I am not sure if there is anyone in this world who does not know what Pokémon is. In case you're one of them, Pokémon is a game about you, the main protagonist, catching monsters and making friends with them while also using them to fight and traverse the game world to become the strongest trainer. Typically, games will have you defeat six to eight gym leaders, who act as bosses of each town, before beating the last boss to prove your supremacy. But this time, in 2022, there are no gyms, because this latest game is a prequel to all others and no gyms have been established, and the game's townspeople still have very little knowledge about these mysterious monsters.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a spin-off. Previous games have been following the same formula for more than 20 years. They normally start with you being booted out of your house by your mother to "explore" and "conquer the world" by beating the crap out of Pokémon gym leaders. I was a fan in my childhood but got bored of doing the same thing after the 7th time (note: I'm exaggerating here). I'm very happy to know this game has a totally new take on the story. It is very different and much more engaging, if even a little dark at times.
Unlike any previous games where you can only catch Pokémons in battles, this game permits you to stealthily sneak behind monsters or sneak in bushes to catch them without the need to initiate any battle. Failing to catch them stealthily, the Pokémons will either run away or rush at you to start a battle.
If you have fought any Pokémons before, this game feels a lot quicker because there is no loading or cut-in when initiating battles. The game will simply zoom in to focus on your Pokémon and the opponent, while also letting you move to look around the battlefield. The battles are done in the game's usual turn-based style that lets you pick one of four moves for you to throw at the enemy, and the other side will do the same. The faster one goes first, followed by the slower one. Rinse and repeat until one side is eliminated.
Besides the usual rock-paper-scissor-style advantage certain Pokémons have in hitting harder, you also get hit harder by some other types as well and there are some slight twists in the battles. The "Strong" style lets you hit harder but slower, while "Agile" lets you hit quicker but delivers a weaker punch and allows you to hit twice in a row. This adds another layer of complexity to the game, which is welcome since the usual Pokémon battles are a little simplistic.
Bosses are done differently also. They are in an action style (not the usual turn-based style above) and you'll have to run around the battlefield, avoiding their attacks.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
You would initially "walk" on the battlefield but end up "flying" towards the end, not to mention "swimming" or "scaling mountains".
The game is fully 3D with an open-world feel. It has the best graphics among all Pokémon games but is still not the best-looking game on the Nintendo Switch (like Monster Hunter for instance). The Pokémons are all rendered in 3D with their sizes and heights considered. You will not see a Pikachu being as tall as a dinosaur Pokémon anymore. The big ones are huge, and the small ones are tiny, but size doesn't really matter in this game. This makes it feel a lot more convincing and is much more in line with how I imagine Pokémons.
For the best experience, I recommend you play this game in handheld mode because it looks better and runs better that way. In TV mode, you'll have things like trees and Pokémons popping out of thin air more often than in handheld mode. I assume the game tries to load more stuff in TV mode, but fails to do so gracefully.
It took me 25 hours to finish the story and give me a credit roll, but there are at least another 10 hours of post-game activities.
The game is not hard by any means. Just like most RPGs, if you find the battles a little too hard, just go back to the previous area and get more resources and gain more experience to level up your team, and things will be fine.
This game did re-ignite my Pokémon journey and "gotta catch them all" vibes, so I think you should give it a go.
Specs
- Console: Nintendo Switch
- Game size: 6.1GB
- Rating: Any age
- Length: 25+ hours
- Release date: Jan 28, 2022
- Genre: Action RPG
- Multiplayer: No, but does let you exchange Pokémons via the internet
- Price: About 1,800 baht