Reviews VideoGame / Pokemon Legends Arceus

A grand experiment with promising and worrying changes.

In many ways, this game is exactly what we've wanted: a new take on the Pokémon series after several games not changing enough. And I love a lot of the changes. But my biggest takeaway is that some aspects of the old ways are simply better and should be brought back alongside the new.

The biggest change is the ability to throw Poké Balls in real time to catch Pokémon without battling and to start battles on our own terms, as well as use your mons to interact with items instead of using HMs. The live-throwing mechanics prevent tedium and annoyance from previous games, as you start every battle and don't always have to waste time in a cutscene just to catch something. The tradeoff in making the player vulnerable to wild Pokémon works, but fainting might be too punishing with the items you end up dropping. Another change I like is how trade evolutions are no longer forced, with items being reworked and introduced to allow evolution with no trading. The battles being live on the map is a great change, and I loved the boss fights, which are mostly player-vs-boss dodging spectacles with small turn-based segments to get openings. I also think this game shows how unnecessary dual versions are—let's see them gone!

In many ways, though, the game is a lot harder and loses some fun factor. The battles feel stacked against any player who hasn't grinded for hours, since the battle system now allows enemy Pokémon to have multiple attacks per turn with a cooldown that makes prediction and planning much harder. It's so bad that letting a Pokémon faint just so the one you deploy next will get to move before being attacked is a legitimate strategic consideration. The attacks have also been pretty heavily changed, with some status conditions being altered and type advantages being massively boosted, enough that a mon's level almost feels useless as a form of defense. It didn't help that I felt like I could never find a Pokémon for a desired type that wasn't super-effective weak to a Pokémon it was chosen to be strong against due to one of the foe's types or moves striking back. Battling was very tricky for me, and while some of it's probably my fault, I know the game also increased the challenge beyond reasonable fun levels for me. Story reasons aside, the forced returns to base for inventory and mon shuffling made me miss the portable services from previous games, and the lack of breeding makes the game's completion challenge of filling the Pokédex more annoying than it should be.

The story of the game is nice enough, and uses its antagonists more effectively than Sword and Shield.

This game is a test run for a more open design. I want some of it to be used. Live catching and battles feel great, and some things are well streamlined. But the frustrating battle overhauls aren't something I can stomach for more than this test run, with the other gameplay inconveniences make it less fun.