Pokemon Legends: Arceus Review
A rift opens up and pulls you and your cell phone in. Once you orient yourself you find yourself face to face with a legendary pokemon who has a task for you. You don’t really get a choice on the matter, and are thrust through another rift. When you come to you are on a strange beach and it appears that your cell phone has transformed into something new. It isn’t long before a Professor, there’s always a Pokemon professor lurking about, Laventon finds you and tasks you with trying to obtain a complete Pokedex (a record of all the pokemon), and that is how your journey into Pokemon Legends: Arceus begins.
You’ll quickly learn that there are three different factions in the land of Hisui, and each faction has a different interpretation of a being known as Sinnoh. The factions, the Diamond Clan, the Pearl Clan, and the Galaxy Expedition Team will give you plenty of tasks, as well as support as you go through the game. The main story revolves around a rift in the sky, the same one you fell out of, and what it means for this world. You will travel to six different areas, each with a wide variety of Pokemon to catch and secrets to uncover.
As this is a Pokemon game your main objective of course is capturing pokemon, and as you go through the game you will gain access to more Pokeballs, which you’re going to have to master if you’re going to catch the more elusive Pokemon out there. You see not only do you have to choose the correct Pokeball to use, but you’re also going to have to aim your throw (this is a HUGE part of the game), if you overthrow, your Pokeball is gone, if you underthrow, it’s the same, but for seasoned Pokemon trainers you already know that you’re going to be going through a serious amount of Pokeballs to capture all the Pokemon you want. Sometimes you will have to battle the Pokemon almost into submission (almost no health), other times you can capture your target by just hitting them with your Pokeball. There are also red-eyed versions roaming the lands and those are called Alphas. They require battle and are a bigger/scarier version of themselves (I recommend evolving your Alphas for your strongest Pokemon team make up).
I spent over 36 hours completing the “game”, I put the game in quotation marks because there is an additional chapter full of additional twists and turns that you can take on after the credits roll, and I have to say that I was hooked from start to finish. You are going to be tasked with not only capturing the Pokemon, but to capture many of a certain type, see them do a specific move a certain number of times, get caught after feeding them, evolve them, and more. You do this to gain research points, which when you get to at least 10 research points the page truly unlocks for you. You’re also going to get points for the number of Pokemon you caught (I highly recommend that you make sure that you catch Pokemon in increments of 10). You will unlock your pages and get your points when you talk to Professor Laventon. Talking to him is also the only way to return to town (you have to submit your findings before you can go back). Also with those points you're gaining you can level up your status with the Galaxy Expedition Team, the reason that’s so important is that by gaining stars (your ranking) you can unlock stronger Pokeballs and will gain the ability to control higher level Pokemon.
Speaking of going places, one of the more aggravating things in the game is that you can’t just jump from area to area in the game. You will have to take on an area and then return to town before you can go to another area. There’s also something else I want to point out about the areas. In the beginning you can move around a good chunk of the area but you’re not going to be able to reach everywhere, and in some instances you’re going to have to come back much later in the game to reach those places. The reason is that you’re going to have to unlock specialized Pokemon that will gain you the ability to:
Traverse distances faster
Search for hidden or lost objects
Climbing cliffs
Swim
Fly/Glide
If you’re willing to put in the grunt work, take on assigned requests, and in the end save this world that you find yourself in, you’re going to find a solid game. In all honesty I think that this is probably one of my favorite Pokemon games to date. Sure, there is definitely an emphasis on training your Pokemon to be the strongest, but instead of the constant focus on trying to get gym badges like in previous entries, this one feels more adventurous. Speaking of adventure, you're going to have to learn to dodge attacks outside of combat. If you make a Pokemon aggressive towards you it will try to attack you. You can either try to outrun the Pokemon (and probably dodge their attack) or throw one of your Pokemon at it and battle. If this sounds even slightly in your wheelhouse, I highly recommend that you pick up the game.