Verdict
If you were already a fan of the base game, the Mega Dimension DLC’s offer of more side-mission escapades, Rogue Mega Pokemon battles, and story content should have you engaged for countless hours. However, if you’re already not keen on Z-A’s battle-centric approach, or you don’t have the time or patience for grinding, it’s unlikely to win you over.
Just a couple of months after the launch of the base game, we're back in Lumiose City for our Pokémon Legends: Z-A Mega Dimension DLC review. However, unlike previous Pokémon DLC offerings, there's no new island or region to take a trip to here. No, this optional expansion sees you explore, for lack of a better word, Hyperspace Lumiose, a place that quite literally pushes the limits of the game's mechanics to a new dimension.
The DLC content kicks off with a new request to return to the roof of Hotel Z, where you meet Ansha and her friendly Hoopa. The little girl is trying to track down a mysterious legendary Pokémon, and she needs your help. However, just as you receive your new mission, you get a call from Corbeau - yes, prepare for more swooning for our sweet little emo-boy syndicate leader - who says he needs your help. You never get a moment's peace in Lumiose.
Corbeau alerts you to a new issue facing the city: the appearance of Hyperspace portals. Fortunately, like in most Pokémon games, you have plot magic on your side, and it turns out that the only way to enter these portals is by feeding Ansha's Hoopa special donuts. What a coinkydink. It's all a bit cookie-cutter plot-wise, but I'll forgive Game Freak at this early stage, as the new content doesn't beat about the bush. Within half an hour of meeting Ansha and another new sidekick to tinker with Team MZ's group dynamic, you're jumping into your first portal.
In Hyperspace, you'll run into a real challenge: Pokémon that are over level 100. To take on these over-leveled monsters, you need to bring your strongest possible team. However, the donuts help you out a little by also boosting your level, even if your party members are all maxed out at level 100. Most Hyperspace levels contain a specific type, though, so you can plan which Pokémon to take the dimensional leap with you to deal the most damage.
Outside of over-leveled Pokémon, the other gimmick of Hyperspace missions is that they're timed, and how much time you get to complete all the objectives depends on the donut you feed Hoopa. It's a bit like Donkey Kong Bananza's Emerald Rush DLC, in that you're racing against the clock in a confined area to complete goals, but there aren't as many roguelike elements, such as upgrades, in play. At first, you're only getting a couple of minutes in each Hyperspace area, making for quite a challenging task, but it gets easier when you can get your hands on more potent donuts in the mid-game.
There are four variations of Hyperspace missions. The two most common involve either catching a bunch of wild Pokémon or a gauntlet of trainer battles, which you become accustomed to pretty quickly, as it's the gameplay bread and butter of Mega Dimension. You've also got special side missions, often involving battling old foes from the base game, and Rogue Mega Pokémon showdowns. Those latter two mission types become less frequent in the mid-game, though, so it can feel like you're either catching or battling on a bit of a loop, which, yes, is a big part of any Pokémon game, but usually there's a bit of exploration to keep things fresh.
In terms of the design of Hyperspace, it's bland. I was one of those who defended Lumiose City itself in my Pokémon Legends: Z-A review, but I can't stick up for this. Due to the ticking clock of your escapades, you don't have much time to stop and take in your surroundings, but there wouldn't be much to look at if you did. I've played for about 20 hours, and I've probably seen about five or six map variations, but I don't have a particular favorite, as they're all quite bland. That's not what I expect to be Mega Dimension's most divisive game design decision, though. No, that's the grind.
By the time you reach the midpoint of the DLC content, completing research missions to progress the story takes longer than I'd like. Whenever you jump through a portal, you have three missions to complete for points towards your research tasks. However, even if you complete all three objectives, you're only putting a small dent in the number of points you need to progress, so it becomes a mammoth task without much in the way of gameplay variety.
Then, there are the donuts themselves. You can craft donuts by speaking to Ansha at the Hotel Z desk, but first, you need berries. The good news is that you get berries by smashing Poke Ball-shaped piñatas full of goodies in Hyperspace, which also contain useful Exp. Candy. The bad news is that running out of donuts dulls your momentum, and things come to a complete halt when you have to high-tail it back to the hotel to make more, especially in the late game, where you need up to eight berries to put together a snack for Hoopa.
Personally, I don't mind the grind from a gameplay perspective, as I'm a big fan of roguelikes, so I've got a lot of time for mindlessly doing the same thing over and over again with a distant goal in sight. That said, I can see how it might feel a bit monotonous to some, especially when you factor in all the donut-making, which, despite a fun little animation with Ansha and Hoopa cooking up a storm, is just a drag.
The real issue with grinding is that, when combined with the story, the pacing of Mega Dimension feels a bit robotic. Corbeau calls, you get a research task, you grind and make donuts and grind and make donuts and grind and make donuts, and then there's a Rogue Mega Pokemon battle to finish off the chapter, and it's rinse and repeat.
The game tells you the stakes are high, Lumiose City is facing yet another existential crisis, but it never really feels like that. The game design pushes the story into a corner, and the story doesn't really know how to get out. The plot just feeds the gameplay grind, with a few jokes about croissant curry dishes that dragged in the base game, and you can feel how it's going to wrap up neatly from the outset. It's lacking a certain boldness, which is a shame, considering how much I enjoyed the pacing, narrative plotting, and almost cinematic framing of Legends: Z-A's big finish.
While I might not be enamored with the visuals, which are best described as the most tepid interpretation of an alternative universe that I've experienced, the Mega Dimension soundtrack slaps harder than a powered-up Wigglytuff. Usually, when I face an in-game grind, I'll hit the mute button and stick something on YouTube in the background to keep me sane, but I didn't need to. Instead, I just embraced the funky tunage while I completed my tasks, stimulating my brain with both the completed objectives and the almost irritatingly catchy tunes.
The arrival of this DLC obviously means a few new Mega Pokémon forms, and there are some fantastic designs here. I didn't get all the Mega forms I was hoping for - where's my Mega Aegislash, Game Freak? - but of those that are available, it doesn't feel like there's a weak link. What I will say is that it's a bit sad that some new Mega Pokémon don't get much fanfare. You just take them on in regular battles that don't take all that long, and sometimes feel like a waste of a donut.
Outside of dipping in and out of Hyperspace, this new DLC pack also significantly boosts the number of side missions available across Lumiose City. When you get sick of Hyperspace research, and trust me, it's likely to happen, some of these quests make for a nice reprieve, and a lot of them offer useful items, such as nature-changing mints or even gift Pokémon.
I was taking a detour during one play session, and before I knew it, I was hunting down a Nacli, the ninth-generation rock salt Pokémon, an experience I definitely didn't have on my Mega Dimension bingo card. I honestly think the side missions are Z-A's saving grace, taking it from a decent game to something you can completely lose yourself in, a la Skyrim, and this is even truer of the DLC experience. There's a comparison I never thought I'd make.
All in all, I feel the same way about the Mega Dimension DLC as I did about the base game. It's a lot of fun, but it's also quite repetitive, and if you're not willing to grind through research missions for hours at a time, I could see how you might find it boring. However, I love the grind, and the new mega Pokémon forms, and the often heartwarming side missions feel like a cherry on top. I still yearn for exploration, and I never want to look at the word 'donut' again or see another croissant curry, but I can see myself spending a good chunk of the next couple of months in Hyperspace Lumiose, and I'm not mad about it.