
According to former Nintendo marketing managers Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang, the Metacritic score for Pokemon Legends: Z-A likely won't reach the "90s or anything like that" – and it all boils down to fans being "very resistant to change."
Ellis and Yang look to past entries in Game Freak and Nintendo's beloved creature collector series, including Pokemon Legends: Arceus as well as Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, as examples of games that potentially didn't score as well as they could've for this very same reason. Asking Yang if she can "predict the Metacritic score for Pokemon Legends: Z-A" – a question she answers with a predicted score of 84 – Ellis dives into older Pokemon ratings.