Pokemon has a new spinoff (franchise?) and it’s based in Feudal Japan. Combining traditional gameplay with mechanics introduced with Pokemon Let’s Go ‘Legends Arceus’ attempts to change up the classic but admittedly tired gameplay for both new and older fans of the series. While not everything is perfect this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Pokemon: Legends Arceus is a 2022 action RPG, it is developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo. It is available exclusively on the Nintendo Switch.

Editor’s Note: Medium spoilers for Pokemon: Legends Arceus may be present within this review.

Pokemon: Legends Arceus is a blast based in the past.

Since 1996 fans of the beloved Pokemon series have been trying to fill their Pokedex by attempting to Catch ‘Em All. The tried and true gameplay formula has been apart of the franchise for over twenty years, but even the most loyal fan will tell you that the series was overdue for some kind of evolution. While Pokemon: Legends Arceus doesn’t change the core battle gameplay too much it delivers & makes strides elsewhere.

Pokemon are the biggest threat in ‘Legends Arceus’.

THE GOOD: Pokemon: Legends Arc. eus begins with a modern era human (the player) being in contact with the legendary Pokemon Arceus. Feeling that space-time is in danger Arceus sends them to Feudal Era Japan in the Hisui region on Jubilife Village where they meet Professor Laventon who refers to them as “the person who fell from the sky”. They’re later introduced to the Galaxy Team; a group whose goal is to capture and study Pokemon so they’re easier to deal with publicly and less dangerous to humans. Laventon introduces them to leader of the Survey Corps Cyllene and later the commander of the Galaxy Team Kamado both of whom often give the players tasks such as filling the Pokedex or calming frenzied Pokemon in different regions. As the story progress you meet the leaders of the Diamond & Pearl clans who work with Jubilife Village, as well as the Miss Fortune Sisters a trio of female bandits.

Overtime the leaders of Hisui gain the trust of the player and give him more dangerous tasks. Eventually you’re tasked with studying and capturing legendary Pokemon Palkia & Dialga. These Pokemon have a direct link to other legendaries including Arceus the supposed God of Pokemon.

Players can customize their characters with new outfits and masks.

Not since Pokemon Go & Pokemon: Let’s Go Eevee & Pikachu has Pokemon taken such a drastic detour from is overly familiar formula. Player starts, player gets starter Pokemon, player catches Pokemon and battle gym leaders & the Elite Four, player becomes Champion, fill Pokedex. While much of the traditional expectations of a Pokemon title remain in ‘Legends Arceus’ what has changed leaves a major impression on what could be possible for the franchise if Nintendo and Game Freak allowed it more breathing room creatively. Just for the sake of it I’ll go over the returning features as well as what’s been introduced in Pokemon: Legends Arceus. Obviously, the battle mechanics are back. You face off against another trainer or Pokemon and use a limit of four moves that either do damage or buff your Pokémon’s stats or debuffs your opponent’s. You can catch Pokemon in the wild like always and also use items to permanently buff them. There’s also Pokemon used for faster travel as well as flight, climbing rock, and traversing across water.

Now let me go into what’s change with Pokemon: Legends Arceus. Firstly, while the battle system is more or less the same as always there is a new Strong & Agile Style mechanic. These new move types give your Pokemon an extra bump in power. On the surface it doesn’t really seem like much, but I can’t tell you how many times switching a move between normal and one of the two styles saved my life as I was close to losing a battle. So don’t take this as a minor addition the difference in power is rather significant between normal and style moves. In regards to difficulty I was rather surprised that there were genuine moments where it spiked later in the game. I consider myself a seasoned Pokemon player so I was pretty happy with being given a real challenge for the first time in years.

While I don’t like the new catching gimmick in the style of Pokemon: Let’s Go the addition of stealth adds a bit more to it. I hated this catch system because it felt so easy to catch Pokemon, especially if you have the right type of Pokeball. However, the stealth and use of berries and such gives you more of a reason to strategize with catches. However, by the time you unlock the Ultra Ball we’re kind of back to square one with catches being a breeze again if you do the bare minimum like getting a Pokémon’s health to yellow. And I mean a high yellow, I swear it feels like an instant catch every time. I tested this out on legendaries and the results remained the same.

The story for the most part is pretty mundane and what you’d expect from Pokemon. However, there are some moments where I actually had to do a double take with the context of what I just saw. Like one moment you’re taking in the fact that you’re still playing a kids game, then the next you see a dialogue box talking casually about how Pokemon killed a ton of people. It kind of set me back a bit. Pokemon games have mentioned or referenced death in the past, but as far as I’m aware this is the first time a game has blatantly mentioned something like murder. It honestly kind of set me back a bit in a “did I really just see that?” kind of way.

Side quests return to Pokemon.

THE BAD: One of the more eye-popping issues with Pokemon: Legends Arceus is that it doesn’t look all that impressive graphically, especially for a recent Nintendo game & even less so for an AAA project. Personally, I’m still not much of a fan of the Pokemon: Let’s Go catching mechanic, but in ‘Legends Arceus’ it definitely feels way more refined. Even still it often still has too much ease when it comes to just one shotting a catch for a Pokemon almost regardless of level. There’s also a severe lack of original Pokemon for the game outside of maybe a few Hisui incarnations of what’s already available. Speaking of lacking ‘Legends Arceus’ has a pretty limited amount of trainers you can actually battle. That being said you can find secret battles with the Miss Fortune Sisters out in the world and can face trainers at the training ground anytime you want. This means most of your exp. gaining will come from catching and battling Pokemon which is a bit of a weird turn. A few glitches are present such as Pokemon disappearing as you attempt to battle/catch them and sometimes getting stuck in certain areas, but you can usually escape from the latter.

Nintendo tries an open-world with Pokemon in ‘Legends Arceus’.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Pokemon: Legends Arceus doesn’t break any grounds, but it does enough where it actually justifies long-tike players who’ve spent two decades asking for something new. The familiar concept never gets lost to the newer mechanics or vice versa. What’s there enhances the experience to the point where it asks the question “where can Pokemon go if Nintendo allowed other devs to experiment with the IP?”. It’s a more than serviceable effort from Game Freak who’ve shown they still have that creative spark for the series if given the chance. Not every fan will like what’s been done, but most fans do and the game has already successfully brought in new fans and brought back lapsed fans. If we never get a Pokemon: Legends Arceus 2, then let this be the door opener to more experimental Pokemon projects the series so desperately needs and deserve. And who says we can’t have both of those things as well as the more traditionally titles as well? Obviously, that’s Nintendo’s decision but they should really consider their options after Arceus’ early successes.