Pokémon has not evolved much since Gold and Silver. Although i think the original formula pretty good it has been the same for 20 years without significant change. Legends is finally a worthwhile sequel that tries to revolutionize the formula breaking its conventions and does it very well.
Now the focus has changed to what I enjoy most in pokemon games, which is to catch them all, instead of being the best trainer in the world. With the open world, and the pokemon roaming around, the core gameplay loop consists in exploring everything trying to find every pokemon, and catch them all. Gone are the super slow battle screens to capture a pokemon, now you just try to be stealthy and throw a pokeball. Of course there are exceptions, in which you have to battle, however, the battle system also is much quicker and are a good change of pace. Everything now is just so quick to do, it is bizarre how long gamefreak took to implement these ideas.
Unfortunately the game is not without its flaws. I dont mind the graphics very much, I think they are okay, however the biggest problem here is the performance, specially the extremely poor pop in of everything that directly impacts the core gameplay loop. In a game where your main focus is to observe and capture creatures in the wild, pokémons materializing 5 meters ahead of you out of nowhere takes you out of the immersion.
There is also a completely unnecessary focus on the story. Your task as a researcher is great already, and is enough. This is a point where the game should have taken more inspiration from breath of the wild. Just give the player more freedom, without being constrained by the horrible story.
Considering that pokémon is the biggest multimedia franchise in the world, I imagine gamefreak has some pretty tight deadlines, and cannot afford the same development cycles as the teams at Nintendo that develop the mainline Zeldas or Marios. Legends Arceus has some obvious flaws. It is from a perfect game. But almost all of the fundamental changes in the core formula were a big improvement. There is a lot of room for refinement here, and that is a good thing. After 20 years the future is exciting for the pokémon series once again.
Now the focus has changed to what I enjoy most in pokemon games, which is to catch them all, instead of being the best trainer in the world. With the open world, and the pokemon roaming around, the core gameplay loop consists in exploring everything trying to find every pokemon, and catch them all. Gone are the super slow battle screens to capture a pokemon, now you just try to be stealthy and throw a pokeball. Of course there are exceptions, in which you have to battle, however, the battle system also is much quicker and are a good change of pace. Everything now is just so quick to do, it is bizarre how long gamefreak took to implement these ideas.
Unfortunately the game is not without its flaws. I dont mind the graphics very much, I think they are okay, however the biggest problem here is the performance, specially the extremely poor pop in of everything that directly impacts the core gameplay loop. In a game where your main focus is to observe and capture creatures in the wild, pokémons materializing 5 meters ahead of you out of nowhere takes you out of the immersion.
There is also a completely unnecessary focus on the story. Your task as a researcher is great already, and is enough. This is a point where the game should have taken more inspiration from breath of the wild. Just give the player more freedom, without being constrained by the horrible story.
Considering that pokémon is the biggest multimedia franchise in the world, I imagine gamefreak has some pretty tight deadlines, and cannot afford the same development cycles as the teams at Nintendo that develop the mainline Zeldas or Marios. Legends Arceus has some obvious flaws. It is from a perfect game. But almost all of the fundamental changes in the core formula were a big improvement. There is a lot of room for refinement here, and that is a good thing. After 20 years the future is exciting for the pokémon series once again.