Pokemon goes open world with Arceus and it's definitely a change that I've always hoped for. Being able to just explore areas and find new and different areas, with maybe new pokemon to see, is a great idea on paper so it's surprising it took this long to actually see this attempted. The end result, for the most part, is a solid first attempt with a lot of room for improvement still.
The areas themselves are pretty great to explore. The game does a good job of making each area you can go to feel unique and worth covering every inch of. Whether you're climbing around mountains dealing with Ice Pokemon or you're swimming around beachy areas looking at water Pokemon, each area does a good job of setting itself apart without feeling too much like an obvious attempt to fit different types of Pokemon in one area.
Like many Pokemon games too, you'll earn HM style upgrades to make this exploration easier as you progress. In Arceus you'll be able to use a flute to call upon various Pokemon, all with unique traits that will come in handy. Whether that's a Pokemon that you can ride on to quickly get from point a to point b, a Pokemon to make sure you don't drown, or a Pokemon that helps you scale rocks or other various kinds of land, or even a Pokemon that can find buried treasure. These skill traits are good for the most part, though some feel less important in the grand scheme of exploring.
Along with a bit of a format change, the game's emphasis also feels a bit different. The Pokedex gets a lot of attention in this game and for the most part, that primary focus works well.
Now, each Pokemon has a set of goals in your Pokedex. They vary slightly depending on the kind of Pokemon, some are pretty standard and common, like defeating a certain amount of them or catching a certain amount of them. Sometimes it changes up though, whether its seeing a Pokemon use a certain move a certain amount of time, or defeating a Pokemon with a certain type of move.
The end goal with these Pokedex tasks ultimately is to "master" full knowledge on a Pokemon by getting it up to level 10. Luckily you won't have to do every single task in order to get it to full expert level which is good for not getting too tedious.
There's no specific big picture end goal for mastering the Pokedex in full in regards to the main story but there are side quests throughout the game that will task you with mastering specific Pokemon with a reward for doing so. You'll at times be rewarded with rare candy and things like that so the rewards for these tasks, at times, is definitely beneficial.
The only real issue with the new Pokedex first focus really is battling feels de-emphasizd a bit too much.
Random trainer battles are nearly non-existent in this version. You'll at times come across them but for the most part these are story driven so they pop up a lot less frequently than in previous Pokemon games where you could come across them on various routes. In order to level up with any kind of consistency, you'll have to do a lot of battling with random Pokemon in the open worlds.
On paper, this isn't all that bad but I did run into some frustrations with this. Wild Pokemon seemed to run away with a decent amount of frequency, which when it happens, your party will earn no experience. That obviously isn't anything new but with the increased focus on leveling up through these random battles, it tends to be a bit frustrating when you're trying to grind a few levels with your party and having to constantly deal with Pokemon running away.
Even move learning takes a pretty big step back. Any type of moves you learn after leveling up isn't really expressed directly. As soon as you're done with a battle, all the experience you gain, levels you gain, moves you learn, even evolving that can take place is all thrown at you all at once on the open world. The game is focused on getting you right back to exploring the open world in front of you but these two aspects clashed for me. I was constantly forgetting about new moves I could learn from my Pokemon or forgetting that a Pokemon could evolve because this info was being thrown at me so quickly without much time for me to take a bit of time to see what was going on with those aspects to the game. Especially since you can be attacked by these wild Pokemon as soon as you get out of a battle.
Another issue I had with the new focus on the Pokedex is a lack of quality of life aspects to that. Because the game wants you to complete these Pokedex tasks, trying to bring up the Pokedex while in a battle doesn't seem possible (it's possible there is actually a way to do this and I just wasn't aware of it but there wasn't an obvious button or anything that alluded to this being possible). So if you find yourself in a fight against a wild Pokemon that you're trying to complete tasks with involving a very specific thing, you'll just have to remember it from memory. If you can't remember which type of move you're supposed to use on a type of Pokemon though, you'll just have to hope you can find some more while you pop open your Pokedex post-battle. It's not a huge loss or massive annoyance, but it's a noticeable omission given the focus being what it is in Legends. There are a few quality of life omissions that could make this game so much tighter and more enjoyable as well. Much like the inability to open the Pokedex during a battle, none are super annoying or frustrating but adding them all up, it does make the game feel like it has a lot of room for improvement.
