Pokémon Legends: Arceus - Before You Buy

Pokemon Legends Arceus (Nintendo Switch) brings the Pokemon games to an open world with a fully realized battling/catching system. How is it? Let's talk.

#Pokemon

[gameranxTV]

maybe not our all-time favorite Pokemon game, but a solid refresh for the franchise

[AustinJohnPlays]

I've watched/read every review of this game from larger publications, and this feel like a good balance of "it's fresh and new and you're going to enjoy it" with an appropirate amount of "the next one better look nicer, but a step in the right direction." Nice Jake.

[KEN]

Imagine if there were wild Pokemon battling each other; that'd add so much more immersion and life into the world. It'd also just generally be fun to spectate those battles from the sideline!

[oliviaj]

Love the idea of this game, just wish they spent 1/2 more years on bettering it. We can all wait, no one is actually begging for a new game as fast as possible, but rather we just want a good game.

[profedelasmontanas]

In BOTW sometimes you would see the dragons and you were like “what!!!!, im gonna go up there at some point and fight that thing”. Thats what we mean by “the world coming to life.” Theres stuff thats inaccessible, there are things to do. Use a golem to open up a cave. Use a gyrados to make a whirl pool that brings a cool item from the bottom of a lake. A whalelord breaches off in the distance. You walk up on pokemon fighting and catch both of them. You can see tracks on the ground and follow them. You use growlithe to sniff out pokemon or items. You see a herd of Rapidash that get scared and start a forest fire. You join the squirtle squad and fight fires. Those are just a few ideas.

[Christian-idis]

I’m loving the game, but I do agree that the world overall feels lifeless. I said this with SWSD, I wanted to see Pokémon have environmental interactions, run in herds, have territorial differences etc something, I think they could add it in if they wanted.

[DH-rtfk]

Does anyone else love the PokeBall designs. Like how they are homemade looking with a little locking latch on the front. I love the concept of being in the past with pokemon training being something new to the world.

[RynKen]

I like the direction the Pokemon series is going in, I don't like that Game Freak continues to put in low effort and I don't like that fans continue to reward them for putting in low effort. I'd like to see a Pokemon game being made with a similar level of passion to the Zelda series or Super Smash brothers but I doubt that will ever happen; as long as the fans keep saying "it's good enough, I had fun."
I'm probably just salty that I want to like this literal billion dollar idea, but the "Chef" cant be bothered to properly cook anything with their top tier ingredients. So the outcome usually isn't bad and can even be good, but should be much better then it is.

[dan]

Agree that the world does seem a little lifeless but the gameplay is refreshing. The sound of a PokeBall hitting a wild pokemon from behind is so satisfying to me. But I kind of miss the backpack that could fit everything including a bike, haha.

[TeamLarry]

I can’t say it’s a 10/10 game, but defenely I’m getting 10/10 enjoyment out of it xD

[thanasisdelperister]

I get everything he is saying but the part I agree more with is that Game Freak has an infinite amount of budget and they could create the ultimate Pokemon game with the tech available right now and the talent of the devs, but they know they will get away with anything and people will play it anyway because its Pokemon and its the most popular franchise out there so why even try right? Thats what bothers me the most, we will not get the full potential of an open world RPG POKEMON game, well this is the closest we will get to I guess.

[Leto]

I love the direction the franchise is heading, but I think that indeed filling up the world and adding more to the AI would definitely freshen up the game. Pokémon living thier lives, reproducing, growing up, eating, sleeping, just having their own AI schedule over the days would be fun.
Perhaps adding a mechanic that you shouldn't catch too many of em or else they would risk becoming extinct in the wild. Or just breeding them in captivity and repopulating the landscape with em if there are few of them in the wild.

[saintdragonzx]

Something that has be waiting to buy this game is the lack of gym battles and such. I think people want this open world experience, but also have the ability to battle for gym badges and have rivals. It's a very big part of the Pokémon experience. It would be great if the next game incorporates that and has like multiple regions/leagues you can participate in.

[radezzientertainment]

I PRAY that they use this recipe going forward, the potential is unreal!!!

[shuushi]

a few things they could do to liven the world up:
- saturate the colors a little, use more vibrant ones
- maybe make it so the pokemon do their own thing. i wanna see schools of fish, stampedes of rhyhorn, and prides made up of luxray, luxio, shinx, and one alpha luxray
- pokemon battling each other
- a few retextures to make it all less blurry

[funnymanonyourscrean]

100% agree! The real time battles and ability to move your trainer makes you feel really involved similar to what you might see in the anime. Having your Pokemon help you get items also adds to this feel of team work! I love these things and I know to some they may seem small but it really helps with world building and immersion. Let’s go, while much more casual did this well in some ways and I love that they stepped it up!

[TheCrazedJ]

I mainly wish we could have more interactions with our own Pokémon. I wanna be able to run along side my Luxray, and not just ride on them. Playing with my Pokémon outside of battles was always my favorite feature in most of the 3DS titles.

[emilysossoman]

I really wish they would recreate the old Pokémon games (story line and ALL) into a world like this… thats what I’m looking for so bad.

[vanderbam]

It's definitely a great step forward. What I think would really help with the world atmosphere is stuff other than just pokemon. E.g caves, ruins, forests where you come across puzzles that could be solved by using particular elemental moves or similar. More connection between landscape and lore.

[Part_Time_Fox]

I love how I always watch "before you buy" videos after I buy the game