pokemon legends arceus review

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+---
+title: "Pokémon Legends Arceus Review"
+date: 2022-03-07
+tags:
+  - pokemonlegendsarceus
+---
+
+[tl;dr: this game is easily the best Pokémon game in years. It has flaws that
+are apparent, but overall it doesn't rely too much on them in order for its core
+gameplay loop to function. If you've been on the fence about it and need the
+voice of a cartoon animal to convince you, you'll probably not be disappointed
+with it. You'll know within an hour or two if you like it or
+not.](conversation://Cadey/enby)
+
+Pokémon is a very important series to me. The Pokémon games were one of the
+first places that I was able to do some form of gender exploration. I spent
+hours crunching numbers and training up teams to battle competitively. I never
+really got anywhere with this, but it was important enough to me that my YouTube
+channel used to be nothing but commentary on Pokémon battles that I captured
+with my DS and a cell phone camera, using a "tripod" that I assembled out of
+legos.
+
+However, the Pokémon 20 years ago when I was in high school is basically the
+same Pokémon game you can go out to the store and buy today. Most of the core
+Pokémon formula was set in stone by the point that Pokémon Diamond and Pearl
+came out. The core game loop was to talk to people to find out where to go next,
+buy items, fight and enslave wildlife, battle against trainers that want you to
+show your mettle and somehow end up preventing a CK-class reality restructuring
+scenario after the latest evil group of the month tries to use the power of a
+sleeping god to bend reality to their will. This core game loop has remained
+unchanged, but along the way various gimmicks, features and iterations were
+layered on top to give it a fresh coat of paint. Yet under the hood it was still
+the same Pokémon game with the same battle rules and the same overall flow.
+
+[Not to say that the core game in Pokémon games _isn't fun_, it's more of just
+that I've seen the same thing so many times that it's less new and exciting the
+6th time around as it was magical and unique that first time. Also keep in mind
+that as a competitive Pokémon battler I have a very different experience than
+most casual players would](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
+
+Pokémon Legends Arceus is a defiant counter example of this same Pokémon game,
+and it really shows what a Pokémon game _can_ be. It's a lot more like Monster
+Hunter than other Pokémon games have been. Instead of Pokémon hiding in the tall
+grass from you, you hide in the tall grass from Pokémon. You can get knocked out
+when Pokémon attack you. Getting knocked out makes you lose _items_, which are a
+lot more precious (money is scarce if you played the game like I did) and
+limited then they have ever been. The battle system has almost been thrown out
+and reinvented from a high level overview of how Pokémon battling should work.
+So much cruft and baggage has been thrown away, leaving things to a much more
+streamlined and enjoyable experience.
+
+However a lot of the initial fan reaction to the game went something like this:
+
+[But that one trailer showed the game running like ass at 24 FPS and the trees
+look worse than they did on the 3DS. How can you praise this game if it looks
+like babby's first Unity game for an ancient android
+phone?](conversation://Numa/delet)
+
+I have a theory on why Game Freak makes "horrible" trailers: they can't run
+their game on PC. They have to run it on dev units. They literally can't get a
+4k60 trailer because they _do not have hardware strong enough to render that_.
+Additionally, they're probably running a development build of the game before
+all the optimizations are done. In a way Game Freak is actually the most honest
+developer I've seen in a long time. They show the game off _with its graphical
+flaws openly visible_ because they focus on the _gameplay_ rather than the games
+themselves. And because gamers in 202x, honesty is punished so of course they
+get the short end of the stick.
+
+<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PokemonLegendsArceus?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PokemonLegendsArceus</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NintendoSwitch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NintendoSwitch</a> <a href="https://t.co/fjj87nrVDr">pic.twitter.com/fjj87nrVDr</a></p>&mdash; Within Screenshots (@withinscreensh1) <a href="https://twitter.com/withinscreensh1/status/1487545209881694209?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 29, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
+
+The game looks fine. The art style helps polish over some of the rendering
+weirdness they needed to pull to get it to run on a Tegra X1. Sometimes I really
+wonder what they could do if they weren't hamstrung to having to run the games
+on Nintendo hardware though. I'd really love to see what they could do if they
+had their games on Steam or at least without the overhead of emulation.
