With the ever-increasing number of pok\u00e9mon, the task of truly catching \u2018em all has become slightly tiresome. With the original 151, it at least felt doable, providing you had some friends to trade with (if you didn\u2019t, however, more fool you). It\u2019s refreshing then, that Legends Arceus draws the focus away from the monumental task of catching these huge amounts of creatures, and instead provides a more research-based approach. Does it all work, though? Read on to find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Plot: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pok\u00e9mon series isn\u2019t exactly known for its innovative narratives. Previous entries have basically consisted of the main player (a 10 year-old girl or boy) deciding they\u2019re too old to remain at home, retrieving a starter Pok\u00e9mon from a tree-named Professor, and building up a team to beat all the gym leaders in their region, ultimately either capturing or killing (or, as the child-friendly game stipulates, \u2018fainting\u2019) an ancient pok\u00e9mon that nobody else has been able to deal with for thousands of years. Simple enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this game, however, by taking the game back to a past setting (the fourth generation Sinnoh region becomes the Hisui region), we can finally explore what our friendly pocket monsters were like before they got on with their human counterparts. After falling from the sky, you soon become a member of the Galaxy Expedition Team, and learn that pok\u00e9mon are dangerous. You can get injured! You can die! You can\u2019t actually do either of these things, despite what the commanders say. This is still a kid\u2019s game, remember? If your character is attacked too much, you just black out, lose some items and return to base camp. Lame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Besides being tasked with researching pok\u00e9mon, you also have to figure out what\u2019s going on with the sky that you fell out of, which involves defeating five noble pok\u00e9mon, overpowered creatures that need to calm down and eat some Snickers. Or, essentially receive some ass-kicking from yours truly. Once you\u2019ve sorted them out and the legendary pokemon are dealt with, and then most of the plot is finished. While the narrative still has the basic building blocks of previous entries, the past setting and the dynamic between pokemon and people (pok\u00e9mon trainers aren\u2019t established yet) is pretty neat. And the game\u2019s primary villain is the best since Pok\u00e9mon Black and White<\/em>\u2019s N.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gameplay: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Part of this may be because I played this game with a Switch Lite rather than a regular Switch, but the controls definitely left something to be desired. Walking around the terrain is fine enough, but tasks that should have been relatively simple like aiming poke balls took far too long to master, and the noble Pok\u00e9mon fights were hellish. Part of this was because this new, Dark Souls<\/em>-like dynamic of combat provided a new and intriguing level of difficulty, but another part of this was because the controls for these fights were as smooth and intuitive as instructing a Magikarp to swim the Channel. Also, considering that children are the target audience, they\u2019re not going to get too far with these fights. Especially the final fight with Arceus. Many of my blood cells left their mortal coil before I managed to beat this (un)holy dude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Visuals:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The last game I\u2019d played in the series before this was Pok\u00e9mon Ultra Moon<\/em>, so the visuals initially felt like a big step up. They weren\u2019t exactly Breath of the Wild<\/em> quality (a game that Arceus had frequently been compared to before its release), but they\u2019re pretty good compared to the graphics of the small screen. That being said, even after the update to fix some glitches in the graphics, there\u2019s still room for improvement. If you decide to engage in battle, your character can walk straight through the pokemon, which is kind of disconcerting. The last thing pikachu needs when it\u2019s under attack is a random human just standing within its whole figure. If you\u2019re looking for pristine graphics and realistic, complex rendering, then look elsewhere (although that\u2019s more down to the quality in visuals between consoles. You\u2019re never going to get Dark Souls<\/em>-quality of animations on the Switch). Also, some glitches still haven\u2019t been patched. That Togepi I saw walking around in sporadic circles a while ago, with no abject purpose? It\u2019s still there sometimes. I don\u2019t know what pok\u00e9blocks that guy ingested, but I don\u2019t want what he\u2019s having.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Longevity:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The game\u2019s focus on research will probably be a make or break for some. It might get boring quickly, or it might suit completionists well. The main storyline will take about 25 hours. The potential for extended gameplay, however, was one of the highlights for me; even though the catch em\u2019 all mission isn\u2019t there anymore, it still feels satisfying to try and complete as many entries in your records (the pok\u00e9dex hasn\u2019t been established yet) as possible. And completing the Path of Solitude quests introduced in the Daybreak update also provide a decent challenge. And if you want another challenge, why not complete the Path of Solitude with every pok\u00e9mon in the game? Not saying I\u2019ve done that *cough*.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Verdict: 7 Mews out of 10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With the ever-increasing number of pok\u00e9mon, the task of truly catching \u2018em all has become slightly tiresome. With the original 151, it at least felt doable, providing you had some friends to trade with (if you didn\u2019t, however, more fool you). It\u2019s refreshing then, that Legends Arceus draws the focus away from the monumental task … <\/p>\n