As a longtime Pokemon fan who started losing faith in the franchise thanks to Sword/Shield and Brilliant Diamond (didn't even last a few hours with that one!), Legends is exactly what I was looking for. A much bolder direction than I was expecting, Legends throws out most of the elements of the main games in exchange for something that's entirely different and very much refreshing.
Rather than collecting badges and fighting an Elite Four that doesn't know how to use six Pokemon for the umpteenth time, Legends provides a far more compelling hook. As a stranger thrust into a different world, your job is to survey the lands and fill out the Pokedex. This isn't the equivalent of a theme park experience though, and this world shows a relationship with Pokemon unlike anything you'd see in the other games. In Hisui, Pokemon are territorial jerks that seek only to attack humans, who are doing whatever they can to survive. The humans aren't exactly saints themselves and they expect you to prove your worth lest you get thrown out to die. Like most stories that have you working for an organization on the bottom rung, you'll have to intervene with their politics and deal with individuals who have less than noble reasons for interacting with Pokemon. While it's a refreshing perspective, it's not an entirely successful one - writing has never been Game Freak's strong suit and that hasn't changed here (take a drink every time someone mentions you fell out of the sky and you'll be dead in a hour!), and the endgame is surprisingly unsatisfying. There's a bit of postgame story that fleshes out a particular character in an exciting way, but the game's central mystery (why you were sent to another world in the first place) is left unresolved to a comical degree.
The act of catching Pokemon is more exciting than ever before thanks to the introduction of massive, open spaces. The Wild Area in Sword/Shield was the start of this idea, but it was woefully undercooked compared to Legends. Here, the areas you explore are vast and full of life, and you'll get to witness Pokemon interacting and living in their natural habitats. Some appear out of thin air, some live in trees, some fly around, and others are just minding their own business. Seeing what each Pokemon does adds credence to the game's setup and makes the Pokemon feel more alive than they have since Black/White 2. These areas are packed with secrets and hidden areas too, so you can easily spend hours in each one. The first area alone was big enough for me to spend at least 10 hours in it and get my rank high enough to pass any of the game's later barriers! While the open world structure is a great success overall, the later areas aren't quite as compelling as the early ones since a lot of Pokemon get reused. This is something that could easily be rectified with a sequel, though, and I dearly hope Game Freak breaks their usual habit of abandoning good ideas.
Instead of having to weaken Pokemon, you can just throw balls at them while you roam around. This idea works fantastically, keeping the game's pace snappy and making it easy to keep your bearings as you go off the path to make acquisitions. Catching Pokemon is arguably more interesting than battling itself this time around thanks to all of your potential options. You can sneak around for back strikes, you can use different balls with different specialities, and you can craft items to distract Pokemon or aid in stealth. Stealth is essential here since an aware Pokemon can't be caught and won't hesitate to try and incapacitate your trainer. I wish these attacks were harder to dodge, but I love the idea of wild Pokemon being dangerous at all, so I'm very happy it's a thing. Being able to avoid combat even allows for fun game breaking shenanigans - with a bit of patience and savvy, you can catch high level Alpha Pokemon as soon as you get into the game proper!
Battling has been significantly tweaked in an interesting way. Instead of the usual system, the one presented here feels like an abstraction, similar but different. You still have your four moves and type charts, but now turn order is a more nebulous thing. Instead of speed being the stat to end them all, other factors come into play. Certain moves have hidden priority adjustments that make you move faster or slower, and you can now activate "Strong" and "Agile" versions of moves that adjust turn order accordingly. I personally really like this change, but I'm not surprised to see it as a common point of contention amongst players. The game does a terrible job of explaining how turn order works and it does everything in its power to hide the information from you, which is just plain strange. If you can accept things going south at times and are willing to rely more on slower but bulkier Pokemon, you'll find that this system adds a bit of tension to battling, something that the series has desperately needed.
Certain boss fights take a vastly different approach, (mostly) forgoing battling for having to throw balms to pacify a special Pokemon. These encounters are frankly bizarre, feeling more like something you'd see in a modern action adventure game, but they're pretty enjoyable for what they are. They test a different suite of skills (aiming and using i-frames to dodge) compared to conventional battling, which makes for another refreshing change of pace in a game full of them.
While the catching and battling systems were strong enough to carry the game for me, they're really all the game has to offer after a certain point. Side quests rarely provide significant rewards and the story tends to be pretty sparse, so this is a game that rewards those who love to catch 'em all. If you're the type to rush through campaigns, focus on multiplayer battling (which isn't present here) or only catch Pokemon you want to use, this is not the game for you. There are some clear improvements to make here, but I really, really hope that Game Freak works on a sequel to this. This game was exactly what I've been wanting from Pokemon and it was such a delight to get absorbed into its world all over again.