+
+You can actually see this in the kinds of changes that they make to the core
+Pokémon formula over the years. Here's a high level list off the top of my head
+as I compare Pokémon Diamond to newer games in the series:
+
+* Hidden Machines (HMs) have been totally ripped out
+* New battle formats (triples, rotation, etc.) have been added
+* Battle gimmicks (mega evolutions, Gigantimax, etc.) have been added
+* Fully 3D environments don't constrain you to only be able to move on an
+  invisible grid
+* Lots of downtime was streamlined away
+* Gyms were streamlined out in favor of plot-based challenges which are the
+  moral equivalent of gyms anyways
+* Soft lock and sequence breaking potential was removed
+
+Hidden Machines contain field skills which you need gym badges to use. In
+Pokémon Diamond and Pearl there were 8 field skills you could get, and usually
+you needed to dedicate two Pokémon in your party of 6 to be "HM slaves" so that
+you could move around the world freely. This constrained your team building
+choices for the main path of the game significantly. Later Pokémon games
+streamlined these field skills out in favor of them just being things you could
+summon in when needed.
+
+<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PokemonLegendsArceus?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PokemonLegendsArceus</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NintendoSwitch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NintendoSwitch</a> <a href="https://t.co/VvefsR9Fxg">pic.twitter.com/VvefsR9Fxg</a></p>&mdash; Within Screenshots (@withinscreensh1) <a href="https://twitter.com/withinscreensh1/status/1501013567591514115?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
+
+Pokémon Legends Arceus retains some of these, but it's much more focused on
+movement (running around fast, finding buried items, climbing sheer cliff faces,
+crossing water and gliding) than most of the other movement field skills in the
+past have been. However if you really want to, you can catch 6 Bibarels and walk
+across their backs to skip your way into high level areas. There is no way Game
+Freak would have let you get away with this kind of madness in other Pokémon
+games because you could soft lock yourself so easily that way.
+
+[Fast travel being unlocked right at the beginning really does change how you
+handle being soft-locked eh?](conversation://Numa/happy)
+
+New Pokémon battle formats were added over the years. The most notable example
+that comes to mind is how Pokémon Black and White introduced Triple battles
+(each side sends out 3 pokemon at once) and Rotation battles (each side sends
+out 3 pokemon on a rotating platform that you can rotate between at the cost of
+a turn). Both of these lead to some really interesting and unique strategies,
+and created very memorable experiences. Along the way they also added Mega
+evolutions, Gigantimax and other gimmicks that can help you turn the tide of
+battle, but is also fairly hard for me to keep track of (and probably banned in
+Smogon grade competitive Pokémon anyways). The core battle system is still the
+same though. You can be confused and then hurt yourself in confusion, sleep and
+freezing are absolutely bullshit. Core parts of how your pokemon progress (such
+as Effort Values) are hidden from you, needing you to either hack your game to
+see them. If you try to run away from a fight, sometimes it doesn't work.
+
+[There's usually a consumable item that helps you recover from confusion, but
+you usually only get access to it after you suffer through the slog that is
+Zubat cave where I swear they programmed the AI with the express purpose of
+using Confuse Ray as much and as often as possible, even to the point of
+predicting when you'll snap out of confusion so it can re-confuse you instantly.
+I am so glad to see that gone.](conversation://Cadey/angy)
+
+In comparison, Pokémon Legends Arceus ripped out most of the battle system. The
+only battle option is singles. You choose if you want to battle a wild Pokémon
+or not by yeeting that sucker right in the face with one of your team. If you
+want to run away, you make your player character _actually run away from the
+battle_ with no chance of failure. Confusion was ripped out of the game. Sleep
+and freezing are like burns instead of making you totally screwed and they wear
+off in a few turns. Special and physical attack/defense boosts and nerfs are
+combined instead of specializing too much in one over the other. Swords Dance is
+viable on special attackers. Pokémon that are 10-20 levels below you can be
+threats and can cause a party wipe if you're not careful. Alpha Pokémon pull TM
+moves into the movepool and can be a serious threat.
+
+[If this game allowed competitive battling against other players, the Resto
+Snorlax strat would be even more powerful...](conversation://Mara/hmm)
+
+Effort Values (EVs) are shown to you in the the Pokémon status screen. EVs are
+sort of like persistent stat bonuses, so them being visible lets you really
+customize how you balance out your team's strengths and weaknesses. As someone
+who got an Action Replay in part to see EVs of my Pokémon, this is an
+earth-shattering change. It makes it _actually worth my time_ to try and raise
+up a team.
+
+<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PokemonLegendsArceus?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PokemonLegendsArceus</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NintendoSwitch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NintendoSwitch</a> <a href="https://t.co/GLJjBHdnQG">pic.twitter.com/GLJjBHdnQG</a></p>&mdash; Within Screenshots (@withinscreensh1) <a href="https://twitter.com/withinscreensh1/status/1501012489231749127?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
+
+They also added move styles to the mix. Once a Pokémon levels up enough, they
+gain mastery in moves. This allows them to either use the move in Strong Style
+or Agile Style. Doing the move in either style costs two PP instead of the one
+it usually does, but they let you manipulate the amount of damage you do. Use a
+super effective move in agile style to avoid damaging it too much then throw an
+ultra ball to catch. You're given a lot more freedom.
