The best part about Pokemon: Legends Arceus (which I often just refer to as 'Arceus') is that it's an encouraging glimpse at what is to come for the Pokémon franchise. The game fundamentally changes a good bit of what we have come to understand as “Pokémon." Some of these changes are great, some not some much, some unfinished. (If you don’t want to read this whole thing, I outlined the changes I’d like to see stay and the ones I’d rather have not and why at the bottom). Ultimately, rather than the game itself feeling like the perfect vision that Game Freak has for the franchise, it feels like a template for that—which is okay, because you have to start somewhere.
As someone who believed that the visuals of Legends Arceus wouldn’t be as big of a deal as they were being made out to be prior to release, they are. The game looks inexcusably bad; it’s actually, truly baffling. It's not just texture quality though, but environment design as a whole, definitely a low point for series. The areas are bland and uninspired and I found myself missing some of the area design of the Sword and Shield wild areas. The game's visuals are nothing short of unfinished; in all seriousness, there are games released 10 years ago ON Nintendo consoles that are much prettier than Legends Arceus. The quality dips even lower when flying around, a core mechanic of the late game that you are expected to be doing a lot. The abysmal render distance made it occasionally difficult to discern what is an endless out of bounds placeholder horizon and an actual area you can go to. Game Freak could have made this all much more acceptable if the areas themselves were visually distinct and memorable but they are simply anything but. Jubilife Village, the games only real town and main hub, and also quite unfortunately falls victim to these issues. Most of the buildings in the village are just copy pasted models in a rigid straight line, taking uninspired design to a whole new level. It is very unfortunate that Jubilife is so bad; Game Freak only had to focus on one town rather than the seven or eight they usually do, and you would think that would mean it would a beautiful place you want to be, but it is anything but. Whether far in the past or not, Jubilife's design is nothing short of lazy.
Okay, enough on that. The core gameplay of Arceus is by far the fastest pace of the franchise and makes wild Pokémon encounters much less tedious to deal with. Being able to instantly transition into a battle, pick a move, defeat the Pokémon in one shot and keep running was cathartic after years of Pokémon prior. That being said, I'm generally not as big of a fan of the actual Pokémon battling part of the game as in the core series. I very much respect what Game Freak was going for with the FFX style battle order system, but it is flawed. Coming from someone that cares quite a bit about competitive Pokémon, the system simply does not work very well. I do not expect Game Freak to make it the primary battle system for competitive or otherwise in the future, but even in the main game I would prefer it not to stay. Being able to switch in another Pokémon for a better matchup and instantly use a super effective move on the opponent without them able to do anything is very silly, and the same goes for group encounters. Occasionally I would fight a few Pokémon at once and get paralyzed for example, unable to do anything at all for 4-5 turns. Again, I appreciate the innovation of the strong/agile style system, but would not really want it to stay. I think the battles could use some innovation, just not this. To be clear though, I was able to at least appreciate it in this game and be happy to have more depth to battling.
That being said, I am extremely confused as to why Pokémon abilities were removed. I understand that some things in the game are explained due to it being so far in the past, but I can’t really see a reason why Pokémon shouldn’t have their abilities. These are a fundamental part of many different Pokémon, sometimes even defining their viability, such as Gliscor with Poison Heal, Heatran with flash fire, Zoroark with Illusion, Porygon-Z with Adaptability, etc. On the other hand, one new change to Pokémon themselves that I absolutely LOVE and should be standard for the future is the change to IVs/EVs. Not having to worry about IVs at all—which is normally an insane hassle with breeding and Dittos and all that—and being able to control EVs with no more than some easily obtainable items made the normally painstaking dedication required to get a “perfect Pokémon” completely absent and as a competitive player, I could not be happier. I really hope this simplicity stays in the future entries because honestly, nobody has time to be breeding perfect Pokémon, much less entire teams. While Legends Arceus doesn’t have competitive, I believe that keeping this system would reduce the barrier to entry of the competitive scene and encourage more to try it, being able to focus on getting better at battling itself rather than spending time just preparing to battle at all.
Arceus’s new version of boss battles incorporates the game’s action mechanics more than any other part, which ends up exposing how clunky and awkward it feels. These mechanics honestly feel like an afterthought; dodging is extremely unintuitive and feels anything but fluid as it does in a game like Dark Souls, as does running around and trying to aim the balms that you must throw at the bosses. It just feels… cheap; but again, it’s a start. Other parts of the game that incorporate more action, such as chasing around the genie trio in the postgame, just feel awful, frustrating and janky. I’m glad they are trying to do this but it falls flat for the most part.
