Rewriting Pokémon Legends: Arceus, part 1: the Nobles

Although I loved Pokémon Legends: Arceus, it was also a deeply flawed game, especially in how the plot and gameplay fail to complement each other. Can we reframe the major plot points to better serve the research gameplay?

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:08 Jubilife Village
02:00 Obsidian Fieldlands
06:26 Cobalt Coastlands
08:20 Crimson Mirelands
09:57 Coronet Highlands
11:42 Alabaster Icelands
14:11 The end…?

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Related projects

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Outro music: "Johto Pokémon Gym" by Braxton Burks (Pokémon Reorchestrated)

[nazeersadek]

This actually makes way more sense than what we officially got

[DustyGogoat]

Interesting changes. I also think unlimited balms is weird considering the rest of the game is about crafting and managing resources

[chronomage]

gonna mandela effect myself into thinking this was the actual story

[liamfitzgerald]

Oooooh very intriguing! A great treatment of a more coherent story. Looking forward to the rest!

[matthayes]

wow this story is SO much better so far, much more in spirit of the values of the game

[AdeptCharon]

Stone Plate from Kleavor is a great change! Because Kleavor rocks!

[BlueMountain]

I'm really late to comment on this but I have a feeling balms weren't meant to be food originally when you look at their visual design. When they hit the pokemon they make a jingling sound and seem to release a cloud of coloured powder which suggests to me that they were intended to be a kind of incense or inhalable substance at some point in development, although there's no evidence for this as far as I know.

Specifically, I think the art is intended to resemble pouches of catnip, which fits with the sedative/relaxant properties of the balms in game. If true then it's possible that it was cut because catnip acts a bit like a drug or something, but that's just wild speculation

[sunsethourglass]

Oooo I love these a bunch!! It breaths more life into the fact you're (supposedly, I don't remember) making the first Pokedex during the game, so leaning more into that aspect for the Nobles as well suits much better!

And I'd like to ask, since I'm writing a Legends Arceus story in my free time, if it's alright if I take inspiration from your videos on this?

[stormaurora]

I love this rewrite and the way it ties the research aspect into the main plot of the game. My only minor nitpick is that you don't get to fight Ingo in this version; I always liked the idea that you're able to help him regain his memories by battling him, since battling's kind of his thing, and the people of Hisui were never able to offer a satisfying challenge to him because they're not accustomed to battling the same way you are.

[fruit]

I kind of like this rewrite, I’m curious where you go with it in Part 2.

[chloukscolor]

Love this, much more logic and interesting

[sharksuperiority]

I’m personally not a fan of this new style of Noble battle, the idea of crafting your own balms sounds horrendous, like just adding setup time. And having the player throw food to the Noble instead of using the Balms seems like it would slow the pace of the game. Doing the fast paced noble fights was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had in pokemon, slowing them down seems like taking the fun away.
My alteration to the Noble fights would be removing the pokemon battle aspect, I skipped them in every fight anyways. I would’ve made the non-frenzied nobles fight you in pokemon battles, as they can control themselves. So there’d be a perfect split.

Also, wasn’t the Frenzy in game caused by Arceus? I thought that Arcanine getting struck by lightning wasn’t a coincidence, it was Arceus targeting it. The whole point of the Icelands quest was making you question whether or not the Frenzy was a bad thing, whether or not it was right to fight the gods. I loved having the implied moral ambiguity of your quest, it made the climax feel even more impactful.

But! I do really like the whole research mechanic being a prerequisite for fighting nobles, filling the pokedex felt like an optional mechanic until you’ve beaten the main story and you suddenly need to complete every single entry to meet Arceus. So adding a genuine reason to use your pokedex ingame is great, plus it adds to the idea of people not knowing alot about pokemon.