Blood Pressure Blog

Pokemon Legends: Arceus (PLA) is a game where the main character is a massive beta that shudders at the sight of a slight hill. As the newest iteration into the Pokémon franchise, PLA throws out the typical formula and concocts a new, slightly different, but just as flawed formula. As a longtime fan starting in Gen 4 and losing his way with the franchise around Gen 7, I remember the announcement trailer for this game and how we compared it to Breath of the Wild. Yet, the Breath of the Wild parallels were quickly debunked, understanding the game would be a collection of areas with a central point of transit – Jubilife Village. After playing for roughly a week, there’re a lot of infuriating things that leave the cynic in me with question marks.

Jumping Mechanic

HOW DOES AN OPEN WORLD GAME WORK WITHOUT THE ABILITY TO JUMP? For some reason GameFreak thought it would be a good idea for us to give us this halfassed dive/roll/jump that has only one purpose in the game for dodging moves from wild Pokemon. Yes, I understand this is a necessary mechanic when fighting the Noble Pokemon, but how is there not a mechanic where I can simply jump? Every single slightly steep hill is a damn challenge in this game and has me playing roulette on whether I can scale this slightly steep mound (especially in the coastlands). This is such an easy thing to implement – truly shocking they didn’t.

Nighttime is a Nightmare

Verbal Meme – ‘The number of Drifloon is too damn high’. I understand there might be a lore aspect to this feature, but even in DPPT, there was like one Drifloon in the game and it was the stupidest mechanic that made me time travel on my DS. However, it’s nearly impossible to get anything done at night without getting attacked by a few Drifloon that I’m forced to pummel into submission for the 100^th time in a row. For a Pokémon that looks harmless, it’s the Zubat equivalent of this game.

We Live in a Simulation

Playing PLA is like a virtual simulation of a wax museum – none of the NPCs have any non-cutscene movement. The main series games have been pretty good about not making the game seem like a big doll house, with inclusions like runners and bikers on the cycling road. However, can’t we get some animation with the NPCs – seems like something extremely trivial.

New Pokémon

There’s been a shift to more aggressive, almost over-designed Pokémon in recent games. A point that irks me are some of the weird typings that shouldn’t go together (that’s a different discussion). Likewise, the new Dialga and Palkia origin forms are hideous copy-paste final fantasy bosses. The new Fairy-type weather-legendary Enamourous is no exception – like it’s hard to put words to what I’m looking at. Sneasler is a totally irrelevant Pokémon if a climbing mechanic was in the game. Of all the new Pokémon that I like, I think Basculegion is probably my favorite – cool typing, Surf equivalent, and necessary final evolution of Basculin –  seemed like a Gligar situation. Other than that, there are a lot of pointless new Mons in game.

Final Verdict – I still really like this game. I’m not sure I’m going to be playing this in a month, but I love the attempt at a fresh take at Pokémon, regardless of the myriad of issues.