Was Pokemon Legends: Arceus worth it?

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl might have taken you to present day Sinnoh, but Pokémon Legends Arceus is an adventure in the distant past. Was Pokemon Legends: Arceus worth it?

Background

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is an isekai RPG that’s quite a bit more hands-on than the previous entries. Your character is largely in charge of exploring and establishing supply lines throughout the region, while also trying to get to the bottom of how you ended up there.

What does Pokémon Legends: Arceus do differently?

The series has changed drastically in the last few mainline entries, but Pokémon Legends Arceus might be the blueprint that they intend to use going forward with Scarlet and Violet (due later in 2022).

Pokémon Legends Arceus keeps the same monster catching theme, but places you in an open world. You have a few different regions with distinct biomes where you can find the various monsters. The regions themselves are decently sized; think the Wild Area in Sword and Shield.

Ride Pokémon return, and they are your primary method of getting around quickly and traversing difficult terrain.

Pokémon abilities are out, and stats have been retooled. Pokémon stats used to be determined by IVs, which functioned like genes. In PLA, stat differences are determined by effort levels, ranging from 0-10. You can catch Pokémon with slightly better effort levels, or you can simply raise the effort levels yourself with items. This means that the Pokémon you started with can stay competitive throughout the entirety of the game. Pokemon personalities return, but you can change those with mints, which are also relatively easy to farm (you actually grow them).

Alpha and Shiny Pokemon

Shiny Pokémon are still present and are easier to get than ever, but they’ve also added Alpha Pokémon. Alphas are scaled up to the maximum size for the species and are generally high level. Alpha Pokémon are as close as you get to actual bosses and catching them can be an actual challenge since they love to spam high power moves like Giga Impact or Hyper Beam. Alpha Pokémon have higher starting effort levels, but are otherwise just larger and have a red icon. They also do not retain the red eyes upon capture. You can find shiny alphas, but that level of patience is beyond me.

Is Dexit in effect for Pokemon Legends: Arceus?

Yes. There are only 242 Pokemon in this game.

What does Pokemon Legends: Arceus do well?

Terrain Gating and Exploration

Each region has different geological features, whether it’s water, mountains, etc. You eventually unlock ways to traverse these areas, which often hide new Pokémon for you to catch.

Alpha Pokemon

Hunting for Alphas is consistently fun. They have boosted stats, so it isn’t just another wild encounter and they can pose a real threat.

Pokemon Aggression and Behavior

Species react differently to human incursion. Some Pokémon will just run up to you, some will run away, and others will immediately attack.

What could Pokémon Legends: Arceus do better?

Graphics

This game looks rough. I could deal when I was playing it on handheld mode on my Switch Lite, but on a larger screen it’s incredibly jarring. Sword and Shield had some issues, but wasn’t this bad.

Flight

Most of the travel options (climbing, riding, swimming) are fine. Flying will get you from point a to point b, but not elegantly or even particularly quickly. The biggest issue is that there’s no real way to adjust your altitude. You literally cannot fly upwards; if there’s a mountain in your way, you have to get on foot, then call for Braviary again.

The same issue is prevalent when trying to land. The fastest way to land is to dismount, fall, and then call for Braviary while falling. Just be careful, because there are times when you call for Braviary and he just won’t show up, leading to a death from fall damage.

Checking your Pokedex

Why can’t you check your Pokedex during battle? There are plenty of research tasks that involve defeating monsters with certain types of moves, seeing them use certain moves, etc. It would be great to be able to see that during battle.

Extremely Rare Pokémon

There are some Pokémon that only spawn during distortions. Distortions are an uncommon event in and of themselves that only occur if the weather is right and if you’ve been in an area long enough. These events are your only change to get the other starters, fossil Pokémon or Porygon. I realize that it wouldn’t be a traditional Pokémon game if some mons weren’t a pain in the ass to catch, but it’s still annoying.

There are two legendary Pokémon (Shaymin and Darkrai) that are only available if you have save data from previous games. Darkrai requires save data from Brilliant Diamond or Shining Pearl, while Shaymin requires save data from Sword or Shield.

Boss Battles

While I do applaud them for doing something different, Pokémon isn’t the franchise where I want to start tumbling around like it’s Dark Souls. I don’t want to roll around and throw treats at the bosses, I want to smack them with my own Pokémon. What’s weird is that there are boss fights that are just outright battles, but clearly they were really intent on the awful balm throwing mechanic.

Narrative

The Pokémon series has done the isekai angle competently several times at this point. Some of the Mystery Dungeon games have fantastic plots that hold up to this day. Arceus’ plot in comparison is ridiculous. It doesn’t just break your suspension of disbelief, it smashes it.

Voice Acting

Pokémon is a franchise that is at least 10-15 years behind the times in terms of features. What does that mean? That means you have to sit through awkward, silent, unskippable cutscenes.

Trainer Battles

This piggybacks on the narrative issue, but there are very few trainer battles in this game, which is a big disappointment. There is one good trainer battle towards the end, but if you’re actually catching Pokémon and completing research tasks, then you’ll be highly overleveled.

Is Pokémon Legends: Arceus good value?

There’s a good amount of content, though you’ll probably find that the rewards for endgame activities aren’t quite worth the effort. Eventually it should be compatible with Pokémon Home, but there’s no ETA on that. Home Compatibility should increase the game’s value exponentially. I wouldn’t mind playing the story from the beginning with rare or lategame mons like the Ralts or Goomy lines.

Was Pokémon Legends: Arceus fun?

Exploring and catching Pokemon is great. The main gameplay loop of exploring, completing research tasks, and expanding your reserves of Pokemon is great. The boss fights and the story are where it drops the ball, but fortunately you can get through those parts to get back to the actual meat of the game.

Was Pokémon Legends: Arceus worth it?

This is one of the better entries in quite some time. Pokemon Legends: Arceus is worth it, but be prepared for the lackluster story and boss fights. The revamped stat and battle system is great, and I hope to see more of it in future titles.

Looking for more?

Agree? Disagree? Join us on the official Aggregator Reviews Discord! We want to build a community, and we’re looking for members, content creators, and moderators.

Revisit some older titles:

Is Octopath Traveler worth playing in 2022?

Is SD Gundam G Genesis worth playing in 2022?

Indulge in some new experiences:

Was Shin Megami Tensei V worth it?

Was Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires worth it?