+
+Speed was totally thrown out and rethought from scratch. Speed controls the turn
+order instead of just a race to see who wins. The turn order can also be
+manipulated by strong and agile style moves. Strong style makes you slower in
+the turn order and agile style makes you faster in the turn order. This can
+change the tide of battle and can lead to you getting 3 or 4 attack turns in a
+row if you play your cards right.
+
+<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PokemonLegendsArceus?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PokemonLegendsArceus</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NintendoSwitch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NintendoSwitch</a> <a href="https://t.co/105202D2k4">pic.twitter.com/105202D2k4</a></p>&mdash; Within Screenshots (@withinscreensh1) <a href="https://twitter.com/withinscreensh1/status/1501012882728710148?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
+
+[These are just more and more reasons why I want to see what PvP battles in this
+game's engine would be like!](conversation://Cadey/enby)
+
+One of the biggest changes with the presentation is the fact that they made
+everything fully 3D as soon as the hardware allowed. This arguably happened when
+it did because the 3DS had an analog stick, which allowed you to move directly
+in any direction you wanted. It made sense for the flagship RPG Pokémon to
+follow suit. Pokémon Legends Arceus is a very vertical game. You _actually
+explore_ the area. Walking into the Obsidian Fieldlands for the first time has
+that Breath of the Wild moment where the camera pulls back and you can really
+appreciate the scale of the area.
+
+<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PokemonLegendsArceus?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PokemonLegendsArceus</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NintendoSwitch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NintendoSwitch</a> <a href="https://t.co/7AhyNYYE53">pic.twitter.com/7AhyNYYE53</a></p>&mdash; Within Screenshots (@withinscreensh1) <a href="https://twitter.com/withinscreensh1/status/1498478801642143744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 1, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
+
+Pokemon walk around and go about their own business and then it's
+up to you to either fight them or assimilate them into your fold. You don't just
+run around, you dodge, roll and sneak your way over to Pokémon, baiting them
+with berries and then throwing a ball into its back to capture it even faster.
+Field Items let you make your own cover wherever you need it. Pokémon can knock
+you out, and when they do you actually lose things. I've lost Nuggets,
+experience candies and more to being careless.
+
+<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PokemonLegendsArceus?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PokemonLegendsArceus</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NintendoSwitch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NintendoSwitch</a> <a href="https://t.co/Km6xt32FPn">pic.twitter.com/Km6xt32FPn</a></p>&mdash; Within Screenshots (@withinscreensh1) <a href="https://twitter.com/withinscreensh1/status/1487585767392104449?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
+
+[It's worth noting that you can get those items back eventually, but in the
+moment being without your healing items can fundamentally change how you play
+the game.](conversation://Cadey/enby)
+
+Pokémon has a lot of downtime in its core event loop. When you enter a wild
+battle encounter in Pokémon, you have to wait for the opening animations while
+you send out your Pokémon and then wait for the move animations and then wait
+for the health and experience bars to drain down and scooch up. This makes for a
+lot of downtime that adds up a lot. Most of your time spent playing Pokémon
+Diamond is waiting to do things. Future games removed a lot of the waiting (and
+even gave you an option to disable a lot of the animations), but there's still
+waiting in the core formula of the game.
+
+<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-gCvQiFUyC4" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
+
+It feels like the game designers behind Pokémon Legends Arceus recognize how
+much downtime Pokémon has at its core and went out of their way to get rid of as
+much of it as possible. You can run around, have a battle and then win it in
+less than 30 seconds. If you aren't spotted you can catch 4 Pokémon per minute
+easily. As someone that grew up on the wait-heavy formula of older Pokémon
+games, this is unheard of to me. Here is an _entire battle_:
+
+<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PokemonLegendsArceus?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PokemonLegendsArceus</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NintendoSwitch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NintendoSwitch</a> <a href="https://t.co/TTOUzkDwmC">pic.twitter.com/TTOUzkDwmC</a></p>&mdash; Within Screenshots (@withinscreensh1) <a href="https://twitter.com/withinscreensh1/status/1487586353038573568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
+
+Yeah, that's it. Things that don't need to block the gameplay loop don't.
+Battles start and end quickly. It's glorious. You don't have to go to a move
+eraser or farm heart scales to have your Pokémon relearn old moves. Leveling up
+doesn't instantly present you with the choice to forget moves, you choose the
+moveset you want when you want to make that choice.
