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