Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Switch) Review

Developer: Game Freak

Publisher: Nintendo, The Pokémon Company

Release Date: January 28, 2022

Platforms: Switch

Overview: After many years of Pokémon fans feeling like the games had become too formulaic, Game Freak gives us a glimpse into what direction Pokémon games will go in the future. It feels as though the success of Pokémon Sword and Shield and more specifically, the Wild Areas of those games, made Game Freak take a faster turn into the lane that many Pokémon fans have always wanted.

The two DLCs that were released after Sword and Shield were completely open with no numbered routes on their respective maps. After implementing the fan feedback, and hearing even louder requests to go full-open world, GameFreak HAD to all in on the idea.

Pokémon had outsourced the Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl (BDSP) remakes to concentrate on the next two installments of the Pokémon games. Pokémon Legends: Arceus and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. The Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl games went on to satisfy almost nobody. It was clear that Pokémon could never go back to the old formula.

Story: A 15-year-old Dawn (or Lucas) is isekai'd hundreds of years into the past in the then-called, Hisui Region. After landing on a beach beside Jubilife Village, the player is then recruited into the Survey Corps of the Galaxy Expedition Team. And yes, the Survey Corps of Legends Arceus and Attack on Titan basically do the same job. Scout past the city walls and gather information on the surroundings.

After coming into contact with two rival clans, the Diamond Clan and the Pearl Clan, the player must then calm the frenzied noble Pokémon of Hisui. After helping each clan with their sworn noble Pokémon, they are now dedicated to helping the Galaxy Expedition Team close the mysterious rift in the center of the region.

Gameplay: Legends Arceus switches up typical Pokémon gameplay dramatically and adds modernized quality of life changes that were much appreciated. Starting with the battling first, there are now two additional types of moves. Agile and Strong style. The Agile style will help your Pokémon outspeed the enemy in the move order, but be less effective. On the other hand, Strong style will make your moves much stronger, but at a speed penalty in the move order. The addition of this mechanic along with the Final Fantasy-style move order created much more tense battles with the wildlife than I anticipated.

The wild Pokémon roaming the world hit MUCH harder than in previous Pokémon games. And be careful of battling multiple Pokémon at once, since the player can only have one partner out at a time. Good thing the emphasis of this game is squarely placed on catching 'em all! There are materials that can be picked up to craft more Pokeballs or different types of bait. There aren't many trainer battles this time around since humans are still relatively new to trying to domesticate Pokémon. Without many battles being forced upon the player, there are instead Side Quests that can be completed to earn rewards and help upgrade buildings in Jubilife Village.

Continuing off the quality of life upgrade train from Sword/Shield, Legends Arceus also introduced much-loved features. The ability to evolve your Pokémon while in the menu was a great idea. Every battle takes place in the same world as the player-controlled character, meaning that from Roaming to Battling back to Roaming is a seamless transition into one another. The Exp. gains, evolutions, and moves learned all get pushed into the menus when the player intentionally wants to pause the flow of the game.

The ability to ride certain Pokémon to cross the Hisui region is a lot more fun in my head than in practice. Pretty much all of the mounts felt clunky and unresponsive at times. The only exception was Basculegion, who felt like the most polished one out of the five. Run-away buttons during battles were redundant since you can just move far away enough to end the battle without wasting a turn. The battles with the frenzied noble Pokémon were also pretty lackluster. Regardless of the nitpicky negatives, Legends Arceus was a fun adventure across the different biomes of Hisui.

Presentation: The presentation of Legends Arceus was its weakest aspect for sure. The textures looked muddy and like other Nintendo games, the Anti-Aliasing was abysmal. I did however love the decision to make the game look like it was being drawn with water paint. The main character had many subtle animations that helped keep running around from getting too stale. The battles also had great water-painted visual effects while using moves.

Unfortunately, just like Sword/Shield, the draw distance was severely hampered by hardware constraints and pop-in was an issue at times. Frames drops were far more prevalent than I had hoped for. I was also a bit disappointed in the music since there were very few bits of ambiance and the scores were pretty weak.

Final Verdict: 7/10

Pokémon Legends: Arceus was perhaps one of the more fun Pokémon games to have come out recently. The smooth gameplay was pushed to the foreground as all the game-flow-breaking features such as evolutions or stat increases, were pushed into the background. The open world has a high density of Pokémon on the field, but not much else. NPCs are usually relegated to towns or base camps and never randomly found in a forest to start a quest.

Continuing the story can become a bit boring, especially when there's still no voice acting and the noble Pokémon fights are a snooze fest. Not until close to the end game was I genuinely interested in how the story was shaping up. Overall, Pokémon Legends: Arceus was a fun Pokémon game that felt too bland much more than it should have.

The quality of life changes were very well received for this game, and based on the trailers for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, it looks like they're implementing feedback from Legends Arceus. This game often felt like a stepping stone for something bigger in the works.