4.5/5 ★ – TangyTomTom's review of Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

I have a confession to make: I've long been a fan of the Pokémon franchise, but haven't tried a game since Moon and haven't completed a game since Sapphire. My fandom shouldn't be doubted though, as I'm someone who grew up with everyone playing or wanting to play the games, collecting trading cards, discussing the show and (largely) fake secrets for the game, or obsessively reading game guides. Saving up and then buying Pokémon Blue is the first memory I have of being truly excited for something. In the 24 years since then I've grown and changed, but still Pokémon holds a special place in my heart, or at least the idea of it does. The formula has grown very stale for me and as a result I haven't completed a mainline Pokémon game since Sapphire, with only a brief dip into Pokémon Moon since then with me quickly recalling why I stopped playing the games. The typical simplicity of the Pokémon formula of battling your way to the Elite Four and dealing with some legendaries just doesn't appeal to me, and feels antiquated in light of the depth, wonder and variety that modern gaming has to offer. The battling, which is the focus of the mainline games, feels formulaic and never hits the high I fooled myself into believing was possible due to the TV series, and the games don't offer enough of a challenge or variety to feel like anything other than a reskin of previous entries. With all that whinging being said, I still do adore the discovery element of Pokémon as there is a wonderful variety and charm to the creature design with the odd nuance or intriguing slice of life served up via the Pokédex. To that end I've always been a fan of games like Pokémon Snap or Puzzle League. They keep the familiarity and joy of Pokémon but pair it with a gameplay loop that is far more intriguing for me as a nature nerd. If a mainline Pokémon game is equivalent to watching a Spider vs Scorpion video on YouTube (I wish I could blame the algorithm for my extensive viewing history of that) then Pokémon Legends: Arceus is equivalent to watching a David Attenborough documentary. The focus here is entirely shifted away from the combative element and replaced with an enticement to explore and active encouragement and rewarding of curiosity. I found myself scouring the map because I was having so much fun and genuinely wanted to see what Pokémon were out there, how they interacted with each other and possibly spy a rare/ baby Pokémon. Pokemon's strength for me has always been in its 'Mon, so it was a breath of fresh air to have them start to feel like organic creatures who interact with the environment, food, and objects, all of which were a delight to mess around with. They didn't feel like hollow holograms that I summoned forth to destroy my opponents in battle but actually realised creatures with temperaments and preferences and behavioural patterns. The world itself was lovely with a good variety of environments. The dialogue and story was peppered with the typical charm and innocence of the series. Even the side quests (while simplistic) were a joy to complete. They largely centred around helping the town residents understand and embrace Pokémon and I never felt I'd been sent on a fetch quest for the sake of padding time. Despite all of these positives there are some game-specific gripes, which mainly relate to the graphical performance. This isn't normally an area I'd place too much focus on but it seemed a curious choice to use rather, err... "rustic" textures for the environment. Further still, it seems baffling that there would be visible pixelation in parts, texture pop-ins and distant Pokémon having very janky movement. Given some of the feats the Switch has shown itself capable of handling. If these are performance issues then I think the number of Pokémon populating the world could be decreased, as could their variety, particularly if this meant that the remaining Pokémon could be more active and thoroughly realised. Seeing a herd of critters was cute, but largely I only studied one or two of them extensively and then spent the rest of the game sprinting past them so as to get to the more interesting creatures. This is a game I readily and strongly recommend as the world felt the closest thing to an organic world of Pokémon that I've encountered. I truly hope that further games in this vein are released.