After a near 10 year period since embracing 3D and releasing generic games at best or down right insulting experiences most of the time, Pokémon has finally found a good and innovative game at last that, dare I say it, can equals the latter 2D games in enjoyability.
Better late than never I guess.
I had a ton of fun with it. The exploration feels great and, unlike BotW which the game clearly drew its inspiration from, gets continously renewed with the rideable Pokémons you get throughout your journey, making it all the more satisfying when returning to previously explored areas. It never gets stall. Speaking of areas, each one is unique enough from one another and they all have their fair share of interesting landmarks to explore.
Even though I have yet to fill the pokédex, and I intend to, making every single monsters have their profile to complete was an insanely good decision, because it now just made each one stand out by offering new ways to engage with them through these mini-challenges, unlike the previous entries where completing the dex involved catching them all once and that's it (and even then I never did it because it always felt like a second thought by the devs, because literally nothing encouraged me to do it).
Those two main elements were why I had such a good time playing through it, but unfortunately this game also has many questionable, amateur-ish, lazy or even terrible aspects to it, most of them due to time and budget constraints I assume.
Like, having one main town growing as you advance through is an amazing idea on paper (and one that has proven to be a great selling point in other games) but here it's so boring and whatever. No NPC has anything interesting to say and almost every sidequests are the most bland and "whatever" things in the world, which I admit is a step up from SwSh but come on. I think the most bafflingly lazy thing in that game is the way to grow your inventory size. I'm not gonna spoil it but man that's hilariously inexcusable.
Another frustrating thing are the wild "agressive" mons that want to kill you for some reason. The first time around I thought it was neat and added some tension to exploring, but then it happened so much when I needed to concentrate on things or to be sneaky it became really annoying. It would also replace the area theme songs (which btw are incredible you should listen to them on their own) with some generic BotW "music when you're spotted by bokoblins".
As for the graphics, the initial trailers made it look like complete crap, but honestly it never bothered me when playing it. The artstyle has a unique "cheap but kinda stylized but still ugly" feel to it, much like SwSh, so I guess that's now the series visual identity. It's still a shame because we've seen how many pretty games can run even something as weak as the Switch (SMT V, DQXI, MH:R...), and also because every Pokémon games from GBA to 3DS looked great and appealing for their platform.
As for the plot, it's fine. It's not as insulting as SwSh so there's that, but it serves its purpose and that's completely fine. It only gets interesting at the end and that's basically it.
Overall, despite all the gripes I have with Legends Arceus, all of them were pretty minor for me at least (it may not be for you though) and never changed my mind on the fact that during those 40 hours exploring an ancient version of the Sinnoh region, I had a big smile on my face :)
They now have a great recipe for games that needs to be improved in many regards. I believe they can and that's where the series is headed, but honestly I wouldn't be surprised if they fuck it up.
EDIT: I 100%ed the game. Still think it's great even if completing the pokédex had some insane requirements (like pokémons locked in the really seldom space-time distortions), their next installment can only go up from here and hopefully erase all the rough aspects of the game.
I can easily see myself replaying this game in a few years after other legends games had come out and being like "Wow there is so many things wrong with this how did I even liked it in the 1st place?"
Better late than never I guess.
I had a ton of fun with it. The exploration feels great and, unlike BotW which the game clearly drew its inspiration from, gets continously renewed with the rideable Pokémons you get throughout your journey, making it all the more satisfying when returning to previously explored areas. It never gets stall. Speaking of areas, each one is unique enough from one another and they all have their fair share of interesting landmarks to explore.
Even though I have yet to fill the pokédex, and I intend to, making every single monsters have their profile to complete was an insanely good decision, because it now just made each one stand out by offering new ways to engage with them through these mini-challenges, unlike the previous entries where completing the dex involved catching them all once and that's it (and even then I never did it because it always felt like a second thought by the devs, because literally nothing encouraged me to do it).
Those two main elements were why I had such a good time playing through it, but unfortunately this game also has many questionable, amateur-ish, lazy or even terrible aspects to it, most of them due to time and budget constraints I assume.
Like, having one main town growing as you advance through is an amazing idea on paper (and one that has proven to be a great selling point in other games) but here it's so boring and whatever. No NPC has anything interesting to say and almost every sidequests are the most bland and "whatever" things in the world, which I admit is a step up from SwSh but come on. I think the most bafflingly lazy thing in that game is the way to grow your inventory size. I'm not gonna spoil it but man that's hilariously inexcusable.
Another frustrating thing are the wild "agressive" mons that want to kill you for some reason. The first time around I thought it was neat and added some tension to exploring, but then it happened so much when I needed to concentrate on things or to be sneaky it became really annoying. It would also replace the area theme songs (which btw are incredible you should listen to them on their own) with some generic BotW "music when you're spotted by bokoblins".
As for the graphics, the initial trailers made it look like complete crap, but honestly it never bothered me when playing it. The artstyle has a unique "cheap but kinda stylized but still ugly" feel to it, much like SwSh, so I guess that's now the series visual identity. It's still a shame because we've seen how many pretty games can run even something as weak as the Switch (SMT V, DQXI, MH:R...), and also because every Pokémon games from GBA to 3DS looked great and appealing for their platform.
As for the plot, it's fine. It's not as insulting as SwSh so there's that, but it serves its purpose and that's completely fine. It only gets interesting at the end and that's basically it.
Overall, despite all the gripes I have with Legends Arceus, all of them were pretty minor for me at least (it may not be for you though) and never changed my mind on the fact that during those 40 hours exploring an ancient version of the Sinnoh region, I had a big smile on my face :)
They now have a great recipe for games that needs to be improved in many regards. I believe they can and that's where the series is headed, but honestly I wouldn't be surprised if they fuck it up.
EDIT: I 100%ed the game. Still think it's great even if completing the pokédex had some insane requirements (like pokémons locked in the really seldom space-time distortions), their next installment can only go up from here and hopefully erase all the rough aspects of the game.
I can easily see myself replaying this game in a few years after other legends games had come out and being like "Wow there is so many things wrong with this how did I even liked it in the 1st place?"
NOWITSREYNTIME17
2 years ago