Pokémon Legends: Z-A — Mega Dimension DLC review

There are tastier treats at the bake shop

On The Great British Bake Off, judge and culinary expert Prue Leith sometimes offers contestants a damning piece of criticism that’s as undesirable as a Paul Hollywood handshake is sought after: The dish “isn’t worth the calories."

Sometimes underproofed bread can still pop with flavor, or a biscuit with lackluster taste can still be baked to perfection. There can be little triumphs in pastries, even if they’re not worth a spot in a Parisian patisserie window. But when nothing goes right in a dish, like an underbaked tart with a soggy bottom and poor flavor, it may just earn Leith’s dreaded one-liner.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A’s first major DLC isn’t worth the calories.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A — Mega Dimension further exposes the flaws of the Nintendo Switch game while doing little to spotlight Legends: Z-A’s strengths. It amounts to a grind-filled expansion that feels less like a delectable dessert and more like a Dunkin’ donut with the icing stuck to the bottom of your bag.

Mega Dimension quickly introduces players to newcomer Ansha and her mischievous Pokémon Hoopa. She’s in Lumiose searching for a Legendary Pokémon, and swiftly finds a home at Hotel Z. Ansha’s Pokémon isn’t in Lumiose, however, but Hyperspace Lumiose: a pale reflection of the real thing, full of Pokémon from Kalos as well as other regions. Using your berries, she whips up special powered-up donuts that Hoopa uses to bring you through distortion portals dotting Lumiose and into the new dimension. You and fellow Team MZ members work with the Rust Syndicate’s Corbeau to investigate Hyperspace Lumiose, and that investigation makes up the bulk of Mega Dimension, amounting to a grindy gameplay loop.

Hopping into each portal gives a random list of objectives to complete for survey points. Some are simple, like catching three wild Pokémon or picking up 10 shiny items on the ground. Others can be more time-consuming, like catching five wild Pokémon undetected (a challenge when there’s nowhere to hide in the streets of Hyperspace Lumiose). As most pockets of Hyperspace Lumiose have a very limited selection of Pokémon, I’m finding myself needlessly catching batches of Pokémon I don’t want (no offense, Rookidee, Meowth, and many others). I already have a team of Eeveelutions — I don’t necessarily want an objective to catch more Eevee, as they’re more than likely just going to be released into the wild.

I’ve spent hours in Mega Dimension completing dull survey tasks just to progress the expansion’s main story. Maybe that would feel worthwhile if there was some sort of payoff to completing a Hyperspace Survey, but every mission essentially follows the same pattern: I turn in my “research” to Corbeau, get told it’s not enough, and head back to Hyperspace Lumiose to rinse and repeat.

Perhaps the RNG-fueled grind would be more palatable if I had more control over the Pokémon I can catch, but most pockets of Hyperspace Lumiose will only have three species, and likely one or two of them can be found in the base game. As Mega Dimension is for players already in the post-game, chances are your Pokédex is already pretty filled up with Lumiose’s Pokémon species. I’ve played Mega Dimension for roughly 12 hours now, the bulk of that ignoring the battle portals in favor of wild zone portals with capturable Pokémon, and yet my Hyperspace Pokédex isn’t even halfway full.

I perked up a bit at one point when the “Who’s that Pokémon?”-like silhouette for a portal clearly showed Mudkip could be captured. Who doesn’t want their favorite starters from generations past? But, after capturing a handful of them in Hyperspace Lumiose, I felt empty. Like in the base game, I had done all of this before; I spent hours in Scarlet and Violet’s The Teal Mask DLC hunting for past starter Pokémon, and they fill up boxes in my Scarlet save file. I have a leveled up Swampert chilling in Pokémon Home. I don’t need to go starter hunting in yet another expansion when it’s born out of an unsatisfying grind.

I had hoped Mega Dimension would bring new ideas to the table, but ultimately it asks the same thing out of any Pokémon game: go catch ‘em all. After filling my boxes with so many Pokémon I’ve already added to my Pokédex, I find that the task became an exhausting and unrewarding endeavor here. With my team of level 100s set for the DLC, those Mudkips are basically going to be resigned to my boxes until further notice.

While Mega Dimension takes steps in improving the visual presentation of its Mega Evolution battles — we’re in real places now! — the same can’t be said for Hyperspace Lumiose itself. The pockets of the alternate dimension are simply the same bland buildings from the base game, but now they’re devoid of color or character. Play for hours and you’ll begin to notice the same rote layouts, the same frustrating scaffolding sections to platform atop. Hyperspace ends up being a visual bore.

The saving grace of Mega Dimension is the new Mega Evolutions. It contains several new evolutions for Pokémon, like Mega Absol Z, drenched in black fur with a red claw protruding from its back, or Mega Golurk, who gets a purple and yellow aura that almost looks like a set of wings. Some distortion portals lead to mini-battles against new Mega Evolved Pokémon, and you get their Mega Stones upon calming them (though you can’t catch them like the main mission ones). Going toe-to-toe with Mega Evolved Pokémon is a highlight of Legends: Z-A, and it remains a highlight in the expansion.

Those new Mega Evolution battles aren’t enough to make Mega Dimension feel like a valuable addition to Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Too much of the DLC’s experience is padded out by grinding for the sake of grinding; there’s not a ton of fun to be found in capturing five Litwick’s with “OK stats” for minuscule survey points when I have an alpha Chandelure on my team. Like a stodgy cake lacking strong flavor, Pokémon Legends: Z-A — Mega Dimension might be best nibbled and ultimately left alone.