Legends Arceus does have a lot of very high points that I really love and will be remembered quite positively. As ugly as the areas are, I still really liked the vibes of exploring and catching Pokémon. The game’s soundtrack is absolutely phenomenal, without a doubt one of the best of the series. It is truly beautiful; probably my personal favorite Pokémon OST, often ethereal to listen to. The Heartwood, the Midnight Theme, The Lake and Lake Cavern themes, and Obsidian Fields’ heavenly main theme are just some of the best examples of the vibe-y pieces that I adored, but many of the faster paced battle themes, particularly those later in the game, are also amazing.
Speaking of which, while the story for the majority of the game is forgettable and just as minimal (in a bad way) as lesser Pokémon stories can be, the postgame is fantastic and has (of the games I’ve played, at least) my personal favorite moment/battle in the series, and anyone who has played the game knows what I am talking about. Parts like this allowed me to forget about many of the game’s shortcomings and see that which CAN make Pokémon so great. More moments like this would really bring the franchise to its full potential.
I did mostly enjoy my time with Legends Arceus but it was hard to go very long without being made well aware of any one of the game’s many flaws or general sense of feeling like an unfinished experience. It’s worth playing as a Pokémon fan but I’d be hard pressed to convince someone to try it otherwise; I’m sure plenty, as I have seen already, will still enjoy it even if they are not (or haven't played a Pokémon game in a long time), but it’s not something I think I could justify myself. By far the most important thing about the game is what we now see as the vision that Game Freak has for the future of the franchise. Arceus is the perfect thing to build off and it will hopefully serve as the basis for all-time great Pokémon adventures to come.
6/10
List of changes I think SHOULD Stay:
• Freedom of Movement: Being able to literally “run” away from battles and just keep going after you finish one is fantastic. The fluidity from battle start to battle end feels amazing.
• EV/IV System: The simplicity that it takes in Arceus to get a “perfect” Pokémon is very much welcomed, especially for the competitive aspect of the franchise, and will lower the barrier of entry to that as well. Wasting hours and hours breeding perfect IV Pokémon is not a good mechanic and should not return.
• Crafting: It's good. It’s simple and getting materials is pretty easy, and being able to purchase the items as well makes it totally fine; you're not required to grind for materials basically ever.
• Alpha Pokémon and Size Differences: The significant size differences within a Pokémon species is very cool. The alpha Pokémon mechanic is also good. It could maybe be changed a bit, but it's a great concept that worked well I think.
• Traversal: Quickly changing between the different rideable Pokémon feels great.
• Frostbite: Much better than Freeze, and makes total sense as a special version of Burn. Something that is honestly needed for balancing purposes and to make Ice better.
• More Viable Moves: Moves like Hyper Beam and Roar of Time, etc. being slightly weaker but not requiring a recharge is a great mechanic; it makes them actually viable options where they previously were not really at all. Also not being locked into Outrage type moves and instead it just increasing in power on subsequent uses is a great change as well.
• Action Combat: I like the CONCEPT of this and incorporating it into the gameplay will be important for the future of the franchise, however the execution of it in Legends Arceus is not good at all.
Things that Should NOT Stay
• Battle System - The FFX style battle order system is an interesting change but ultimately I don’t think it works for Pokémon. It de-emphasizes speed a bit and can lead to some very weird situations, such as switching and immediately being able to act, which is very unbalanced, especially in trainer battles. It works to make the game a bit more difficult but it’s not something I’d want to stay, especially not be applied to competitive (although I doubt they’d do that)
• Agile/Strong Style - going along with the above, I think that this worked for this game and I could appreciate it but is not something I’d want to see as a mainstay in the series. This new battle system needs work, but I think some new mechanics that work better are good
• Move Nerfs: A TON of moves had their base power needed and I do not think that this was necessary in nearly every single case. Ice beam, Megahorn (bug is already bad enough), Flare Blitz, Dazzling Gleam, Steel Beam, Close Combat, and many more did not need to be nerfed.
• No Abilities and Held Items: As I talked about in the review these are absolutely fundamental parts of Pokémon themselves that can often define their viability and there is no way, even in a game such as this style, that they should take these out again.
• No Double Battles: I think that Pokémon should move more TOWARDS using double battles rather than away; it makes for a lot more depth and difficulty possibilities and the lack of any in this game I found weird
• Obscuring/Fog: Moves that make you harder to hit are an awful mechanic and should not be a thing. Cresselia with Lunar Blessing is actually crazy broken and other similar things are just too much, accuracy is already lower on some moves and this would be a nightmare in competitive.
