It is undeniable that the best thing about Pokemon's latest title, Pokemon Legends Z-A, is the new and more dynamic battle system. The traditional turn-based combat has been revamped into real-time battle system where positioning, timing, and move cooldowns are keys to winning.
But while Pokemon fans are enjoying the thrill of battle in Legends Z-A, some Pokemon received massive nerfs and it hurts a lot because some of these Pokemon are fan-favorites and competitive beasts. With Pokemon Legends Z-A, not anymore.
What Are The Pokemon That Got Nerfed With Pokemon Legends Z-A's New Battle System?
There really isn't much, in fact, some Pokemon and moves that were considered bad in earlier titles are now more utilized in Z-A but those affected negatively are indeed impacted NEGATIVELY. To name a few, we have Aegislash and its Stance Change recontextualization, Scizor missing its Technician ability, or Mega Kangaskhan hitting just once.
Are you afraid your favorite might be in this list? Keep reading and grieve with us as we discuss which Pokemon lost their battle groove and weakened with Pokemon Legends Z-A's new battle system.
Aegislash
Besides the epic design, one other thing that Pokemon fans loved about Aegislash is its Stance Change ability, where depending on it last move, it's form changes between Shield Forme and Blade Forme. Its stats also change depending on the stats, either offensively or defensively boosted.
We all know that in Pokemon Legends Z-A, abilities are gone. To be fair, Aegislash can still change its form but with the cooldown and timing aspect of Legends Z-A, Aegislash will take four different hits before you can even find the right form of the moment, unlike before where turns give you the opportunity to predict and time your moves.
Scizor
Scizor has always been competitively viable and casually monstrous thanks to its Technician ability. Technician boosts moves with 60 or lower power by 50%. Scizor is abundant with weaker moves like Bullet Punch, Fury Cutter, or Aerial Ace, all of which are all boosted and made meaningful by Technician.
Again, like the rest of entries, there are no abilities in this game's combat so Scizor will not be able to take advantage of it's weaker but faster moves and can rely solely on its stronger but relatively slower moves, especially that Legends Z-A relies on your Pokemon's speed to be victorious.
Mega Kangaskhan
There was an era in competitive Pokemon where Mega Kangaskhan was feared and hated by many players it goes against. In older titles, Mega Kangaskhan had a broken ability named Parental Bond where Mega Kangaskhan's is able to hit twice of the same move per turn and the second hit is always at 25% power.
This is insanely powerful because it can either bypass defensive moves like Protect or it can abuse offensive moves like Power-Up Punch where each hit boosts the Attack stat. With Legends Z-A's movement and non-ability combat, Mega Kangashkhan is just a single-hitting, slow Pokemon who looks like it's loving "take your child to work day" a little too much. Oh, how the mighty tandem have fallen.
Tyranitar
Tyranitar always know how to make an entrance and that's because of its Sand Stream ability where upon entering the battlefield, Tyranitar is guaranteed to set up a Sandstorm weather condition. Being a Rock type itself, it is immune to the Sandstorm chip damage while everything around it is being pelted with sand and rocks.
With abilities competlely gone in Legends Z-A, Tyranitar isn't too imposing and with its slow movement and attack animations, you can expect Tyranitar to eat 4 faster and super effective moves before Tyranitar can finish its Rock Slide.
Eelektross
For a very long time, Eelektross has always been considered as the Pokemon with zero weaknesses and it's all thanks to its ability. This ability is so broken on this specific Pokemon that it makes you think if it was an accidental assignment or a mistake in Game Freak's part. The ability in question? Levitate. And with Eelektross being a mono-Electric type, it has virtually no weaknesses because its only type weakness is Ground and Levitate just said, "Nope."
But of course, we can thank Legends Z-A and its unexplainable anger to Pokemon abilities to make Eelektross finally taste dirt. Eelektross is not a defensive Pokemon nor very speedy Pokemon so as it flops and hops around the battlefield trying to catch up to you, it's already taking Earthquakes, Bulldozes, and Earth Powers beneath its non-Levitating skin.
Don't get us wrong, Pokemon Legends Z-A's battle system is a very welcome and loved shake-up to the formula but did these Pokemon really deserve the nerf? Maybe so, we are hoping that Game Freak stops with these and consider looking for ways on how to make abilities still work in Legends Z-A.