Pokemon Legends: Arceus Review
The main series of Pokemon games stick closely to the formula established when the original games launched in the mid-90s. In each new main series Pokemon installment, Pokemon trainers choose their starter Pokemon and head from one town to the next in a linear fashion, building a team of Pokemon, defeating Gym leaders or their equivalent to the region, and eventually became the Pokemon League Champion. It’s certainly a winning formula and has helped the Pokemon series become one of the most popular in all of video game history, but for some, it’s getting old. In response, Game Freak and Nintendo released Pokemon Legends: Arceus, a game that takes the Pokemon franchise in new directions. When Nintendo first announced Pokemon Legends: Arceus, it was heavily hinted that the game would be an open world title in the same vein as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It was later clarified that Pokemon Legends: Arceus was not a true open world game, but instead featured large, segmented areas that players could freely explore, assuming they gained access to them. Pokemon Legends: Arceus players start in the Jubilife Village hub area before each expedition, and then choose which specific area they want to explore from a map. Previous Pokemon games usually had players moving in a straight line, entering a town, collecting a Gym badge, progressing through the story, and moving on to the next one. Pokemon Legends: Arceus lets players run free in its wild areas, and actual battles against Pokemon trainers are few and far between. Instead the main goal in these areas is to document Pokemon for the Pokemon Legends: Arceus Pokedex by catching them and completing other tasks.
The main goal in Pokemon Legends: Arceus is to complete the Pokedex, just like in other Pokemon games. But where Pokemon Legends: Arceus is different is that players start from scratch. They have to learn the habits and behaviors of each Pokemon by completing objectives outlined in the Pokedex, such as catching certain Pokemon X multiple times or seeing that Pokemon use a certain move in battle . This encourages players to catch many of the same Pokemon, unlike Pokemon GO or Let’s Go Switch games. Catching Pokemon is the main activity in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, and it’s what players will spend most of their time doing. It’s a good thing, then, that the game makes the simple act of catching Pokemon incredibly fun. Instead of always fighting Pokemon in turn-based battles and choosing to throw a Poke Ball from a menu, players have to physically walk up to a Pokemon and manually throw the Poke Ball at them. Players can sneak past Pokemon to gain an advantage, and even have the option to weaken a Pokemon in battle before trying to catch them. Pokemon Legends: Arceus gives players more freedom when it comes to catching Pokemon than ever before. Pokemon fans have been waiting for a game like this, where they are able to interact with Pokemon in real-time, and this is definitely something that long-time Pokemon fans will appreciate.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus makes finding and catching Pokemon the core gameplay mechanic and makes sure it’s as fun as it can be. It’s always fun to find a new Pokemon even dozens of hours into the game, with Pokemon Legends: Arceus featuring hundreds of creatures from multiple generations. There are even a few new Pokemon featured in the game, mainly consisting of new evolutions for older Pokemon. This won’t do to spoil all the new Pokemon, but one of the first players to run into is Stantler’s new evolved form Wyrdeer. Wyrdeer is one of the spellable Pokemon that players have access to in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, with players being able to call upon him whenever they want to quickly zip across the landscape. Another new and riable Pokemon is the Basculegion, which players can use to safely cross the game’s waters. These rideable Pokemon greatly expand the player’s traversal abilities in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, allowing them to reach new areas they may not have reached before, thus encouraging them to return to old areas. to explore more. Pokemon Legends: Arceus players will find themselves using these Pokemon to explore the Hisui region for hours, collecting new Pokemon and training their team for tougher battles.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus completely changes how players explore the world and catch Pokemon, though the battle mechanics should be instantly familiar to fans. Pokemon Legends: Arceus features a turn-based battle system like previous games, though with some interesting gimmicks thrown in to keep things going. For example, Pokemon can leverage their moves to gain Strong Style and Agile Style versions of them, with different pros and cons for each option for players to consider. Players also don’t have to give up any of their Pokemon moves to make room for new ones, giving them the freedom to put together different builds for each Pokemon to suit the situation. . As players of Pokemon Legends: Arceus fight and explore the world, they will complete main story missions as well as special Requests, which act as side-missions in the game. Pokemon Legends: Arceus Requests are often worth doing, as they can earn players useful rewards and offer challenges that help them strengthen their Pokemon team for more challenging battles like Alpha Pokemon encounters and Noble Pokemon boss fights. Hardcore Pokemon fans will have a hard time putting down Pokemon Legends: Arceus. The core gameplay loop is addictive, and the quests are fun enough that players will be compelled to complete them all. But while Pokemon Legends: Arceus is an amazing game on its own, it certainly seems like it’s laying the groundwork for something truly amazing, putting things together for a sequel to set things right. its issue and take the concept to new heights.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is lacking in some key areas. For one, each expedition area looks like a barren wasteland, with little else to see beyond Pokemon roaming the fields. It’s not the end of the world, but it would be nice for places to have more nutrients in them. Second, the game’s graphics are distracting at times. While the Pokemon themselves look great, the world they inhabit is muddy, lacks detail, and suffers from bright texture pop-ins. While some may point to the aging Nintendo Switch hardware as the culprit, there are other Nintendo Switch games that completely surpass Pokemon Legends: Arceus when it comes to graphics. There’s room for improvement in a potential Pokemon Legends: Arceus sequel, but what’s here will keep Pokemon fans busy for hours on end. Pokemon Legends: Arceus’ gameplay is simple yet incredibly rewarding, removing much of the drudgery that plagued recent entries in the series to focus on what’s fun. Those who grew up with Pokemon should love it especially, because while it makes dramatic changes to the core formula, it somehow feels truer to the spirit of Pokemon than the older releases. Pokemon Legends: Arceus is out now, exclusively for Nintendo Switch.