• Stat Boosting: I’m not really sure why moves like Calm Mind just raise “defensive” and “offensive” stats rather than just physical/special, raising all of them is insane and definitely should not be a thing.
As someone who believed that the visuals of Legends Arceus wouldn’t be as big of a deal as they were being made out to be prior to release, they are. The game looks inexcusably bad; it’s actually, truly baffling. It's not just texture quality though, but environment design as a whole, definitely a low point for series. The areas are bland and uninspired and I found myself missing some of the area design of the Sword and Shield wild areas. The game's visuals are nothing short of unfinished; in all seriousness, there are games released 10 years ago ON Nintendo consoles that are much prettier than Legends Arceus. The quality dips even lower when flying around, a core mechanic of the late game that you are expected to be doing a lot. The abysmal render distance made it occasionally difficult to discern what is an endless out of bounds placeholder horizon and an actual area you can go to. Game Freak could have made this all much more acceptable if the areas themselves were visually distinct and memorable but they are simply anything but. Jubilife Village, the games only real town and main hub, and also quite unfortunately falls victim to these issues. Most of the buildings in the village are just copy pasted models in a rigid straight line, taking uninspired design to a whole new level. It is very unfortunate that Jubilife is so bad; Game Freak only had to focus on one town rather than the seven or eight they usually do, and you would think that would mean it would a beautiful place you want to be, but it is anything but. Whether far in the past or not, Jubilife's design is nothing short of lazy.
Okay, enough on that. The core gameplay of Arceus is by far the fastest pace of the franchise and makes wild Pokémon encounters much less tedious to deal with. Being able to instantly transition into a battle, pick a move, defeat the Pokémon in one shot and keep running was cathartic after years of Pokémon prior. That being said, I'm generally not as big of a fan of the actual Pokémon battling part of the game as in the core series. I very much respect what Game Freak was going for with the FFX style battle order system, but it is flawed. Coming from someone that cares quite a bit about competitive Pokémon, the system simply does not work very well. I do not expect Game Freak to make it the primary battle system for competitive or otherwise in the future, but even in the main game I would prefer it not to stay. Being able to switch in another Pokémon for a better matchup and instantly use a super effective move on the opponent without them able to do anything is very silly, and the same goes for group encounters. Occasionally I would fight a few Pokémon at once and get paralyzed for example, unable to do anything at all for 4-5 turns. Again, I appreciate the innovation of the strong/agile style system, but would not really want it to stay. I think the battles could use some innovation, just not this. To be clear though, I was able to at least appreciate it in this game and be happy to have more depth to battling.
That being said, I am extremely confused as to why Pokémon abilities were removed. I understand that some things in the game are explained due to it being so far in the past, but I can’t really see a reason why Pokémon shouldn’t have their abilities. These are a fundamental part of many different Pokémon, sometimes even defining their viability, such as Gliscor with Poison Heal, Heatran with flash fire, Zoroark with Illusion, Porygon-Z with Adaptability, etc. On the other hand, one new change to Pokémon themselves that I absolutely LOVE and should be standard for the future is the change to IVs/EVs. Not having to worry about IVs at all—which is normally an insane hassle with breeding and Dittos and all that—and being able to control EVs with no more than some easily obtainable items made the normally painstaking dedication required to get a “perfect Pokémon” completely absent and as a competitive player, I could not be happier. I really hope this simplicity stays in the future entries because honestly, nobody has time to be breeding perfect Pokémon, much less entire teams. While Legends Arceus doesn’t have competitive, I believe that keeping this system would reduce the barrier to entry of the competitive scene and encourage more to try it, being able to focus on getting better at battling itself rather than spending time just preparing to battle at all.
Arceus’s new version of boss battles incorporates the game’s action mechanics more than any other part, which ends up exposing how clunky and awkward it feels. These mechanics honestly feel like an afterthought; dodging is extremely unintuitive and feels anything but fluid as it does in a game like Dark Souls, as does running around and trying to aim the balms that you must throw at the bosses. It just feels… cheap; but again, it’s a start. Other parts of the game that incorporate more action, such as chasing around the genie trio in the postgame, just feel awful, frustrating and janky. I’m glad they are trying to do this but it falls flat for the most part.
