Pokémon Legends: Z-A – Mega Dimension DLC review – going beyond level 100

After just two months, there’s already an expensive DLC expansion for Pokémon Legends: Z-A, featuring a host of new mega evolutions and returning pokémon.

It’s strange that Pokémon has never managed to find a satisfying formula for its DLC, considering that for years developer Game Freak would release barely altered revisions of the mainline games only a year or so after the originals. Games like Pokémon Emerald and Platinum are much loved by the fandom, but few feel the same way about The Crown Tundra or The Hidden Treasure Of Area Zero.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s DLC was the best effort so far, but it still felt inessential, as it failed to address the faults of the parent game (in terms of performance it exacerbated them) and was primarily an excuse to introduce a bunch of random pokémon that weren’t included originally.

That’s not the worst thing you can do with Pokémon DLC but ideally you want as much context for why they weren’t there the first time round, preferably as a part of some sort of compelling new narrative. Needless to say, that is one thing Mega Dimension does not deliver on.

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Although it was filled with very obvious flaws, Pokémon Legends: Z-A is our favourite series entry on Switch. It’s certainly the one that makes us most optimistic about the future, with some interesting new ideas – including but not limited to the new real-time combat – and a general sense that Game Freak were given a little more time to add at least a thin layer of polish.

Many would accuse Game Freak of being ‘lazy’, but it’s been obvious for a long time that they’re overworked and understaffed, which makes no sense given the importance of their work to the brand but it’s been like that for decades now. There have been signs that things might be slowly improving, with Z-A being the best evidence so far, but the progress is glacial.

All of which brings us back to this DLC, which is… uninspired but just appealing enough that it will appease hardcore pokéfans. The most obvious draw is that it includes many new mega evolutions, which were one of the key features of Z-A and provide a vast reservoir of extra content whenever it’s needed.

The focus is on two new mega evolutions for Raichu, the evolved form of Pikachu, but there are many others and lots of other normal pokémon that weren’t in Z-A. Mega evolutions tend to be a lot more fantastical than most normal pokémon designs, so your mileage will vary on whether you think they look cool or not, but some are impressively bizarre.

In terms of plot, the action revolves around weird hyperspace portals and new character Ansha, who spots legendary pokémon Rayquaza on your hotel roof and inspires you and Team MZ to help track him down for her. Predictably, this involves fighting a lot of rogue mega evolutionary pokémon but that’s no bad thing as their boss battle style fights were one of the highlights of the parent game.

One of our longstanding complaints about modern Pokémon games has been a lack of challenge but that was another thing that Z-A started to address. It wasn’t exactly Dark Souls, but you can’t even play Mega Dimension unless you’ve beaten the main story, at which point you unlock pokémon with levels above 100 – which had been a hard limit for almost 30 years.

Mega Dimension does not mess about in terms of the challenge it throws at you, but we like that and can’t stand DLC that acts as if you haven’t already ploughed dozens of hours into the main game.

In theory, this makes lots of sense as an expansion, but in practice it’s a little too bare bones to justify the asking price. Portals are generated at random, in a half-hearted attempt to turn the game into a roguelite, but they only take you to a palette swapped section of Lumiose City, which gets monotonous very quickly. As a result, there’s very little in the way of completely new locations, especially compared to Scarlet and Violet’s DLC.

The whole business with having to feed Anshas’s pokémon specially prepared doughnuts, which are used to extend your time in portals and imbue temporary perks, is also a massive pain in the proverbial. You have to both collect the ingredients and make the doughnut manually, which takes far too long and can’t be automated – much like crafting in Animal Crossing.

And while level grinding to beat higher level opponents is all part of the game’s role-playing tradition, having to also collect Research Points – which are basically palette swapped Battle Points – is not very compelling, given the banality of the research surveys you’re forced to go on to gain them.

If you enjoyed the parent game, then it would be churlish to suggest you shouldn’t give Mega Dimension a try. We appreciated the challenge and there are a lot of new pokémon designs, but nothing else is as interesting as it needed to be, with a bland story and repetitive scenery and progression requirements.

Mega Dimension isn’t going to change anyone’s mind about Z-A, one way or the other, but it is a reminder that while Pokémon is now moving in the right direction it’s got a long way to go before it regains its status as a truly great franchise, and not just a great marketing opportunity.

Formats: Nintendo Switch 2 (reviewed) and Nintendo Switch
Price: £24.99
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Game Freak
Release Date: 10th December 2025
Age Rating: 7

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