I love Pokemon more than anything, but since generation 4 it's been a strained relationship, to say the least. Pokemon Blue was my first ever video game, and I've played every one of them since then. This franchise was stale, repeating a set of old mechanics over and over again culminating in Sword and Shield, the most mediocre of mediocre games. I wasn't sure Legends was going to come through, but wow, it did. Pokemon Legends throws out the rulebook to the same degree Breath of the Wild did for Zelda, perhaps not to the same quality of a final product, but certainly with a similar gusto.
What an amazing game. Definitely the best from the franchise in over a decade. It's not perfect, and the next one could be better, but man I'm truly in love with Pokemon again. With a few exceptions, like not being clear on how to control turn order, the new battle system is superior to the one they've been leaning on for 25 years now. I have no real other qualms with the RPG and combat mechanics. I love the Agile and Strong style adding another layer to the tactics, so it feels less like rock paper scissors. And replacing EVs and IVs with ELs that are simplified to 1-10 was a fantastic decision.
Small things like changing movesets at any time, having the move tutor available from the start, a wide diversity of Pokemon at the beginning, mostly interesting sidequests, being able to take pictures and explore with your Pokemon in the overworld, alpha Pokemon, wild mons attacking the trainer, dodge rolling, Pokedex quests - this is just a small selection of improvements. I don't even miss things like held items and abilities. It's just not what the game is about anymore, and it's better for it. This is a game about creating the Pokedex, and each element of the game remembers that.
The new catching mechanic is the thing that ties it all together - sure, there are bits of Zelda Breath of the Wild and Monster Hunter in here, but the core addictiveness of Legends comes from Pokemon Go. The simple act of finding a Pokemon, physically working to catch it, and succeeding - this is a seratonin shot unlike almost any other in video games. Legends knows its strengths and leans on them hard, while streamlining the worst parts of Pokemon to make them totally fresh.
I cannot deny this game looks like ass. It is butt ugly almost all the time, with the one exception being the actual Pokemon models, and it genuinely detracted from the game from time to time. It bothered me to see the awful anti-aliasing, rectangular shadows and textures, and jagged pixels of clothing. Ordinarily I don't care much about graphical fidelity, but this is the first game I've played in a long time that looked so bad I have to acknowledge it affected the score. If this game was as good looking as Nintendo's other first party titles, it'd be a 10/10.
I love Pokemon now more than I have since middle school. Moreover I am excited, for the first time in a long time, about what the future could bring. Against my expectations, Game Freak put together a wildly innovative and competent game whose core gameplay succeeds so mightily you mostly won't care that the graphics are worse than most PS2 games. It just so doesn't matter. You throw a berry to distract an alpha Hippowdon, sneak up behind it with a leaden ball, and get mowed down by three Hippopotas you try to quietly dodge while you're sweating bullets. It's just pure fun. This is the way Pokemon were always meant to be interacted with, and what the Pokedex was always meant to be. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm much more excited for Legends 2 than generation 9.
What an amazing game. Definitely the best from the franchise in over a decade. It's not perfect, and the next one could be better, but man I'm truly in love with Pokemon again. With a few exceptions, like not being clear on how to control turn order, the new battle system is superior to the one they've been leaning on for 25 years now. I have no real other qualms with the RPG and combat mechanics. I love the Agile and Strong style adding another layer to the tactics, so it feels less like rock paper scissors. And replacing EVs and IVs with ELs that are simplified to 1-10 was a fantastic decision.
Small things like changing movesets at any time, having the move tutor available from the start, a wide diversity of Pokemon at the beginning, mostly interesting sidequests, being able to take pictures and explore with your Pokemon in the overworld, alpha Pokemon, wild mons attacking the trainer, dodge rolling, Pokedex quests - this is just a small selection of improvements. I don't even miss things like held items and abilities. It's just not what the game is about anymore, and it's better for it. This is a game about creating the Pokedex, and each element of the game remembers that.
The new catching mechanic is the thing that ties it all together - sure, there are bits of Zelda Breath of the Wild and Monster Hunter in here, but the core addictiveness of Legends comes from Pokemon Go. The simple act of finding a Pokemon, physically working to catch it, and succeeding - this is a seratonin shot unlike almost any other in video games. Legends knows its strengths and leans on them hard, while streamlining the worst parts of Pokemon to make them totally fresh.
I cannot deny this game looks like ass. It is butt ugly almost all the time, with the one exception being the actual Pokemon models, and it genuinely detracted from the game from time to time. It bothered me to see the awful anti-aliasing, rectangular shadows and textures, and jagged pixels of clothing. Ordinarily I don't care much about graphical fidelity, but this is the first game I've played in a long time that looked so bad I have to acknowledge it affected the score. If this game was as good looking as Nintendo's other first party titles, it'd be a 10/10.
I love Pokemon now more than I have since middle school. Moreover I am excited, for the first time in a long time, about what the future could bring. Against my expectations, Game Freak put together a wildly innovative and competent game whose core gameplay succeeds so mightily you mostly won't care that the graphics are worse than most PS2 games. It just so doesn't matter. You throw a berry to distract an alpha Hippowdon, sneak up behind it with a leaden ball, and get mowed down by three Hippopotas you try to quietly dodge while you're sweating bullets. It's just pure fun. This is the way Pokemon were always meant to be interacted with, and what the Pokedex was always meant to be. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm much more excited for Legends 2 than generation 9.