3.5/5 ★ – dandylionbritt's review of Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

An exciting new entry in a franchise that needed shaking up. While the graphics are really poor, there’s no denying that, Pokémon Legends Arceus is a blast to play. The catching mechanics are fantastic and completely make sense. Sending a Pokémon out to weaken an opponent isn’t always even necessary in traditional games. It’s a formality I hope they’ll get rid of permanently. There’s no need to start a battle with a Pokémon you know you’re gonna be able to catch without weakening. This, along with the streamlined menus, make for a much nicer flowing, seamless gameplay experience. Being able to pick and choose what moves your Pokémon knows at anytime from the menu is also fantastic. While the story could’ve been better, it’s definitely more engaging than some past entries. I wish there were more structures in the overworld, as it’s pretty empty and ugly. Draw distance and frame rate drops are horrendous, and they can actively hinder your ability to play the game as intended. I’m thinking specifically about wisps not appearing at times. I also wish there were more ways to actually interact with your Pokémon, and a sort function for the pastures is a MUST. I really hope it gets patched in at some point. Dealing with Pokémon storage has always been an unnecessarily tedious business, and unfortunately that’s true in this game as well. And it’s more egregious because players are encouraged to capture and release at a high rate. Other menu problems include now making it easier to spot what items are new in the clothing shop. It’s a huge hassle trying to navigate the options. And locking certain hairstyles and clothing options behind gender is archaic and needs to go. I really hope they keep the catching mechanics and the streamlined menus for future games, but I don’t like the new battle system (it’s completely an artificial hindrance why you can’t send out more than one Pokémon in a multi battle…AND they got rid of moves abilities that effect more than one opponent just to make agile and strong moves relevant). I also really did not enjoy the boss fights where your little human has to run away from danger. I don’t mind that threat in the wild, but I don’t enjoy story progression locked behind a series of “boss battles” where my player character never gets to level up or get new abilities of her own. It just seems pointless in this type of game and I did not enjoy it. And a lot of people that are used to turn based combat are not accustomed to or skilled enough for this type of game play. It can be frustrating, and I definitely think that as we progressed through the story, better armor would have made sense. But I also have to say that facing Arceus did not make sense to have that type of boss battle. I ended up getting him without battling at all. He wasn’t enraged, so why did I have to throw balms at him? How did I prove myself worthy only by dodge rolling… Who knows what the Pokémon company may keep from this game going forward, hopefully it’s all the good things. Regardless, I’m very glad that I played this one and it’s the first time I’ve completed a Pokédex so it’ll always be special to me.