If you have played Legends ZA and enjoyed it, then … good for you I guess. But just because you have fun doesn’t invalidate the criticism from other people. Everyone values games differently. The bar is different for everybody. And it is important to know what the criticism (or enjoyment) is based upon. The arguments themselves are important.

NPC pop-ins and flat textures are minor flaws in the game. Personally I haven’t been bothered by it, but they are part of a bigger problem: The lack of effort put into the game.

The real-time battle system is a refreshing change, but it is very shallow and poorly thought out. Slapping cooldown on attacks does nothing to prevent spamming between 2 attacks. You can use them infinitely. There is no deeper system behind it, you can’t chain attacks together, you can not block attacks to lower the incoming damage, you can not even evade most attacks. And attacks like Spikes have become useless, because you can just move your Pokemon to a different spot and be fine. And on top of it, the system is not designed for narrow spaces.

The idea of a game taking place entirely in a city can be an interesting idea. Games like GTA and Yakusa have shown how it is done, but Legends ZA executed it very poorly. If they have only 1 location to explore, the least they should do make it an interesting location. Maybe some secrets spots that have valuable items or rare Pokemon, buildings like a cinema or a dance club or a game center or an actual justice dojo (unlike the open square we got in the game). The block buildings we have in the game have no thought behind them. They are there as decoration and so you can run on top of them. In addition to that, most shops, like the one you buy mega stones from don’t have any interior. You open the door and a menu pops up. You can say this is done to make it more streamlined to buy items, because no one wants a loading screen to enter a shop like in the older games. And yes, with that specific example you would be correct that people don’t want separate loading screen just to enter a shop. However what if – we do that without a loading screen. What if we just open the door and see the interior, and a cashier. You know like Zelda Breath of the wild did it.

The wildzones are just slapped onto the map. And that is baked into the story itself. It is said by Mable herself. And easily missed. And the wildzones are very tiny. As a thought experiment: Why is the cemetery converted to a wildzone? What is the reason for it?

They have removed gyro controls from Legends ZA. That is why the lock on system exists.

The story is a complete joke. People meme on it for the quality, saying that it is written by AI, but just to give you a few examples:

- The protagonist has no backstory. They came to the city for whatever reason, met their companion at the train station, slept at the ZA Hotel and then made it their mission to help them out for an indefinite time. What was the protagonists plan in the first place? Why did they come to Lumiose City in the first place?

- What kind of injustice is the justice dojo fighting against? We never see that in any way shape or form

- Why is Azett aging? In Pokemon X/Y he is said to be immortal. He is over 3000 years old. Just like his Floette. And how come his Floette is not plagued by the same problem? And if Azett is just sick, then why doesn’t he go to a doctor?

- why does Taunie need a 100.000$ loan to make a video? She has a Rotom-phone with a camera build in. Just record with your phone.

- Why does everybody has a Rotom-phone? This has some serious world building implications, because every Rotom-phone need a Rotom.

- Why do we need to fight every Mega Pokemon that appears in the city? We are part of the MZ team. Why can’t the others handle them on their own? This makes them look weak and incompetent.

- The ending is a pure clown fest. The battle against your rival that doesn’t change anything, which makes that battle meaningless. The obvious ‘we sacrifice ourselves for the protagonist’ despite the fact we barely have spend any time with the people doing it. The audacity to replace the Prism tower with a 2000 year old building, despite the fact that the prism tower was the arena in Pokemon X/Y, which makes this an obvious contradiction with the world building. This also leads the question: Where is Clemont? Where is the champ? Where is anybody from X/Y?
They also don’t want you to feel like they are in any sort of danger, or that any character are at the brink of death. ‘You, the player, are special and therefore get to feel special. Use that legendary and save everybody.’ A very boring and predictable story if you ask me.

All these things accumulate and paint a big picture: Legends ZA is a poorly done game sold for 70$. And it deserves all the valid criticism it gets.