Pokemon Legends Arceus is exactly the game that Pokemon needed to make. An open world game is exactly the big step that Pokemon needed to take as a franchise, and PLA does a fantastic job opening the door to open world games. Its gameplay, while definitely having a lot of room to improve, is cleverly designed to lean into its open world and exploratory elements, which leads to a fresh, fun, and memorable gameplay experience.
Each of the five areas of the game are big, giving the player a lot to do and a lot to explore. The game also does a great job guiding and encouraging the player to explore through the various missions given to the player, the Unown hunt showing off various landmarks (and usually the Unowns are also positioned in goofy ways, so bonus points for comedy), and Spiritomb wisps… they’re an exception in that they suck. They act as more easily visible Koroks from Breath of the Wild, except by more easily visible I mean mainly only at night. They’re not fun to look for, they’re just annoying especially with how many there are to find. But again, they’re an exception to the general trend of encouraging the player to explore in interesting and fun ways.
The story is also designed in a clever way to further encourage exploration, with story segments being very short while simultaneously guiding the player across a large portion of the map. Most areas purposefully require the player to complete objectives all across the map in order to complete the story, which helps to encourage players to branch off of the beaten path when, while moving around the map, a landmark or Pokemon catches their eye. Even if you never do a sidequest, you’ll still be visiting a large amount of the game. Yet the player isn’t brought everywhere by the story, giving room to find things on your own. And with each story segment being pretty short, it’s rare that the game feels bogged down by cutscenes or dialogue.
PLA’s handling of the Pokedex is probably the most unique aspect of the game, where completing a dex entry requires more than just catching the Pokemon once. But through its various missions, the Pokedex teaches players how to use and make the most out of PLA’s mechanics. Whether its how to use food or stunning items to make a Pokemon easier to catch, how to be stealthy and use your environment to your advantage, or even something like a Pokemon’s weaknesses, the Pokedex helps build mastery of PLA’s various mechanics. But you also have the freedom to not do certain quests, not forcing players to play PLA in one specific way.
But while I think the Pokedex is well-designed, god the dex can be grindy. I found working on complete dex entries to be pretty fun, but it also often felt like an overwhelming gauntlet to get through. Some Pokemon, especially pre-evolved Pokemon (and ESPECIALLY baby Pokemon) rely primarily on catching and evolving them, or feeding them before you catch them. Many of the Pokemon who have very few missions for after you catch them also happen to be some of the rarer Pokemon, too, making dex entries like Munchlax really annoying to complete. Fortunately, completing dex entries doesn’t usually take very much time, so progress can feel snappy and satisfying when you complete a lot of it at bulk.
Despite how good a lot of its design choices are, PLA’s mechanics can feel pretty primitive at times. The main example is the controls, especially on mounts. I can’t describe why, but PLA’s controls don’t feel great. The button layout doesn’t feel very good to me (and when you’re not on a mount, while you can run there seems to be a stamina mechanic? Except you never can see a stamina bar or anything, so it’s really unclear how sprinting works). This is worst on mounts, especially Basculegion and Braviary. On both mounts it’s hard to have precise movement, Basculegion feeling very clunky when jumping while Braviary has really annoying camera controls when dashing as well as diving being at such a bad angle that it’s hard to land where you want. The other mounts also have their own problems as well (Ursaluna is pretty useless outside of two evolution items, Sneasler is extremely slow and the game’s ledges are designed in a way which makes Sneasler hop off and stand on a ledge a ton, and Wyrdeer is a Skyrim horse (which I see as a win)). Also, I wish you could throw Pokemon or items when on mounts (notably Wyrdeer), because it’s such a good feature that you can do that and it’s extremely annoying that they don't let you on mounts. You can on Basculegion, but using items feels so awkward on Basculegion that it’s uncomfortable to use them.
Despite being rough around the edges, PLA’s design at its core is pretty genius with all of its design choices being made to both highlight and expand upon the game’s strengths, being the open world. It’s one of the best modern Pokemon games for that reason, and was a game that the Pokemon franchise truly needed (both because it’s a genuinely good game and because open world was a huge step for Pokemon). Much of the groundwork PLA set would be carried over and improved upon in Scarlet and Violet (despite the uh… infamous state of those games), and upon a revisit it’s pretty obvious that there’s a lot of room for improvement. But PLA is a genuinely fantastic game on its own, and is one of the best games that have come out of the series as a whole.
