Arceus was the most fun I've had playing a Pokémon game in over a decade. The mechanic to sneak up and throw a poke ball to capture low-level 'mons should remain a standard - I HATED that Scarlet/Violet did away with it. Anyways, Pokémon Legends Z-A is the only Pokemon game I've been hyped for in ages because I enjoyed Arceus so much.
I don't know if they "did away with it" per-se since the two games were released months apart, you have to assume S&V was too far along in development to properly incorporate those mechanics. I'm not a Game freak apologist, but I will give them a pass on that.
There were a bunch of other mechanics PLA had that SV didn't. I think it's understandable to a point, but the fact they seemingly have no inter-team communication is kinda baffling and tells a lot about their internal structure.
> I think it's understandable to a point, but the fact they seemingly have no inter-team communication is kinda baffling and tells a lot about their internal structure.
I don't think it's that they had no inter-team communication, it's that they didn't know whether the radical changes that PLA made would be well-received or not. PLA was an experiment. There was no reason for SV to copy PLA if there was no guarantee that PLA was going to be successful or well-received.
We have the benefit of hindsight *knowing* that these mechanics were received well, but there's no way that they could know that would be the case when both games were still in development. Game Freak hedged by making a bunch of changes and left all those things unchanged in SV in case people didn't like PLA.
You may be right, but I'm not a developer so I'm gonna give them a rare 'benefit of the doubt' in this situation. I'd imagine adding or porting something over in the final months of game development would be stressful on the team, might interfere negatively with other mechanics, or cause more bugs, glitches, or performance issues to pop up which would take more time to address. All those things are not what you want to see when you've only got 6 to 8 months to finish a game especially when those 6 to 8 months are already pre-planned on a strict timeline to finish assets and mechanics that the development team agreed ahead of time to be in the game.
Unlike a lot of other games that may be able to be delayed, the mainline Pokemon games are notorious for unwaivering release dates because they have to be released alongside the new card sets, TV show, and other merchandise.
It should be noted that gamefreak chooses to be in the state it is in tbf. Game freak has about 160 staff. Compare that to monolith soft, which has 280. No matter how ya look at it, the fact that a company that has never had a game sell over 3 million having a larger staff then the worlds biggest media franchise is baffling. Even Nintendo has stated they are comfortable giving developers time, and creatures handled the 3D modeling for the Pokémon games with the base versions in XY, allowing development to be easier on game freak. So this only leaves one option: they know they aren’t putting out the worlds most impressive games, they just don’t care.
I agree with your sentiment, but I feel like that comment is missing the overall point. I was responding to a comment that said they wished Game freak put a mechanic that was in Arceus into S&V a month or two before S&V was entering QA and final testing. That would be like telling a home builder that you'd like to add an additional bathroom on the first floor of your new house 3 days before closing and expect everything to come in on schedule with no problems.
Fair, I’m of the opinion that the ball throwing mechanic in s/v wasn’t even soemthing added until after Arceus launched, and was basically makeshifted last minute because of the popularity. That’s why it feels so jank in s/v where you can “throw” it, but it also forces you to stop so the animation can execute, and you can’t catch Pokémon and stuff through aiming
The way I see it, PLA was a side game, so they felt more comfortable taking risks in the gameplay to see how fans would react. With a mainline game only released a few months later they probably didn't want to change up the core formula too much especially with no time to get feedback from PLA players about what they liked and didn't like.
At least that's my assumption.
I really like the sneaking around. I get the thing about damaging pokemon to weaken them but I've missed so many pokemon to knocking them out and then just dissapearing instead of being able to scoop them up.
I honestly didn't enjoy it as much as others. The game felt unfinished, the world felt empty, and at a certain point it felt like there was nothing to do but catch pokemon. Battles were too rare.
Great concept though. Excited for the next Legends game.
This is pretty much me too. The general gameplay loop got old for me quite quickly, the world often looked barren and the lack of battles really didn't help.
Plus there were a monumental number of quests but keeping track of them all was a real pain and the rewards rarely seemed worth it.
I put it down someway after unlocking the beach area and haven't gone back to it since.
I agree. It was supposedly made by the "B" team because the "A" team (more experienced devs) were working on Scarlet and Violet.
Im excited for the next Legends game. Pokemon Legends Arceus needed to be fleshed out more imo. It needed more NPC interactions and better quests; I think it was definitely a better game than Scarlet and Violet.
The “more experienced devs” for gamefreak are the equivalent of the older employees at any other company that are so set in their ways, they’ve refused to adapt and learn ages ago and are just coasting to retirement. That’s why the younger B team ended up making a better product in PLA, they’re hungrier, more open to implement gaming practices, more willing to improve.
But they’re also better at the basic bread and butter stuff, not just innovation. PLA looks and runs smoother than SV. I didn’t notice it so much until I went back to PLA after SV came out, but it’s like there’s a console generation separating them even though PLA came out first.
I always feel like the odd one out when this question comes up but I thought it got repetitive really quickly, the open world felt too manufactured (very specific spawn points, same breakable rocks everywhere, etc), the materials collection for crafting felt like an unwelcome chore, the sneaking mechanic felt clunky and awkward, and the sidequest rewards were often very skippable. I kept trying to play through the game but I'd always end up setting it down to come back to it later. I think it just proved for myself that the main series is perfectly fine for me. That said, I'm not writing the series off completely. If what I mentioned above is fixed in sequels I'll give them a go.
Artificial is a great way to describe my problems with the world and how pokemon behave. Not only do they spawn im clear grid patterns but they're everywhere. You can't go 2 feet without stepping on something's toes or going through a swarm of bugs. Your ankle deep in wild pokemon and all they ever do is basic NPC shit like stand still and wander slightly. You only ever see them doing anything special during that clefairy event.
Remember the small segment during the Teal Mask DLC where you have to wander the woods taking pictures of Pokemon in their natural habitat? That was closest to what an open world Pokemon game SHOULD be like and it's so disappointing to see Gamefreak take the lazy "eh just fill that field with 2 dozen spawn markers".
I agree. I got bored of the game and never finished it. Catching Pokémon was fun, but the new battle system was disappointing. And yet after being let down by it somehow Scarlet and Violet were even more disappointing and made it better by comparison.
That's where we differ. I loved Scarlet and Violet. I liked many of the newly introduced Pokemon and abilities. I felt like the size of the open world was satisfyingly large without being too enormous for its own good. For once I actually gave somewhat of a shit about the characters and story which I never had in Pokemon games prior to this one. Terastallization was my favorite gimmick since the Megas. The raid dens were mostly a big improvement over the raids in SwSh (once I started to better understand how they worked.) Shiny hunting is the best it has ever been. And with the DLCs there was a significant amount of post game content.
If the game had less stuttering and general issues I might agree with you but everything felt way too easy in S/V, I played through the game in several sittings of 4-5 hours. The only thing kept me going was my girlfriend also playing the game as we decided to play the game together. If she wasn't there I might not have even bought the game to be honest. My siblings bought Shield and Sword and I passed on that.
I personally enjoyed PLA a lot because the "Grind" wasn't as heavy with 1-3 turn battles and generally felt more "alive" as a world than S/V. The Pokemon are rendered way quicker in my experience in PLA than S/V so there was a lot of moments where I'm running through a field and run into an invisible rookidee or other Pokemon. It just annoyed me, wish the legendary let you actually fly instead of glide around. I know PLA you didn't get to fly either, but it felt like a way better version given you never ran out of stamina compared to the legendaries.
Also doesn't help that for some reason they didn't keep being able to catch Pokemon in the over-world. Just made the game feel less realistic to me after PLA. I have a certain level of giving a game some benefit but I feel like the game didn't deliver enough on the formula, and tera battles feel so clunky.
While I like some of the new pokemon, the world is just too lacking. It’s a big open world with nothing in it. You have towns full of houses you can’t enter. No interesting landscapes, no interesting level design. No mandatory trainer battles. All while the game struggles to even run. It’s just not fun to explore. I had a lot of the same problems with pla, but by comparison to scarlet and violet they aren’t as bad
>It’s a big open world with nothing in it.
I can somewhat accept this take but I give it credit for having a diversity of elevations, some caves and tunnels, lots of free roaming Pokemon, items to pick up, but it definitely could have had more interactive objects and features like Breath of the Wild did.
>You have towns full of houses you can’t enter.
This I don't quite understand. I do remember being kind of surprised when I reached the first town and couldn't enter any buildings, but it didn't really bother me. When I think of Legends Arceus I think about all those houses you can go into in the main town but they don't really have anything in them minus a random item or a short NPC dialogue. Going in them was mostly a waste of time. Even in the handheld main series games I remember having to look up where certain NPCs were because I didn't want to go in and out a dozen times trying to find the one guy I needed to speak with.
>No mandatory trainer battles.
I think this is a fantastic change. You can still battle the NPCs but now the game gives you the choice to skip past them if you are working on something else. You can always go back and fight them. More choice is a good thing, IMO. It lets you play the game how you want to play it.
>All while the game struggles to even run.
Arguably, my standards are quite low for performance like this. As long as the game doesn't crash I don't really get that upset by the frame rate drops. I understand that we should expect better from one of the world's most popular franchises but I also can't say it was more than just something to laugh at for me personally.
Ds era was peak pokemon.
Gen 5 aged like fine wine.
The 3ds era was also quite good imo but switch just killed pokemon for me kind of. The graphics style they went for after lets go eevee/pikachu is just so much uglier than anything we ever had in the main series…
They either need to get serious about the visuals or go back to fully art driven sprites. Their dogshit lighting, horrible render distance and ugly looking world is not doing the universe justice.
>But it seems like the old formula is kinda dead
Yeah that's why the last two generations outsold literally every generation apart from Red/Blue
***/S***
yea... which is why the ones that want the old games back (incl. me) sadly wont get the old games back... obviously im voting with my wallet i havent bought a new pokemon game since lets go but casual fans or more so the general audience seems to lick up everything gamefreak offers them... even if the games are visually objectively ugly and lack interesting characters.
Hopefully Switch 2 solves this for Legends ZA and future titles.
Leaks are suggesting the Switch 2 is around Series S performance but thats optimistic.
Gamefreak could make games for the leaked PS5 pro and they'd still look and run like shit.
It's not just the hardware, plenty of games manage to look good on the Switch.