One of the newer gameplay additions is the agile style/strong style move mastering. If you use a move a certain amount of times you'll eventually master it and be able to change up the move before you use it. If you choose to use a move in agile style, you'll attack faster but for less damage than usual. If you do a move using strong style, you'll attack slower but for more damage. Overall, this didn't really change much from my perspective but it feels like an addition that also has room for being interesting and more strategic in the future.
The game also replaces the gym battle system with something called noble battles. In each area, there is a Pokemon that's been taken over by some strange force that causes them to go into a frenzy and its up to you to fix that issue. You'll do that by throwing items at them and draining a health bar. You can drain it consistently with these items but if you want to drain the meter faster, you'll have to get these Pokemon into a battle. In order to get them into these battles, you'll have to do something to slow them down. Each Pokemon has a different method in order to accomplish this and the only consistent thing is how underwhelming all of it is.
In short, these noble battles are bad. You don't even need to use Pokemon to complete these. You can just keep throwing these unlimited supplied items until the bar is completely empty. A few of the noble battles become a bit trickier with the patterns the Pokemon use but none of them were interesting or fun. All were tedious and boring. You don't even get anything significant to completing these. All the HM-like Pokemon you get all happen prior to these, all that comes with them is a sticker in your book and the story progressing. They are just so flat and feel completely unnecessary.
Overall though, Pokemon Legends: Arceus shows a lot of potential and on its own, it's a pretty good first attempt at switching up the Pokemon format. The foundations are there in this version, but it just feels like it needs a lot more tightening and quality of life improvements to really knock it out of the park. Some noticeable frame rate issues also don't help matters but with time, this style of Pokemon game could be even better than the old format. Only time will tell if they can get it there though
The areas themselves are pretty great to explore. The game does a good job of making each area you can go to feel unique and worth covering every inch of. Whether you're climbing around mountains dealing with Ice Pokemon or you're swimming around beachy areas looking at water Pokemon, each area does a good job of setting itself apart without feeling too much like an obvious attempt to fit different types of Pokemon in one area.
Like many Pokemon games too, you'll earn HM style upgrades to make this exploration easier as you progress. In Arceus you'll be able to use a flute to call upon various Pokemon, all with unique traits that will come in handy. Whether that's a Pokemon that you can ride on to quickly get from point a to point b, a Pokemon to make sure you don't drown, or a Pokemon that helps you scale rocks or other various kinds of land, or even a Pokemon that can find buried treasure. These skill traits are good for the most part, though some feel less important in the grand scheme of exploring.
Along with a bit of a format change, the game's emphasis also feels a bit different. The Pokedex gets a lot of attention in this game and for the most part, that primary focus works well.
Now, each Pokemon has a set of goals in your Pokedex. They vary slightly depending on the kind of Pokemon, some are pretty standard and common, like defeating a certain amount of them or catching a certain amount of them. Sometimes it changes up though, whether its seeing a Pokemon use a certain move a certain amount of time, or defeating a Pokemon with a certain type of move.
The end goal with these Pokedex tasks ultimately is to "master" full knowledge on a Pokemon by getting it up to level 10. Luckily you won't have to do every single task in order to get it to full expert level which is good for not getting too tedious.
There's no specific big picture end goal for mastering the Pokedex in full in regards to the main story but there are side quests throughout the game that will task you with mastering specific Pokemon with a reward for doing so. You'll at times be rewarded with rare candy and things like that so the rewards for these tasks, at times, is definitely beneficial.
