Pokémon Legends: Arceus Nintendo Switch Review - Is It Worth It?

Could this really be the moment we've all been waiting for?

Review Written by Jordan Middler:

Narration and Video by Zion Grassl

Review code provided by Nintendo

#PokémonLegends #Pokémon #NintendoSwitch

[Vailskibum]

I have so many problems with the Pokémon franchise, but I truly hope this is a step in a new direction

[andrewryan]

One of the weird things that stands out for me with this is how streamlined the gameplay is, and this goes for all jrpgs. You spend so much time mashing the A button to get through pointless boxes of text that you've heard a million times before. "You caught a caterpie" A button "Caterpies details were added to your pokedex" Abutton...mash a button as slow pokedex animation happens "Would you like to name your caterpie" Accidentally hit A button becasue you were mashing it, now have to exit clunky keyboard UI. "Are you sure" FUCKING YES I'M SURE!

In this, the fact that the pokeballs are fire and forget. Even to collect resources, seems like such a small, but GREAT QOL improvement for the flow of the game.

[matlockmalonex]

The most exciting part about this game is that if it sells well, which it looks it is, then a lot of the elements and mechanics in this game are going to be staples for the more “traditional” games going forward. Pokémon is finally taking risks and evolving.

[elfchild]

I just played 9 hours or so, and I'm really enjoying this game. It still feels like a Pokemon game, but with enough new strategy and details to make it fresh. I really hope they continue in this vein for other games as well.

[heroichitsuji]

Dunno when, but whenever it’s time for Pokemon Legends: Zygarde, we need Mega Evolution back. I also want to witness that war. I suppose that would put that before the events of this, and in another timeline.

[mAcroFaze]

Honestly, I'm more than happy that they've ditched any multiplayer components if it would've come at the cost of watering down the game's single player mechanics. Let this be a solely single player game that they can double down on.

[CagedWilderness]

I hope this "spin-off" does so well they continue in this direction for the future games. Looks great.

[jbivphotography]

I'm really thinking about jumping on this one. I've never really played any of the past Pokemon games. But this looks like my jam (I love open-world games)

[Nerdextrous]

I hope this sells extremely well and shows Game Freak that they've been leaving money on the table all these years by refusing to change. I'm sure they've been happy with the sales and that's why they kept the game as it was, but they could easily appeal to both kids and adults by altering the format and skill levels.

[matthewchavez]

It's hard to explain what I'm feeling right now.

I literally just took my first step out of the village, and I've been playing for 4 hours.

Just taking everything in.. this is what we all imagined as a kid, before we had anything comparable. Playing in our own anime, and open world to explore with your Pokémon.

I literally cannot stop crying. I have been waiting for a game to make me feel like this again for a long time.

The gameplay could literally be Pong, and this is already one of my favorite games of all-time.

All of the talk about low effort from "fans". I do agree that they should be taking more steps towards modernization, but there's clearly a handful of designers who genuinely care about how we are going to feel playing their game.

Pokémon, you nailed it.

[darkmoon]

It’s a good day for Pokémon fans when Nintendo Life says they had a good time with a new Pokémon title.

You guys are more critical than most on Pokémon (which is a good thing), so to see such a positive review from this channel has me hyped.

[hinatsu]

what blowed my mind is that if a pokemon can use only 4 moves like always, your pokemon never forgets the other moves, is like having moves in background that are not used and you can swap easily with the main moves

my thyplosion has like 20 moves and i can swap them when i am checking the stats

[Arting-Sir]

The fact we can move during battles feels like a fever dream, more importantly, I thought I was going to be disappointed with this game but I am taking my chances with this

Edit

Holy shit thanks for the 94 likes

[tsuriranpu]

It's just a missed opportunity that there are no gyms or different cities. They've taken inspiration from Zelda but missed to see how incredible well balanced and divided the map of hyrule is. It's still all a huge square but the regions make it seem much bigger.

[jonbaker]

I love how they're going back in time and telling Pokemon stories from a more primitive time

[AreYouShore]

I haven't been super excited for a Pokemon game in a while, but I preordered this not too long back as it seemed very unique. Having watched this review, Friday can't come soon enough!

[GreenSkyDill]

Jon and Alex are giggling in the background every time he says “Arse-yus” instead of “Arc-yus”

[Karasaywah]

It feels nice to finally get something alittle different and refreshing from Pokemon. All these remakes of games we all played as kids/teens at first had me excited but I found myself quickly getting bored of the same old formula game after game. Between not being able to find/buy actual cards due to scalpers and ridiculous inflation to the same old games I felt in the last few years my love of Pokemon really take a hit. Will be nice to finally have something alittle bit new and fresh to reinvigorate the series.

[TheMorbidHobo]

Played it for about 6 hours so far, having throughly explored the first two areas, and all but the volcano in the third area.
The game explored a lot of interesting ideas, but ultimately the gameplay is grindy and stale, and it really does not feel rewarding to evolve most mons yourself as most evolutions can be found in the wild pretty commonly. The lack of progress-stopping battles should have been replaced by puzzles, but it just isn't. Ride mons are introduced way too quick, especially with wyndeer's jump that can be easilly used to mountain climb which reveals a sad truth: there is very little reward for exploration. See that mountain? You can climb it... But you have absolutely no reason to as there is nothing there. It's just such a waste of opprotunity to do something like New Pokemon Snap where you complete psudopuzzles to find new pokemon to expand your research notes.

Update: I played through the rest of the game. My opinion has not changed. It is still very much a bunch of interesting ideas that just aren't explored very well/much.

[mewdreamer]

I'm going to choose Cyndaquil as my starter. It was my very first Pokemon back in the day with Silver, so getting a chance to choose it again in such a new kind of Pokemon game is way too good to pass up. I was not expecting the game to be so highly praised after your last video on it. I know that people have plenty of complaints about recent Pokemon games and I can understand that to a point, but to be quite honest, I've enjoyed the vast majority of main series of Pokemon games, including the recent BD/SP. That being said, Legends Arceus taking the series in a new direction is still really good too. It's kind weird to call this a spin-off. It isn't the typical kind of mainseries game, but it is still developed by Game Freak and will probably be featured whenever they showcase the line of mainseries titles.