Pokemon Legends Arceus is the game pokemon fans have been dreaming of for years. However, if the game meets the standards of the fans is still up in the air. While it is a great game it could have used some refinement. Pokemon series has been very active in releasing new games, and this is the big release of this era.
Pokemon Legends Arceus tells the story of a child who goes back in time to an early Sinnoh region called Hisua. The main character joins the Survey Corp to gather data to create the first Pokedex. This is done by going to new areas and learning more about pokemon through various tasks.
Beyond that, the story is not great. The story has long stretches of just back and forth where they just spout exposition. It can sometimes just feel like a visual novel without the choices.
A Breathe of Fresh Air
The gameplay really is why someone would be interested. The visuals are not great, and the story is abysmal. However, the gameplay really is fun, and I found myself just running around trying to catch Bidoofs and Starlys.
Catching pokemon has been fairly standard for the last 25 years, but this shook it up in such an interesting way. Some pokemon you need to sneak to catch, and some are aggressive and need to be caught in battle. Besides that, the introduction of Alpha pokemon adds a sense of challenge and danger to the world.
One of the cooler aspects of the game is the pokemon you can ride throughout the game. Despite this, the world is barren and it isn’t extremely interesting to walk around. You get the general idea of the areas in the first couple of zones, and it feels empty as you go through all of it.
You need to know what you are getting into it
If you are looking for the end all be all for Pokemon fans then you might have to keep on waiting. The game really needed a couple more months of work into it. The number of landmarks in the game is fairly minimal, and the game doesn’t have much replay value.
One of the core elements of the game is completing the research tasks for each pokemon. Despite this, it can feel like a grind as you have to put in quite a bit of work just to even complete that entry.
The grind got so bad that I ended up just ignoring this element of the game until I needed a new star level to progress. Catching each pokemon once was fun, but having to do it focus on that pokemon for 30 minutes to complete the entry was not.
In Conclusion
The game has a lot of problems. However, that doesn’t mean it is a bad game or a game that isn’t fun. The reality is far from it. I really did enjoy my time playing the game, but it is not a game that I would replay.
8
A fantastic game for Pokemon fans, but maybe not the best entry point in the series.