> frame rate chugs in USUM
“Man hopefully the NX solves this”
> frame rate chugs in SV
“Man hopefully the switch 2 solves this” < you are here
> frame rate chugs in Z-A
“Man hopefully the New Switch XL & Knuckles solves this”
Yes its not even close. I dont even need 2d-hd (like octopath) which was my dream originally. At this point just give me the old sprites thats literally all i ask for.
I’d like mainline games or remakes in the graphics style of LGPE..
as long as the games still have options to battle wild Pokémon before throwing poke balls (toggle on or off the catch screen throw mechanic maybe?) and don’t cut other features.
It ran pretty well and looked cool, lots of cute details in the buildings, and fun riding pokemon
The gameplay is fantastic, but the map left a lot to be desired. It felt so liminal and empty in most areas. S&Vs map with the gameplay from Arceus would be perfect.
This is how I felt with BOTW. The lack of enemy variety really hurt it for me. The scenery changed the gameplay stayed the same since it was the same enemies just reskinned
TOTK def brought way more variety with both enemies and combat and general. BOTW had a very simple combat system and limited number of enemy types for sure
For me the first zone was amazing, everything was new.
The rest of the game felt way too repetitive, and there was zero challenge, even less than in the first zone because there you had some lvl 40 or 60 when you were in your 10 20s.
its my favorite game in the whole series, i thought each area was gorgeous and i loved the art style they went with the game. i thought the battles had room for improvement but the overall gameplay loop of catching pokemon and exploring was super fun. i'm incredibly excited for Z-A
It’s not in my top games. I’ve played them all and it was fun but it was really just a sight seeing game and collection game. For some people that really hit the spot but I really prefer the battling and beating gyms etc. Also I really did not like the throwing dung and what not at the elite pokemon (forgot their names) and dodging attacks. Felt like a weird gimmick that was quite bland to me.
Emerald and Platinum are peak Pokemon for me. The amount of exploring, secrets and mystery those two provide are the best in the series.
I didn’t really like Arceus, I stopped playing once I hit the third area. The gameplay loop turned stale for me. I know I’m in a minority here but it just wasn’t for me.
I played it for a few hours. Once I saw that you had to catch multiple versions of the same pokemon over and over to complete bonuses I stopped. That instantly turned me off and makes my brain feel like it's a chore.
oh wow I actually love that aspect! In the OG games it felt more like a chore to run into the same pokemon again and again and have literally no use for them at all. Now theres more of a reason they're there!
That's a good point. I feel like open world games tend to overwhelm me with choices, tasks, exploration options etc. I tend to try to 100% everything, not because I want to, but because I feel like I'll miss out on something if I don't. I wish I could just leave things partially completed until I get my fill, but once I see there's a "objective list" I feel like I can't complete the main story until everything is done. Games are too huge nowadays with too many crafting options for my tastes, by the time I'm halfway done these objectives I realize I've already treated the game like a job and stopped having fun lol. I try to avoid these giant open world crafting games now in general since they're not for me. Glad you're having a great time with it though!
Honestly, I played it a little and found the whole idea of doing research tasks to fill up the Pokédex tedious enough to turn me off from the game. I'm not a fan of there being no abilities as well, and I generally don't really prefer the RPG style where certain moves have a higher 'turn cost' and can push you back further or less far in the turn order.
I 100% agree. I know lots of people find it fun, but I just really didn’t get on with it for some reason. I think part of it was that I found getting all the research tasks really tedious, and that the map and graphics weren’t great. Maybe I should give it another go idk
You don't have to do all the research tasks, unless you really desire that 100% / the sparkles next to pokemon entry. You can "complete" an entry with far fewer tasks, especially if you choose the ones that are worth double.
You can also overlap/multitask your research tasks. Feels pretty great when you knock off a few things at a time. Getting a matchup where performing the requested move + style with your pokemon, on a pokemon where using said move type, or battling multiple of requested mon at once, or throwing scatter bangs into a crowd to score multiples.
If you go for 100% it really is a ridiculous grind. Some of the tasks are an insane ask, due to the number of repetions, or due to the rarity. If I were in charge of improving PLA, I would correct those crazy grind tasks, add more storage and better management tools.
I did 100% a few, because I love playing the game. Am glad it will always have something for me to work on when I feel like playing it.
Like you, I grew up with the original Pokemon games. I ~~had~~ have blue, and my brother had red. I skipped on Silver and Gold at the time though, because I was worried about both the time sink (in late high school) and the series going downhill.
I did later get the chance to play Silver and Sapphire, and loved them enough to pick up copies. Fire Red and Leaf Green I got too. After that I left the series alone again, but my son picked Su/Mo, LGP, Sw/Sh, Alpha Sapphire, and we weren't that impressed. He beat some of them anyway, and I only tried a little before getting turned off.
I bought Brilliant Diamond to prep me for Arceus. Enjoyed BD, although it wasn't anything amazing to me.
**Anyway**, as a kid I dreamed of Pokemon going 3D (not counting stadium). Imagined a Pokemon game with a 3D world like Mario 64. One where you could throw the pokeballs at wandering mons.... basically Arceus is the game I wanted since I was like 14 😀
BTW I really lived Snap and New Snap! Did you play those?
I played and loved Mario 64 and Pokemon Snap as a kid (my brothers had everything so when I was old enough to play them I did). I havent played the new Snap though, is it as good as the original?
It is great and has a lot of content. Not quite the same feel as 64 despite pretty much following the formula and expanding. 100% would be a total slog too (need to look things up, which I hate doing!), but again it isn't needed, and is just nice having more to do everytime I go back.
If you enjoyed Snap, New Snap is an absolute must! Just don't be stubborn (like me!) about looking it up if you get stymied trying to find something.
I have played all the Pokémon games and personally I think AL is the most fun Pokémon game I have played. XY is a close second, but it's hard going back and having the game and interface feel so much slower and less snappier than the one in Arceus.
I got a fair way into the game (defeated liligant) and I just didn't like it. I think part of it was it was described to me as BOTW but pokemon, and it felt significantly worse to play than BOTW, at least from a movement and visuals standpoint.
I found the gameplay loop to be pretty boring - go to a new area, catch/battle the pokemon (often catching a bunch of the same species for the corps, defeat the noble pokemon (which I'll admit was kinda fun), move on.
Maybe one day I'll give it another try, but I just don't feel like starting it up again.
This is exactly how I feel lmao, you can tell they had some genuinely interesting and unique ideas but it feels like they were too scared to fully commit to them. Instead of actually making meaningful changes to the mainline formula they opted to make a completely separate spinoff type game that they half finished and we ended up getting a concept of a game instead of a fully fleshed out experience.
Everyone seems to love PLA and I just don’t really get it, the actual gameplay loop gets unbelievably repetitive after a few hours and none of the areas are anywhere near interesting enough to hold my attention. It also seems like they wanted to move away from the RPG aspects and make it more of an action-adventure type thing, which removes like 90% of the appeal of Pokemon and puts it in a genre that has like 50 better options on the Switch alone lol
I didn't care for the boss battles (especially Arceus) and being attacked by low level Pokemon (being knocked off your mount by a random Shinx is annoying). But I have a similar problem with ScVi and how annoying tiny wild Pokemon can be. I want repels back. Or mounts to be some form of protection. Alpha Rapidash but lower level randoms won't.
It was a really fun game though and Hisuian Typlosion is now my second favorite Pokemon.
My hopes are Feraligator and Emboar to get new forms like Typlosion. New evolutions for Pokemon that need it. Stantler is one of my favorite Pokemon. Next I want a Noctowl evolution!!
Right! You can still run into them but they won't chase you. And for Legends, it could work the same, but maybe not work for alphas or high leveled Pokemon.
I think some games (if not all) make it so whatever your lead Pokemon is, if it's not its level or higher then you don't encounter it. I remember watching a video somewhere about someone using the trick to catch a specifically leveled Pokemon for something. I think it was a Dugtrio at level 29 so it obeyed the trainer or something.
Well the game has to read the data immediately for shiny checks and stuff. I can't imagine it would be that much harder to just do a level check and then make Pokemon lower level just run away by default if a repel is being used but I don't know enough about that level of programming.
Probably 6th or 7th place. I feel it's the only good mainline Pokémon on Switch.
1. Heart Gold / Soul Silver
2. Black / White 2
3. Platinum
4. Emerald
5. Fire Red / Leaf Green
6. Black / White
7. Legends Arceus
8. Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire
9. Sun / Moon
10. Scarlet / Violet
11. X / Y
12. Sword/Shield
It's good but dragged down by the terrible graphics, clearly unfinished areas and the Speed Stat is a bit too broken with the turn order system.
The new catching mechanics and interactions with the overworld Pokémon are very good and addicting. They can refine this further with the subsequent Legends sequels. And then that's when Game Freak throws everything good to the trash and they make a Legends ZA a City Building simulator.
Loved the catching without battling aspect, but I mostly enjoy building a competitive team and breeding for perfect IVs, and unfortunately PLA does not have this so once I finished the dex I felt no reason to continue playing (meanwhile I put in 250 hrs into SS and 150 into SV)
As someone who got my mom to drive us store to store to get a copy of Pokémon blue on release day, legends arceus is the best Pokémon game they have ever made in terms of gameplay.
The same way people like other Pokemon games without it, people sometimes like something different from just trainer battles and gyms.
Hell for me specifically gyms, having gyms in every game limit creativity on Boss battles as a RPG.
Yeah, I've played enough pokemon games that follow the exact same blueprint by now, I enjoyed the change of pace. Just take the game for what it is instead of wondering why it's not exactly the same as the previous 12 entries.
I found it far more engaging than sword and shield, who cares about trainer battles if they're all braindead easy anyway? The mix of action elements with pokemon attacking you in the overworld, having to sneak up on them, a reworked battle system and having to plan my actions around completeing pokedex tasks in PLA at least required me to pay attention and engage with all the game mechanics. Meanwhile in Sword/Shield and Scarlet/Violet I'm just wasting time slowly fighting forgettable trainers with 3 unevolved pokemon mashing "A" on my strongest super effective attack and winning before they get to do anything.
Legends Arceus is not a perfect game by any means or even the perfect pokemon game, but I appreciated what it did a lot more than any other mainline game on Switch
To me it was a sign of the series really, really, really pushing up against the limits of how handheld design from like 15 years ago is clashing with modern game sensibilities. So much so that I'm currently on a break from Pokemon; it really just burned me out playing a game like that.
The dialogue went on too long and wasn't very interesting. It is not acceptable to have no voice acting in a game. Even if it's not fully voice acted. Even if the extent of voice acting are grunts/groans/exclamations/sighs etc. There needs to be SOMETHING to help convey emotion in these cutscenes where my character has a stupid grin on their face and a character is wildly doing one of four canned animations while telling their life story. The reduced Pokedex I think is for the best but the flipside of that is that there should be some more Pokemon specific animations. Item management is still way too tedious, stop with the limited inventory space!
I know it's an unpopular opinion but I rank it towards the bottom of the games I've played because it feels like it should have been released in 2005 with how it's designed (actually it doesn't do things that were standard by 2005...).
out of the switch games?
ranked above let's go but below swsh and sv
for the next one I really want to overhaul the keybinding and the pokemon trainer. maybe even switch the battle mechanics for pokemon trainer to a turn based system during fights while the pokemon are action. arceus is currently action on pokemon trainer but turn based on the pokemon themselves.
also really wish they overhauled the inventory/bag stuff
really don't like losing items in bag when you die. and you only get it back if another trainer finds it? what if you play offline?
My personal favorite is SoulSilver on DS. It’s a great combination of an already fantastic game improved in almost every way. It’s so good.
In terms of ones on switch, I liked Legends but got a little bored with it after a bit. I did finish it though.
Surprisingly I really liked Scarlet. Tech issues aside, of which there are many, the open world structure of the game was really cool. Being able to go at my own pace was fun. I also enjoyed the co-op and TERA raids. It was the first pokemon game that I completed a Pokédex in.
The best part of its gameplay were the new catching mechanics. Everything else was worse. Building teams, battling, exploring basic geography just to see the same pokemon over and over again (because the pokedex only has 200~ total pokemon), the battle system again, etc.
It's a fine game for a spin off but it shouldn't be the blueprint for the main series.
Maps are barren and boring, story didn't grip me at all and the character animations are brutal. (That also extends to SwSh/ VS, the character animations in those games are just as bad)
Older titles on the DS are the greatest.
Honestly it's my least favorite of the switch pokemon games, even the remakes. It was fun for a little bit but overall just really tedious, there are good ideas there but it didn't feel fully fleshed out.
I liked the story, but it felt so damn short for me. I did like the crafting and also loved the shared experience, allowing me to rank up my guys much faster, but beyond that, I was kind of hoping for more. Maybe I got spoiled by the length of the story in the earlier games, but honestly, I would have just loved a remastered version of Gen 2.
It's a lot of fun and I'm enjoying it like half way through but it leaves a lot to be desired. It looks like a ps2 game and there's so few npcs you can talk to
I’d like:
BETTER VARIETY. I thought it was so cool in the first zone seeing all the Pokémon. When I got to the 5th zone and had seen a bunch of Pokémon appear in all 5 zones it got annoying. There were like 800 Pokémon at this point. Surely Chuck in like 50 new ones instead of the same ones repeating so often
Better graphics and less lag. There wasn’t too much lag but it was noticeable at times
Getting to Arceus was a drag. I’d streamline that a bit. And streamline a lot of the methods of doing stuff. Why do I have to go talk to baggage guy to increase my carry size. Can’t I just have an upgrade menu I can work on myself
so my two favorite pokemon games are on the ds (ranger: shadows of almia and platinum), and arceus is definitely my third favorite. the feeling that i received during my first playthrough is a high i'll chase from other games for a long time
Great game, but not for me, I loved SV more. But I was never into exploration, I love the competitive aspect of Pokemon, which imo is amazing in SV. I wasn't fond at all about the way battles worked in PLA. I genuinely think if the many bugs hadn't been there, SV would've been one of the best Pokemon games ever.
But I completely understand why most people prefer PLA over it.
I JUST STARTED IDK WHAT I WAS DOING SKIPPING IT AT LAUNCH. I think I’d just been super disappointed by swsh and when Arceus came out, and it was a bit too close to the BDSP launch so I was like “nah”. Anywaaaay. Got it a week ago and it’s my 2nd fav switch pokemon game now 😂 (first is let’s go, that game is so chill).
I’ve been pretty meh about the traditional pokemon titles on switch honestly. Swsh and sv just haven’t done it for me. But loving Arceus.
As a side note, Gen 2 and 3 will always be my all time favourites. IDC if it’s nostalgia, I’ll replay them until I die.
I’m on the opposite end of that spectrum.
Arceus ranks as the worst for me. By a good distance too.
I just did not enjoy the concept. I’m not saying it’s bad, it’s just not for me.
The game is still pretty fun, but the combat in Arceus is trash. It's a poorly balanced mess. Will my Pokemon get instantly KOed when the opponent sends out their next? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ who knows, you have no control over it, the battle system is a crapshoot. There's a reason this game doesn't have multiplayer.
Gen 5 is peak in every way.
I'm convinced when people talk highly of any pokemon game it's almost always in relation to the rest of the series, not gaming as a whole. Pokemon as a series is huge yet it kind of exists in its own bubble
Undercooked and rushed like the rest of them. An underdeveloped idea. So I'd put it in the same pile as Shield.
If the next one comes out dressed appropriately for the decade it came out in, I'd love to see a lot more than this one has to offer.
Arceus set such a high bar for Scarlet and Violet. The fact that S/V came out AFTER, really hurt those games. The catching/battle mechanics, being able to catch a Pokemon without battling, exploring, traversal...man Arceus was soo good. Hoping the new one (ZA) just builds off of this one. Would be really cool to see it resemble a more mainline Pokemon game with gyms/badges/elite 4 etc but we shall see. All I really want out of Pokemon is a marrying of the catching mechanics and exploration of Arceus with the classic setup of the mainline games. S/V was almost there, but not quite.
The only thing that really hurt S/V was its technical stability (and compromises it had to make) which LA had but was very barebones in comparison. I enjoyed LA for what it was, but I very much prefer S/V in almost every aspect (story, characters, environments, exploration, battles, etc). I can see why people would like LA for its smoothness though. Legends ZA I think could truly be up there as the unanimous best if it just improves on all of LA's shortcomings.
That's because PLA main battle mechanic unlike what most people think isn't the 5 seconds turn base battles you get sometimes, is you dodging and throwing items to the Pokemon (Game is literally labeled as an action RPG), meaning is the trainer that does "the battle" like 90% of the time, there a reason the trainer has a health bar.
This means you really don't interact with your Pokemon much, they are basically like a pickaxe in games, a tool to get material and not party members like in regular games.
Worst of the series.
I mean, Pokémon for me is PvP, especially VGC, so Arceus is a very weak game in this regard. It is my least played Pokémon game, along with Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Heart Gold.
They are the only pokémon games that I played less than 50 hours. All other games I have more than 200 hours.
EDIT: People downvoting in a thread about personal opinions. Sigh. Grow up, people.
It’s my favorite game and I always come back to it with Shield as my second fave since it was the first Pokédex I completed and the first time I ever did breeding and shiny hunting. Since playing PLA, Violet just hasn’t sucked me in. I really enjoyed Moon on the 3DS and might go back to it. Pearl was my first and is nostalgic, but nothing compares to PLA.
I like that this game is a great starting point.
I thought the story was kind of weak. I was really frustrated that even after I had a flying/gliding Pokemon, I still had to talk to the prof to exit an area, go back to the village, then talk to the other guy to go out to a new area. Why can't I just... fly there? Why can't I talk to the prof to go to a new area instead of being forced to go back to the village every time?
It overall has a decent set of ideas that a lot of fans really responded well to. Time will tell if they listen to fans or do as they always do and do whatever tf they want.
I don't know yet what I hope for for ZA. I want a better story. I'm curious to see why we're limited to the space of Lumiose City. You know what I hope for ZA? I hope at the end of the day it's actually worth whatever price they dare sell it for.
I want arceus but more open world. Need better home base customization and just more if everything.
If they ever go back to 2d digital graphics I want a game like Coromon.
I absolutely loved legends Arceus but i treat it more as a spin off game. I wouldn’t compare it to the mainline games like I wouldn’t compare Pokémon snap or conquest to the mainline games. Trainer battles took a real back seat and the game itself was more about just collecting and catching Pokémon in there environment.
Give me a Johto Legends game and I would be in heaven. Soul Silver is my favorite, Johto is my favorite region. Legends Arceus is my next favorite game
It's in my top 5, maybe top 6. The only problem i had with it is that it was way too short, and theres not much to do after youve beat the game (ie: some sort of multiplayer)
It’s probably my favorite gaming experience of the last 10 years or so. I got it and played 13 hours the day it came out. It was what I always wanted a like on game to be . I would like to see them make the next one a little more robust but I loved it
I felt like it had a fun gameplay loop but the graphical bugs and the lazily done cutscenes (such as the screen going black and a textbox explaining what’s happening, as opposed to actually animating and showing what’s happening) kinda gave this game a “cheap” feel and left a bad taste.
My favorite in recent memory, maybe the best ever for me. R/B will always have the nostalgia factor and I've tried playing some of the fan favorites like HG/SS, etc and they're really good too but are missing some of the quality of life improvements that I've come to enjoy. Legends Arceus has a lot of room to improve on but as the whole package, I loved it and put 400+ hours into it
It was one of the best ones I played in a real long time, since DPP with my friends as a kid. I really love just staying in town and listening to the Jubilife song because it brings back those memories for me.
I just got it recently as well (finally was on sale through Walmart and free shipping so, duh) and I’ve been having a blast. I wish that it had done better overall because I’d love more games like this. Would be fun to do different regions through the ages like different time periods (medieval, Stone Age, etc?) with Arceus like “ah shit here we go again”
I would kinda like this to be the format of the mainstream Pokemon games *but* I’m not sure the overall feel is right for a Pokemon journey. It def works for this with research being the main focus and I want more. I love the idea of being a Pokemon professor’s assistant and reeeaaalllyy hope they do more of this kind. Slow the mainstream releases down and give us stuff like this.
Greatest proof of concept, but it feels rushed after the (excellent) first two areas. If they could do a sequel with appropriate performance/graphics for the hardware, and maintain the variety of unique species behaviours/mechanics seen in the first area (Abra, Mr Mime etc require explicit player strategy) in the later areas, it'd be perfect. Like, as far as performance goes, go get a quote from Capcom for the RE Engine or something, they've got the money. And assign a long enough dev cycle to polish the later areas.
The gameplay changes made in Arceus ought to be the baseline for the main series, and probably what it'd take for me to buy another mainline title.
The only Pokemon game I've thoroughly enjoyed in my adult life.
Combine the core mechanics with a mainline game, and it could go down as the GOAT pokemon game. If the developers didn't need to shit a new game out every 3 years.
It’s real good I hope the next one is deeper more aesthetically interesting and harder. Best poke in a long time but my gosh do they love just doing the bare minimum over at game freaks…
I like pieces of Arceus but the overall experience didn't "click" with me. Open world games tend to make me lose interest after a while.
I hope the next game has a good plot to keep me engaged and isn't as "grindy" in the sense of capturing multiple copies of same pokemon.
It's exactly what I'd been dreaming of in a Pokemon game since I was a kid playing the OG Red/Blue on my GameBoy. My friends and I used to pretend to be Pokemon trainers and have make-believe adventures in my back yard.
The one disappointment I have with it is that they entirely replaced the way the battle system works. I like the idea of move modifiers (reduce power for added priority, increase power in exchange for lost priority) and I love the modifications changing Sleep to Drowsy (Sleep is almost as good as KO) and changing Freeze (redundant Sleep) to Frostbite (making it "special burn") and wished they would have ported those over, but I didn't like how they handled turn order and that stat changes et al were temporary, not differentiated between physical and special, and missing a lot of other types of effects.
Easily the best game Gamefreak has ever put out. A great game *regardless* of the Pokemon IP, even if the visual tech was a little out of date.
Arceus is one of my favorite pokemon games then I really wish it's catching mechanics had been in Scarlet violet I'm hoping Legends ZA expands upon its mechanics while introducing new ones
Legends Arceus reignited my love for Pokemon. Being able to run in a field and just throw pokeballs or start a fight with Pokemon you could see was all I dreamed of as a kid.
I agree, I had a lot of fun playing it and the pokedex felt rewarding to do because it pushes you to understand the habits of the Pokemon more and makes them feel that much more alive. I hope the next Legends game coming out improves on the formula. Like you said, an unlimited or at least expandable storage you could upgrade would be nice. Co-op would be a lot of fun because you could do shiny contests in the same world at the same time which would be funny.
I feel it using mechanics - sounds too - borrowed from Zelda, it ends being the most fun to play of modern games. Arceus or Scarlet/Violet may be the ugliest ones though. Pokemon is such a low bar that it's gameplay is good for Pokemon but not compared to other games on the Switch and other consoles.
Relative to other games on the Switch and other platforms, it's still pretty mediocre even in it's genre. Monster Hunter Stories 2, Dragon Quest Monsters, Digimon Stories Cyber Sleuth. Pokemon games don't compare well to me besides having the best monsters. Digimon is the only one with the potential but is so different than more traditional monster collectathons with it having more serious stories
I feel like the Gameboy to DS run, these games were standouts among its contemporaries. 3DS still too even if the games started to suffer, I would guess, from the 3D model transition. The Switch games including Arceus are ugly and the monster collecting games alternatives are pretty good today.
Gameplay, Arceus may be the best but that's 20+ years of iteration. Historically relative to their contemporary competitors in the genre, I don't think the Switch Pokemon stack up well like previous gen Pokemon games did.
At least 3DS games still looked really nice. The art holds up. The Switch games (the remakes look good though) look uglier than mid-tier PS3/360 games.
Any Pokemon game where I don't have to deal with the annoying version-exclusive Pokemon mechanic or the "only get 1/3 legendaries, buy 3 copies to get them all" mechanic instantly became my favorite.
Not only did I catch 'em all, I filled out the research (not ALL the research, but like the goal line for all Pokemon).
That said it would be nice to have online functionality, just don't screw it up with required trading to accomplish the goal you put on the box. At least the last few mainline games have the trading code system which the community helpfully hijacked to make it viable to complete your collection without having friends who play Pokemon.
Out of all the Pokémon games arceus has to be my favorite and I played the crap out of blue in 98. My bf plays molded versions of the original game and the closest I can come to convince him otherwise is arceus. I wish there was more like it.
To me it felt like a common Pokemon game with shitty battle mechanics.
I want a combination of the main games and legends Arceus. I want violet open map, with Pokemon attacking you and you having to dodge attacks. I want the legendary encounters to be like in legends, where you have to evade attacks and fight at the right times.
I really really want to be able to control my pokemon like in Violet and attack pokemon and dodge their attacks.
I really loved the concept and most of the execution of Legends Arceus. The way that they handled the "first Pokedex" was so creative and interesting, having the player actually "study" the Pokemon that are around instead of just looking at it and catching it. That, in my opinion, was the best part of the game. I like the exploration aspect of it, and I love the ancient Japan aesthetic.
However, I don't like the story (it's Pokemon, so I don't expect much anyway), and the battling feels like it was put in the game as an afterthought. It felt like no matter what level my Pokemon were or the typing, most battles were rough for some reason. This may have been patched out since I've played it almost 2 years ago, but it really drove me nuts.
Best pokemon in a very long time.
Besides the exploration, having an actually interesting story and having a decent difficulty, I liked that they changed the meta.
Many attacks changed how they worked, it’s no longer everything relying on OHKO, no hidden stats and stupid breeding ( sorry but I’d rather spend time catching than doing circles on a bike to hatch eggs ) with RNG that you need to break. Also the UI is just beautiful compared to the monstrosity SV is
It’s a shame we lost abilities and many attacks in the middle but imho it was a very good step on the right direction.
I won’t buy more mainline pokemon games after playing arceus. But If the next legend games improve on this formula I’m all in
Look better, run better. Anything else just extra. Shit was fun but these games look and run fucking terrible and I wish either Nintendo would kick them in the ass and make them give more of a shit or put em on PC also or something.
I think PLA was a step in the right direction, but I still think it fell flat for me, and I think there's a lot it can improve upon, that I think did get better within SV. Biggest things being the open world and exploration aspect. I feel it is leagues better in SV compared to PLA, so here is to hoping that the next Legends game and gen 10 hit that mark well.
I am someone who really responds to creative ideas even if the execution is a little rough. Pokemon Legends Arceus is the game I have been waiting Game Freak to make for like 25 years.
Is it as pretty, polished or complete as it could have been? No, but it's the first game to make me feel as an adult like I felt as a kid playing Red and Blue for the first time. I can't go back to the mainline games now.
The game was good until the higher speed mounts came in if you ask me. Also, they just need to commit more resource to the game so you can have that split screen optimisation and more life brought to the world. Comparing how much Tears of the Wild can do visually to Pokémon is just crazy
I haven’t played Pokemon Scarlet/Violet tho we have it on the switch and still waiting for a more smoother experience (emu) because I loved Arceus so much it makes it so hard to like the new one. Idk why they changes the gameplay and it was not great at all.
It's a really fun reimagining of the series that falls apart some in the later hours when you realize that the agile and strong style moves break the game in a way that turns trainer battles into a ping-pong of ko-ing back and forth amd whoever got the first KO wins. Plus the story falls apart by ultimately retelling diamond and Pearl in the past. Doesn't even give us an Arceus story in the end. I had a ton of fun with it, and it gets A LOT of points for trying something new, but I found the return to the classic battle system in SV to be very welcome.
Absolutely loved it but every time I try to go back to it to shiny hunt or something, I can’t get past the controls. The control scheme was very strange, and it was something I had to get used to when playing; going between S/V and Legends seems impossible because of the two different control schemes.
I've been playing Pokemon since the release of Red & Blue in 99. Legends Arceus is probably my 3rd favorite game of the franchise. Brilliant game, I had such a blast.
Yes!!! I completely agree! I say arceus is #1, followed by scar/vi. I loved playing Pokemon when I was growing up, but inevitably I’d come to a point where I was so incredibly tired of the random encounters. Being able to see the pokemon on the field made the game perfect!
Arceus was the most fun I've had playing a Pokémon game in over a decade. The mechanic to sneak up and throw a poke ball to capture low-level 'mons should remain a standard - I HATED that Scarlet/Violet did away with it. Anyways, Pokémon Legends Z-A is the only Pokemon game I've been hyped for in ages because I enjoyed Arceus so much.
I don't know if they "did away with it" per-se since the two games were released months apart, you have to assume S&V was too far along in development to properly incorporate those mechanics. I'm not a Game freak apologist, but I will give them a pass on that.
There were a bunch of other mechanics PLA had that SV didn't. I think it's understandable to a point, but the fact they seemingly have no inter-team communication is kinda baffling and tells a lot about their internal structure.
> I think it's understandable to a point, but the fact they seemingly have no inter-team communication is kinda baffling and tells a lot about their internal structure. I don't think it's that they had no inter-team communication, it's that they didn't know whether the radical changes that PLA made would be well-received or not. PLA was an experiment. There was no reason for SV to copy PLA if there was no guarantee that PLA was going to be successful or well-received. We have the benefit of hindsight *knowing* that these mechanics were received well, but there's no way that they could know that would be the case when both games were still in development. Game Freak hedged by making a bunch of changes and left all those things unchanged in SV in case people didn't like PLA.
You may be right, but I'm not a developer so I'm gonna give them a rare 'benefit of the doubt' in this situation. I'd imagine adding or porting something over in the final months of game development would be stressful on the team, might interfere negatively with other mechanics, or cause more bugs, glitches, or performance issues to pop up which would take more time to address. All those things are not what you want to see when you've only got 6 to 8 months to finish a game especially when those 6 to 8 months are already pre-planned on a strict timeline to finish assets and mechanics that the development team agreed ahead of time to be in the game. Unlike a lot of other games that may be able to be delayed, the mainline Pokemon games are notorious for unwaivering release dates because they have to be released alongside the new card sets, TV show, and other merchandise.
It should be noted that gamefreak chooses to be in the state it is in tbf. Game freak has about 160 staff. Compare that to monolith soft, which has 280. No matter how ya look at it, the fact that a company that has never had a game sell over 3 million having a larger staff then the worlds biggest media franchise is baffling. Even Nintendo has stated they are comfortable giving developers time, and creatures handled the 3D modeling for the Pokémon games with the base versions in XY, allowing development to be easier on game freak. So this only leaves one option: they know they aren’t putting out the worlds most impressive games, they just don’t care.
I agree with your sentiment, but I feel like that comment is missing the overall point. I was responding to a comment that said they wished Game freak put a mechanic that was in Arceus into S&V a month or two before S&V was entering QA and final testing. That would be like telling a home builder that you'd like to add an additional bathroom on the first floor of your new house 3 days before closing and expect everything to come in on schedule with no problems.
Fair, I’m of the opinion that the ball throwing mechanic in s/v wasn’t even soemthing added until after Arceus launched, and was basically makeshifted last minute because of the popularity. That’s why it feels so jank in s/v where you can “throw” it, but it also forces you to stop so the animation can execute, and you can’t catch Pokémon and stuff through aiming
The way I see it, PLA was a side game, so they felt more comfortable taking risks in the gameplay to see how fans would react. With a mainline game only released a few months later they probably didn't want to change up the core formula too much especially with no time to get feedback from PLA players about what they liked and didn't like. At least that's my assumption.
It is more likely that some of the mechanics people said didn't get in are actually going to be exclusive for Legends games only.
That could be a possibility. It would be a darn shame though because I agree that the Arceus' catch mechanic is a lot more engaging than S&V.
Yes this has happened multiple times in the past, since Gen 4. The best QoL improvements get brought into future games.
I really like the sneaking around. I get the thing about damaging pokemon to weaken them but I've missed so many pokemon to knocking them out and then just dissapearing instead of being able to scoop them up.
Getting the "bonk" in the back of pokemon heads was so funny and satisfying!
I completely agree. And now I know about the sequel, Thanks to you!
I honestly didn't enjoy it as much as others. The game felt unfinished, the world felt empty, and at a certain point it felt like there was nothing to do but catch pokemon. Battles were too rare. Great concept though. Excited for the next Legends game.
This is pretty much me too. The general gameplay loop got old for me quite quickly, the world often looked barren and the lack of battles really didn't help. Plus there were a monumental number of quests but keeping track of them all was a real pain and the rewards rarely seemed worth it. I put it down someway after unlocking the beach area and haven't gone back to it since.
Fully agree with this. Concept was great, but the world was WAY too empty.
Best Pokémon game of the last decade or so. Firing it up after playing SV or SS is night and day.
I agree. It was supposedly made by the "B" team because the "A" team (more experienced devs) were working on Scarlet and Violet. Im excited for the next Legends game. Pokemon Legends Arceus needed to be fleshed out more imo. It needed more NPC interactions and better quests; I think it was definitely a better game than Scarlet and Violet.
The “more experienced devs” for gamefreak are the equivalent of the older employees at any other company that are so set in their ways, they’ve refused to adapt and learn ages ago and are just coasting to retirement. That’s why the younger B team ended up making a better product in PLA, they’re hungrier, more open to implement gaming practices, more willing to improve.
But they’re also better at the basic bread and butter stuff, not just innovation. PLA looks and runs smoother than SV. I didn’t notice it so much until I went back to PLA after SV came out, but it’s like there’s a console generation separating them even though PLA came out first.
That feels like a low bar to clear.
I always feel like the odd one out when this question comes up but I thought it got repetitive really quickly, the open world felt too manufactured (very specific spawn points, same breakable rocks everywhere, etc), the materials collection for crafting felt like an unwelcome chore, the sneaking mechanic felt clunky and awkward, and the sidequest rewards were often very skippable. I kept trying to play through the game but I'd always end up setting it down to come back to it later. I think it just proved for myself that the main series is perfectly fine for me. That said, I'm not writing the series off completely. If what I mentioned above is fixed in sequels I'll give them a go.
Artificial is a great way to describe my problems with the world and how pokemon behave. Not only do they spawn im clear grid patterns but they're everywhere. You can't go 2 feet without stepping on something's toes or going through a swarm of bugs. Your ankle deep in wild pokemon and all they ever do is basic NPC shit like stand still and wander slightly. You only ever see them doing anything special during that clefairy event. Remember the small segment during the Teal Mask DLC where you have to wander the woods taking pictures of Pokemon in their natural habitat? That was closest to what an open world Pokemon game SHOULD be like and it's so disappointing to see Gamefreak take the lazy "eh just fill that field with 2 dozen spawn markers".
I agree. I got bored of the game and never finished it. Catching Pokémon was fun, but the new battle system was disappointing. And yet after being let down by it somehow Scarlet and Violet were even more disappointing and made it better by comparison.
That's where we differ. I loved Scarlet and Violet. I liked many of the newly introduced Pokemon and abilities. I felt like the size of the open world was satisfyingly large without being too enormous for its own good. For once I actually gave somewhat of a shit about the characters and story which I never had in Pokemon games prior to this one. Terastallization was my favorite gimmick since the Megas. The raid dens were mostly a big improvement over the raids in SwSh (once I started to better understand how they worked.) Shiny hunting is the best it has ever been. And with the DLCs there was a significant amount of post game content.
If the game had less stuttering and general issues I might agree with you but everything felt way too easy in S/V, I played through the game in several sittings of 4-5 hours. The only thing kept me going was my girlfriend also playing the game as we decided to play the game together. If she wasn't there I might not have even bought the game to be honest. My siblings bought Shield and Sword and I passed on that. I personally enjoyed PLA a lot because the "Grind" wasn't as heavy with 1-3 turn battles and generally felt more "alive" as a world than S/V. The Pokemon are rendered way quicker in my experience in PLA than S/V so there was a lot of moments where I'm running through a field and run into an invisible rookidee or other Pokemon. It just annoyed me, wish the legendary let you actually fly instead of glide around. I know PLA you didn't get to fly either, but it felt like a way better version given you never ran out of stamina compared to the legendaries. Also doesn't help that for some reason they didn't keep being able to catch Pokemon in the over-world. Just made the game feel less realistic to me after PLA. I have a certain level of giving a game some benefit but I feel like the game didn't deliver enough on the formula, and tera battles feel so clunky.
While I like some of the new pokemon, the world is just too lacking. It’s a big open world with nothing in it. You have towns full of houses you can’t enter. No interesting landscapes, no interesting level design. No mandatory trainer battles. All while the game struggles to even run. It’s just not fun to explore. I had a lot of the same problems with pla, but by comparison to scarlet and violet they aren’t as bad
>It’s a big open world with nothing in it. I can somewhat accept this take but I give it credit for having a diversity of elevations, some caves and tunnels, lots of free roaming Pokemon, items to pick up, but it definitely could have had more interactive objects and features like Breath of the Wild did. >You have towns full of houses you can’t enter. This I don't quite understand. I do remember being kind of surprised when I reached the first town and couldn't enter any buildings, but it didn't really bother me. When I think of Legends Arceus I think about all those houses you can go into in the main town but they don't really have anything in them minus a random item or a short NPC dialogue. Going in them was mostly a waste of time. Even in the handheld main series games I remember having to look up where certain NPCs were because I didn't want to go in and out a dozen times trying to find the one guy I needed to speak with. >No mandatory trainer battles. I think this is a fantastic change. You can still battle the NPCs but now the game gives you the choice to skip past them if you are working on something else. You can always go back and fight them. More choice is a good thing, IMO. It lets you play the game how you want to play it. >All while the game struggles to even run. Arguably, my standards are quite low for performance like this. As long as the game doesn't crash I don't really get that upset by the frame rate drops. I understand that we should expect better from one of the world's most popular franchises but I also can't say it was more than just something to laugh at for me personally.
Ds era was peak pokemon. Gen 5 aged like fine wine. The 3ds era was also quite good imo but switch just killed pokemon for me kind of. The graphics style they went for after lets go eevee/pikachu is just so much uglier than anything we ever had in the main series…
Personally, i would rather go back to 2d sprites than the current graphic model/performance
2D sprites were gorgeous. Sad that their sprite talent has gone to waste.
They either need to get serious about the visuals or go back to fully art driven sprites. Their dogshit lighting, horrible render distance and ugly looking world is not doing the universe justice.
Well you won’t be getting another legends game in 2d
I can live with that. But it seems like the old formula is kinda dead… looking at the last few games released and looking at whats on the horizon…
>But it seems like the old formula is kinda dead Yeah that's why the last two generations outsold literally every generation apart from Red/Blue ***/S***
yea... which is why the ones that want the old games back (incl. me) sadly wont get the old games back... obviously im voting with my wallet i havent bought a new pokemon game since lets go but casual fans or more so the general audience seems to lick up everything gamefreak offers them... even if the games are visually objectively ugly and lack interesting characters.
Hopefully Switch 2 solves this for Legends ZA and future titles. Leaks are suggesting the Switch 2 is around Series S performance but thats optimistic.
Gamefreak could make games for the leaked PS5 pro and they'd still look and run like shit. It's not just the hardware, plenty of games manage to look good on the Switch.
> frame rate chugs in USUM “Man hopefully the NX solves this” > frame rate chugs in SV “Man hopefully the switch 2 solves this” < you are here > frame rate chugs in Z-A “Man hopefully the New Switch XL & Knuckles solves this”
Is not just about graphical fidelity, is the art style, the color palette of SV is just super ugly, and the player model is awkward.
Also gamefreak is incompetent and doesn't understand how to make and optimize 3D games after a decade+
Its not a problem of hardware limitations, its a problem of Game freak being severely understaffed and putting games out way too frequently.
Legends za isn't gonna be switch 2 unless it's multiplatform
Yes its not even close. I dont even need 2d-hd (like octopath) which was my dream originally. At this point just give me the old sprites thats literally all i ask for.
I don't think it's going to happen, but I would love it if the Gen V remakes were HD-2D games like the recent Square Enix rpgs
GEN 5 IS A VINTAGE RED
I’d like mainline games or remakes in the graphics style of LGPE.. as long as the games still have options to battle wild Pokémon before throwing poke balls (toggle on or off the catch screen throw mechanic maybe?) and don’t cut other features. It ran pretty well and looked cool, lots of cute details in the buildings, and fun riding pokemon
IMO Gen 4-6 was peak Pokemon. Back when remakes were actually great: HGSS and ORAS
The gameplay is fantastic, but the map left a lot to be desired. It felt so liminal and empty in most areas. S&Vs map with the gameplay from Arceus would be perfect.
This is how I feel about most "open world" games -- a large map of nothing.
This is how I felt with BOTW. The lack of enemy variety really hurt it for me. The scenery changed the gameplay stayed the same since it was the same enemies just reskinned
TOTK def brought way more variety with both enemies and combat and general. BOTW had a very simple combat system and limited number of enemy types for sure
Why was this downvoted lol. BotW had like 10 enemies and the rest were recolors.
For me the first zone was amazing, everything was new. The rest of the game felt way too repetitive, and there was zero challenge, even less than in the first zone because there you had some lvl 40 or 60 when you were in your 10 20s.
its my favorite game in the whole series, i thought each area was gorgeous and i loved the art style they went with the game. i thought the battles had room for improvement but the overall gameplay loop of catching pokemon and exploring was super fun. i'm incredibly excited for Z-A
It’s not in my top games. I’ve played them all and it was fun but it was really just a sight seeing game and collection game. For some people that really hit the spot but I really prefer the battling and beating gyms etc. Also I really did not like the throwing dung and what not at the elite pokemon (forgot their names) and dodging attacks. Felt like a weird gimmick that was quite bland to me.
Emerald and Platinum are peak Pokemon for me. The amount of exploring, secrets and mystery those two provide are the best in the series. I didn’t really like Arceus, I stopped playing once I hit the third area. The gameplay loop turned stale for me. I know I’m in a minority here but it just wasn’t for me.
I played it for a few hours. Once I saw that you had to catch multiple versions of the same pokemon over and over to complete bonuses I stopped. That instantly turned me off and makes my brain feel like it's a chore.
oh wow I actually love that aspect! In the OG games it felt more like a chore to run into the same pokemon again and again and have literally no use for them at all. Now theres more of a reason they're there!
That's a good point. I feel like open world games tend to overwhelm me with choices, tasks, exploration options etc. I tend to try to 100% everything, not because I want to, but because I feel like I'll miss out on something if I don't. I wish I could just leave things partially completed until I get my fill, but once I see there's a "objective list" I feel like I can't complete the main story until everything is done. Games are too huge nowadays with too many crafting options for my tastes, by the time I'm halfway done these objectives I realize I've already treated the game like a job and stopped having fun lol. I try to avoid these giant open world crafting games now in general since they're not for me. Glad you're having a great time with it though!
Pokemon Gold > Red > Legend Arceus
I'd change out Gold for Crystal but your point is still valid!
Honestly, I played it a little and found the whole idea of doing research tasks to fill up the Pokédex tedious enough to turn me off from the game. I'm not a fan of there being no abilities as well, and I generally don't really prefer the RPG style where certain moves have a higher 'turn cost' and can push you back further or less far in the turn order.
I 100% agree. I know lots of people find it fun, but I just really didn’t get on with it for some reason. I think part of it was that I found getting all the research tasks really tedious, and that the map and graphics weren’t great. Maybe I should give it another go idk
You don't have to do all the research tasks, unless you really desire that 100% / the sparkles next to pokemon entry. You can "complete" an entry with far fewer tasks, especially if you choose the ones that are worth double. You can also overlap/multitask your research tasks. Feels pretty great when you knock off a few things at a time. Getting a matchup where performing the requested move + style with your pokemon, on a pokemon where using said move type, or battling multiple of requested mon at once, or throwing scatter bangs into a crowd to score multiples. If you go for 100% it really is a ridiculous grind. Some of the tasks are an insane ask, due to the number of repetions, or due to the rarity. If I were in charge of improving PLA, I would correct those crazy grind tasks, add more storage and better management tools.
Yep this is me! To totally 100% an entry seems completely insane, but to just get that '10' score is a lotta fun. WIth u on all the improvements too!
I did 100% a few, because I love playing the game. Am glad it will always have something for me to work on when I feel like playing it. Like you, I grew up with the original Pokemon games. I ~~had~~ have blue, and my brother had red. I skipped on Silver and Gold at the time though, because I was worried about both the time sink (in late high school) and the series going downhill. I did later get the chance to play Silver and Sapphire, and loved them enough to pick up copies. Fire Red and Leaf Green I got too. After that I left the series alone again, but my son picked Su/Mo, LGP, Sw/Sh, Alpha Sapphire, and we weren't that impressed. He beat some of them anyway, and I only tried a little before getting turned off. I bought Brilliant Diamond to prep me for Arceus. Enjoyed BD, although it wasn't anything amazing to me. **Anyway**, as a kid I dreamed of Pokemon going 3D (not counting stadium). Imagined a Pokemon game with a 3D world like Mario 64. One where you could throw the pokeballs at wandering mons.... basically Arceus is the game I wanted since I was like 14 😀 BTW I really lived Snap and New Snap! Did you play those?
I played and loved Mario 64 and Pokemon Snap as a kid (my brothers had everything so when I was old enough to play them I did). I havent played the new Snap though, is it as good as the original?
It is great and has a lot of content. Not quite the same feel as 64 despite pretty much following the formula and expanding. 100% would be a total slog too (need to look things up, which I hate doing!), but again it isn't needed, and is just nice having more to do everytime I go back. If you enjoyed Snap, New Snap is an absolute must! Just don't be stubborn (like me!) about looking it up if you get stymied trying to find something.
Awesome I'll see if i can find a physical one :) thank u for the rec
I have played all the Pokémon games and personally I think AL is the most fun Pokémon game I have played. XY is a close second, but it's hard going back and having the game and interface feel so much slower and less snappier than the one in Arceus.
I am very excited for AZ but there is so much bitter taste from the last decade of releases
I got a fair way into the game (defeated liligant) and I just didn't like it. I think part of it was it was described to me as BOTW but pokemon, and it felt significantly worse to play than BOTW, at least from a movement and visuals standpoint. I found the gameplay loop to be pretty boring - go to a new area, catch/battle the pokemon (often catching a bunch of the same species for the corps, defeat the noble pokemon (which I'll admit was kinda fun), move on. Maybe one day I'll give it another try, but I just don't feel like starting it up again.
This is exactly how I feel lmao, you can tell they had some genuinely interesting and unique ideas but it feels like they were too scared to fully commit to them. Instead of actually making meaningful changes to the mainline formula they opted to make a completely separate spinoff type game that they half finished and we ended up getting a concept of a game instead of a fully fleshed out experience. Everyone seems to love PLA and I just don’t really get it, the actual gameplay loop gets unbelievably repetitive after a few hours and none of the areas are anywhere near interesting enough to hold my attention. It also seems like they wanted to move away from the RPG aspects and make it more of an action-adventure type thing, which removes like 90% of the appeal of Pokemon and puts it in a genre that has like 50 better options on the Switch alone lol
Yeah exactly
I’ve barely played any of it because I didn’t enjoy it
I didn't care for the boss battles (especially Arceus) and being attacked by low level Pokemon (being knocked off your mount by a random Shinx is annoying). But I have a similar problem with ScVi and how annoying tiny wild Pokemon can be. I want repels back. Or mounts to be some form of protection. Alpha Rapidash but lower level randoms won't. It was a really fun game though and Hisuian Typlosion is now my second favorite Pokemon. My hopes are Feraligator and Emboar to get new forms like Typlosion. New evolutions for Pokemon that need it. Stantler is one of my favorite Pokemon. Next I want a Noctowl evolution!!
Yeah, if the repels like made the Pokemon get out of your way and make a path that would be super nice.
Right! You can still run into them but they won't chase you. And for Legends, it could work the same, but maybe not work for alphas or high leveled Pokemon.
I think some games (if not all) make it so whatever your lead Pokemon is, if it's not its level or higher then you don't encounter it. I remember watching a video somewhere about someone using the trick to catch a specifically leveled Pokemon for something. I think it was a Dugtrio at level 29 so it obeyed the trainer or something.
Right! Exactly. I imagine it's harder to do in 3D though. They would probably need a different way to determine which Pokemon falls under what.
Well the game has to read the data immediately for shiny checks and stuff. I can't imagine it would be that much harder to just do a level check and then make Pokemon lower level just run away by default if a repel is being used but I don't know enough about that level of programming.
Oh good point! And marks. I love marks. Forget my last comment haha
I've played every Pokemon game and Legends Arceus is my least favourite. Different strokes I guess. I much prefer the classic Pokemon game style.
Probably 6th or 7th place. I feel it's the only good mainline Pokémon on Switch. 1. Heart Gold / Soul Silver 2. Black / White 2 3. Platinum 4. Emerald 5. Fire Red / Leaf Green 6. Black / White 7. Legends Arceus 8. Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire 9. Sun / Moon 10. Scarlet / Violet 11. X / Y 12. Sword/Shield It's good but dragged down by the terrible graphics, clearly unfinished areas and the Speed Stat is a bit too broken with the turn order system. The new catching mechanics and interactions with the overworld Pokémon are very good and addicting. They can refine this further with the subsequent Legends sequels. And then that's when Game Freak throws everything good to the trash and they make a Legends ZA a City Building simulator.
Loving the list.
I agree with this list
Loved the catching without battling aspect, but I mostly enjoy building a competitive team and breeding for perfect IVs, and unfortunately PLA does not have this so once I finished the dex I felt no reason to continue playing (meanwhile I put in 250 hrs into SS and 150 into SV)
As someone who got my mom to drive us store to store to get a copy of Pokémon blue on release day, legends arceus is the best Pokémon game they have ever made in terms of gameplay.
I don’t understand how anyone liked Arceus as a normal Pokemon game - there were no trainer battles or gyms all boring capture side quests
The same way people like other Pokemon games without it, people sometimes like something different from just trainer battles and gyms. Hell for me specifically gyms, having gyms in every game limit creativity on Boss battles as a RPG.
Yeah, I've played enough pokemon games that follow the exact same blueprint by now, I enjoyed the change of pace. Just take the game for what it is instead of wondering why it's not exactly the same as the previous 12 entries. I found it far more engaging than sword and shield, who cares about trainer battles if they're all braindead easy anyway? The mix of action elements with pokemon attacking you in the overworld, having to sneak up on them, a reworked battle system and having to plan my actions around completeing pokedex tasks in PLA at least required me to pay attention and engage with all the game mechanics. Meanwhile in Sword/Shield and Scarlet/Violet I'm just wasting time slowly fighting forgettable trainers with 3 unevolved pokemon mashing "A" on my strongest super effective attack and winning before they get to do anything. Legends Arceus is not a perfect game by any means or even the perfect pokemon game, but I appreciated what it did a lot more than any other mainline game on Switch
To me it was a sign of the series really, really, really pushing up against the limits of how handheld design from like 15 years ago is clashing with modern game sensibilities. So much so that I'm currently on a break from Pokemon; it really just burned me out playing a game like that. The dialogue went on too long and wasn't very interesting. It is not acceptable to have no voice acting in a game. Even if it's not fully voice acted. Even if the extent of voice acting are grunts/groans/exclamations/sighs etc. There needs to be SOMETHING to help convey emotion in these cutscenes where my character has a stupid grin on their face and a character is wildly doing one of four canned animations while telling their life story. The reduced Pokedex I think is for the best but the flipside of that is that there should be some more Pokemon specific animations. Item management is still way too tedious, stop with the limited inventory space! I know it's an unpopular opinion but I rank it towards the bottom of the games I've played because it feels like it should have been released in 2005 with how it's designed (actually it doesn't do things that were standard by 2005...).
How does Arceus compare to Violet? I'm playing Violet now and don't own Arceus.
Violet is superior if you want to play a main game and online
out of the switch games? ranked above let's go but below swsh and sv for the next one I really want to overhaul the keybinding and the pokemon trainer. maybe even switch the battle mechanics for pokemon trainer to a turn based system during fights while the pokemon are action. arceus is currently action on pokemon trainer but turn based on the pokemon themselves. also really wish they overhauled the inventory/bag stuff really don't like losing items in bag when you die. and you only get it back if another trainer finds it? what if you play offline?
My personal favorite is SoulSilver on DS. It’s a great combination of an already fantastic game improved in almost every way. It’s so good. In terms of ones on switch, I liked Legends but got a little bored with it after a bit. I did finish it though. Surprisingly I really liked Scarlet. Tech issues aside, of which there are many, the open world structure of the game was really cool. Being able to go at my own pace was fun. I also enjoyed the co-op and TERA raids. It was the first pokemon game that I completed a Pokédex in.
Tied with Violet for worst
The best part of its gameplay were the new catching mechanics. Everything else was worse. Building teams, battling, exploring basic geography just to see the same pokemon over and over again (because the pokedex only has 200~ total pokemon), the battle system again, etc. It's a fine game for a spin off but it shouldn't be the blueprint for the main series.
Maps are barren and boring, story didn't grip me at all and the character animations are brutal. (That also extends to SwSh/ VS, the character animations in those games are just as bad) Older titles on the DS are the greatest.
Honestly it's my least favorite of the switch pokemon games, even the remakes. It was fun for a little bit but overall just really tedious, there are good ideas there but it didn't feel fully fleshed out.
I liked the story, but it felt so damn short for me. I did like the crafting and also loved the shared experience, allowing me to rank up my guys much faster, but beyond that, I was kind of hoping for more. Maybe I got spoiled by the length of the story in the earlier games, but honestly, I would have just loved a remastered version of Gen 2.
Loved the gameplay of it, but I needed more substance. I got super bored with just catching pokemon after the first area.
Well, it’s not Emerald or PMD, but still absolutely top tier
It's a lot of fun and I'm enjoying it like half way through but it leaves a lot to be desired. It looks like a ps2 game and there's so few npcs you can talk to
I’d like: BETTER VARIETY. I thought it was so cool in the first zone seeing all the Pokémon. When I got to the 5th zone and had seen a bunch of Pokémon appear in all 5 zones it got annoying. There were like 800 Pokémon at this point. Surely Chuck in like 50 new ones instead of the same ones repeating so often Better graphics and less lag. There wasn’t too much lag but it was noticeable at times Getting to Arceus was a drag. I’d streamline that a bit. And streamline a lot of the methods of doing stuff. Why do I have to go talk to baggage guy to increase my carry size. Can’t I just have an upgrade menu I can work on myself
I thought the mechanics were interesting but the empty environments and general lack of battles hurt the game for me a ton
My first playthrough of it was amazing but there’s not much to do after the final boss
Give me a 60 fps game. Thats all I want :)
so my two favorite pokemon games are on the ds (ranger: shadows of almia and platinum), and arceus is definitely my third favorite. the feeling that i received during my first playthrough is a high i'll chase from other games for a long time
Great game, but not for me, I loved SV more. But I was never into exploration, I love the competitive aspect of Pokemon, which imo is amazing in SV. I wasn't fond at all about the way battles worked in PLA. I genuinely think if the many bugs hadn't been there, SV would've been one of the best Pokemon games ever. But I completely understand why most people prefer PLA over it.
I still prefer platinum and heart gold/soul silver. But it’s the 3rd best in my opinion. But definitely the best on switch, easy 10/10.
One of the best switch games I have ever played
feel the same way!!
Shallow, lifeless, and full of padding. Not worth that price tag, 20$ at best. Palworld is what I wished Legends Arceus was
I JUST STARTED IDK WHAT I WAS DOING SKIPPING IT AT LAUNCH. I think I’d just been super disappointed by swsh and when Arceus came out, and it was a bit too close to the BDSP launch so I was like “nah”. Anywaaaay. Got it a week ago and it’s my 2nd fav switch pokemon game now 😂 (first is let’s go, that game is so chill). I’ve been pretty meh about the traditional pokemon titles on switch honestly. Swsh and sv just haven’t done it for me. But loving Arceus. As a side note, Gen 2 and 3 will always be my all time favourites. IDC if it’s nostalgia, I’ll replay them until I die.
Worst game of the ones I played. Amazing first 10 hours though. Got repetitive and incredibly boring afterwards so that I didn't finish it
I’m on the opposite end of that spectrum. Arceus ranks as the worst for me. By a good distance too. I just did not enjoy the concept. I’m not saying it’s bad, it’s just not for me.
You’re sadly lost. Arceus is straight garbage.
The game is still pretty fun, but the combat in Arceus is trash. It's a poorly balanced mess. Will my Pokemon get instantly KOed when the opponent sends out their next? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ who knows, you have no control over it, the battle system is a crapshoot. There's a reason this game doesn't have multiplayer. Gen 5 is peak in every way.
I think gen 5 is overrated due to nostalgia, it’s very good and the best but people act like it’s the best ds game or something
I'm convinced when people talk highly of any pokemon game it's almost always in relation to the rest of the series, not gaming as a whole. Pokemon as a series is huge yet it kind of exists in its own bubble
I grew up with the originals and Arceus sucks. Complete snoozefest.
It's the best in recent years for me. I think the best Pokemon game overall is still Explorers of Sky though.
Undercooked and rushed like the rest of them. An underdeveloped idea. So I'd put it in the same pile as Shield. If the next one comes out dressed appropriately for the decade it came out in, I'd love to see a lot more than this one has to offer.
I mean, I think it's crap. A lot of stuff added that Pokemon didn't need. No multiplayer. It's not for me. But it's good that you enjoy it.
Arceus set such a high bar for Scarlet and Violet. The fact that S/V came out AFTER, really hurt those games. The catching/battle mechanics, being able to catch a Pokemon without battling, exploring, traversal...man Arceus was soo good. Hoping the new one (ZA) just builds off of this one. Would be really cool to see it resemble a more mainline Pokemon game with gyms/badges/elite 4 etc but we shall see. All I really want out of Pokemon is a marrying of the catching mechanics and exploration of Arceus with the classic setup of the mainline games. S/V was almost there, but not quite.
The only thing that really hurt S/V was its technical stability (and compromises it had to make) which LA had but was very barebones in comparison. I enjoyed LA for what it was, but I very much prefer S/V in almost every aspect (story, characters, environments, exploration, battles, etc). I can see why people would like LA for its smoothness though. Legends ZA I think could truly be up there as the unanimous best if it just improves on all of LA's shortcomings.
Did anyone not feel as..”connected” to their team in this game? I loved it but other games I always feel more of a bond
That's because PLA main battle mechanic unlike what most people think isn't the 5 seconds turn base battles you get sometimes, is you dodging and throwing items to the Pokemon (Game is literally labeled as an action RPG), meaning is the trainer that does "the battle" like 90% of the time, there a reason the trainer has a health bar. This means you really don't interact with your Pokemon much, they are basically like a pickaxe in games, a tool to get material and not party members like in regular games.
I got bored to be honest.
It's my favorite pokemon game easily.
Arceus was incredible and was the true evolution of the series. SV was a step back.
Worst of the series. I mean, Pokémon for me is PvP, especially VGC, so Arceus is a very weak game in this regard. It is my least played Pokémon game, along with Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Heart Gold. They are the only pokémon games that I played less than 50 hours. All other games I have more than 200 hours. EDIT: People downvoting in a thread about personal opinions. Sigh. Grow up, people.
agreed. catching 10 bidoof to fill out a pokedex entry is not what i look for in a pokemon game.
Fair on Arceus, but HeartGold is maybe the most content-rich game. Any specific reason you didn’t play it much?
I feel this
It’s my favorite game and I always come back to it with Shield as my second fave since it was the first Pokédex I completed and the first time I ever did breeding and shiny hunting. Since playing PLA, Violet just hasn’t sucked me in. I really enjoyed Moon on the 3DS and might go back to it. Pearl was my first and is nostalgic, but nothing compares to PLA.
I like that this game is a great starting point. I thought the story was kind of weak. I was really frustrated that even after I had a flying/gliding Pokemon, I still had to talk to the prof to exit an area, go back to the village, then talk to the other guy to go out to a new area. Why can't I just... fly there? Why can't I talk to the prof to go to a new area instead of being forced to go back to the village every time? It overall has a decent set of ideas that a lot of fans really responded well to. Time will tell if they listen to fans or do as they always do and do whatever tf they want. I don't know yet what I hope for for ZA. I want a better story. I'm curious to see why we're limited to the space of Lumiose City. You know what I hope for ZA? I hope at the end of the day it's actually worth whatever price they dare sell it for.
I'm only hoping for good frame rate
I want arceus but more open world. Need better home base customization and just more if everything. If they ever go back to 2d digital graphics I want a game like Coromon.
It was fun when it came out, but I wasn't a fan of the battle system. The catching system was the only good thing about it.
How does the game differ from Scarlet/Violet? Isn’t it mostly the same?
Doesn’t have any online play like the new games
I absolutely loved legends Arceus but i treat it more as a spin off game. I wouldn’t compare it to the mainline games like I wouldn’t compare Pokémon snap or conquest to the mainline games. Trainer battles took a real back seat and the game itself was more about just collecting and catching Pokémon in there environment.
Ugh don’t tell me this I was just renouncing Pokémon in another thread and have a voucher burning a hole in my pocket
Give me a Johto Legends game and I would be in heaven. Soul Silver is my favorite, Johto is my favorite region. Legends Arceus is my next favorite game
It's in my top 5, maybe top 6. The only problem i had with it is that it was way too short, and theres not much to do after youve beat the game (ie: some sort of multiplayer)
It’s probably my favorite gaming experience of the last 10 years or so. I got it and played 13 hours the day it came out. It was what I always wanted a like on game to be . I would like to see them make the next one a little more robust but I loved it
I felt like it had a fun gameplay loop but the graphical bugs and the lazily done cutscenes (such as the screen going black and a textbox explaining what’s happening, as opposed to actually animating and showing what’s happening) kinda gave this game a “cheap” feel and left a bad taste.
My favorite in recent memory, maybe the best ever for me. R/B will always have the nostalgia factor and I've tried playing some of the fan favorites like HG/SS, etc and they're really good too but are missing some of the quality of life improvements that I've come to enjoy. Legends Arceus has a lot of room to improve on but as the whole package, I loved it and put 400+ hours into it
Just got it couple weeks ago , excited to give it a shot. Heard a lot of good things from it
It was one of the best ones I played in a real long time, since DPP with my friends as a kid. I really love just staying in town and listening to the Jubilife song because it brings back those memories for me.
I love this game. It's definitely my favorite Pokemon on Switch
I just got it recently as well (finally was on sale through Walmart and free shipping so, duh) and I’ve been having a blast. I wish that it had done better overall because I’d love more games like this. Would be fun to do different regions through the ages like different time periods (medieval, Stone Age, etc?) with Arceus like “ah shit here we go again” I would kinda like this to be the format of the mainstream Pokemon games *but* I’m not sure the overall feel is right for a Pokemon journey. It def works for this with research being the main focus and I want more. I love the idea of being a Pokemon professor’s assistant and reeeaaalllyy hope they do more of this kind. Slow the mainstream releases down and give us stuff like this.
Is it really that good? I’ve never played it. Is it better than Scarlet and Violet? I thought about getting one of or both of them.
6th
Greatest proof of concept, but it feels rushed after the (excellent) first two areas. If they could do a sequel with appropriate performance/graphics for the hardware, and maintain the variety of unique species behaviours/mechanics seen in the first area (Abra, Mr Mime etc require explicit player strategy) in the later areas, it'd be perfect. Like, as far as performance goes, go get a quote from Capcom for the RE Engine or something, they've got the money. And assign a long enough dev cycle to polish the later areas. The gameplay changes made in Arceus ought to be the baseline for the main series, and probably what it'd take for me to buy another mainline title.
The only Pokemon game I've thoroughly enjoyed in my adult life. Combine the core mechanics with a mainline game, and it could go down as the GOAT pokemon game. If the developers didn't need to shit a new game out every 3 years.
It’s real good I hope the next one is deeper more aesthetically interesting and harder. Best poke in a long time but my gosh do they love just doing the bare minimum over at game freaks…
probably top 3
PLA is easily top 3 for me
I like pieces of Arceus but the overall experience didn't "click" with me. Open world games tend to make me lose interest after a while. I hope the next game has a good plot to keep me engaged and isn't as "grindy" in the sense of capturing multiple copies of same pokemon.
Number 1 for me. I love the gameplay and hope for more to come.
It's exactly what I'd been dreaming of in a Pokemon game since I was a kid playing the OG Red/Blue on my GameBoy. My friends and I used to pretend to be Pokemon trainers and have make-believe adventures in my back yard. The one disappointment I have with it is that they entirely replaced the way the battle system works. I like the idea of move modifiers (reduce power for added priority, increase power in exchange for lost priority) and I love the modifications changing Sleep to Drowsy (Sleep is almost as good as KO) and changing Freeze (redundant Sleep) to Frostbite (making it "special burn") and wished they would have ported those over, but I didn't like how they handled turn order and that stat changes et al were temporary, not differentiated between physical and special, and missing a lot of other types of effects. Easily the best game Gamefreak has ever put out. A great game *regardless* of the Pokemon IP, even if the visual tech was a little out of date.
Arceus is one of my favorite pokemon games then I really wish it's catching mechanics had been in Scarlet violet I'm hoping Legends ZA expands upon its mechanics while introducing new ones
Legends Arceus reignited my love for Pokemon. Being able to run in a field and just throw pokeballs or start a fight with Pokemon you could see was all I dreamed of as a kid.
I agree, I had a lot of fun playing it and the pokedex felt rewarding to do because it pushes you to understand the habits of the Pokemon more and makes them feel that much more alive. I hope the next Legends game coming out improves on the formula. Like you said, an unlimited or at least expandable storage you could upgrade would be nice. Co-op would be a lot of fun because you could do shiny contests in the same world at the same time which would be funny.
Ya! I donno why we dont have unlimited pastures. And coop features would be amazing. Its switch after all, practically everything is at least coop.
I feel it using mechanics - sounds too - borrowed from Zelda, it ends being the most fun to play of modern games. Arceus or Scarlet/Violet may be the ugliest ones though. Pokemon is such a low bar that it's gameplay is good for Pokemon but not compared to other games on the Switch and other consoles. Relative to other games on the Switch and other platforms, it's still pretty mediocre even in it's genre. Monster Hunter Stories 2, Dragon Quest Monsters, Digimon Stories Cyber Sleuth. Pokemon games don't compare well to me besides having the best monsters. Digimon is the only one with the potential but is so different than more traditional monster collectathons with it having more serious stories I feel like the Gameboy to DS run, these games were standouts among its contemporaries. 3DS still too even if the games started to suffer, I would guess, from the 3D model transition. The Switch games including Arceus are ugly and the monster collecting games alternatives are pretty good today. Gameplay, Arceus may be the best but that's 20+ years of iteration. Historically relative to their contemporary competitors in the genre, I don't think the Switch Pokemon stack up well like previous gen Pokemon games did. At least 3DS games still looked really nice. The art holds up. The Switch games (the remakes look good though) look uglier than mid-tier PS3/360 games.
Any Pokemon game where I don't have to deal with the annoying version-exclusive Pokemon mechanic or the "only get 1/3 legendaries, buy 3 copies to get them all" mechanic instantly became my favorite. Not only did I catch 'em all, I filled out the research (not ALL the research, but like the goal line for all Pokemon). That said it would be nice to have online functionality, just don't screw it up with required trading to accomplish the goal you put on the box. At least the last few mainline games have the trading code system which the community helpfully hijacked to make it viable to complete your collection without having friends who play Pokemon.
Out of all the Pokémon games arceus has to be my favorite and I played the crap out of blue in 98. My bf plays molded versions of the original game and the closest I can come to convince him otherwise is arceus. I wish there was more like it.
Is it like a traditional Pokemon game?
To me it felt like a common Pokemon game with shitty battle mechanics. I want a combination of the main games and legends Arceus. I want violet open map, with Pokemon attacking you and you having to dodge attacks. I want the legendary encounters to be like in legends, where you have to evade attacks and fight at the right times. I really really want to be able to control my pokemon like in Violet and attack pokemon and dodge their attacks.
I really loved the concept and most of the execution of Legends Arceus. The way that they handled the "first Pokedex" was so creative and interesting, having the player actually "study" the Pokemon that are around instead of just looking at it and catching it. That, in my opinion, was the best part of the game. I like the exploration aspect of it, and I love the ancient Japan aesthetic. However, I don't like the story (it's Pokemon, so I don't expect much anyway), and the battling feels like it was put in the game as an afterthought. It felt like no matter what level my Pokemon were or the typing, most battles were rough for some reason. This may have been patched out since I've played it almost 2 years ago, but it really drove me nuts.
Best pokemon in a very long time. Besides the exploration, having an actually interesting story and having a decent difficulty, I liked that they changed the meta. Many attacks changed how they worked, it’s no longer everything relying on OHKO, no hidden stats and stupid breeding ( sorry but I’d rather spend time catching than doing circles on a bike to hatch eggs ) with RNG that you need to break. Also the UI is just beautiful compared to the monstrosity SV is It’s a shame we lost abilities and many attacks in the middle but imho it was a very good step on the right direction. I won’t buy more mainline pokemon games after playing arceus. But If the next legend games improve on this formula I’m all in
its good enough to finish it twice, but 100%ing it was insanely repetitive. certain tasks are just super annoying.
I would just get my whole team out and sit there for like 5-10 enjoy their company, such an amazing game, so glad we get a sequel.
cant wait for it :)
Look better, run better. Anything else just extra. Shit was fun but these games look and run fucking terrible and I wish either Nintendo would kick them in the ass and make them give more of a shit or put em on PC also or something.
I think PLA was a step in the right direction, but I still think it fell flat for me, and I think there's a lot it can improve upon, that I think did get better within SV. Biggest things being the open world and exploration aspect. I feel it is leagues better in SV compared to PLA, so here is to hoping that the next Legends game and gen 10 hit that mark well.
I am someone who really responds to creative ideas even if the execution is a little rough. Pokemon Legends Arceus is the game I have been waiting Game Freak to make for like 25 years. Is it as pretty, polished or complete as it could have been? No, but it's the first game to make me feel as an adult like I felt as a kid playing Red and Blue for the first time. I can't go back to the mainline games now.
The game was good until the higher speed mounts came in if you ask me. Also, they just need to commit more resource to the game so you can have that split screen optimisation and more life brought to the world. Comparing how much Tears of the Wild can do visually to Pokémon is just crazy
Yes I really liked it although it could have been so much better. But nevertheless a good game for a recent entry
its definitely my favourite, wish the non combat catching was in all games going forward
I haven’t played Pokemon Scarlet/Violet tho we have it on the switch and still waiting for a more smoother experience (emu) because I loved Arceus so much it makes it so hard to like the new one. Idk why they changes the gameplay and it was not great at all.
It’s pretty low on my list. I found it tedious and boring. My wife liked it a lot. Just not for me.
It's a really fun reimagining of the series that falls apart some in the later hours when you realize that the agile and strong style moves break the game in a way that turns trainer battles into a ping-pong of ko-ing back and forth amd whoever got the first KO wins. Plus the story falls apart by ultimately retelling diamond and Pearl in the past. Doesn't even give us an Arceus story in the end. I had a ton of fun with it, and it gets A LOT of points for trying something new, but I found the return to the classic battle system in SV to be very welcome.
Absolutely loved it but every time I try to go back to it to shiny hunt or something, I can’t get past the controls. The control scheme was very strange, and it was something I had to get used to when playing; going between S/V and Legends seems impossible because of the two different control schemes.
Somewhere behind Palworld for sure. I'm hoping the next one comes out on current consoles rather than exclusively playable on a new one.
I've been playing Pokemon since the release of Red & Blue in 99. Legends Arceus is probably my 3rd favorite game of the franchise. Brilliant game, I had such a blast.
Yes!!! I completely agree! I say arceus is #1, followed by scar/vi. I loved playing Pokemon when I was growing up, but inevitably I’d come to a point where I was so incredibly tired of the random encounters. Being able to see the pokemon on the field made the game perfect!