Pokémon Legends: Z-A’s Mega Dimension DLC improves a lackluster element of the base game

Battle giant sushi at a giant sushi restaurant

True to its name, Pokémon Legends: Z-A shares DNA with 2022’s Pokémon Legends: Arceus, like both games ditching the typical gym-badges-to-Elite Four progression of most Pokémon games. Pokémon Legends: Z-A does some things better than Arceus, but one area where it disappoints is with its boss battles against Mega Evolved Pokémon. Thankfully, the Mega Dimension DLC improves upon those battles and turns them into one of the best elements of the expansion.

In Legends: Z-A, the boss fights against Mega Evolved Pokémon all take place in the same circular arena that seems detached from time and space. The arena is visually uninteresting, with its only feature being a dark purple and black sky. It’s a far cry from the set pieces of Arceus, which took place in-world, in areas like a forest or atop a snowy peak. Like Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s Tera Raid battles, the boring arena in Legends: Z-A shows the series is taking a step back in the presentation of some of its most adrenaline-pumping moments.

Mega Dimension mixes things up right away. It sends players to Hyperspace Lumiose, a distorted dimension populated by Pokémon from outside the game’s primary location and new, mysterious Mega Evolutions. Just like in the base game, your first boss battle against a rogue Mega Evolved Pokémon is against an Absol.

However, instead of the same dome from the base game, the arena is a patchwork of different environments. The ground stitches together snow-covered sections, green grass, and sandy dunes, while snow-covered mountains and rocky cliffsides enclose the fray. It may not look like much, but already the DLC’s arena has a visual identity that the base game’s lacked. It has a distorted character.

That patchwork arena appears in a couple of the Mega Evolution battles I’ve enjoyed in my time with Mega Dimension so far. But the best arena I’ve fought in is easily the oversized sushi restaurant, where the chairs, tables, and everything else are twice the size of your trainer. The same goes for the Tatsugiri you encounter after it Mega Evolves. It flops onto people-sized, hyperrealistic pieces of sushi before Mega Evolving into a goofy three-headed sushi monster. Tatsugiri was only the fourth Mega Evolution battle I encountered, and already the battles have so much more personality; they feel less rote, even though they’re functionally the same.

Even better than battling in cool arenas? The ability to capture the Pokémon you just defeated. I don’t understand why you can’t capture the rogue Mega Evolved Pokémon in the base game, instead your only reward being their Mega Stone. Mega Dimension flips that on its head, and so far I’ve been forced to capture the Mega Evolved Pokémon during the main missions after defeating them. Welcome to the team, level 75 Absol and your “Amazing stats!”

The only time I couldn’t capture a Mega Evolved opponent, oddly enough, was when I encountered one in the wild — or, rather, on the streets of Hyperspace Lumiose. Most expeditions through the distortions lead to city blocks full of a few different Pokémon waiting to be captured, but one chunk of Hyperspace Lumiose I travelled to contained only a Mega Scovillain. After defeating it, I was awarded its Mega Stone, but it’s still eluding a spot on my team. (Which… is fine. It would have ended up in a box anyway, let’s be real.)

I’m only a small chunk of the way through Mega Dimension so far, but it’s already greatly improved one of Pokémon Legends: Z-A’s main gimmicks. Presumably, not all Mega Evolution battles will take place in oversized sushi restaurants, but I’m looking forward to seeing what other locales the new DLC has on the menu.