I didn't expect the new Pokémon DLC to remind me of Stranger Things, but here we are

I remember when Nintendo was the weirdest gaming company out there about DLC. For a long time after the point when we were all used to downloading add-ons and expansions for massive games on Xbox and PlayStation, Nintendo was reluctant to offer the same.

Perhaps it saw the idea as undermining the fundamental attraction of its first-party games as complete products, or perhaps its pipelines were just not set up to quickly pivot to producing extra content after a game released. Either way, though, those days are long-gone, as demonstrated by how quickly Pokémon Legends: Z-A – Mega Dimension DLC has arrived.

The main game only came out in early October, but now we have a decently chunky story expansion to sink into just two months later, at a cost of £24.99, $29.99 or €29.99. Those prices aren't exactly all that low, mind you, coming in at nearly half the price of the base game again.

On the surface, this DLC adds around 6-8 hours of story content to play through, as your player character investigates a new dimension that's been popping up around Lumiose City. It's honestly reminiscent of the Upside Down from Stranger Things, albeit with a lot fewer pulsing blood hoses and evil sorcerers. Rather, this is all about mega-evolved monsters, of which you'll be able to find way more than in the base game.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A – Mega Dimension | Official Launch Trailer - YouTube

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Some of the big changes here are the inclusion of monsters that can sometimes crack way past the normal experience level limit of 100, making them way more fearsome to take down. Using a whole team to crack a level 140 monster is a genuinely new-feeling idea for the franchise, and feels fresh.

So, too, are the roguelike additions that make some of the pocket dimensions you visit feel like a dice roll in terms of what you'll come across as you explore. These randomise objectives and layouts, but not with enough variety that you won't fairly quickly spot repetition.

Repetition, in fact, is the core issue with the DLC, which suffers under the weight of a grindy design that assumes you're happy to spend hours searching for new entries in your Pokédex and therefore doubles down on that offering. The new mega-evolutions you can find are satisfying to discover, but I'm still finding myself basically done with the content in terms of desire after about five hours with it.

So, my feeling after those five hours is that this is a very DLC-ish bit of DLC. Namely, if you loved Legends: Z-A and want more time with its battle system and are happy to have that manifest in a grindy way, you might well really enjoy Mega Dimension. It certainly ticks that box, after all.

If you finished the game and felt done with it, though, I think you might want to leave it as a pleasant memory and avoid returning at a £25 cost, at least until the DLC goes on sale at some point.