The following section contains no spoilers for Mega Pokemon, story segments, DLC information, or future games.
These are technical details about the development and inner workings of Pokemon Legends Z-A. Links in this article to leaked information may be unavailable or replaced.
Budget vs Value
$70+ video games come with the expectation that more quality, content, and polish are being delivered to justify the higher cost. Often times we see giant game budgets of $250M or more alongside lengthy 4-7 year development cycles in the AAA space on a single title.
Let's apply these statistics to Game Freak's latest major release, Pokemon Legends Z-A:
Financial requirements to access every Mega evolution
Optimization?
Game objects such as Pokemon, NPCs, bushes, vehicles, and carts suddenly appear when running through the city. In most cases these objects aren't visible until the player is seconds away and cause flickering effects.
Pop-In Objects
Game world stored as a single 355,000 vertices 3D model
Map Overloading
Legends Z-A is loading the entirety of Lumiose anytime you re-enter the city such as exiting battle cafes, reloading save files, or playing in online battles. Without proper use of culling, using doors can take several seconds and rooftop areas can lower the frame rate due to over 30% of buildings are being rendered at once.
Even basic moves use upwards of 5-8 particle effects at once which causes frame skips when two or more moves are activated at the same time, like in the four player battles.
Frame Skips
Lazy Port Job
Based on video evidence, it is clear that Legends Z-A did not receive special features or optimization for Switch 2 because all of the Switch 1's graphical issues/settings are still present. The biggest changes are a blanket resolution + frame rate increase, alongside unique ambient occlusion lighting that is barely used. Paying $10 to upgrade should warrant higher poly count models, additional environment objects (like bushes, window sills, and rocks), and stable framerates when basic attack animations are triggered.
Spending just 2 months on a port shows no care for visual upgrades.
Pokemon fans are defending Legends Z-A as a fun entry to the series. But being fun doesn't take into account the pricing, content length, world building, and quality standards as a AAA game. Among some notable cut features from the alpha build, this entry is missing:
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Pokemon Gyms
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Story Adjacent Dungeons
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Regional-Exclusive Pokemon
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Post-Game Area and Story
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2 Player Co-op Mode
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Battle Cafes + PR Video Studio
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Victory Road and Elite Four
Mega-Sized Marketing Budget
According to internal documents, Legends Z-A was made on a budget of just $13 Million Dollars which is about 5% of what other AAA studios spend. To make matters worse, it's estimated that a majority of the budget was spent on marketing instead of game development. If you've been on social media the past few months you've likely seen tons of advertisements for new Mega Pokemon reveals, gameplay updates, and release date trailers.
Having lower AAA budgets should be a good thing for the gaming industry, but it is undermined by a $70 price tag on a graphically mediocre product that invested more money into selling the game than working on it. When so little effort is being invested into a flagship series, why is paid DLC already being developed for an unpolished base product? Because Game Freak abuses the loyalty of their fans on a franchise that asks $120 for every new Mega Pokemon form.
Development Timeline
Jan 2022
Mar 2023
July 2023
Oct 2024
Dec 2025
Legends Z-A starts development after Legends Arceus, targeting a 2024 release.
Alpha PC build of Legends Z-A with more detailed geometry for buildings, windows, balconies, and doors. Several features have been cut like Poke Rides, 4v4 team battles, and control to aim projectile attacks.
Beta build of Legends Z-A is running on Switch 1, story content is complete, and Mega Dimension DLC starts planning.
Complete builds of Legends Z-A are found in leak running at full frame rate on PC. Source code indicates DLC is already in development. Switch 2 port is complete after 2 months of work.
Mega Dimensions DLC is finished as development shifts to other titles, no further Z-A content.
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Rushed and Delayed
If development stopped and the game was finished in early 2024, why is Legends Z-A just releasing now? Because focus shifted towards Switch 2's lacking holiday line-up, the paid DLC, and preparing animated advertisements that would all bring more profits in. Game Freak settled on a mediocre benchmark because they assume fans will buy it anyway, delivering less and charging more.
Many speculated that the lack of a 2024 title for Pokemon meant that more care was put into the quality after Scarlet and Violet showed poor performance and graphics. However, this is a reaction to over 25% of players buying DLC for Gen 9 within it's first year, moving 1.4x in profits. Even just 30% is an incredible attachment rate for DLC.
Are you being OverUsed?
Nintendo insists on lower budgets for products that release at premium price tags. If you want to get involved on the fight against AAA greed, get in contact below or check out our other pages: