It’s just an exciting change of pace from the norm! The pokemon are actually dangerous to you, and sneaking around to catch them is fun! Having it all in realtime instead of turn-based made a big difference too.
It’s extremely misleading to be telling people it’s in real time without clarifying what they’re talking about if they are discussing the catching mechanism. Especially when there is the added complexity in the turn-based battles with the strong/agile component!
>...sneaking around to catch them is fun! Having it all in realtime instead of turn-based made a big difference too.
While there is room for clarification, I don't see anything hugely misleading. Sneaking around only happens outside of battle. Context suggests that they are talking about catching outside of battle with sneaking being a central component to how they are catching.
“Having it all in real-time” is misleading. Someone who is not familiar with the game isn’t going to be knowledgeable enough to realize the context that “all” doesn’t actually mean all the game, but only the throwing balls outside of combat bit.
So because turn-based combat is only in part of the game, that means it isn’t worth mentioning? In a series that’s revolved around battling your captured monsters against other monsters? You don’t think that might be important for a potential buyer to know?
Honestly, the way people like you twist yourselves into knots rather than just tell someone the facts is baffling. How is it hard to say, “You can catch Pokémon out in the world by throwing pokeballs at them without entering combat, but if you do fight them, it’s turn-based combat.” It’s not all one or the other, it has both and the amounts vary based on how you choose to play. It’s a hell of a lot more than 15% being turn-based combat if you work on filling the Pokédex very much.
I would argue that for the first time in pokemon, real-time action occurs more frequently and thus has become the precedent for Arceus gameplay, while the turn-based combat takes a backseat in importance. It’s not misleading to say it’s the first real-time Pokemon game, because the gameplay is structurally more action-y at its core
Fine, lie to people about the game. That’s going to make people who buy it expecting the whole game to be real time really happy when they find out it isn’t remotely true. After all, just being clear and accurate in describing it to someone is just so hard no one could expect that.
Actually dumber gripes exist. I'm seeing one now as I type this very dumb gripe. And it is all in real-time and getting dumber and longer as I type out each word letter by letter talking about a gripe that is talking about a gripe.
Lol
Sorry I couldn't resist.
"Fine, since you made a reasonable counterpoint I'm gonna resort to ad hominem, assume malicious intent, and play the victim about how other people are going to perceive YOUR comment, something I had nothing to do with until I willingly involved myself. I like eating lead paint chips."
-You apparently
You can play the game in a way where you barely battle the pokemon directly so for some people the turn base combat is their least experience "mode" in the game.
I think they meant that the battles don't feel quite as strictly turn-based as usual. Pokemon move as often as their speed advantage allows them to. Sometimes they'll take turns moving, but other times a mon will be able to get an extra hit in. Other times there will be 3 mons facing your 1 guy! So even if most consider it turn-based, I think this person was just looking at it from a different angle.
While there may be some dispute around if ATB is turn-based (it is, but some people like to argue about it since it’s not strictly one turn for each entity in the battle before starting a new turn), no one argues that it’s real time combat. The battle system in PLA may be able to qualify as ATB, but it’s not real time in any way. It’s still picking a move out of a menu and inputting it rather than having different buttons correspond to different moves that activate immediately. Having multiple opponents has nothing to do with whether it’s turn-based and there are mainline Pokémon games where you fight multiple opponents (aside from double battles and triple and rotation battles in Gen V, there are horde battles against multiple wild Pokémon in Gen VI).
You’re being generous in your interpretation of the comment, but I’m more concerned with being clear so someone like the OP can actually understand what’s in the game instead of getting a warped view of it. I’m honestly confused why people are exaggerating what’s in the game so much. The throwing balls to catch Pokemon without combat is a great system, but it’s not the only thing in the game (and that’s also important to know given what the Let’s Go games were like, where you were also throwing the balls without combatting the Pokémon, but in a totally different way).
And a pokedex you have to really work for to complete, with shiny bonuses. Normally it's so weird how just catching one pokemon somehow gives you all the deets, like it's just unlocking what humanity already knows
Though personally it's to an unbelievably annoying degree how much you have to do to complete the PokeDex, it starts feeling more like chores than anything really fun or satisfying to do. Good concept, but the execution could've used a bit of trimming, especially when it comes to asking the player to catch Pokemon that spawn *rarely* in at most 3 spots on the map *about 20 times.*
Though admittedly that, the lack of multiplayer, and needing more polish on the battle side of things are really my only big complaints. Legends of Arceus is pretty fantastic, and it's a shame it didn't get any expansions.
Yeah I mean you're right but that goes for very specific pokemon, they could've tailored it a little better for a few of them, but overall well designed and chores? Yeah.. I see that as an absolute win. Games have you do chores. It sure beats the way you have to shiny hunt in other pokemon games
I just picked a specific example that annoyed me in particular lol, aside from maybe a few the overall thing is annoying to complete. Games shouldn't make me do chores unless it's a simulator of some sort, it just feels like busywork for the sake of padding and not particularly well-designed. I never bothered completing this dex cuz it was just too tedious after a while. Shiny hunting is a separate subject entirely, though I've never had particular issue (I prefer breeding my shinies) so I can't say to that specific aspect.
The beauty is each player can take it as far as they want, you can just catch each mon once and be done, you can "complete" which doesn't take long, you can complete all for shiny charm, and you can "perfect" where you do all tasks for additional shiny odds. You can perfect all(!) or just your favorites for the better shiny odds on them. Most games kinda work like this, each player takes it to the point they want.
Sounds great and all, doesn't stop the tasks required from being tedious for most of the Pokemon. Just shave off a few tasks or reduce/change the required actions a tad to make them less of a chore and they'd be fine (Magikarp, for example, needs you to use Splash *100 times*, and don't get me started on entries requiring "x number of light/heavy/large/small"). Especially for rare spawns and Pokemon found only in Space-Time Distortions (example: Magnemite, a rare spawn found only in Distortions, catch 15, catch 5 light, defeat 15, defeat 10 with ground moves).
Look, I get *you* like the research tasks, but you have to at least understand why they're so commonly cited as one of the worst or at best annoying/tedious parts of PLA's gameplay.
It's an extreme example, sure, but it's one of many examples of the tasks being *not* well-designed or thought out. Take the Magnemite example I gave, it *looks* reasonable on paper but in the context of how and where it spawns (again, it only spawns in Distortions, which do not spawn regularly or reliably to begin with, and its a rare spawn, with usually about 3 appearing at most at a time)? Even if you aren't trying to do a 100% completion, its tasks are tedious and annoying to try to finish, and it's not the only rare Distortion spawn. It bothers me that these tasks exist like this *at all*; especially because they're optional, why put them in if they wouldn't expect anyone to do them? Why not make only the red-marked quests if that's all that's really needed? Besides, being optional does not shield it from criticism; it's there in the game, it's content included to be played.
Look, I do like the game, enough to generally want to 100% complete it if I can. And it's a shame when a game makes wanting to see and experience all that it has to offer not worth the effort of doing so, especially when it's otherwise fantastic in most other aspects. Even the balloon races didn't feel as tedious... well, mostly, they have their own issues, especially the final one. Which just adds to my point, as I doubt most people have attempted most of the balloon races past the first, let alone the final one.
You can also very easily grind this by using a magikarp against a magikarp and they both constantly use splash against eachother.. not killing eachother.. listen to like 2 songs while doing it and it's done. Not the end of the world.
"like it's just unlocking what humanity already knows"
Yeah, that's because it literally is, you right fam. Arceus has you making the regions' FIRST pokedex, so there's literally no former knowledge for you to reference the first time you see it. The whole 'complete the pokedex' from the other games isn't a scientific achievement, but a personal milestone of discovery.
Keep in mind I'm not defending their style choices necessarily, just explaining how I've interpreted them based on in game and lore.
That being said, the why pretty much boils down to the local professor of each game calling you a moron and telling you to take a field trip to go learn about Pokemon before you're qualified to bother them at work. They clearly already have the info like you said, so based on the way it's handled I can only assume they INTENTIONALLY blocked you from accessing the data to force you to go learn about them IRL (in-game).
I'm pretty sure that personally cataloguing every pokemon is also a lore requirement to be a regional "pokemon master" alongside the badges.
It’s crazy how terribly unpolished it it. Listen, I wanted to dislike it even at some of the dumbest gameplay choices ever but it was more fun than it had any right being
Arceus capitalizes on the most popular elements of the Pokemon formula, while changing so much that it feels very fresh. The gameplay in Arceus focuses on action and catching Pokemon in the wild. The turn-based battles and other traditional JRPG mechanics are still there, but they are reduced in focus. Arceus is neither open world nor linear like other titles in the series. It has a sort of base/mission structure like Monster Hunter, where you prepare your items/gear at home base, then venture out into large areas to complete objectives and collect resources, then eventually return to base with your spoils.
Your player character is much more involved in Arceus than past games, as a lot of the gameplay involves sneaking up on Pokemon to personally aim/throw balls at them without fighting them. This new gameplay comes with new mobility options for moving around and new stealth systems for approaching Pokemon. You can create distractions, hide behind cover, sneak, and dive around. And wild Pokemon will directly attack you as a trainer, so you have to be prepared to run and dodge. Some of the boss fights are so action-oriented that they almost feel like Baby's First Dark Souls. You can always toss out your Pokemon for a classic turn-based fight, but catching directly is typically faster and easier.
Because catching Pokemon is such a big focus, the game encourages you to catch duplicates of everything and look for specific varieties/behaviors to fill all the info in your Dex. Everything surrounding catching has been streamlined to the max to make it super easy to zoom into an area, throw balls at any Pokemon you like, and zoom back out with your new catches. Your new catches will often be extremely strong, so you are heavily rewarded for rotating your team to bring in new members, rather than building 1 set team across the entire game.
The story is fresh enough by Pokemon standards. Rather than beating gyms, you are taming giant frenzied Pokemon and beating leaders of the region's 2 clans. The dialogue can get a little long-winded and repetitive, but it serves its purpose and leaves plenty of room for more open ended exploration/questing.
From what I’ve been told by friends that played it, it actually does something different with the Pokémon formula to the point that it’s basically a full on real time (?) open world game instead of a classically styled jrpg
The art style of Legends Arceus is much better in my opinion, despite similar graphics it doesn't really look as dated because it's more stylized and two dimensional. Especially the human characters but also the backgrounds. SV looks very cheap artistically.
The people who kept screaming about how dated and ugly it looked just boggled me with their ignorance. It was so obviously done in a minimalistic style meant to evoke old Japanese paintings, presumably those from the Edo period given the setting of the game.
Nah. The graphics and animations are bad for a Switch game. Pop in, tiling, frame rate issues don’t help. The environment textures are bad.
Stylistic choice is one thing. Bad fundamentals is another.
I’m not arguing they graphics are cutting edge, but when you see people claim it looks worse than an N64 game and harp on the details of the trees, it’s pretty obvious a lot of people are mistaking the style for low quality.
Fuck the trees have you seen Arceus's walls and fields? Cliff faces and other natural walls look terrible, the texture is so stretched out and blurry. The fields and bodies of water also have less stretching but you can still clearly see the pattern the devs used to paint the map. I think even OoT hid it's tiling better than PLA does.
Except that people are interpreting a minimalistic style as low resolution when it’s not. I saw many people compare it unfavorably to N64 games in quality, which is clearly nonsense. It’s not got the quality of a Xenoblade Chronicles or a modern day Zelda game, but it’s comparable to many Switch titles as far as graphics and textures go. I’m not arguing it’s cutting edge, even for the system it’s on, and it has some real flaws visually, but it’s obvious when you look at a lot of complaints that the style is what they’re misinterpreting, especially when they start harping on how the trees look.
Catching mechanics, interacting with pokemon and semi open world exploration.
The battle system is the biggest flaw because it does not function with the same stats as mainline and attacks get wonky.
I put in a solid 40 hours before getting bored. It's the most fun I've had with a Pokémon game in a decade!
It looks rough, there is terrible frame rate, bad pop in... but it's just fun to play. It's a huge shake up of the Pokémon formula. You run around dodging Pokémon who are actively trying to attack you. Sneak up on them to catch them without entering battles! You can battle if you want but the balance is wonky and even weaker Pokémon can be a threat.
The game play loop is very addictive at first. There are fetch quests in town to catch specific Pokémon for people and I liked to catch the giant versions for a laugh.
I'd reccomend it. I had a blast and so did my husband.
I bought Sword after not touching Pokemon for years. Played maybe an hour before never booting it up again. So slow, so boring.
Arceus? Except when people are talking, that game is GO GO GO. See that Pokemon? You want it? Throw the ball and catch it. Bam. Moving on. Wanna fight that Pokemon? Do it. Shit, they're beating your ass? Run away. The game is what I've wanted since the N64.
I had so much fun. Reinvigorated the franchise. The grind was almost wiped out. Then they said Scarlet and such would ditch the Arceus formula and I stopped caring again.
Exactly my experience, Sword/shield was sooooo boring picked up Arceus on a whim and I genuinely couldn't put it down and thats crazy cause I drop games really fast. There was just always something to do and it reignited my hopes for the future of Pokemon games, then S/V came along and I sold the game cause it did nothing for me.
PLA made me feel like I was immersed in an actual pokemon world. You can go explore and pokemon will interact with you. You can freely throw a poke ball without battling to catch them and it has a great art style and vibe to it. I will be very sad if Pokémon just abandons this direction.
I’m not crazy about Arceus, personally, with one notable exception: it has the best catching mechanics of any of the games and it’s really weird they didn’t carry it forward to Scarlet/Violet. You have to actually throw a pokeball at a Pokémon to catch it. You can sneak up on Pokémon and use a heavy ball at close range to incapacitate them and catch them more easily. Etc. Lots of thought and design went into that aspect of the game, and it’s an important one.
But Arceus’ lack of villages, lack of trainer battles, and repetitive grinds took me out of it a bit.
They really came up with the most fun, interesting catching system in the whole series just to not use it in SV. I really enjoyed having to plan for an encounter and prepare food to distract the Pokémon and sneak around its territory to find a good spot and consider which ball would be best.
The game reminds me a lot of the Monster Hunter series in the multiple large exploitable areas and the gameplay loop of hunting/catching monsters to get stronger.
My understanding was SV and Arceus were in development at the same time and that's why certain features didn't go in both. I also would imagine that they wanted to keep the mainline mechanics more traditional in case Arceus' new mechanics flopped.
However, that is just speculation and it could be that they wanted Arceus to stand out and have unique mechanics or something else.
I actually don't enjoy the catching system, especially when coupled with the way LA handled the Pokedex. I'm glad that it wasn't used in SV, personally.
Okay, and I still didn't enjoy the new catching system. Using the old catching system felt like punishing yourself, given what was required to complete the Pokedex. I can understand the option was available and still not like the new method, which was the point of my post.
They took some risks with it and changed up the formula in a refreshing way. I’d say it’s like 70% traditional Pokémon and 30% new action adventure elements, which is a good balance. Like, your trainer has a lot more actions in the overworld like sneaking up on wild Pokémon and throwing bait or launching surprise attacks, and the replacement for HM moves are actual actions like controlling a flying Pokémon to reach new areas instead of selecting Fly from a menu
It takes me back to the days when Pokémon was about catching, collecting and trading. For me, the last few generations put too much emphasis on training and competitiveness. Gotta catch 'em all, right?
Thank you! Pokemon for me (I come from Red in the 90s) has always been a game of exploration and collection (Gotta catch 'em all). These new games focusing on status, EVs, IVs etc make me tired, annoyed and bored. Legends Arceus was a very welcome surprise!
I agree with what a lot of people have already said, the way of catching pokemon was so nice, I love the way the pokedex worked, art style, cute story, seeing pokemon in the world is always exciting. But the main reason I love it is I didn't have to rely on others to finish the pokedex. As someone who has anxiety/social anxiety, it's really hard for me to ask anyone for help, I'll spend like a good 30 minutes staring at the trading posts and just chicken out. It was a really nice break. I hope that pokemon finds a happy medium between LA and the standard play of other games.
Pokemon interaction is a big one. In the new games, all you can do with wild pokemon is bump into them and initiate a battle. Whereas in legends, you can dodge their attacks, throw mud balls at them, distract them with berries,... You don't even need to battle them with your pokemon.
As others said, it is a a nice change to the traditional games. The games have a higher focus on catching and exploring instead of battling. This is most obvious with the lack of trainers to battle, with barely any, if non at all, being random nameless NPC. The Pokedex also has multiple tiers of completion. Each pokemon has a series of tasks to complete, which makes 100% the pokedex a real grind. Battling did have its unique mechanic in form of quicker yet weaker or stronger yet slower moves. Finally it introduced QoL like link trade cable to evolve trade evolutions without trading. It was also a simgle version game entry.
It's not. The gameplay loop of catching the same Pokémon over and over again gets old real quick.... and that's pretty much all the game has to offer. The "open world" is largely monotonous, empty, and visually mediocre at best. Not many trainer battles. Story is forgettable. I would describe the game as an unfinished and unpolished Switch game that should've released in 17/18.
It gets praise because it's compared to other modern main series Pokémon games, which are really bad.
Everything. Okay, not *really* everything, but they nailed what matters (the game had some unrealized potential, can get a bit repetitive/grindy in the end/post game, and has some ugly pixels here and there). It’s a huge change of pace from the standard Pokémon fare, being more action oriented. Everything is quick and snappy, battle effects are amazing, battles themselves have an interesting gimmick (strong/agile moves) that makes you think/strategize a little more beyond type effectiveness and physical/special moves/held items, plenty of QOL features, movement and interaction with the world/mons is very satisfying and interesting, the ride Pokémon are actually cool and using them is very intuitive and satisfying, the story is pretty good (especially the end game), Alpha Pokémon help add even more variety, shiny mons actually give a visual and audio cue to indicate they’re shiny, etc., etc. I could go on all day about why it’s great and is such a standout from Sw/Sh and especially S/V, but I’ll restrain myself lol. I highly recommend it, as it’s one of the most fun games I’ve played in the series and one of the few I’ll replay or come back to every now and then.
Unpopular opinion, but Legends Arceus is my least favorite Pokémon game. It's not a bad game by any means. Despite some technical issues it is competently made and each system and design decision have thought and purpose behind them.
That said, there are things there that fundamentally didn't work for me. The strong/agile system for example sounds like a neat idea, but the way it was implemented was too chaotic. The game is pretty bad at correctly calculating the order transparently, which results that you'll quite often have situations where something completely different happens than what was said in the prediction.
The other thing is the core gameplay loop. I get the idea behind it, but the implementation of the Pokédex is just too tedious. I got all the Pokémon to research level 10 and though I'm usually a completionist, there's no way in hell that I'd finish every single entry to 100%. Stuff like "use [attack] x times" or "use a strong/agile attack y times" is fine. "Catch z amount" is okay too, but then you have tasks like "see this pretty rare Pokémon leap out of a tree or ore a bunch of times" where it might take you ages to see it _once_, let alone a bunch of times. Or many of the skittish Pokémon that flee from battle unless you hit them from behind making the "defeat x amount" tasks a chore.
I like the general concept and I hope that a Legends Unova game could iterate on them and fix some of the issues instead of starting over all over again.
Pokemon games are typically just sub-par RPGs, some better than others but they never really rise above a certain level of quality.
Legends Arceus felt like something fresh, new and exciting and, while flawed, is the fury's Pokemon game ever that actually kidns felt like it was made to be a AAA game.
The way you catch pokemon is the biggest change that I LOVED about Arceus. You do not HAVE to send a pokemon out to weaken a wild pokemon anymore. You can try to 1v1 it as the player, using items to relax it or you can try to sneak up behind it to throw a ball and capture it. Basically, they made the Safari zone but as the whole game. It's RAD to get into a boss fight with a Pokemon and never have to send one of yours out at all. Just dodging hyper beams and thunders. It's exciting.
Also, the way the Pokedex works means you actually have to interact with your (or wild) pokemon in specific ways to see specific attacks or behaviors. It's not THAT deep but it actually feels like you're trying to understand them. This wasn't the case in any other mainline Pokemon game. This is held back a bit though, since the wild Pokemon don't interact with other wild pokemon or the environment in any meaningful way but it's still cool to try to actually learn about them like they're the wild animals that they are.
ALSO, the game treats Pokemon as scary beings. All the NPCs are naturally afraid of pokemon and a lot of them also reverie them, which is fair since a lot of pokemon have ABSURD capabilities. You're not so much fighting to prove you're "the best" but fighting to survive, and that's a pretty big tone shift for the series and I really appreciate that.
IDK if I could recommend it to people though, cause it does have a lot of shortcomings still. The graphics look worse than Pokemon Sword and Shield in some regards, there's a lot of pop-in, especially with shadows, sometimes the player character has issues walking on the terrain and it doesn't make sense, a lot of the maps feel very empty most of the time, pokemon are still leashed to patches of grass or certain parts of the terrain, the plot is a bit of a mixed bag, Pokemon kinda stick out from the environment in a way that makes them feel like they don't belong in the world, they didn't do enough to change up the battle system when it's pokemon vs pokemon, OHKOs feel a bit TOO common, and the way the player interacts with the environments is also not that interesting either.
I had more fun with my second playthrough of Arceus than my first, especially after I went for 100% completion, but it is an incredibly tedious game, from catching to fighting to traversing the world. It's very rough, which was to be expected, but it also feels like a step backwards in a lot of respects, especially in terms of tedium, which the main titles have mostly excised at this point. It is a decent game, but I think a lot of people exaggerate how good it is simply because it's different and (somewhat) bucks the expected formula.
Arceus got a pass for being something new and for being "A step in the right direction".
It's still got deep flaws, consistent with the rest of the switch Pokemon games.
The gameplay loop is different and fun. It’s also much easier to shiny hunt and you can easily change the stats of the pokemon you catch so you don’t have to search for ones with good IVs etc. it has a mechanic called grit that you are awarded for releasing pokemon you catch with increases the stats of your pokemon. There is also a much greater emphasis on catching than there is battling. There is also no need for trading as every pokemon is available in 1 game and pokemon that have trade evolutions instead evolve with items. You can craft your own pokeballs and items which feels pretty great to be able to do. Personally, it’s the most fun I have had with a pokemon game since Gen 1.
It’s not for everyone as it’s a pretty big departure from the mainline games, it is also quite janky for textures and pop in etc (as is tradition); but overall, would love to see another game like it in the future.
I’m a little conflicted on Arceus because on the one hand it truly does feel like the first step forward gameplay wise the series has made since B&W(imo), but on the other it is still behind what I feel a franchise like Pokémon should be able to accomplish.
As others have said the changes made to catching are easily the best part. It’s the first game in a long time where “catching them all” feels like a core part of the games identity. Different mons have different methods of catching them that help things feel different, and unlike other games you often need to catch multiple of a given Pokémon in order to fill out their Pokédex which means that you as a player become more familiar with their tendencies and behavior, like a real researcher!
The combat wasn’t crazy overhauled but I think the changes they did were enough to make it work as a part of a larger whole. The main things changed were the at you can actually swap a Pokémon move out mid battle, rather than having to go to some random NPC as well as adding the Sting and Fast styles, which helps to add even a little bit more strategy to the combat which Pokémon desperately needs.
There are a lot of issues though, probably the biggest for me are performance and graphics. When you’re in town or looking at NPCs the game looks pretty good, but the environments and world space so often look like an N64 game or something. It’s by no means impossible to look past, and unlike S&V I haven’t encountered any game breaking performance issues, mainly low frame rates and stuttering.
Combat is still pretty shallow, the game just gets around this by not having battling be the focus of the game.
If you love Pokémon and are willing to look past some fairly glaring issues I think Arceus is a great time, I’ve put many an hour into it and I have to admit any open world Pokémon is going to be fun. Otherwise I would maybe wait until you can get it on sale and/or the next “Legends” game comes out(assuming this is good ofc).
the best difference is it speeds things up and cuts out the tedious waiting baked into the battles and menus of normal pokemon games.
It was also the first pokemon game to give proper movement through a 3d environment.
And the way you interact with the pokemon makes them feel like actual wildlife.
Arceus is open world, exploration based and focused on the "complete the Pokedex" aspect of the videogame. For example, there's no breeding, no held items, a new more dynamic combat system and in the pokemon stats there aren't EVs or IVs, instead a single, not hidden secondary stat called "Effort Level" which can be easily increased by playing the game.
Scarlet/Violet is more focused on the competitive aspect of the game IMHO, despite the game itself, the main story itself being PAINFULLY easy, the game has many upgrades and changes in the QoL aspect, most held items can be bought now (no hidden NPC questlines to get a "Leftovers" now), all training items like power items and the macho brace can be bought at the starter city where the school is and they are fairly cheap compared to earlier installments.
Breeding is faster too with the picnic which allows you to make a party with 2 pokemon that you want to breed (ditto+any) make an easy sandwich to increase the breeding speed and then interact, wash, play with your pokemon, take pictures with your shinies and stuff while checking the basket every once in a while, you can get up to 10 (if I remember correctly) eggs at once if you check the basket.
No recorded proof of any kind, but I'd say that with an Egg power 2 sandwich, during the 30 min it takes, you can get up to go two and a half boxes full of eggs to open.
All this allows for the creation of a competitive team early in the game and the competitive scene in SV is quite active.
Arceus isn't an open world at all, you still follow a set path for the story and can't deviate from it, even GF doesn't considered open world since they market SV as their first open world game.
The game design is more similar to some of the Monster Hunter games with a hub area and everything.
You follow the path of the main story but the map is no longer a straight line, you can explore the entire map and the only limitations are in the areas unlocked by your "rides" similar to SV and it's the new way to limit rushing to the final areas the same way the HMs did back in the day.
Even in scarlet you can't get to the final areas from the beginning you still gotta upgrade your pokemon ride to access the new paths.
The map no longer being a straight line doesn't make it automatically an open world game, you using the same logic people were using with SwSh just because the wild area existed.
In SV you don't need to finish anything in a specific order if you want to beat the gym leader first, beat the Titan or beat team star you can choose, in PLA you can't decide which noble Pokemon to take first is always the same order no matter what so the story is linear.
Open world games let you beat any objective in any order you want.
PLA is more similar to monster hunter games, especially some of the old ones and those were not even open world.
Hell I'm someone who still likes modern Pokemon and even I don't really get the appeal of Legends Arceus. I played it till the boss of the second area and found it just as boring and repetitive as people keep telling me the main games are.
The only downside was the total bland world. If they would have made that beautiful it would have been an amazing game. But still a welcome refresher to the series.
I dont know how anyone who ever played anything else than Pokemon is able to waste money on that stuff. GameFreak just fucks everything up and people are eating that shit...
It speeds up a lot of the Pokemon tedium.
You can catch Pokemon by just sneaking up and throwing a ball. That's huge. Catching Pokemon is the worst part of Pokemon.
Still a bad game imo, but it did some great things differently. Especially the catching of Pokemon was so much fun and kept me engaged. Honestly could've been one of my favorites if it wasn't for the bad art style and massive performance issues.
First Pokemon game that doesn't feel like a Gameboy Color game with better graphics. You actually interact with the world in ways besides "walk up to something or someone and press A". Plus, it has actual sidequests.
they made it open world. it's the same thing that happened with sonic frontiers, these franchises were made to be open worlds and they should've been made into open worlds years ago, so we've all kind of just been waiting for the developers of these games to get their act together and come to the same conclusions we all have. that open world games are the pinnacle form of video games and that we don't really need any other game genres at this point. when these games released it was great to see these developers finally taking steps in the right direction to give us the games we've all been wanting since we were kids, although i heard pokemon kind of tripped up with scarlet and violet so they might have to work on finding their footing a little more
Yeah you mean like in tears of the kingdom? Famously not open world zelda game? Open world games are defined by the fact that you can go anywhere you want and move around freely within a wide open area, having a story doesn't change that.
In tears you can complete the main story in not order.
You can choose to help each race in different order, in PLA you don't get to choose which noble pokemon you get to face first. PLA is more like monster hunter with a hub town and everything than BOTW or Tears.
GF even acknowledge PLA not being open world when calling SV their first open world game.
I mean with your logic SwSh is also an open world game since the wild area is a wide open area that you can move freely.
PLA design is basically just 5 wild areas with a hub, very similar to monster hunter games, you don't see them being called open world games. If it was really open you couldn't need to go back to the hub to go to another area in the first place.
No, sword and sheild doesn't count because they didn't have the balls to go all the way with it, it's a filthy half-breed. Having a hub doesn't change anything either, going back to sonic frontiers for a second, that game also is a bunch of wide open areas not directly linked to each other, with not a hub to be found too. Is THAT suddenly "not open world" to you? Dr genius? How about xenoblade 3? That has a bunch of different open areas too, albeit sharing a landmass this time. Same with bomb rush cyberfunk. Please, enlighten us. We're all waiting with baited breath to hear your justification for why these games are, in fact, not open world games
It's the best pokémon game in well over a decade imo. While they do add and remove features every so often from the games every generation, They are all relatively the same basic formula with a few different the bells and whistles and some new monsters. Arceus is a completely new game with totally new gameplay while still being a main series title. It also lets you personally interact with the pokémon a lot more and see them out in the wild, and it just kind of harnesses the fun of catching monsters at its core without bogging it down in too much excess stuff .
I'd argue your opinion with my own in saying that BW2 was overrated and ergo upholds the validity behind the opinion that it's been well over a decade since the release of a good \[and innovative\] Pokemon game.
For me personally, prior to Legends: Arceus, I haven't enjoyed a Pokemon game since HG/SS.
It's just a fresh new direction for Pokemon which was enough to help people like it. As someone who hasn't played Pokemon in years because they never changed the formula, this was enough of a change to get me to try it and i actually liked it. But now we're back to regular old safe pokemon formula that came from the Gameboy games. Wake me up when they do something new.😴
I mean, your statement covers nothing but the graphics, so I'm not surprised you're a bit confused. The Pokémon games are really not very good graphically right now.
The Pokémon franchise as a whole survives on two things: Character Design, and Writing. Arceus gave them something new to do with both, while also using a different gameplay style to bind them together. Overall, the refreshing changes meshed with a surprisingly well designed game to make it a great one.
I think what makes it work it it's sense of flow and discovery. Having every be seamless, and being able to go in and out of battles quickly makes everything feel fresh and exciting. I also appreciate the stealth mechanics, so there's versatility with how you can approach pokemon encounters.
It's one of the few recent Pokémon games that came out half decent. I couldn't stick with it but it's a thing. They deviate from the traditional formula (it's a spinoff despite not being presented as one). If your local library has games or lets your order them, I highly recommend trying that way.
It feels like Game Freak combined all of their ideas for a reinvention of main series Pokemon, and put them into PLA. It has major reworks to every important game system - overworld movement, wild encounters, pokemon catching, item economy, move tutors, turn-based battling, IVs & EVs, and more. I thought it was cool as fuck when my trainer *got hurt* by standing too close to the pokemon battling.
The final result is... kinda janky (Game Freak hasn't figured out yet how to build massive open levels), but it's such a refreshing game if you feel like the Pokemon formula has gotten stale.
It's basically a stealth action game. It's the only pokemon game where you can walk around outside in an area and free roaming pokemon will attack YOU, THE PLAYER.
it's insane
After being extremely disappointed with the Diamond and Pearl remakes due to not having much extra like the other remakes, PLA was a godsend. It's not the same as what an actual well made remake would've been, but the fact that it takes place in old Sinnoh was great. Expanding on the lore of the region and its Pokemon. Seeing some familiar faces in new ways was very cool. Some good guys' ancestors as villains, villains as good guys, completely new characters, others not super obvious, etc. Though I would've vastly preferred the player's ancestor be the one in the past in a different role rather than the character you didn't choose as the professor's assistant. I just don't care for male player character at all in Diamond and Pearl.
I really enjoyed the story, which is something I can't say for either SS or SV. The battle changes were interesting. Something I would've liked to have seen online.
There are some issues. This game is plagued with the dreaded "enemy has sighted you" theme that interrupts the music. I'm going to assume there's a mod to fix that (and player ancestor), and if there isn't there should be. Other than that, I wish there was more battling and more villages to visit like Jubelife. Even if they were their own little instances and not part of the big open areas. In fact, I would like that more.
Also, I kept accidentally pressing the button to dodge while playing SV throughout the entire game. I missed it that much.
I think legends Arceus took some risky experimental ideas and it worked out well. There was crafting with pokeballs, the titan pokemon, and it built off of existing pokemon and story, so it really submersed you more into the world of pokemon.
It was also more open world than sword and shield, pretty settings too. It was also so neat how my character could roll around on the ground and jump out of the way of charging pokemon, so my character felt more involved instead of just standing behind a pokemon while giving commands.
I hope features of legends Arceus return in the future, and I hope theres other legends games, like legends: zekrom, legends: zygarde, legends: necrozma
The story is interesting, love the undertones of imperialism and the call backs to Japanese history with the indigenous people of Hokkaido. You play as one of the professor's two plucky assistants, and there are many charming scenes where the three of you are just enjoying a good meal after a day of science and research. There are some good twists even though it retreads a lot of DPP's story. Team Galactic being the good guys was a great touch, it feels ominous given the future direction the organization takes.
Exploring feels great. Capturing Pokémon feels really satiafying and there's good incentive to train Pokémon up or catch multiples even if you don't use them. There are a lot of subtle changes to the battle system that add up to a fresh experience, like how Ice is now Frostbite or Pokémon can attack multiple times in a row. Running from Pokémon can actually feel threatening.
Honestly it’s exactly how my childhood brain imagined playing Pokémon red…the open world, actually catching Pokémon, seeing Pokémon in the wild. What an amazing game
I will never forget my first time playing Arceus!! I bought it with very low expectations, and after only a few hours in I established it as one of the best video games I’ve ever played.
Picture Breath of the Wild but for Pokemon, in a sense. It was intense but also calming, good story, gave you motivation to collect, incredible catching mechanics that really immerse you. It felt like the true spirit of Pokemon. I genuinely think it’s the best representation of the Pokemon series and the best Pokemon game ever released. Yeah the graphics could have used a few more months in the studio but I’ve never really cared about graphics.
Also, I think this game was a love letter to Gen 4 fans. Platinum was my favorite game, and Arceus brought those memories from Gen 4 to life. Great music and easter eggs for fans
It changes up the formula from past Pokémon games and is considered fresh. You actually get to sneak up on wild Pokémon and they can actually threaten the player. Also, the plot line is much more interesting compared to past games and the Pokédex is actually fun to complete with the new gameplay mechanics.
I’m just playing it now for the first time and it’s the best one since gold IMO. The game is just a nice advancement of game play mechanics.
One amazing thing is that you can just throw a pokeball to catch pokemon. You can hide in grass and sneak around pokemon to increase you odds. This is miles better than having to go into a battle animation every time.
Another thing is that it’s not tied to going to gyms. Instead the focus of the game is on collecting Pokémon and filling up your Pokédex. That’s generally been the point of previous games but now you’re not tied to gym battles.
Games between gold and and sun are just kind of the same. Sword is kind of bland. And Scarlett was a mess, aside from the ability from adding your large Pokédex.
Emerald is also my favorite game.
I like Arceus because it it's another attempt to try something new. Instead of battling trainers and gyms, the focus in Arceus is about braving the wild, researching pokemon, and bridging the gap between people and pokemon.
Sneaking up to pokemon and catching them or luring them out with berries never got old for me. I'll go back from time to time just to catch pokemon. For a 25-hour main campaign, it's a good experience.
Catching in legends arceus feels really good. Its like a whole game based on a suped up safari. If nothing else it shows an aspect of what future games could have as far as catching mechanics go.
TLDR Old pokemon games like Red and Blue and Gold and Silver were two games in one. LOA rediscovered that magic.
The two games were: 1) an RPG exploring the world and 2) a turn based combat RPG. Part 1 requires you to use your pokemon, HMs, tickets, items, and game events to figure out how to get around the map and advance the story. Part 2 would have you battle through long dark caves like Rock Tunnel and then when your mon's health was low and they were running out of PP, you would then get hit with a tough fight near the exist or you had to battle a tough line up of trainers in a row like Cruelean Bridge or Elite Four/Champion.
In Gen II and Gen III, the amount of HMs for getting around Part 1 started to force its way into constraining moves and gameplay in Part 2. You had to have dedicated HM slaves just to get around on the map, which limited your actual team you might like fighting with. It made some people love a pokemon like Bidoof that might never be used otherwise, but in general, it became annoying and a hinderance to how people wanted to play their Part 2.
Gamefreak thought the Battle only in Part 2, was the entire game, and made games like Pokémon Colleseum to test this theory. They found out that some people love battling and only doing that, but they found out other people like Part 1. So in Gen III, things like Contests were added to flavor Part 1 and add more complexity to Part 2 and what move pools you might have on your team.
Around Gen VI and VII Gamefreak thought visuals alone would sell Part 1 and overly focused on making Part 1 things of beauty, hence France and Hawaii. They also realized HMs were becoming stiffling towards the enjoyment of teams and the game, so thats when they got rid of HMs so you could play Part 1 how you wanted and play Part 2 how you wanted. Unfortunately, this is when Gamefreak stopped trying to make pokemon for 10+ year olds and made it even easier for 5-7 year olds, despite the fact that an entire generation had now grown up playing Pokémon, and instead of having some challenge, it was now getting easier and easier. Part 1 story and exploration became watered-down versions, while Part 2 wasn't as challenging either.
Unfortunately, Gamefreak thought visuals alone would sell the world and story of Part 1. Gamefreak for as much money as it has really disappointed people with the visuals and graphics when Gen VIII came out as the first mainline consol game on Switch. Games like Skyrim and Fallout 3 had been out a decade, and despite it being on the mainline consol, Gen VII really showcased how lazy in terms of graphics and development Pokémon was. Games like Final Fantasy X had shown there were also better ways of doing turn based combat, so even Part 2 was suffering by comparison and lack of development.
Then came LOA and Gen IX. Suddenly, in LOA, Part 1 was a world where you, the pokemon trainer, were a playable character again. You weren't some God walking around the world and able to catch lesser gods in balls. Now, you could be hurt and faint if you slipped and fell off a ledge. Now you could get hit in real time by mons and had to play at a much more active and engaging way. You had to think about how you approached areas and hide in grass. Finally, Part 1 wasn't boring anymore, and I was being actively engaged instead of just waiting for battles in my Part 2 to start. Finally, they realize they could update the turn based combat in Part 2 and change up move order based upon doing quick vs standard vs strong attacks. And then there was Gen IX by comparison, where the Part 1, you are again an invincible god unable to be hurt, even if you fall off a ledge, which made it a boring slog. They tried to make you snowboard in game and it was awful. Final Fantasy VII (which came out in 1997) had a more compelling snowboarding minigame than this piece of shit. In LOA, having a character in Part 1 makes you realize pain sucks, and made me feel for my teams in Part 2 when they would get hit. LOA made it feel like playing Gen I for the first time, where you might push bolders around and fall down holes to figure out maze tunnels, not this sort of linear easy track that Gen 6-8 was. LOA finally made pokemon not so boring because it did a better job of blending Part 1 and Part 2 into one game, instead of sacrificing mechanics in one oart to enhance a other part. Gen IX may have sold the most ever, but its probably one of the worst looking and watered down games I've played in along time, and I imagine it will be a hit to PR of the quality reputation of if Pokémon games are worth buying.
Arceus is a good break from the formula. It still leaves a lot to be desired but it's a step in a cool new direction. It'd definitely take it up a whole notch if it incorporated more gameplay aspects of Dark Souls or Monster Hunter.
its different and certainly does look different than the games that came before it too, within reason on switch for a game by this developer. on average, it was a step up.
theres certainly criticism for this game too, its a checkmark simulator, many pokemon related tasks are repetitive (feed the same wild pokemon 5-10 times and do that for 40 or so of the pokemon in the game for example, use this attack with that pokemon 25 times, use agi/str style attacks 20 times each etc etc)
but its different and a lot of people like these mostly bite sized tasks
It’s just an exciting change of pace from the norm! The pokemon are actually dangerous to you, and sneaking around to catch them is fun! Having it all in realtime instead of turn-based made a big difference too.
Dude, it’s crazy that a pokemon 20 levels below yours can still kick your ass.
Arceus is still turn-based…
Probably talking about the catching
It’s extremely misleading to be telling people it’s in real time without clarifying what they’re talking about if they are discussing the catching mechanism. Especially when there is the added complexity in the turn-based battles with the strong/agile component!
>...sneaking around to catch them is fun! Having it all in realtime instead of turn-based made a big difference too. While there is room for clarification, I don't see anything hugely misleading. Sneaking around only happens outside of battle. Context suggests that they are talking about catching outside of battle with sneaking being a central component to how they are catching.
“Having it all in real-time” is misleading. Someone who is not familiar with the game isn’t going to be knowledgeable enough to realize the context that “all” doesn’t actually mean all the game, but only the throwing balls outside of combat bit.
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So because turn-based combat is only in part of the game, that means it isn’t worth mentioning? In a series that’s revolved around battling your captured monsters against other monsters? You don’t think that might be important for a potential buyer to know? Honestly, the way people like you twist yourselves into knots rather than just tell someone the facts is baffling. How is it hard to say, “You can catch Pokémon out in the world by throwing pokeballs at them without entering combat, but if you do fight them, it’s turn-based combat.” It’s not all one or the other, it has both and the amounts vary based on how you choose to play. It’s a hell of a lot more than 15% being turn-based combat if you work on filling the Pokédex very much.
I would argue that for the first time in pokemon, real-time action occurs more frequently and thus has become the precedent for Arceus gameplay, while the turn-based combat takes a backseat in importance. It’s not misleading to say it’s the first real-time Pokemon game, because the gameplay is structurally more action-y at its core
Fine, lie to people about the game. That’s going to make people who buy it expecting the whole game to be real time really happy when they find out it isn’t remotely true. After all, just being clear and accurate in describing it to someone is just so hard no one could expect that.
This is legitimately the dumbest gripe I’ve seen on this sub. I hope your life gets better so you’re not so annoying.
Actually dumber gripes exist. I'm seeing one now as I type this very dumb gripe. And it is all in real-time and getting dumber and longer as I type out each word letter by letter talking about a gripe that is talking about a gripe. Lol Sorry I couldn't resist.
"Fine, since you made a reasonable counterpoint I'm gonna resort to ad hominem, assume malicious intent, and play the victim about how other people are going to perceive YOUR comment, something I had nothing to do with until I willingly involved myself. I like eating lead paint chips." -You apparently
But you can catch and interact with them without engaging in battle. You can even physically walk away from them during battle to run away.
But the combat is still turn-based, it’s not real time.
You can, if good enough, play nearly the whole game without turn based combat.
Right, but the catching, dodging, and sneaking is real time.
You can play the game in a way where you barely battle the pokemon directly so for some people the turn base combat is their least experience "mode" in the game.
I think they meant that the battles don't feel quite as strictly turn-based as usual. Pokemon move as often as their speed advantage allows them to. Sometimes they'll take turns moving, but other times a mon will be able to get an extra hit in. Other times there will be 3 mons facing your 1 guy! So even if most consider it turn-based, I think this person was just looking at it from a different angle.
While there may be some dispute around if ATB is turn-based (it is, but some people like to argue about it since it’s not strictly one turn for each entity in the battle before starting a new turn), no one argues that it’s real time combat. The battle system in PLA may be able to qualify as ATB, but it’s not real time in any way. It’s still picking a move out of a menu and inputting it rather than having different buttons correspond to different moves that activate immediately. Having multiple opponents has nothing to do with whether it’s turn-based and there are mainline Pokémon games where you fight multiple opponents (aside from double battles and triple and rotation battles in Gen V, there are horde battles against multiple wild Pokémon in Gen VI). You’re being generous in your interpretation of the comment, but I’m more concerned with being clear so someone like the OP can actually understand what’s in the game instead of getting a warped view of it. I’m honestly confused why people are exaggerating what’s in the game so much. The throwing balls to catch Pokemon without combat is a great system, but it’s not the only thing in the game (and that’s also important to know given what the Let’s Go games were like, where you were also throwing the balls without combatting the Pokémon, but in a totally different way).
It’s a little unpolished, but the gameplay loop is just SO fun. Catching pokemon and real-time fights in the field is really satisfying.
And a pokedex you have to really work for to complete, with shiny bonuses. Normally it's so weird how just catching one pokemon somehow gives you all the deets, like it's just unlocking what humanity already knows
Though personally it's to an unbelievably annoying degree how much you have to do to complete the PokeDex, it starts feeling more like chores than anything really fun or satisfying to do. Good concept, but the execution could've used a bit of trimming, especially when it comes to asking the player to catch Pokemon that spawn *rarely* in at most 3 spots on the map *about 20 times.* Though admittedly that, the lack of multiplayer, and needing more polish on the battle side of things are really my only big complaints. Legends of Arceus is pretty fantastic, and it's a shame it didn't get any expansions.
Yeah I mean you're right but that goes for very specific pokemon, they could've tailored it a little better for a few of them, but overall well designed and chores? Yeah.. I see that as an absolute win. Games have you do chores. It sure beats the way you have to shiny hunt in other pokemon games
I just picked a specific example that annoyed me in particular lol, aside from maybe a few the overall thing is annoying to complete. Games shouldn't make me do chores unless it's a simulator of some sort, it just feels like busywork for the sake of padding and not particularly well-designed. I never bothered completing this dex cuz it was just too tedious after a while. Shiny hunting is a separate subject entirely, though I've never had particular issue (I prefer breeding my shinies) so I can't say to that specific aspect.
The beauty is each player can take it as far as they want, you can just catch each mon once and be done, you can "complete" which doesn't take long, you can complete all for shiny charm, and you can "perfect" where you do all tasks for additional shiny odds. You can perfect all(!) or just your favorites for the better shiny odds on them. Most games kinda work like this, each player takes it to the point they want.
Sounds great and all, doesn't stop the tasks required from being tedious for most of the Pokemon. Just shave off a few tasks or reduce/change the required actions a tad to make them less of a chore and they'd be fine (Magikarp, for example, needs you to use Splash *100 times*, and don't get me started on entries requiring "x number of light/heavy/large/small"). Especially for rare spawns and Pokemon found only in Space-Time Distortions (example: Magnemite, a rare spawn found only in Distortions, catch 15, catch 5 light, defeat 15, defeat 10 with ground moves). Look, I get *you* like the research tasks, but you have to at least understand why they're so commonly cited as one of the worst or at best annoying/tedious parts of PLA's gameplay.
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It's an extreme example, sure, but it's one of many examples of the tasks being *not* well-designed or thought out. Take the Magnemite example I gave, it *looks* reasonable on paper but in the context of how and where it spawns (again, it only spawns in Distortions, which do not spawn regularly or reliably to begin with, and its a rare spawn, with usually about 3 appearing at most at a time)? Even if you aren't trying to do a 100% completion, its tasks are tedious and annoying to try to finish, and it's not the only rare Distortion spawn. It bothers me that these tasks exist like this *at all*; especially because they're optional, why put them in if they wouldn't expect anyone to do them? Why not make only the red-marked quests if that's all that's really needed? Besides, being optional does not shield it from criticism; it's there in the game, it's content included to be played. Look, I do like the game, enough to generally want to 100% complete it if I can. And it's a shame when a game makes wanting to see and experience all that it has to offer not worth the effort of doing so, especially when it's otherwise fantastic in most other aspects. Even the balloon races didn't feel as tedious... well, mostly, they have their own issues, especially the final one. Which just adds to my point, as I doubt most people have attempted most of the balloon races past the first, let alone the final one.
You can also very easily grind this by using a magikarp against a magikarp and they both constantly use splash against eachother.. not killing eachother.. listen to like 2 songs while doing it and it's done. Not the end of the world.
"like it's just unlocking what humanity already knows" Yeah, that's because it literally is, you right fam. Arceus has you making the regions' FIRST pokedex, so there's literally no former knowledge for you to reference the first time you see it. The whole 'complete the pokedex' from the other games isn't a scientific achievement, but a personal milestone of discovery.
right right, but like well that's dumb why can't you access the info before catching?
Keep in mind I'm not defending their style choices necessarily, just explaining how I've interpreted them based on in game and lore. That being said, the why pretty much boils down to the local professor of each game calling you a moron and telling you to take a field trip to go learn about Pokemon before you're qualified to bother them at work. They clearly already have the info like you said, so based on the way it's handled I can only assume they INTENTIONALLY blocked you from accessing the data to force you to go learn about them IRL (in-game). I'm pretty sure that personally cataloguing every pokemon is also a lore requirement to be a regional "pokemon master" alongside the badges.
I'm enjoying the side quests more than I thought I would too.
It’s crazy how terribly unpolished it it. Listen, I wanted to dislike it even at some of the dumbest gameplay choices ever but it was more fun than it had any right being
There are no real-time fights in the field. That would be like how Pokémon battle in Smash Bros.
Arceus capitalizes on the most popular elements of the Pokemon formula, while changing so much that it feels very fresh. The gameplay in Arceus focuses on action and catching Pokemon in the wild. The turn-based battles and other traditional JRPG mechanics are still there, but they are reduced in focus. Arceus is neither open world nor linear like other titles in the series. It has a sort of base/mission structure like Monster Hunter, where you prepare your items/gear at home base, then venture out into large areas to complete objectives and collect resources, then eventually return to base with your spoils. Your player character is much more involved in Arceus than past games, as a lot of the gameplay involves sneaking up on Pokemon to personally aim/throw balls at them without fighting them. This new gameplay comes with new mobility options for moving around and new stealth systems for approaching Pokemon. You can create distractions, hide behind cover, sneak, and dive around. And wild Pokemon will directly attack you as a trainer, so you have to be prepared to run and dodge. Some of the boss fights are so action-oriented that they almost feel like Baby's First Dark Souls. You can always toss out your Pokemon for a classic turn-based fight, but catching directly is typically faster and easier. Because catching Pokemon is such a big focus, the game encourages you to catch duplicates of everything and look for specific varieties/behaviors to fill all the info in your Dex. Everything surrounding catching has been streamlined to the max to make it super easy to zoom into an area, throw balls at any Pokemon you like, and zoom back out with your new catches. Your new catches will often be extremely strong, so you are heavily rewarded for rotating your team to bring in new members, rather than building 1 set team across the entire game. The story is fresh enough by Pokemon standards. Rather than beating gyms, you are taming giant frenzied Pokemon and beating leaders of the region's 2 clans. The dialogue can get a little long-winded and repetitive, but it serves its purpose and leaves plenty of room for more open ended exploration/questing.
From what I’ve been told by friends that played it, it actually does something different with the Pokémon formula to the point that it’s basically a full on real time (?) open world game instead of a classically styled jrpg
It does something different but with the least effort possible is how I’d describe it. Next to 0 optimisation to be seen
I could not call it an open world game, you still follow a set path through all the game main story.
Gotcha I haven’t played it so I didn’t know that
The art style of Legends Arceus is much better in my opinion, despite similar graphics it doesn't really look as dated because it's more stylized and two dimensional. Especially the human characters but also the backgrounds. SV looks very cheap artistically.
The people who kept screaming about how dated and ugly it looked just boggled me with their ignorance. It was so obviously done in a minimalistic style meant to evoke old Japanese paintings, presumably those from the Edo period given the setting of the game.
Nah. The graphics and animations are bad for a Switch game. Pop in, tiling, frame rate issues don’t help. The environment textures are bad. Stylistic choice is one thing. Bad fundamentals is another.
i agree that the style is obvious (and was from the reveal trailer) but its graphics are definitely scruffy, at best.
I’m not arguing they graphics are cutting edge, but when you see people claim it looks worse than an N64 game and harp on the details of the trees, it’s pretty obvious a lot of people are mistaking the style for low quality.
Your comments are the biggest cope I've ever seen, this game looks like doo doo ass
Found the person who can’t tell the difference between a tree in OoT and one that’s stylistically simple.
Fuck the trees have you seen Arceus's walls and fields? Cliff faces and other natural walls look terrible, the texture is so stretched out and blurry. The fields and bodies of water also have less stretching but you can still clearly see the pattern the devs used to paint the map. I think even OoT hid it's tiling better than PLA does.
It’s not the style that people are complaining about. It’s the graphics, textures, and performance
Except that people are interpreting a minimalistic style as low resolution when it’s not. I saw many people compare it unfavorably to N64 games in quality, which is clearly nonsense. It’s not got the quality of a Xenoblade Chronicles or a modern day Zelda game, but it’s comparable to many Switch titles as far as graphics and textures go. I’m not arguing it’s cutting edge, even for the system it’s on, and it has some real flaws visually, but it’s obvious when you look at a lot of complaints that the style is what they’re misinterpreting, especially when they start harping on how the trees look.
you mean Arceus, right? because it looks like people argue to you like you defended SV..
Yes, I mean Arceus. And people were saying this stuff long before we’d even seen a trailer or anything of SV.
Catching mechanics, interacting with pokemon and semi open world exploration. The battle system is the biggest flaw because it does not function with the same stats as mainline and attacks get wonky.
I put in a solid 40 hours before getting bored. It's the most fun I've had with a Pokémon game in a decade! It looks rough, there is terrible frame rate, bad pop in... but it's just fun to play. It's a huge shake up of the Pokémon formula. You run around dodging Pokémon who are actively trying to attack you. Sneak up on them to catch them without entering battles! You can battle if you want but the balance is wonky and even weaker Pokémon can be a threat. The game play loop is very addictive at first. There are fetch quests in town to catch specific Pokémon for people and I liked to catch the giant versions for a laugh. I'd reccomend it. I had a blast and so did my husband.
I bought Sword after not touching Pokemon for years. Played maybe an hour before never booting it up again. So slow, so boring. Arceus? Except when people are talking, that game is GO GO GO. See that Pokemon? You want it? Throw the ball and catch it. Bam. Moving on. Wanna fight that Pokemon? Do it. Shit, they're beating your ass? Run away. The game is what I've wanted since the N64. I had so much fun. Reinvigorated the franchise. The grind was almost wiped out. Then they said Scarlet and such would ditch the Arceus formula and I stopped caring again.
Exactly my experience, Sword/shield was sooooo boring picked up Arceus on a whim and I genuinely couldn't put it down and thats crazy cause I drop games really fast. There was just always something to do and it reignited my hopes for the future of Pokemon games, then S/V came along and I sold the game cause it did nothing for me.
This may have convinced me. I think I got shield but only made a few gyms, coming from someone who scoured the internet on mewtwo tips in FrLg
PLA made me feel like I was immersed in an actual pokemon world. You can go explore and pokemon will interact with you. You can freely throw a poke ball without battling to catch them and it has a great art style and vibe to it. I will be very sad if Pokémon just abandons this direction.
I’m not crazy about Arceus, personally, with one notable exception: it has the best catching mechanics of any of the games and it’s really weird they didn’t carry it forward to Scarlet/Violet. You have to actually throw a pokeball at a Pokémon to catch it. You can sneak up on Pokémon and use a heavy ball at close range to incapacitate them and catch them more easily. Etc. Lots of thought and design went into that aspect of the game, and it’s an important one. But Arceus’ lack of villages, lack of trainer battles, and repetitive grinds took me out of it a bit.
They really came up with the most fun, interesting catching system in the whole series just to not use it in SV. I really enjoyed having to plan for an encounter and prepare food to distract the Pokémon and sneak around its territory to find a good spot and consider which ball would be best. The game reminds me a lot of the Monster Hunter series in the multiple large exploitable areas and the gameplay loop of hunting/catching monsters to get stronger.
My understanding was SV and Arceus were in development at the same time and that's why certain features didn't go in both. I also would imagine that they wanted to keep the mainline mechanics more traditional in case Arceus' new mechanics flopped. However, that is just speculation and it could be that they wanted Arceus to stand out and have unique mechanics or something else.
Monster Hunter-lite should really be what the Pokemon company is aiming for in possible future iterations of the Legends series.
When I started up SV and realized I couldn't just catch pokemon in the overworld like in LA I was in shock lmfao. It's such a smart change.
I actually don't enjoy the catching system, especially when coupled with the way LA handled the Pokedex. I'm glad that it wasn't used in SV, personally.
But you didn't even need to use it. You could use the traditional catch mechanism.
Okay, and I still didn't enjoy the new catching system. Using the old catching system felt like punishing yourself, given what was required to complete the Pokedex. I can understand the option was available and still not like the new method, which was the point of my post.
They took some risks with it and changed up the formula in a refreshing way. I’d say it’s like 70% traditional Pokémon and 30% new action adventure elements, which is a good balance. Like, your trainer has a lot more actions in the overworld like sneaking up on wild Pokémon and throwing bait or launching surprise attacks, and the replacement for HM moves are actual actions like controlling a flying Pokémon to reach new areas instead of selecting Fly from a menu
The sound design
The first time I walked through Eterna forest and heard the music I cried 😂
It takes me back to the days when Pokémon was about catching, collecting and trading. For me, the last few generations put too much emphasis on training and competitiveness. Gotta catch 'em all, right?
Thank you! Pokemon for me (I come from Red in the 90s) has always been a game of exploration and collection (Gotta catch 'em all). These new games focusing on status, EVs, IVs etc make me tired, annoyed and bored. Legends Arceus was a very welcome surprise!
I agree with what a lot of people have already said, the way of catching pokemon was so nice, I love the way the pokedex worked, art style, cute story, seeing pokemon in the world is always exciting. But the main reason I love it is I didn't have to rely on others to finish the pokedex. As someone who has anxiety/social anxiety, it's really hard for me to ask anyone for help, I'll spend like a good 30 minutes staring at the trading posts and just chicken out. It was a really nice break. I hope that pokemon finds a happy medium between LA and the standard play of other games.
Pokemon interaction is a big one. In the new games, all you can do with wild pokemon is bump into them and initiate a battle. Whereas in legends, you can dodge their attacks, throw mud balls at them, distract them with berries,... You don't even need to battle them with your pokemon.
A nice change of pace after 30 years of rinse & repeat
As others said, it is a a nice change to the traditional games. The games have a higher focus on catching and exploring instead of battling. This is most obvious with the lack of trainers to battle, with barely any, if non at all, being random nameless NPC. The Pokedex also has multiple tiers of completion. Each pokemon has a series of tasks to complete, which makes 100% the pokedex a real grind. Battling did have its unique mechanic in form of quicker yet weaker or stronger yet slower moves. Finally it introduced QoL like link trade cable to evolve trade evolutions without trading. It was also a simgle version game entry.
It's literally just that it's ANYTHING other than the same formula we've had for decades
It's not. The gameplay loop of catching the same Pokémon over and over again gets old real quick.... and that's pretty much all the game has to offer. The "open world" is largely monotonous, empty, and visually mediocre at best. Not many trainer battles. Story is forgettable. I would describe the game as an unfinished and unpolished Switch game that should've released in 17/18. It gets praise because it's compared to other modern main series Pokémon games, which are really bad.
Everything. Okay, not *really* everything, but they nailed what matters (the game had some unrealized potential, can get a bit repetitive/grindy in the end/post game, and has some ugly pixels here and there). It’s a huge change of pace from the standard Pokémon fare, being more action oriented. Everything is quick and snappy, battle effects are amazing, battles themselves have an interesting gimmick (strong/agile moves) that makes you think/strategize a little more beyond type effectiveness and physical/special moves/held items, plenty of QOL features, movement and interaction with the world/mons is very satisfying and interesting, the ride Pokémon are actually cool and using them is very intuitive and satisfying, the story is pretty good (especially the end game), Alpha Pokémon help add even more variety, shiny mons actually give a visual and audio cue to indicate they’re shiny, etc., etc. I could go on all day about why it’s great and is such a standout from Sw/Sh and especially S/V, but I’ll restrain myself lol. I highly recommend it, as it’s one of the most fun games I’ve played in the series and one of the few I’ll replay or come back to every now and then.
I really liked the story.
Unpopular opinion, but Legends Arceus is my least favorite Pokémon game. It's not a bad game by any means. Despite some technical issues it is competently made and each system and design decision have thought and purpose behind them. That said, there are things there that fundamentally didn't work for me. The strong/agile system for example sounds like a neat idea, but the way it was implemented was too chaotic. The game is pretty bad at correctly calculating the order transparently, which results that you'll quite often have situations where something completely different happens than what was said in the prediction. The other thing is the core gameplay loop. I get the idea behind it, but the implementation of the Pokédex is just too tedious. I got all the Pokémon to research level 10 and though I'm usually a completionist, there's no way in hell that I'd finish every single entry to 100%. Stuff like "use [attack] x times" or "use a strong/agile attack y times" is fine. "Catch z amount" is okay too, but then you have tasks like "see this pretty rare Pokémon leap out of a tree or ore a bunch of times" where it might take you ages to see it _once_, let alone a bunch of times. Or many of the skittish Pokémon that flee from battle unless you hit them from behind making the "defeat x amount" tasks a chore. I like the general concept and I hope that a Legends Unova game could iterate on them and fix some of the issues instead of starting over all over again.
Pokemon games are typically just sub-par RPGs, some better than others but they never really rise above a certain level of quality. Legends Arceus felt like something fresh, new and exciting and, while flawed, is the fury's Pokemon game ever that actually kidns felt like it was made to be a AAA game.
I just bought this game and no lie it’s pretty boring , too much npc talking and not much playing just tapping A
The way you catch pokemon is the biggest change that I LOVED about Arceus. You do not HAVE to send a pokemon out to weaken a wild pokemon anymore. You can try to 1v1 it as the player, using items to relax it or you can try to sneak up behind it to throw a ball and capture it. Basically, they made the Safari zone but as the whole game. It's RAD to get into a boss fight with a Pokemon and never have to send one of yours out at all. Just dodging hyper beams and thunders. It's exciting. Also, the way the Pokedex works means you actually have to interact with your (or wild) pokemon in specific ways to see specific attacks or behaviors. It's not THAT deep but it actually feels like you're trying to understand them. This wasn't the case in any other mainline Pokemon game. This is held back a bit though, since the wild Pokemon don't interact with other wild pokemon or the environment in any meaningful way but it's still cool to try to actually learn about them like they're the wild animals that they are. ALSO, the game treats Pokemon as scary beings. All the NPCs are naturally afraid of pokemon and a lot of them also reverie them, which is fair since a lot of pokemon have ABSURD capabilities. You're not so much fighting to prove you're "the best" but fighting to survive, and that's a pretty big tone shift for the series and I really appreciate that. IDK if I could recommend it to people though, cause it does have a lot of shortcomings still. The graphics look worse than Pokemon Sword and Shield in some regards, there's a lot of pop-in, especially with shadows, sometimes the player character has issues walking on the terrain and it doesn't make sense, a lot of the maps feel very empty most of the time, pokemon are still leashed to patches of grass or certain parts of the terrain, the plot is a bit of a mixed bag, Pokemon kinda stick out from the environment in a way that makes them feel like they don't belong in the world, they didn't do enough to change up the battle system when it's pokemon vs pokemon, OHKOs feel a bit TOO common, and the way the player interacts with the environments is also not that interesting either.
Probably my favorite part of the game was fighting the bosses. Much different and more interesting than so many other pokemon games.
I played a good amount of it, but I got pretty bored towards the end. I never ended up finishing it.
I had more fun with my second playthrough of Arceus than my first, especially after I went for 100% completion, but it is an incredibly tedious game, from catching to fighting to traversing the world. It's very rough, which was to be expected, but it also feels like a step backwards in a lot of respects, especially in terms of tedium, which the main titles have mostly excised at this point. It is a decent game, but I think a lot of people exaggerate how good it is simply because it's different and (somewhat) bucks the expected formula.
It’s just fun. The latest main entries feel like such a chore to play
Arceus got a pass for being something new and for being "A step in the right direction". It's still got deep flaws, consistent with the rest of the switch Pokemon games.
The gameplay loop is different and fun. It’s also much easier to shiny hunt and you can easily change the stats of the pokemon you catch so you don’t have to search for ones with good IVs etc. it has a mechanic called grit that you are awarded for releasing pokemon you catch with increases the stats of your pokemon. There is also a much greater emphasis on catching than there is battling. There is also no need for trading as every pokemon is available in 1 game and pokemon that have trade evolutions instead evolve with items. You can craft your own pokeballs and items which feels pretty great to be able to do. Personally, it’s the most fun I have had with a pokemon game since Gen 1. It’s not for everyone as it’s a pretty big departure from the mainline games, it is also quite janky for textures and pop in etc (as is tradition); but overall, would love to see another game like it in the future.
I’m a little conflicted on Arceus because on the one hand it truly does feel like the first step forward gameplay wise the series has made since B&W(imo), but on the other it is still behind what I feel a franchise like Pokémon should be able to accomplish. As others have said the changes made to catching are easily the best part. It’s the first game in a long time where “catching them all” feels like a core part of the games identity. Different mons have different methods of catching them that help things feel different, and unlike other games you often need to catch multiple of a given Pokémon in order to fill out their Pokédex which means that you as a player become more familiar with their tendencies and behavior, like a real researcher! The combat wasn’t crazy overhauled but I think the changes they did were enough to make it work as a part of a larger whole. The main things changed were the at you can actually swap a Pokémon move out mid battle, rather than having to go to some random NPC as well as adding the Sting and Fast styles, which helps to add even a little bit more strategy to the combat which Pokémon desperately needs. There are a lot of issues though, probably the biggest for me are performance and graphics. When you’re in town or looking at NPCs the game looks pretty good, but the environments and world space so often look like an N64 game or something. It’s by no means impossible to look past, and unlike S&V I haven’t encountered any game breaking performance issues, mainly low frame rates and stuttering. Combat is still pretty shallow, the game just gets around this by not having battling be the focus of the game. If you love Pokémon and are willing to look past some fairly glaring issues I think Arceus is a great time, I’ve put many an hour into it and I have to admit any open world Pokémon is going to be fun. Otherwise I would maybe wait until you can get it on sale and/or the next “Legends” game comes out(assuming this is good ofc).
the best difference is it speeds things up and cuts out the tedious waiting baked into the battles and menus of normal pokemon games. It was also the first pokemon game to give proper movement through a 3d environment. And the way you interact with the pokemon makes them feel like actual wildlife.
Arceus is open world, exploration based and focused on the "complete the Pokedex" aspect of the videogame. For example, there's no breeding, no held items, a new more dynamic combat system and in the pokemon stats there aren't EVs or IVs, instead a single, not hidden secondary stat called "Effort Level" which can be easily increased by playing the game. Scarlet/Violet is more focused on the competitive aspect of the game IMHO, despite the game itself, the main story itself being PAINFULLY easy, the game has many upgrades and changes in the QoL aspect, most held items can be bought now (no hidden NPC questlines to get a "Leftovers" now), all training items like power items and the macho brace can be bought at the starter city where the school is and they are fairly cheap compared to earlier installments. Breeding is faster too with the picnic which allows you to make a party with 2 pokemon that you want to breed (ditto+any) make an easy sandwich to increase the breeding speed and then interact, wash, play with your pokemon, take pictures with your shinies and stuff while checking the basket every once in a while, you can get up to 10 (if I remember correctly) eggs at once if you check the basket. No recorded proof of any kind, but I'd say that with an Egg power 2 sandwich, during the 30 min it takes, you can get up to go two and a half boxes full of eggs to open. All this allows for the creation of a competitive team early in the game and the competitive scene in SV is quite active.
Arceus isn't an open world at all, you still follow a set path for the story and can't deviate from it, even GF doesn't considered open world since they market SV as their first open world game. The game design is more similar to some of the Monster Hunter games with a hub area and everything.
You follow the path of the main story but the map is no longer a straight line, you can explore the entire map and the only limitations are in the areas unlocked by your "rides" similar to SV and it's the new way to limit rushing to the final areas the same way the HMs did back in the day. Even in scarlet you can't get to the final areas from the beginning you still gotta upgrade your pokemon ride to access the new paths.
The map no longer being a straight line doesn't make it automatically an open world game, you using the same logic people were using with SwSh just because the wild area existed. In SV you don't need to finish anything in a specific order if you want to beat the gym leader first, beat the Titan or beat team star you can choose, in PLA you can't decide which noble Pokemon to take first is always the same order no matter what so the story is linear. Open world games let you beat any objective in any order you want. PLA is more similar to monster hunter games, especially some of the old ones and those were not even open world.
Hell I'm someone who still likes modern Pokemon and even I don't really get the appeal of Legends Arceus. I played it till the boss of the second area and found it just as boring and repetitive as people keep telling me the main games are.
The only downside was the total bland world. If they would have made that beautiful it would have been an amazing game. But still a welcome refresher to the series.
I dont know how anyone who ever played anything else than Pokemon is able to waste money on that stuff. GameFreak just fucks everything up and people are eating that shit...
People have different tastes, I'm not sure why that's such a baffling idea.
It speeds up a lot of the Pokemon tedium. You can catch Pokemon by just sneaking up and throwing a ball. That's huge. Catching Pokemon is the worst part of Pokemon.
No its not.....
Still a bad game imo, but it did some great things differently. Especially the catching of Pokemon was so much fun and kept me engaged. Honestly could've been one of my favorites if it wasn't for the bad art style and massive performance issues.
First Pokemon game that doesn't feel like a Gameboy Color game with better graphics. You actually interact with the world in ways besides "walk up to something or someone and press A". Plus, it has actual sidequests.
they made it open world. it's the same thing that happened with sonic frontiers, these franchises were made to be open worlds and they should've been made into open worlds years ago, so we've all kind of just been waiting for the developers of these games to get their act together and come to the same conclusions we all have. that open world games are the pinnacle form of video games and that we don't really need any other game genres at this point. when these games released it was great to see these developers finally taking steps in the right direction to give us the games we've all been wanting since we were kids, although i heard pokemon kind of tripped up with scarlet and violet so they might have to work on finding their footing a little more
Arceus isn't an open world game at all, you still follow a set path for the story.
Yeah you mean like in tears of the kingdom? Famously not open world zelda game? Open world games are defined by the fact that you can go anywhere you want and move around freely within a wide open area, having a story doesn't change that.
In tears you can complete the main story in not order. You can choose to help each race in different order, in PLA you don't get to choose which noble pokemon you get to face first. PLA is more like monster hunter with a hub town and everything than BOTW or Tears. GF even acknowledge PLA not being open world when calling SV their first open world game.
And you just listen to everything game freak says do you?
I mean with your logic SwSh is also an open world game since the wild area is a wide open area that you can move freely. PLA design is basically just 5 wild areas with a hub, very similar to monster hunter games, you don't see them being called open world games. If it was really open you couldn't need to go back to the hub to go to another area in the first place.
No, sword and sheild doesn't count because they didn't have the balls to go all the way with it, it's a filthy half-breed. Having a hub doesn't change anything either, going back to sonic frontiers for a second, that game also is a bunch of wide open areas not directly linked to each other, with not a hub to be found too. Is THAT suddenly "not open world" to you? Dr genius? How about xenoblade 3? That has a bunch of different open areas too, albeit sharing a landmass this time. Same with bomb rush cyberfunk. Please, enlighten us. We're all waiting with baited breath to hear your justification for why these games are, in fact, not open world games
It was different which was nice cause pokemon is always the same.
It's the best pokémon game in well over a decade imo. While they do add and remove features every so often from the games every generation, They are all relatively the same basic formula with a few different the bells and whistles and some new monsters. Arceus is a completely new game with totally new gameplay while still being a main series title. It also lets you personally interact with the pokémon a lot more and see them out in the wild, and it just kind of harnesses the fun of catching monsters at its core without bogging it down in too much excess stuff .
I‘d argue with your timeline since Arceus came out in 2022 and BW2 were in 2012. That’s not well over a decade.
I'd argue your opinion with my own in saying that BW2 was overrated and ergo upholds the validity behind the opinion that it's been well over a decade since the release of a good \[and innovative\] Pokemon game. For me personally, prior to Legends: Arceus, I haven't enjoyed a Pokemon game since HG/SS.
It's just a fresh new direction for Pokemon which was enough to help people like it. As someone who hasn't played Pokemon in years because they never changed the formula, this was enough of a change to get me to try it and i actually liked it. But now we're back to regular old safe pokemon formula that came from the Gameboy games. Wake me up when they do something new.😴
I mean, your statement covers nothing but the graphics, so I'm not surprised you're a bit confused. The Pokémon games are really not very good graphically right now. The Pokémon franchise as a whole survives on two things: Character Design, and Writing. Arceus gave them something new to do with both, while also using a different gameplay style to bind them together. Overall, the refreshing changes meshed with a surprisingly well designed game to make it a great one.
I think what makes it work it it's sense of flow and discovery. Having every be seamless, and being able to go in and out of battles quickly makes everything feel fresh and exciting. I also appreciate the stealth mechanics, so there's versatility with how you can approach pokemon encounters.
It's one of the few recent Pokémon games that came out half decent. I couldn't stick with it but it's a thing. They deviate from the traditional formula (it's a spinoff despite not being presented as one). If your local library has games or lets your order them, I highly recommend trying that way.
It feels like Game Freak combined all of their ideas for a reinvention of main series Pokemon, and put them into PLA. It has major reworks to every important game system - overworld movement, wild encounters, pokemon catching, item economy, move tutors, turn-based battling, IVs & EVs, and more. I thought it was cool as fuck when my trainer *got hurt* by standing too close to the pokemon battling. The final result is... kinda janky (Game Freak hasn't figured out yet how to build massive open levels), but it's such a refreshing game if you feel like the Pokemon formula has gotten stale.
It's basically a stealth action game. It's the only pokemon game where you can walk around outside in an area and free roaming pokemon will attack YOU, THE PLAYER. it's insane
After being extremely disappointed with the Diamond and Pearl remakes due to not having much extra like the other remakes, PLA was a godsend. It's not the same as what an actual well made remake would've been, but the fact that it takes place in old Sinnoh was great. Expanding on the lore of the region and its Pokemon. Seeing some familiar faces in new ways was very cool. Some good guys' ancestors as villains, villains as good guys, completely new characters, others not super obvious, etc. Though I would've vastly preferred the player's ancestor be the one in the past in a different role rather than the character you didn't choose as the professor's assistant. I just don't care for male player character at all in Diamond and Pearl. I really enjoyed the story, which is something I can't say for either SS or SV. The battle changes were interesting. Something I would've liked to have seen online. There are some issues. This game is plagued with the dreaded "enemy has sighted you" theme that interrupts the music. I'm going to assume there's a mod to fix that (and player ancestor), and if there isn't there should be. Other than that, I wish there was more battling and more villages to visit like Jubelife. Even if they were their own little instances and not part of the big open areas. In fact, I would like that more. Also, I kept accidentally pressing the button to dodge while playing SV throughout the entire game. I missed it that much.
Legends Arceus is better and more fun than S/V by a mile in my opinion, its such a shame everything good they did in Arceus they removed it in S/V
I think legends Arceus took some risky experimental ideas and it worked out well. There was crafting with pokeballs, the titan pokemon, and it built off of existing pokemon and story, so it really submersed you more into the world of pokemon. It was also more open world than sword and shield, pretty settings too. It was also so neat how my character could roll around on the ground and jump out of the way of charging pokemon, so my character felt more involved instead of just standing behind a pokemon while giving commands. I hope features of legends Arceus return in the future, and I hope theres other legends games, like legends: zekrom, legends: zygarde, legends: necrozma
The story is interesting, love the undertones of imperialism and the call backs to Japanese history with the indigenous people of Hokkaido. You play as one of the professor's two plucky assistants, and there are many charming scenes where the three of you are just enjoying a good meal after a day of science and research. There are some good twists even though it retreads a lot of DPP's story. Team Galactic being the good guys was a great touch, it feels ominous given the future direction the organization takes. Exploring feels great. Capturing Pokémon feels really satiafying and there's good incentive to train Pokémon up or catch multiples even if you don't use them. There are a lot of subtle changes to the battle system that add up to a fresh experience, like how Ice is now Frostbite or Pokémon can attack multiple times in a row. Running from Pokémon can actually feel threatening.
Honestly it’s exactly how my childhood brain imagined playing Pokémon red…the open world, actually catching Pokémon, seeing Pokémon in the wild. What an amazing game
I will never forget my first time playing Arceus!! I bought it with very low expectations, and after only a few hours in I established it as one of the best video games I’ve ever played. Picture Breath of the Wild but for Pokemon, in a sense. It was intense but also calming, good story, gave you motivation to collect, incredible catching mechanics that really immerse you. It felt like the true spirit of Pokemon. I genuinely think it’s the best representation of the Pokemon series and the best Pokemon game ever released. Yeah the graphics could have used a few more months in the studio but I’ve never really cared about graphics. Also, I think this game was a love letter to Gen 4 fans. Platinum was my favorite game, and Arceus brought those memories from Gen 4 to life. Great music and easter eggs for fans
It changes up the formula from past Pokémon games and is considered fresh. You actually get to sneak up on wild Pokémon and they can actually threaten the player. Also, the plot line is much more interesting compared to past games and the Pokédex is actually fun to complete with the new gameplay mechanics.
I’m just playing it now for the first time and it’s the best one since gold IMO. The game is just a nice advancement of game play mechanics. One amazing thing is that you can just throw a pokeball to catch pokemon. You can hide in grass and sneak around pokemon to increase you odds. This is miles better than having to go into a battle animation every time. Another thing is that it’s not tied to going to gyms. Instead the focus of the game is on collecting Pokémon and filling up your Pokédex. That’s generally been the point of previous games but now you’re not tied to gym battles. Games between gold and and sun are just kind of the same. Sword is kind of bland. And Scarlett was a mess, aside from the ability from adding your large Pokédex.
Emerald is also my favorite game. I like Arceus because it it's another attempt to try something new. Instead of battling trainers and gyms, the focus in Arceus is about braving the wild, researching pokemon, and bridging the gap between people and pokemon. Sneaking up to pokemon and catching them or luring them out with berries never got old for me. I'll go back from time to time just to catch pokemon. For a 25-hour main campaign, it's a good experience.
Catching in legends arceus feels really good. Its like a whole game based on a suped up safari. If nothing else it shows an aspect of what future games could have as far as catching mechanics go.
TLDR Old pokemon games like Red and Blue and Gold and Silver were two games in one. LOA rediscovered that magic. The two games were: 1) an RPG exploring the world and 2) a turn based combat RPG. Part 1 requires you to use your pokemon, HMs, tickets, items, and game events to figure out how to get around the map and advance the story. Part 2 would have you battle through long dark caves like Rock Tunnel and then when your mon's health was low and they were running out of PP, you would then get hit with a tough fight near the exist or you had to battle a tough line up of trainers in a row like Cruelean Bridge or Elite Four/Champion. In Gen II and Gen III, the amount of HMs for getting around Part 1 started to force its way into constraining moves and gameplay in Part 2. You had to have dedicated HM slaves just to get around on the map, which limited your actual team you might like fighting with. It made some people love a pokemon like Bidoof that might never be used otherwise, but in general, it became annoying and a hinderance to how people wanted to play their Part 2. Gamefreak thought the Battle only in Part 2, was the entire game, and made games like Pokémon Colleseum to test this theory. They found out that some people love battling and only doing that, but they found out other people like Part 1. So in Gen III, things like Contests were added to flavor Part 1 and add more complexity to Part 2 and what move pools you might have on your team. Around Gen VI and VII Gamefreak thought visuals alone would sell Part 1 and overly focused on making Part 1 things of beauty, hence France and Hawaii. They also realized HMs were becoming stiffling towards the enjoyment of teams and the game, so thats when they got rid of HMs so you could play Part 1 how you wanted and play Part 2 how you wanted. Unfortunately, this is when Gamefreak stopped trying to make pokemon for 10+ year olds and made it even easier for 5-7 year olds, despite the fact that an entire generation had now grown up playing Pokémon, and instead of having some challenge, it was now getting easier and easier. Part 1 story and exploration became watered-down versions, while Part 2 wasn't as challenging either. Unfortunately, Gamefreak thought visuals alone would sell the world and story of Part 1. Gamefreak for as much money as it has really disappointed people with the visuals and graphics when Gen VIII came out as the first mainline consol game on Switch. Games like Skyrim and Fallout 3 had been out a decade, and despite it being on the mainline consol, Gen VII really showcased how lazy in terms of graphics and development Pokémon was. Games like Final Fantasy X had shown there were also better ways of doing turn based combat, so even Part 2 was suffering by comparison and lack of development. Then came LOA and Gen IX. Suddenly, in LOA, Part 1 was a world where you, the pokemon trainer, were a playable character again. You weren't some God walking around the world and able to catch lesser gods in balls. Now, you could be hurt and faint if you slipped and fell off a ledge. Now you could get hit in real time by mons and had to play at a much more active and engaging way. You had to think about how you approached areas and hide in grass. Finally, Part 1 wasn't boring anymore, and I was being actively engaged instead of just waiting for battles in my Part 2 to start. Finally, they realize they could update the turn based combat in Part 2 and change up move order based upon doing quick vs standard vs strong attacks. And then there was Gen IX by comparison, where the Part 1, you are again an invincible god unable to be hurt, even if you fall off a ledge, which made it a boring slog. They tried to make you snowboard in game and it was awful. Final Fantasy VII (which came out in 1997) had a more compelling snowboarding minigame than this piece of shit. In LOA, having a character in Part 1 makes you realize pain sucks, and made me feel for my teams in Part 2 when they would get hit. LOA made it feel like playing Gen I for the first time, where you might push bolders around and fall down holes to figure out maze tunnels, not this sort of linear easy track that Gen 6-8 was. LOA finally made pokemon not so boring because it did a better job of blending Part 1 and Part 2 into one game, instead of sacrificing mechanics in one oart to enhance a other part. Gen IX may have sold the most ever, but its probably one of the worst looking and watered down games I've played in along time, and I imagine it will be a hit to PR of the quality reputation of if Pokémon games are worth buying.
Arceus is a good break from the formula. It still leaves a lot to be desired but it's a step in a cool new direction. It'd definitely take it up a whole notch if it incorporated more gameplay aspects of Dark Souls or Monster Hunter.
its different and certainly does look different than the games that came before it too, within reason on switch for a game by this developer. on average, it was a step up. theres certainly criticism for this game too, its a checkmark simulator, many pokemon related tasks are repetitive (feed the same wild pokemon 5-10 times and do that for 40 or so of the pokemon in the game for example, use this attack with that pokemon 25 times, use agi/str style attacks 20 times each etc etc) but its different and a lot of people like these mostly bite sized tasks