4.5/5 ★ – fez219's review of Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

Oh my god! I can't believe how much I like this game. How the hell did the team that made something as dreadful as SwSh make something this fun? I'll start with my criticisms, which won't shock anybody. The graphics are pretty awful (though not quite as bad as SwSh), and far below even Switch standards. Some textures are extra rough and a few assets like water or ground from far away look quite bad. The first hour of the game is also extremely stop and go. But once the gloves come off and you're let loose, all of this doesn't matter. The tutorial is over, and the game is so damn unbelievably fun that you barely notice how weak the graphics can be. It's pure Pokemon bliss and the freshest the series has been since gen 5. The game totally revitalizes Pokemon's tired formula into something I couldn't get enough of. Battles are seamless, taking place right in the overworld as you freely move around. Throwing items and pokeballs to catch pokemon, or Pokemon themselves to battle, is all extremely fun and satisfying. Pokemon move and behave just like you'd expect them to, and it's consistently a joy to find and catch/battle new ones. Riding Pokemon is very smooth and a great time; between that and throwing out Poke balls to fight and see your own monsters, you feel far more immersed in being a trainer than ever before. Gone is the top-down portable-esque camera, with the whole game basically being one large wild area from SwSh with a free camera and totally 3D movement (or to be more precise, 5 large wild areas a la Monster Hunter). While the game's environments sometimes lack polish, Legends Arceus still looks a hell of a lot better than SwSh. Everything is animated well — no more legendaries spinning in place during cheap-looking cutscenes or choppy battle animations. There's pop-in, but nowhere near the unacceptable 10 feet away garbage we had in SwSh. The pop-in was far enough away where it never broke my immersion here. And while the environments don't look great from a technical standpoint, their design and variety are still good. It's a far cry from the barren, PS2 textures from SwSh's wild area. The game's art style, UI, and sound design is clearly lifted off BotW, but it all works great and plays smoothly. It's Pokemon's BotW in the best way. Catching is all live action and phenomally fun. Battles are still turn-based, but the mechanics are updated to be much faster. It works out really well, and is far less tedious to play than any other Pokemon game in the past. I do wish a few things were still here, like abilities, but I can appreciate how streamlined everything has become. And while there's far less emphasis on trainer battles, the game more than makes up for this with a huge emphasis on catching and exploring. The game's difficulty is also much better tuned, as even weak monsters will do a number on your party and eventually wear you down. Pokemon feel threatening at all times, and although you grow fast (yes, there's an always on EXP share), your strength is well-balanced against the often challenging world. Progression and the Pokedex are revamped and completely fresh. Instead of catching a Pokemon once to fill out an entry, you need to do multiple different types of tasks to complete the dex for each mon. There's plently of ways to go about this, so the game does a good job offering flexibility for different playstyles. And the more you work on the Dex, the more powerful Pokemon you can keep, meaning working on the Dex is not only a fun side activity but is directly tied to your progression through the game. SwSh's wild area had Pokemon that could be far ahead of the player's level, but they were impossible to catch — a lame cop-out. This time around, though, there are giant alpha Pokemon at a far higher level than your mons even in the first area, and they are 100% available to catch. It's awesome! And it's risky too, because they'll kick your ass if you're not careful. It makes the world feel much more genuine and scary, sort of like the powerful monsters like Guardians that roam BotW. And for the first time, Pokemon can also directly attack you, the trainer, and even make you faint if you're hit enough. It's another great mechanic that makes the world feel more real and can get the heart pounding when you're in the middle of a swarm. More importantly, this mechanic is relied on for the boss fights, where you're rolling around dodging attacks like Dark Souls while also occasionally relying on your Pokemon to weaken frenzied monsters. It's crazy how fun these are, considering Gamefreak has not done much action in the past, but the bosses are all fun and memorable and I looked forward to each one. The story feels complete and has interesting characters, and is a bit more mature than the usual Pokemon title. It's not necessarily the greatest story in gaming, but it's quite fun and doesn't feel half-assed like SwSh's story did. The endgame is really cool, and there's tons to do in the postgame: catch legendaries, complete the Pokedex, do sidequests (you find a ton of them organically over the course of the game), and explore the various regions of Hisui. Unlike the last few Pokemon titles, where I was exhausted and bored by the end and have not since returned to, I can't wait to pick it back up and eventually finish the Dex. There is no national dex, but I get why: it's clear that a ton of work went into revamping and rebalancing the battle system and making each Pokemon appear and behave organically in the world. While it's hard to imagine why the national dex was absent from SwSh besides as a cheap corner cut for a rushed game, I can accept it here where everything feels so fresh and like it was given time and love. That said, I hope that GF iterates on the dex here through DLC or sequels, and that eventually I can mix up some of my faves into the gorgeous world and fantastic gameplay that Legends Arceus brings to the franchise. I can't emphasize enough how fun this game is. It's what I imagined Pokemon would be in the future when I was a kid playing GBA. I went in expecting most of the game's mechanics to be underbaked and an overall rushed product like SwSh, and I could not have been more wrong. This is undoubtedly the future of the series. So please, GameFreak, I beg of you: make a sequel to this game. Make DLC. And please, please import this game's seamless approach to catching, battling, and exploring to the main titles. I don't want the only good Pokemon games to be spinoffs. Gen 9 cannot be another traditional, agonizingly slow game full of top-down routes that could be on 3DS. This is the console experience we've all wanted, and this has to be Pokemon going forward. If this game had better graphics, it would be an easy 10. And if it had a national dex (and maybe abilities), it would be an 11. Make games more like this and less like SwSh, Gamefreak.