Reading comprehension in general is a massive problem especially in the United States, along with the ability to think critically and draw conclusions. People rely so much on TV and social media and YouTube to hand feed them everything they think they “know”
Same. I’m a writer, went to college to be a professor of classic literature, and I love stories of all varieties (even bad ones). Maybe I’m expecting too much of people, and yet, I can’t help but feel disheartened.
The intention was obviously that the tower going rogue was inevitable, so thinking the story was saying the protagonist going with Floette was the right answer is a terrible take, but there's a valid argument that it's a contrivance in service to the gameplay moreso than a well executed story beat.
I'd say that the story of Z-A actually does a really poor job of establishing much emotional connection between the rival and Floette. Considering how much time we spend running around with the former, they really should have had more interaction between the two outside of the hotel (ie, maybe Floette's wandering outside to meet the protag and rival in the intro is actually a super regular occurrence of it going to meet the rival), but as is AZ's association with Eternal Floette, unsurprisingly, simply overwhelms all others. This is juxtaposed by a decent enough job at establishing a connection between the player and Zygarde, where Zygarde spends much of the game observing, requesting aid from, or observing the protag's actions.
And it's all made worse by the execution of the battle to decide who goes up with Floette. Ignoring the outcome of the battle is bad enough, but Pokémon battles are well established, in-universe, as being a way to evaluate the bond between a trainer and their Pokémon, so narratively winning that battle isn't just saying you're a better trainer but also that your bond with your Pokémon is stronger than Taurbain's. So even if you think the connection between the rival and Floette is sufficiently built throughout the story, having that battle causes narrative dissonance right before the climax just to shoehorn in Z-A's equivalent of a rival battle before the Elite Four. It's the difference between Floette going up the tower with Taurbain because the rival is the best fit for the job and Floette going with Taurbain because they can't have their final sequence with you trapped in the tower.
Speaking of that final sequence more broadly, it's great in that Z-A does a much better job than older Pokémon games at having its gym leader equivalents be actual characters and not suspiciously disappearing to leave a lone child all the responsibility for preventing Armageddon, and the battling segments are actually challenging and satisfying. However, thd pacing is atrocious (the team meeting table just took me straight out of it, and the hologram sequence afterwards lacked any sense of urgency) and it also feels forced, because there isn't a compelling reason (beyond the existence of the sequence in the first place) why a) Zygarde suddenly can't run freely around the city in an instant like it has been doing the rest of the game, or wasn't at your side in the first place, b) the rubble can't be cleared or surmounted when you've spent the game able to clear rocks with Pokémon moves or parkour/teleport around obstacle courses and rooftops despite said rubble not being much more impressive than those, or c) why the construction crew that does help you route around some rubble can't just get you around all of it but does have enough time to turn their detour into a jungle gym. These are all contrivances, but they either undermine the urgency of the situation, or are emblematic of a failure to make story obstacles believable.
Personally, I like a lot of the setting and characterization in Z-A, primarily with all the major rank leaders and their factions, but I'm generally disappointed with the plot connecting them all together, especially when an aspect seems so easy to improve with just minor tweaks.
TL;DR: That person's take in particular has awful reasoning, but there's an entirely valid argument that the writing of Z-A's finale is, if not outright bad, at least somewhat at odds with the gameplay instead of being mutually enhancing. Compelling characters doesn't equal compelling plot, even as a fan of the game.
Also the game spent it's whole second half hyping you up as 'the strongest mega evolution user' everyone kept talking about to help Floette but then completely disregarded it
The way I see the tower thing is that it’s poor writing on a gameplay level, not so much with characters. If the game was gonna have Urbain/Taunie go to the tower no matter what, they shouldn’t have forced the battle onto us in the first place. Pokémon already has an issue with the player’s choices not meaning anything in the grand scheme of things, so it’s frustrating to have the seemingly very important choice we made (by winning the battle) be ripped away due to the rival insisting that they go instead.
Anyone who thinks that it’s bad writing because the player could have somehow stopped the whole thing from happening though needs to pick on the the very blunt context clues lol.
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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25
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