Pokemon Legends: Arceus Review

"Breath of the Pokemon"

Campaign

March 7, 2022 at 11:06pm
By Jason Stettner

This is quite a change-up for the series, moving into the somewhat open world and it’s definitely a good direction for the franchise. In general, this actually makes perfect sense for type of game Pokemon actually is. It’s comparable to say Go, where you go out in the real world to gather creatures.

It just makes sense to have that sort of style here and hopefully this is a direction they continue to go for the series. Players will start out with minimal customization and arrive randomly on this island. They’re welcomed into the local academy and will need to head out into the world in order to catch the various creatures out there called Pokemon in order to fill out their Pokedex and to earn currency to get better tools for the job.

It is somewhat repetitive in this regard, not only in terms of the base functionality but also in the story structure. You’re basically going into an area, capturing the creatures and going through minimal story to eventually cleanse a stronger beast.

I would have liked a deeper narrative aspect as I loved going out there to catch but found the actual story component to be somewhat weak despite being decently long in time it provides. I was constantly left with having to grind out extra Pokemon to progress the story.

I would have liked it better if that was woven into the core story more with the aspects of catching more to further my collection instead of being padded story telling time. This is also of course just a single player game without additional modes, that being said you can continue to explore in the search of say a shiny Pokemon or to fill out your Pokedex if you crave more action.

Gameplay

The core concept is simple, you run about in this 3D world catching the Pokemon that are present. It’s decently complex in terms of how you catch them as you get a range of tools. I really loved how this aspect was handled, but also felt the lock on detection could have been better. I kept trying to lock onto a critter that was closer and it was just stuck on another.

Free catching is an option, but also somewhat trickier too. You will need to be smart out there as some of these creatures don’t want to get caught or stealth may be needed. It may even go further towards a point of having to engage in a turn based battle where you use previous Pokemon you’ve caught to help out.

These creatures can be leveled, placed in special play areas or generally just used to help out in your quest along the way and you’re constantly getting new ones to use which is awesome. I got a fairly good crew, and it was fun to keep some core ones going as they were getting experience to become more powerful.

For movement you’re able to just run about or you’ll eventually end up getting a mount which is nice. It’s quite accessible so all ages should be able to play this and not find it to be much of a challenge which makes sense for the target audience of the game. When it comes to the general resolution of the game we’re seeing a dynamic 1080p when it’s docked and 720p when it’s undocked which is fairly standard.

It’s attempting to hit 30fps but you will see constant dips when going about. The fighting system seemed smooth though. When traversing the world it’s very minimal in terms of visuals. It’s got an aesthetically pleasing artistic vibe, but at the same time does come across as a bit barren.

It’s also open world, but more or so hub type areas so I wasn’t too impressed by the environments. They do vary from place to place but are very similar and again not the best looking places. Match that with a lot of pop in and in general the performance mixed with visual quality isn’t the best here.

The Conclusion

Pokemon Legends: Arceus is a great direction for the series to take, being somewhat held back by the technical elements of the world you’re visiting. I really would like to see further entries embrace a more open world concept, as it just makes sense for this franchise.

I do hope that we see some more technically impressive offerings in the future however. I liked the look of the Pokemon here, there are many details behind them as well. Whether that’s in the process behind catching them or in the actual usage of the creatures.

It feels expansive, yet at the same time the actual story content was minimal. I get the target audience for it, but it felt a bit grindy after the main story stuff was done in each region and that sort of dragged out the pacing of the experience. Still, a fun time and definitely a worthwhile new take on the series.

Read our Detective Pikachu Review
View our Game Hubs

Pokemon Legends: Arceus Review on Nintendo Switch
Review Code Provided by Nintendo

Rating Overall: 7.5