Pokemon Legends Arceus Review – The Game Pokemon Fans Wanted as a kid
Pokemon Legends Arceus is the newest in the mainline Pokemon game series by GameFreak. Published by The Pokemon Company and Nintendo together. This was a big change from the traditional Pokemon formula. To say they just “made the game more open world” would, quite frankly be an insult. So much here has changed. Even down to battle animations and Pokemon cries. The game takes place in ancient Sinnoh before it was called Sinnoh and named Hisui. There are no trainers and people are, rightfully, wary of Pokemon instead of being buddies with them from the start.
Gameplay
This is where the game shines. The new gameplay here is extraordinary. Arceus focuses more on encouraging players to catch and battle with as many different Pokemon as possible in order to raise the Pokemon’s rank in the Pokedex. When the level gets to 10 it’s maxed and that ‘mon’s page is competed. Things to do could be things such as “catch without being seen” to “see it use x move x amount of times.” That brings me on to the general gameplay. The game sets the player out into vast regions, some just generally unsafe areas, in order to spot and catch as many Pokemon as possible. Sneaking around to throw a ball straight at it or throwing one of your own to start a fight. This game has the best gameplay I’ve seen in a Pokemon game yet.
The fact that what the player wants to do is entirely in their hands gives a freedom to the gameplay that the normally very linear Pokemon games don’t have. This is it’s biggest strength. The addition of side quests and completion of the Pokedex means that the game is never empty of goals.
Generally speaking I can’t stand games that become “open world” just because it’s popular. One of the biggest issues I had with Zelda: BOTW is that in is determination to be beautiful and open, it lost everything that made it a Zelda game. It was bland and boring and often you’d find yourself with nothing to do and no goals to achieve that would actually reward you.
Legends Arceus is different. I’ve spent hours on just hunting ‘mons. Doing side quests and trying to 100% the Pokedex the way I want to do it. It’s an open world Pokemon that never loses sight of what made the games so popular in the first place and so it works. There is never “nothing” to do here.
A Slow Start
Whilst I clearly love this game. That’s not to say it’s perfect. The story is very “Pokemon” it’s better than average but still not great. But that didn’t bother me. What really got my back up was the slow as hell “tutorial period.” The game practically holds your hand and somewhat restricts what you can do and where you can go for the first few hours of the game. And whilst it does get less annoying and restrictive as time goes on, it only really opens up after around 4 hours of gameplay.
Which is frustrating as all hell. You can’t skip dialogue or cutscenes so you just have to sit there annoyed as the characters tell you what you already know. Yes. I know it’s a game that’s aimed at everyone and should have an easy learning curve. But this particular game takes that to an extreme. It isn’t needed and really could turn people off if they’re not patient with it.
I’ve heard people have a moan at the graphics not being great but I’m not bothered by it. It looks fine and I’ve not come across any of the “empty worlds” that some have complained of. If anything I’ve been chased by more ‘mons than I care to admit. I still have nightmares about Shinx stalking me…
Final Thoughts
I think the subheading explains it all. If Pokemon had been like this as a kid I would’ve been ecstatic. It’s fun, addictive and most importantly hands a lot of the choice to the player without losing the core sense of what Pokemon always was. I hope that Pokemon takes the success of this game to it’s other major releases. The new style and gameplay is amazing and really makes you feel like an actual trainer trying to achieve something.
The graphics are anime heavy but again I’m not bothered at all that it doesn’t look like I just walked into a HD movie. Some may be picky like that but the game is super fun and is clearly going in the right direction for the franchise. Now, I’m sorry but I’ve got a Pokedex to fill!
