Pokemon Legends Arceus- Nintendo Switch Review

We now go back to the past where legends are born in the Pokemon world. I had to do this one after Brilliant Diamond as this game takes place in the past of the same region. From what I understand, this is the first semi open world Pokemon game with the towns and routes interconnected and Pokemon all roam, free. While Let's Go did free roaming, Pokemon that was only in grass areas. This game is also an action RPG vs the usual turn based one so, this is a new territory for me.

Plot

Arceus calls to the player in the present day to task him to see all the Pokemon of the Hisui period. After taking you back to the past, you meet Professor Laventon who brings you to Jubilife Village. Once you've been recruited by Surevy Crops to research the Hisui area, you'll get your starter and leave to complete the first pokedex.

Gameplay

Unlike other Pokemon games that are Turn Based RPG, this one is an Action RPG. While the battles themselves are Turn Based meaning you pick an attack or use an item and then the enemy Pokemon or trainer goes next, catching can happen outside of battles. You can lure Pokemon to you with berries, use smoke to hide yourself to get closer without detection, and you can throw balls to catch them without battling at all if you want. I'd say it takes more skill to catch without battles than with them. Wild Pokemon can also attack you and if you fall unconscious you return to the last camp and lose some items.

As usual, you can travel with 6 Pokemon the rest are taken care of in the town pastures. You can travel to 5 different biome locations each with their own Pokemon and challenges. Not only can you mount 5 different Pokemon for travel, climbing, across water, sky or even finding treasure and lost items you can fast travel to marked locations including camps where you can rest, shop and update your Pokedex. To progress in the game, you accept Missions to further the story, or you can do side quests called Requests to help out villagers to get items, upgrade shops, or even get some rare Pokemon.

Review

Next to the Mystery Dungeon Series I find Pokemon: legends Arceus to be one of the best Pokemon titles. I loved the fact I didn't have to battle every Pokemon just to catch them and could catch them in other ways. The request and mission system makes it easy to not lose your progress in a task as well, which I often did in other games if it was a long side quest. This game had a lot of hype when it came out and this is one of the few times I agree it is an amazing game, but it is not perfect.

I dropped it a couple of times due to the learning curve of multitasking between walking and working the camera as I never had to do that in a game before. I also find having to catch many Pokemon of the same species kind of tedious just to complete a Pokedex entry although it would make sense as 1 Pokemon doesn't represent the entire species. At the end of the day, if you like Pokemon, but wanted an Action RPG version then you can't miss this entry.