Rather than collecting badges and fighting an Elite Four that doesn't know how to use six Pokemon for the umpteenth time, Legends provides a far more compelling hook. As a stranger thrust into a different world, your job is to survey the lands and fill out the Pokedex. This isn't the equivalent of a theme park experience though, and this world shows a relationship with Pokemon unlike anything you'd see in the other games. In Hisui, Pokemon are territorial jerks that seek only to attack humans, who are doing whatever they can to survive. The humans aren't exactly saints themselves and they expect you to prove your worth lest you get thrown out to die. Like most stories that have you working for an organization on the bottom rung, you'll have to intervene with their politics and deal with individuals who have less than noble reasons for interacting with Pokemon. While it's a refreshing perspective, it's not an entirely successful one - writing has never been Game Freak's strong suit and that hasn't changed here (take a drink every time someone mentions you fell out of the sky and you'll be dead in a hour!), and the endgame is surprisingly unsatisfying. There's a bit of postgame story that fleshes out a particular character in an exciting way, but the game's central mystery (why you were sent to another world in the first place) is left unresolved to a comical degree.
The act of catching Pokemon is more exciting than ever before thanks to the introduction of massive, open spaces. The Wild Area in Sword/Shield was the start of this idea, but it was woefully undercooked compared to Legends. Here, the areas you explore are vast and full of life, and you'll get to witness Pokemon interacting and living in their natural habitats. Some appear out of thin air, some live in trees, some fly around, and others are just minding their own business. Seeing what each Pokemon does adds credence to the game's setup and makes the Pokemon feel more alive than they have since Black/White 2. These areas are packed with secrets and hidden areas too, so you can easily spend hours in each one. The first area alone was big enough for me to spend at least 10 hours in it and get my rank high enough to pass any of the game's later barriers! While the open world structure is a great success overall, the later areas aren't quite as compelling as the early ones since a lot of Pokemon get reused. This is something that could easily be rectified with a sequel, though, and I dearly hope Game Freak breaks their usual habit of abandoning good ideas.
Instead of having to weaken Pokemon, you can just throw balls at them while you roam around. This idea works fantastically, keeping the game's pace snappy and making it easy to keep your bearings as you go off the path to make acquisitions. Catching Pokemon is arguably more interesting than battling itself this time around thanks to all of your potential options. You can sneak around for back strikes, you can use different balls with different specialities, and you can craft items to distract Pokemon or aid in stealth. Stealth is essential here since an aware Pokemon can't be caught and won't hesitate to try and incapacitate your trainer. I wish these attacks were harder to dodge, but I love the idea of wild Pokemon being dangerous at all, so I'm very happy it's a thing. Being able to avoid combat even allows for fun game breaking shenanigans - with a bit of patience and savvy, you can catch high level Alpha Pokemon as soon as you get into the game proper!
Battling has been significantly tweaked in an interesting way. Instead of the usual system, the one presented here feels like an abstraction, similar but different. You still have your four moves and type charts, but now turn order is a more nebulous thing. Instead of speed being the stat to end them all, other factors come into play. Certain moves have hidden priority adjustments that make you move faster or slower, and you can now activate "Strong" and "Agile" versions of moves that adjust turn order accordingly. I personally really like this change, but I'm not surprised to see it as a common point of contention amongst players. The game does a terrible job of explaining how turn order works and it does everything in its power to hide the information from you, which is just plain strange. If you can accept things going south at times and are willing to rely more on slower but bulkier Pokemon, you'll find that this system adds a bit of tension to battling, something that the series has desperately needed.
Certain boss fights take a vastly different approach, (mostly) forgoing battling for having to throw balms to pacify a special Pokemon. These encounters are frankly bizarre, feeling more like something you'd see in a modern action adventure game, but they're pretty enjoyable for what they are. They test a different suite of skills (aiming and using i-frames to dodge) compared to conventional battling, which makes for another refreshing change of pace in a game full of them.
While the catching and battling systems were strong enough to carry the game for me, they're really all the game has to offer after a certain point. Side quests rarely provide significant rewards and the story tends to be pretty sparse, so this is a game that rewards those who love to catch 'em all. If you're the type to rush through campaigns, focus on multiplayer battling (which isn't present here) or only catch Pokemon you want to use, this is not the game for you. There are some clear improvements to make here, but I really, really hope that Game Freak works on a sequel to this. This game was exactly what I've been wanting from Pokemon and it was such a delight to get absorbed into its world all over again.