Pokemon Legends Arceus is a long overdue change of pace in the Pokemon franchise, and while I don’t necessarily want all games to follow suite in every regard, many of the changes to the formula are some of the best its ever seen. This game changes the emphasis from battling to catching, which has a huge web of impact. You feel much more motivated to actually complete the dex and engage with the expansive roster of Pokemon, making the player feel much more enveloped in the world. The act of exploration in a semi-open world map is a perfect fit for Pokemon, as having Pokemon in the overworld is the perfect thing to discover. It also gave so much more personality to the various species than a traditional game ever could, as interacting with the wild Pokemon and just watching them is something that has never been done so well as in this game. The world, while not the greatest map made in an open world game, was consistently fun to explore, though I do feel as though it was a bit empty at times. The battle system is slightly worse than normal, but it is still a very engaging system with new layers of depth in agile and strong style. The loss of held items and abilities especially removes a lot of strategic depth, as well as the change of the order system removing a lot of options. This is all on top of a much more limited move and Pokemon pool which obviously removes a lot of options. The benefit to the shallower pool is that the game feels a bit more balanced and different mons feel much more distinct since moves are more limited. Balance wise it helps because it completely changes what moves are best and on which mons. As well as this, the changes to status conditions are perfect, with frostbite and drowsy being by far and away better for the game than sleep and frozen. The weather changes are also welcome too. The unfortunate reality around Pokemon is that in game balancing is almost completely irrelevant by Game Freaks phobia of scaring off players, so no matter how amazing they make the battle system, it can never be fully realized since they have a piss baby easy difficulty curve. If it was harder, and I know, it’s Pokemon, it doesn’t have to be dark souls, it would be much more engaging as you could really get into the complexities of the battle system, but as is, you really never have to. Even the post game fight against SPOILER Volo and Giratina, which might be the sickest cinematic fight of all Pokemon and maybe gameplay wise too, but even that wasn’t too hard. Overall, though, this game is astounding and has me excited once again for the future of Pokemon.