I've been obsessed with Pokemon Legends: Arceus for the past two days, playing it every chance I get, to the point that I have to force myself to put it down! I'm not gonna waste any words here; this may well be the BEST Pokemon game I've played since frickin' Pokemon Gold!!!
I've been playing Pokemon since the original Pokemon Red came out for the Game Boy back in 1998. I've spent my teen years and my adulthood as a Pokemaniac, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. So when I say "this game is the best Pokemon game I've played in DECADES," I want you to know that those words carry weight.
When it comes to Pokemon, there's generally three elements that make the games memorable. The first, of course, is the collecting. Half the fun of Pokemon is finding all these little monsters, battling them, catching them, and adding them to your arsenal. Then there's the whole training them to become stronger, which again adds a layer of strategy to the games; you can't just catch something strong and then streamline the game! And of course there's the whole Elemental facet, which deepens the whole strategy element (pun intended) of the game. Yeah, it's cool you have a fire breathing dragon; now watch it die in two hits from a rock with a face on it because your dragon has a quadruple weakness to Rock!
But there's one more element that is often overlooked, because you can only ever appreciate it on a first playthrough: the thrill of discovery. It's that quick little moment when you're walking along a patch of grass in a route you'd never been to before, not having any idea what you're looking for, and suddenly BAM! You're face to face with a totally unknown (to you) Pokemon. Your blood gets pumping, a smile crosses your face as you get ready to do battle with, and catch, the beast.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus has all three elements present, and in spades. Battles are well paced and equally strategic as the classic games, there's PLENTY of Mons to collect, AND there's a HUGE world to explore! But this just means that Pokemon Legends is a great Pokemon game; what makes it so deserving of the praise so many gamers (myself included) are throwing at it?
Simply put, the game puts a new spin on the franchise's classic formula by being Open World. When Pokemon Sword and Shield gave the world its Wild Area, gamers saw the future potential of the Pokemon franchise: a wide, open world where Pokemon are encountered in the overworld and can be battled there. It's no exageration to say that Sword and Shield players spent half of their game time in the Wild Area alone, constantly hunting for new Pokemon and new challenges. The major problem, however, is that the Wild Area wasn't enough; gamers wanted MORE! We wanted a bigger area than this, with more places to explore!
Legends: Arceus gave us what we wanted. The very first area of the game, Obsidian Flatlands, is just as big as the Wild Area, and it's only the FIRST in the game! Obsidian Flatlands, likewise, gives us a wide variety of places to explore: forested areas, riversides, grasslands, and even a cave! What we wanted from the Wild Area, we got in SPADES now!
The game is gorgeous (for a Pokemon game on the Switch), and the details in the game are jaw dropping. This is a game that DEMANDS that you pay attention to your surroundings AT ALL TIMES, because you might just see a Pokemon you'd want! And did I mention? POKEMON CAN ATTACK YOU, TOO!!!
Pokemon players have been dreaming of a game like this since GTA III made the Open World genre a reality for console gaming. Now, in the year 2022, we finally have it. Pokemon Legends: Arceus is the game we've been waiting DECADES for!
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