The only real issue with the new Pokedex first focus really is battling feels de-emphasizd a bit too much.
Random trainer battles are nearly non-existent in this version. You'll at times come across them but for the most part these are story driven so they pop up a lot less frequently than in previous Pokemon games where you could come across them on various routes. In order to level up with any kind of consistency, you'll have to do a lot of battling with random Pokemon in the open worlds.
On paper, this isn't all that bad but I did run into some frustrations with this. Wild Pokemon seemed to run away with a decent amount of frequency, which when it happens, your party will earn no experience. That obviously isn't anything new but with the increased focus on leveling up through these random battles, it tends to be a bit frustrating when you're trying to grind a few levels with your party and having to constantly deal with Pokemon running away.
Even move learning takes a pretty big step back. Any type of moves you learn after leveling up isn't really expressed directly. As soon as you're done with a battle, all the experience you gain, levels you gain, moves you learn, even evolving that can take place is all thrown at you all at once on the open world. The game is focused on getting you right back to exploring the open world in front of you but these two aspects clashed for me. I was constantly forgetting about new moves I could learn from my Pokemon or forgetting that a Pokemon could evolve because this info was being thrown at me so quickly without much time for me to take a bit of time to see what was going on with those aspects to the game. Especially since you can be attacked by these wild Pokemon as soon as you get out of a battle.
Another issue I had with the new focus on the Pokedex is a lack of quality of life aspects to that. Because the game wants you to complete these Pokedex tasks, trying to bring up the Pokedex while in a battle doesn't seem possible (it's possible there is actually a way to do this and I just wasn't aware of it but there wasn't an obvious button or anything that alluded to this being possible). So if you find yourself in a fight against a wild Pokemon that you're trying to complete tasks with involving a very specific thing, you'll just have to remember it from memory. If you can't remember which type of move you're supposed to use on a type of Pokemon though, you'll just have to hope you can find some more while you pop open your Pokedex post-battle. It's not a huge loss or massive annoyance, but it's a noticeable omission given the focus being what it is in Legends. There are a few quality of life omissions that could make this game so much tighter and more enjoyable as well. Much like the inability to open the Pokedex during a battle, none are super annoying or frustrating but adding them all up, it does make the game feel like it has a lot of room for improvement.
One of the newer gameplay additions is the agile style/strong style move mastering. If you use a move a certain amount of times you'll eventually master it and be able to change up the move before you use it. If you choose to use a move in agile style, you'll attack faster but for less damage than usual. If you do a move using strong style, you'll attack slower but for more damage. Overall, this didn't really change much from my perspective but it feels like an addition that also has room for being interesting and more strategic in the future.
The game also replaces the gym battle system with something called noble battles. In each area, there is a Pokemon that's been taken over by some strange force that causes them to go into a frenzy and its up to you to fix that issue. You'll do that by throwing items at them and draining a health bar. You can drain it consistently with these items but if you want to drain the meter faster, you'll have to get these Pokemon into a battle. In order to get them into these battles, you'll have to do something to slow them down. Each Pokemon has a different method in order to accomplish this and the only consistent thing is how underwhelming all of it is.
In short, these noble battles are bad. You don't even need to use Pokemon to complete these. You can just keep throwing these unlimited supplied items until the bar is completely empty. A few of the noble battles become a bit trickier with the patterns the Pokemon use but none of them were interesting or fun. All were tedious and boring. You don't even get anything significant to completing these. All the HM-like Pokemon you get all happen prior to these, all that comes with them is a sticker in your book and the story progressing. They are just so flat and feel completely unnecessary.
Overall though, Pokemon Legends: Arceus shows a lot of potential and on its own, it's a pretty good first attempt at switching up the Pokemon format. The foundations are there in this version, but it just feels like it needs a lot more tightening and quality of life improvements to really knock it out of the park. Some noticeable frame rate issues also don't help matters but with time, this style of Pokemon game could be even better than the old format. Only time will tell if they can get it there though