+
+One of the main points where the game is lacking is in the story department,
+however in comparison to other Pokémon games the story both does and doesn't
+make sense. Pokémon Legends Arceus goes for a generic fantasy isekai\* vibe.
+
+[\*Isekai is the blanket term for all those "I got transported to another world"
+type stories. Think A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Space Jam, The
+Good Place, The Legend of Narnia and Konosuba.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
+
+You are some random 15 year old that noclips out of reality and has Pokémon God
+pull them into the past to catch 'em all. For a Pokémon game, this actually
+works a lot better, but it could be a lot better if they took the time to really
+make it a proper isekai. You just show up out of nowhere, are shown to be an
+absolute Pokémon prodigy and suddenly accepted into the fold of a fairly
+isolated village. Then you go about slowly discovering the CK class reality
+restructuring scenario at play while also following the commands that Pokémon
+God texts you.
+
+[You criticize Pokémon for doing things that most isekai media does? Look at
+Konosuba. Kazuma basically shows up in that poor village out of nowhere and
+eventually works his way into be accepted into the community (after sleeping in
+horse stables) and occasionally getting instructions from Aqua and Eris. Space
+Jam has Micheal Jordan come out of nowhere and save the Looney Tunes from Space
+Capitalism with the power of a chaos dunk. If that ain't like the typecast
+definition of what an isekai is, what the hell do you
+WANT?](conversation://Numa/delet)
+
+[Okay yeah, you have a point. I guess that the story really does get the
+intended vibe across and most of the reason I think it's a negative thing is
+because I've been on a bit of an isekai kick as of late. If I wasn't like 15
+animes into isekai stuff I'd probably like it a lot
+more.](conversation://Cadey/facepalm)
+
+The story doesn't really get in your way too much though, movement options are
+restricted by the story but this is how it is in every game these days. Most
+story progression is done through either getting enough Pokédex points to go up
+a ranking level in Team Galactic (the moral equivalent of gym badges) or
+completing story-based missions.
+
+Another big thing they changed was the Pokédex. Catching them all isn't the
+end-all-be-all anymore. Now you actually have to experiment with them. Try
+feeding them berries, catch them without them spotting you, beat them using
+moves of a certain type, watch them use moves or styles of moves, learn more
+about them with side missions (the game calls them "requests") or the like. You
+actually feel like you're _learning_ what the Pokémon do instead of just going
+down a list, even if you are fundamentally just going down a list.
+
+<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PokemonLegendsArceus?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PokemonLegendsArceus</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NintendoSwitch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NintendoSwitch</a> <a href="https://t.co/Bei0c201wk">pic.twitter.com/Bei0c201wk</a></p>&mdash; Within Screenshots (@withinscreensh1) <a href="https://twitter.com/withinscreensh1/status/1501014249857900546?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
+
+I hope future games in the Pokémon series are like this game. My greatest hope
+for this game is that in comparison the the future games in this series, this
+game will be _absolute garbage_ because the newer games will have polished and
+ironed out the rough sides in this game. They do exist and you can notice them
+pretty easily if you are looking for them, but most of the time I can appreciate
+the limitations as setpieces and focus more on the gameplay.
+
+The biggest graphical issue I found was a bug in the anime shader in caves with
+water pools in them. It can make the borders render weird like this:
+
+<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PokemonLegendsArceus?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PokemonLegendsArceus</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NintendoSwitch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NintendoSwitch</a> <a href="https://t.co/0PQhWLmpql">pic.twitter.com/0PQhWLmpql</a></p>&mdash; Within Screenshots (@withinscreensh1) <a href="https://twitter.com/withinscreensh1/status/1487864370453368833?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
+
+Note that I have really had to go out of my way to find that. The 99% case is
+that things look great. The game has such a beautiful aesthetic that I can
+forgive a fixable shader bug in a case that happens very rarely.
+
+<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PokemonLegendsArceus?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PokemonLegendsArceus</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NintendoSwitch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NintendoSwitch</a> <a href="https://t.co/JbPooCsM0K">pic.twitter.com/JbPooCsM0K</a></p>&mdash; Within Screenshots (@withinscreensh1) <a href="https://twitter.com/withinscreensh1/status/1489669077916209152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
+
+Overall, if you're burned out on the sameiness of Pokémon games, give this one a
+try. It is not earth-shatteringly good like NieR: Automata or Xenoblade
+Chronicles 2, but it is a step towards [the perfect Pokémon
+game](https://reddit.com/r/theperfectpokemongame). It's worth a play.