I’ve already spoken on Pokemon, having previously talked about the newest installments in the franchise, Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet. These games showed us glimpses of the past and future, with Pokemon Scarlet specifically granting us ancient, prehistoric versions of modern-day favorites. However, these glimpses were just that – glimpses – and while this did leave fans partially satisfied, they ultimately still wanted more. As a result, many fans, as I did, turned to a relatively unrecognized Pokemon game that had come out only months before – Pokemon Legends: Arceus – which places the player in a time before Pokemon were widely domesticated, letting them roam around the ancient region of “Hisui” and giving them the deeper look into ancient Pokemon they’d been craving.
The main difference that the game has relative to every other in the Pokemon franchise is that every encounter doesn’t have to be started with combat. While it is still a wise decision to drain a Pokemon’s health before attempting to catch it, it is entirely possible to sneak up on a Pokemon, throwing a PokeBall and capturing them before they get the chance to react. This allows the player to feel as if they are more fully immersed in the environment, actually experiencing the vast and wild world as it is meant to be. This, in turn, allows for a much easier and more succinct completion of the Pokedex, meaning that the player is able to capture at least one of every Pokemon there is, typically in exchange for an award. A large complaint about the mainstream games was that it was too arduous a process to really “Complete” the game. Sure, one could progress through the main storyline, battling all the gym leaders and winning all the fights, but once that was all said and done, actually “Catching ’em all” was too daunting an objective for most to handle. While the time to start an interaction with a Pokemon and then catch it may seem negligible, being only about a minute, three at most, those minutes add up over time. With there being 400 Pokemon in the newest games, that’s already over 6 Hours spent just catching the little guys, not even factoring in the time it would sometimes take to find them. In the case of rare Pokemon like the paradox form of Magneton – “Sandy Shocks” – it is often the case that players must circle the same spot for long periods of time, waiting for the game to even make it available to catch. Legends: Arceus fixes a lot of these problems, making it so that finishing the Pokedex doesn’t feel like something you go out of your way to do as a “Side Goal,” but as something that actually goes along with the main game. While Pokemon may be tucked away into some niche spots, they aren’t impossible to find, and certainly aren’t impossible to spawn.
On top of this, Legends: Arceus adds drama and suspense to the game without feeling hokey. In games past, Pokemon has been entirely about the player living in the extremely safe world of Pokemon, progressing through the gyms and making friends along the way. This is all well and good, and works well for a game marketed as family-friendly, however, when Pokemon does try to add a perilous aspect to its games, it always feels last minute and/or sidelined to the main story. Take any of the rival “Teams” of any main game. These included factions like “Team Skull,” “Team Aqua/Magma,” and the original baddies themselves, “Team Rocket.” While they do have their moments in the games, often being hindrances to the player and the world, they’re never exactly “Dangerous” only being presented as thugs who stand in your way. Once again, Legends: Arceus fixes a recurring issue of the franchise, with wild Pokemon actually attacking the player and not just the Pokemon in their party. Gone are the days where Pokemon only “Wake up” when bumped into or interacted with – instead, the player is actively hunted down by Hyper Beams, Gunk Shots, Hydro Pumps and more, allowing the immediate sense of danger to come through much more clearly. Not only can the player be damaged, but even knocked out, recovering back at home base with less money and fewer items, having dropped a decent chunk of their inventory upon getting KO’d.
Like all other new additions to the franchise since Pokemon: Sun & Moon, Legends: Arceus included plenty of regional forms, being forms of Pokemon that are varied from their non-regional counterparts in order to adapt to their new environments. Sun & Moon originally introduced this concept with unique forms of Pokemon like Exeggutor, Raichu, and Dugtrio, all having adapted to thrive in their more “Equatorial” habitat, sometimes even gaining new typings like Steel and Dragon. In the case of Legends: Arceus, we see new “Hisuian” forms, which take inspiration from more traditional and Ronin-style motifs. At the start of the game, the player has to choose between 3 starter Pokemon, being Rowlett, Cyndaquil, or Oshawott, all of whom, unlike the original games, are from separate regions. The three look, rather sadly, normal, not having any discernible differences from any others of their species. However, their true colors arise upon evolution, in which they not only gain previously unbeknownst-to-them typings, but even novel looks, showcasing their more rugged, wild aspects with free-flowing manes and battle-hardened hides. These forms not only add depth to the game but give love to Pokemon that had previously fallen into obscurity, such as Avalugg and Lilligant, allowing them to rise again into the eyes of the public.
However, this is not to say the game is without faults. One of the biggest gripes given is the seemingly “poor” graphics in harsh juxtaposition to other, “higher-quality” Nintendo releases coming out around the same time and on that same console, such as Nintendo’s Tears Of The Kingdom, which showcases a massive map size, over 110 monsters, and amazing cel-shaded graphics. Fans feel that they deserve a Pokemon game that lives up to the abilities of both Nintendo and the Nintendo Switch, and not something that looks as it has for the past decade. In my opinion, however, the graphics are fine because they support a certain kind of style. Look at Minecraft – it’s all pixels and cubes, with minimal shadows, but it doesn’t get graphics riots on account of fans “wanting better.” Why? Because Minecraft supports a specific kind of organization and cube-central style which is a hallmark to the game. If the Pokemon series were to suddenly receive high-definition models with realistic fur and too-gooey eyeballs, it would be found deeply unsettling, as, at the end of the day, the Pokemon series is full of kids’ games, the mascots of which should look appealing, cute and desirable.
Overall, Legends: Arceus is an amazing game. There is so much more to the entire experience than I’m willing to divulge, and one simply cannot get the full experience without playing it for themselves. I urge you to play it on your own so that you can see just how amazing a game it is. This was a bold leap for Nintendo, going back in time with their settings rather than further in the future, and it paid off handsomely, with fans, if after a slight miscalculation in game quality, flocking to and adoring the game, hailing it as a favorite of the franchise. The game is able to masterfully blend not just player happiness, but overall lore-integrity, inserting the game into the franchise’s past without disrupting anything that would occur afterwards. With riveting battles, immersive gameplay, and amazing Pokemon, Legends: Arceus is certainly one for the books.