Each of the five areas of the game are big, giving the player a lot to do and a lot to explore. The game also does a great job guiding and encouraging the player to explore through the various missions given to the player, the Unown hunt showing off various landmarks (and usually the Unowns are also positioned in goofy ways, so bonus points for comedy), and Spiritomb wisps… they’re an exception in that they suck. They act as more easily visible Koroks from Breath of the Wild, except by more easily visible I mean mainly only at night. They’re not fun to look for, they’re just annoying especially with how many there are to find. But again, they’re an exception to the general trend of encouraging the player to explore in interesting and fun ways.
The story is also designed in a clever way to further encourage exploration, with story segments being very short while simultaneously guiding the player across a large portion of the map. Most areas purposefully require the player to complete objectives all across the map in order to complete the story, which helps to encourage players to branch off of the beaten path when, while moving around the map, a landmark or Pokemon catches their eye. Even if you never do a sidequest, you’ll still be visiting a large amount of the game. Yet the player isn’t brought everywhere by the story, giving room to find things on your own. And with each story segment being pretty short, it’s rare that the game feels bogged down by cutscenes or dialogue.
PLA’s handling of the Pokedex is probably the most unique aspect of the game, where completing a dex entry requires more than just catching the Pokemon once. But through its various missions, the Pokedex teaches players how to use and make the most out of PLA’s mechanics. Whether its how to use food or stunning items to make a Pokemon easier to catch, how to be stealthy and use your environment to your advantage, or even something like a Pokemon’s weaknesses, the Pokedex helps build mastery of PLA’s various mechanics. But you also have the freedom to not do certain quests, not forcing players to play PLA in one specific way.
But while I think the Pokedex is well-designed, god the dex can be grindy. I found working on complete dex entries to be pretty fun, but it also often felt like an overwhelming gauntlet to get through. Some Pokemon, especially pre-evolved Pokemon (and ESPECIALLY baby Pokemon) rely primarily on catching and evolving them, or feeding them before you catch them. Many of the Pokemon who have very few missions for after you catch them also happen to be some of the rarer Pokemon, too, making dex entries like Munchlax really annoying to complete. Fortunately, completing dex entries doesn’t usually take very much time, so progress can feel snappy and satisfying when you complete a lot of it at bulk.
Despite how good a lot of its design choices are, PLA’s mechanics can feel pretty primitive at times. The main example is the controls, especially on mounts. I can’t describe why, but PLA’s controls don’t feel great. The button layout doesn’t feel very good to me (and when you’re not on a mount, while you can run there seems to be a stamina mechanic? Except you never can see a stamina bar or anything, so it’s really unclear how sprinting works). This is worst on mounts, especially Basculegion and Braviary. On both mounts it’s hard to have precise movement, Basculegion feeling very clunky when jumping while Braviary has really annoying camera controls when dashing as well as diving being at such a bad angle that it’s hard to land where you want. The other mounts also have their own problems as well (Ursaluna is pretty useless outside of two evolution items, Sneasler is extremely slow and the game’s ledges are designed in a way which makes Sneasler hop off and stand on a ledge a ton, and Wyrdeer is a Skyrim horse (which I see as a win)). Also, I wish you could throw Pokemon or items when on mounts (notably Wyrdeer), because it’s such a good feature that you can do that and it’s extremely annoying that they don't let you on mounts. You can on Basculegion, but using items feels so awkward on Basculegion that it’s uncomfortable to use them.
Despite being rough around the edges, PLA’s design at its core is pretty genius with all of its design choices being made to both highlight and expand upon the game’s strengths, being the open world. It’s one of the best modern Pokemon games for that reason, and was a game that the Pokemon franchise truly needed (both because it’s a genuinely good game and because open world was a huge step for Pokemon). Much of the groundwork PLA set would be carried over and improved upon in Scarlet and Violet (despite the uh… infamous state of those games), and upon a revisit it’s pretty obvious that there’s a lot of room for improvement. But PLA is a genuinely fantastic game on its own, and is one of the best games that have come out of the series as a whole.