Pokémon Legends Arceus Review

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Bazifar30

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Published on February 2, 2022 6:00:05 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWqLp9cv9f8

Game:

Pokémon Legends: Arceus (2022)

Duration: 9:11

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Pokemon Legends: Arceus review

A century before it became the land of Sinnoh, the Hisui region was a dangerous place where humans and Pokémon didn’t share the close bond they have today. In fact, Pokémon were treated like dangerous creatures to be avoided, and in Pokémon Legends: Arceus it’s up to you and the Galaxy Expedition Team to document and — yes — catch 'em all for the first-ever Pokédex.
This game offers the first real open-world experience in the Pokémon series. Technically a spin-off from the mainline games, Pokémon Legends: Arceus takes place in a 'Ye Olde' version of the Gen 4 region first visited in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl on Nintendo DS — and more recently in the Sinnoh remakes Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl on Switch. The land of Hisui is split up into regions, each of which is filled with Pokémon native to that habitat. In order to document them for your Pokédex, you’ll have to catch 'em (obviously), but instead of your sole option being simply weakening the Pokémon and then picking 'Poké Ball' from a menu, you have the chance to throw it yourself this time.
This is the best part of the game by far. The catching mechanics actually feel skill-based rather than luck-based, although luck does still play some factor. Certain Pokémon will require stealth when pursuing because, if they catch you looking at them the wrong way, they’ll either battle you or run away. There’s nothing more heartbreaking than slowly creeping up to a rare Pokémon only for it to spot you and sprint away as you launch Poké Balls over, under and to the side of it.
As a result, actually catching rare Pokémon feels like a great achievement and your team you build feels much more realised as you can remember exactly how you caught them. This also makes the experience of going into a new area and noticing all the different species you’ve yet to encounter feel so much more exciting than the equivalent in the mainline games.

Altogether this central gameplay loop takes the ideas that were previously left to the imagination and obscured behind RPG mechanics in the mainline Pokemon games, and recontextualizes them to be more active and personal. It's possible that all those times you got into a random encounter in previous Pokemon games, the monster first targeted you, and you tossed out a PokeBall to protect yourself in battle, and the battle system approximated that idea by presenting it as a random encounter. But here, it's very literal. You're at risk of getting hurt by a wild creature and your little pocket monsters are the only reliable answer at your disposal. It's satisfying to finally actually feel the tension of a wild beast attacking you, and to unleash your own trained monster to protect you.
The controls behind this binary approach--stealth vs. an outright attack, capturing vs. initiating a Pokemon battle--can be disorienting. The trigger button is used to toss whatever you have at the ready, and you toggle between a menu of PokeBalls and other objects like bait and a separate menu of caught Pokemon using the X button. It's fairly intuitive most of the time, cycling through your arsenal and then aiming a shot, but in the heat of the moment it's easy to waste a PokeBall when you meant to start a battle--or worse, to start a battle when you were trying to be sneaky.
Unfortunately, campaign progress gating is also tied to completing Pokedex survey results. The Survey Corps awards star rankings that level up as you gain research points for completing tasks and filling out Pokedex entries. New environments open up as you progress through the story, but between each major story point, you need to rank up to the next star level. That meant that for the first few star ranks, I was stuck needing to go over areas I had already explored extensively, grinding to progress enough to proceed. Later in the game, once I gained access to a larger selection of environments--and had access to mounts that made new areas reachable--it was much easier to progress without feeling like I had to go back over a previous area with a fine-toothed comb.
Unfortunately, campaign progress gating is also tied to completing Pokedex survey results. The Survey Corps awards star rankings that level up as you gain research points for completing tasks and filling out Pokedex entries. New environments open up as you progress through the story, but between each major story point, you need to rank up to the next star level. That meant that for the first few star ranks, I was stuck needing to go over areas I had already explored extensively, grinding to progress enough to proceed. Later in the game, once I gained access to a larger selection of environments--and had access to mounts that made new areas reachable--it was much easier to progress without feeling like I had to go back over a previous area with a fine-toothed comb.

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