me. And I have had a policy of not buying their mediocre-looking DLCs up to this point. But Mega Raichu, Raichu, my boy, my baby boy, my beloved, he lured me in to this overpriced pile of poo.
My plea to Game Freak is to please, please partner with another game studio. They clearly don’t internally have the sauce to make these new game genre infusions work. The gameplay loops are poorly thought out, the user experiences are frustrating, and everything just reeks of trying to make a huge game on a shoestring budget.
I really need the next Pokémon game to actually be fun again. Especially because I don’t want to let PKMN.help die, but it’s in no state to be taken up by anyone in the community. So until that ever happens, I’m going to at least play every new main entry to stay up on what’s new, lol. Who knows, maybe it’s just an abusive relationship and I’ll be playing Pokémon on my death bed. But I think I need some Shin Megami Tensei as a palate cleanser after this.