Being a child of the 90s means I can’t remember a time before having to “catch ’em all”. I can still distinctly remember how Pokemon Tazos awoke my inner chippie addict and collector. I also remember that awkward period in the early 2000s when parents were sure the devil himself had sent Pokemon to corrupt their children. But through it all, there has been a Pokemon game for every stage of my life. Some good, some bad, and some so terrible we won’t even mention their name here. However, never before has there been a better time to be a Pokemon fan than right now, because Pokemon Legends: Arceus truly is everything I’ve ever wanted from the franchise and more.
The story of Pokemon Legends: Arceus is set much further back than any Pokemon game before. In the game, Pokemon have yet to become integrated into daily life. At this time, most Pokemon are still wild and most of the people you will encounter treat Pokemon as creatures to be feared. This creates a sense of wildness and wonder around Pokemon that Pokemon games haven’t really explored before. Soon after dropping into this strange world, you join the Survey Corps, a small group of scientists trying to research and study Pokemon. They soon put you to work building up the first-ever Pokedex.
In most Pokemon games that have come before, filling out your Pokedex is pretty straightforward. You catch a Pokemon, and then the rest just happens. However, in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, the system is a little different. To fill out the Pokedex, you will need to complete a series of tasks for each Pokemon. Maybe you have to catch a certain number; perhaps you have to do so without them seeing you, and perhaps you need to watch that Pokemon do a specific move. Each task has various tiers, and only when you’ve completed a certain amount of tasks for a particular Pokemon is their Pokedex entry considered complete.
This small change to how Pokemon are registered creates so much more flexibility to how the game is played and sets a whole new tone. Pokemon Legends: Arceus lets you play the way you want to. If you want to spend most of your time stalking Pokemon through long grass and catching them unaware, you can, and if you prefer fighting, then you can do that also. Usually, when playing a Pokemon title, I feel like the game tells me how I have to enjoy it, whereas in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, I felt like it was up to me to play however I preferred and then find my own enjoyment within that, and honestly, it’s one of the best changes to come to Pokemon games since the 90s.
I can’t imagine that when Pokemon first launched back in the 90s, anyone could have predicted the success and staple part of entertainment it would become. Since its inception, Pokemon games have followed a pretty stock standard formula: Collect Pokemon, train Pokemon, battle Pokemon. While Pokemon Legends: Arceus doesn’t break from that formula, it does take little bits and pieces from other games and genres and mixes them in to create a Pokemon game that’s the same at its core but also very, very different. The most significant change to the previous Pokemon games is that this time around all Pokemon are wandering around the world in real-time. If you decide to try and catch a Pokemon or even engage one in battle, you aren’t taken into a separate arena; instead, everything happens within the open-world environment.
The only other game I’ve played that gives me the same feeling as I get when playing Pokemon Legends: Arceus is Breath of the Wild. While being two completely different games, the way they handle the vast open world and the 3D mechanics are too similar not to notice and if you loved Breath of the Wild I guarantee you’ll love Pokemon Legends: Arceus.