Legends Arceus does have a lot of very high points that I really love and will be remembered quite positively. As ugly as the areas are, I still really liked the vibes of exploring and catching Pokémon. The game’s soundtrack is absolutely phenomenal, without a doubt one of the best of the series. It is truly beautiful; probably my personal favorite Pokémon OST, often ethereal to listen to. The Heartwood, the Midnight Theme, The Lake and Lake Cavern themes, and Obsidian Fields’ heavenly main theme are just some of the best examples of the vibe-y pieces that I adored, but many of the faster paced battle themes, particularly those later in the game, are also amazing.
Speaking of which, while the story for the majority of the game is forgettable and just as minimal (in a bad way) as lesser Pokémon stories can be, the postgame is fantastic and has (of the games I’ve played, at least) my personal favorite moment/battle in the series, and anyone who has played the game knows what I am talking about. Parts like this allowed me to forget about many of the game’s shortcomings and see that which CAN make Pokémon so great. More moments like this would really bring the franchise to its full potential.
I did mostly enjoy my time with Legends Arceus but it was hard to go very long without being made well aware of any one of the game’s many flaws or general sense of feeling like an unfinished experience. It’s worth playing as a Pokémon fan but I’d be hard pressed to convince someone to try it otherwise; I’m sure plenty, as I have seen already, will still enjoy it even if they are not (or haven't played a Pokémon game in a long time), but it’s not something I think I could justify myself. By far the most important thing about the game is what we now see as the vision that Game Freak has for the future of the franchise. Arceus is the perfect thing to build off and it will hopefully serve as the basis for all-time great Pokémon adventures to come.
6/10
List of changes I think SHOULD Stay:
• Freedom of Movement: Being able to literally “run” away from battles and just keep going after you finish one is fantastic. The fluidity from battle start to battle end feels amazing.
• EV/IV System: The simplicity that it takes in Arceus to get a “perfect” Pokémon is very much welcomed, especially for the competitive aspect of the franchise, and will lower the barrier of entry to that as well. Wasting hours and hours breeding perfect IV Pokémon is not a good mechanic and should not return.
• Crafting: It's good. It’s simple and getting materials is pretty easy, and being able to purchase the items as well makes it totally fine; you're not required to grind for materials basically ever.
• Alpha Pokémon and Size Differences: The significant size differences within a Pokémon species is very cool. The alpha Pokémon mechanic is also good. It could maybe be changed a bit, but it's a great concept that worked well I think.
• Traversal: Quickly changing between the different rideable Pokémon feels great.
• Frostbite: Much better than Freeze, and makes total sense as a special version of Burn. Something that is honestly needed for balancing purposes and to make Ice better.
• More Viable Moves: Moves like Hyper Beam and Roar of Time, etc. being slightly weaker but not requiring a recharge is a great mechanic; it makes them actually viable options where they previously were not really at all. Also not being locked into Outrage type moves and instead it just increasing in power on subsequent uses is a great change as well.
• Action Combat: I like the CONCEPT of this and incorporating it into the gameplay will be important for the future of the franchise, however the execution of it in Legends Arceus is not good at all.
Things that Should NOT Stay
• Battle System - The FFX style battle order system is an interesting change but ultimately I don’t think it works for Pokémon. It de-emphasizes speed a bit and can lead to some very weird situations, such as switching and immediately being able to act, which is very unbalanced, especially in trainer battles. It works to make the game a bit more difficult but it’s not something I’d want to stay, especially not be applied to competitive (although I doubt they’d do that)
• Agile/Strong Style - going along with the above, I think that this worked for this game and I could appreciate it but is not something I’d want to see as a mainstay in the series. This new battle system needs work, but I think some new mechanics that work better are good
• Move Nerfs: A TON of moves had their base power needed and I do not think that this was necessary in nearly every single case. Ice beam, Megahorn (bug is already bad enough), Flare Blitz, Dazzling Gleam, Steel Beam, Close Combat, and many more did not need to be nerfed.
• No Abilities and Held Items: As I talked about in the review these are absolutely fundamental parts of Pokémon themselves that can often define their viability and there is no way, even in a game such as this style, that they should take these out again.
• No Double Battles: I think that Pokémon should move more TOWARDS using double battles rather than away; it makes for a lot more depth and difficulty possibilities and the lack of any in this game I found weird
• Obscuring/Fog: Moves that make you harder to hit are an awful mechanic and should not be a thing. Cresselia with Lunar Blessing is actually crazy broken and other similar things are just too much, accuracy is already lower on some moves and this would be a nightmare in competitive.
• Stat Boosting: I’m not really sure why moves like Calm Mind just raise “defensive” and “offensive” stats rather than just physical/special, raising all of them is insane and definitely should not be a thing.