In this writer's opinion, Pokémon games on the Switch get too much hate as they are pretty competent RPGs in the grand scheme of things.
Admittedly, these games are coming from a big-budget company, so more quality should be expected from them. That being said, games like Scarlet and Violet succeed from a gameplay standpoint, so here’s hoping Legends Z-A does as well.
However, it would be great if Game Freak and The Pokémon Company made it easier to delete our saves, as they did in the older entries.
This might be a shocking discovery to those who started playing these games on 3DS, but during the days of Nintendo’s Game Boy, deleting save files was easy. If players didn’t like how their party turned out or the stars of their starter, all they had to do was pick New Game in the main menu. Once players save in this New Game, they are warned about a previous save existing and are given the option to erase it or let it be.
Now, if players don’t like their Pokémon lineup, they either have to press multiple buttons on the 3DS or go all the way to save data storage for Nintendo Switch. Making players do this to delete their saves is ridiculous, especially since most modern games will let you delete save data or start a new game without much hassle.
Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were criticized for having one save file, but players still had the option to start a New Game.
It’s ridiculous that these games didn’t offer multiple save files, but at least players can press New Game and get it over with. The fact that Game Freak’s series doesn’t do this and has gotten away with it for all these years is ridiculous.
We understand why modern Pokémon games force players to keep one save. In theory, it disciplines gamers and makes them patient with their party, eventually finding a good set of creatures to take them to the end. Pro players also tend to keep one save to keep training their creatures for tournaments, though that could change with Pokémon Champions.
Still, fans everywhere would like the devs to let us easily delete our saves when Pokémon Legends: Z-A hits Switch later this year. However, we don’t see this happening, as Game Freak and The Pokémon Company are set in their ways. Nintendo has been pretty disappointing with some of its exclusives, which only have one save file. Sadly, for now, gamers just have to live with this.
Come on, Nintendo, give us back control over our save files.