Pokemon Legends Z-A Really Stretches the Definition of ‘Side Mission’

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While not a lengthy game, Pokemon Legends: Arceus kept players engaged with many optional tasks called Requests. Pokemon Legends: Z-A is trying to repeat that success with new tasks called Side Missions, which become available after meeting Emma at the Looker Bureau. Completing parts of the main story unlocks more Side Missions, and each one offers good rewards. However, Pokemon Legends: Z-A‘s Side Missions feel weak because there are simply too many of them, and the quality isn’t very high.

Most side missions in Pokemon Legends: Z-A fall into one of two categories: battling a trainer with a specific strategy, or encountering a strangely-situated wild Pokemon. Because of this, these quests are usually quick and don’t take long to complete. While Pokemon Legends: Arceus also had some simple requests, the side quests in Z-A aren’t as interesting or well-developed as the best ones in Arceus.

Spoilers ahead for Side Missions and some story beats in Pokemon Legends: Z-A.

Many Pokemon Legends: Z-A Side Missions are Hardly Missions At All

In Pokemon Legends: Z-A, players repeatedly encounter side quests that essentially involve battling trainers with very predictable strategies. For instance:

  • A debate over whether paralysis or poison is the better status condition
  • A trainer who fixates on trap moves like Spikes and Sand Tomb
  • Two trainers who love to use buffs and debuffs respectively
  • A trainer who loves the move Detect
  • A devoted fan of the Pidgeot evolution line

Overall, these missions usually involve a quick chat, an easy Pokémon battle, and some thoughts on the trainer’s battle style. While the idea behind them – to showcase lesser-known battle mechanics – is good, it ultimately weakens the entire Side Mission system. Because each mission is so short – often completed in under a minute – they don’t feel like proper quests. They don’t really ask anything of the player beyond a standard battle, and could easily be replaced with the simple trainer battles you’d find along a Pokémon Route.

Quests involving strangely behaving Pokémon are slightly more engaging, but don’t offer a huge improvement. For example, players could encounter situations where:

  • Battle a feisty Chespin three times in a row
  • Battle a group of Binacles all at once
  • Have a rematch with a Hawlucha who previously experienced Rogue Mega Evolution

The side quests in Pokemon Legends: Z-A offer glimpses into the game’s central idea: the challenges that arise when people and wild Pokemon coexist. However, like trainer battles, these quests are usually quite short, making them feel more like small encounters than full-fledged missions.

Why Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s Side Missions Are Such a Letdown

I have strong feelings about these side missions for a couple of reasons. First, the game Pokemon Legends: Z-A introduces them as jobs you take from a detective named Emma. However, they don’t feel like real detective work at all. They’re too simple and don’t involve any actual investigation or challenging puzzles, which is what would make them truly interesting.

Furthermore, Pokemon Legends: Z-A could build upon the strong foundation of quests established in Pokemon Legends: Arceus. While not every quest in Arceus was unique – many simply involved battling or showing off Pokemon – a good number of them were truly innovative. Players were often asked to do things like:

  • Go in search of a missing person
  • Play a balloon-popping minigame
  • Resolve a Pokemon’s disruptive behavior in the village without battling it
  • Work on specific entries in Pokemon Legends: Arceus‘ unique Pokedex
  • Perhaps most memorably, collect 107 mysterious wisps to unlock a Spiritomb

These requests felt more like genuine missions because they encouraged players to think critically and explore carefully, offering a break from the standard gameplay. Unlike most side quests, which are simply quick battles similar to random encounters in the Wild or Battle Zones of Pokemon Legends: Z-A, these offered a better reward for the effort.

The game developers, Z-A, removed the Pokedex task system previously linked to Arceus. Now, players earn rewards by researching Pokemon with Mable, a much more straightforward process.

Pokemon Legends: Z-A Side Missions Don’t Have to Set the Standard

The side quests in Pokemon Legends: Z-A aren’t bad! I especially enjoyed the charming requests, like moving Trubbish near a restaurant or finding medicine for a Fennekin who eventually joined my team. However, these little diversions are often too simple and quick to really balance out the many repetitive battle missions. I would have preferred fewer side quests overall, as long as they were more meaningful and engaging.

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2025-10-22 23:36