Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Some years ago now, around the release ofPokémon Black and White, I described to some friends what kind of changes I’d want to see in a Pokémon game to make me buy one again.

- Jinny Wilkin

Publisher: Nintendo, The Pokémon Company

Developer: Game Freak

Genre: Role-Playing Game

Release Date: Out Now

Platform: Switch

At that point, I’d played effectively the same game so many times that the series had started to bore me, and sinking another £40 into the franchise seemed like a waste of time. The game I described had a more open world with Pokémon visible and living in it. The combat would be dynamic, more like the anime, and with animations that actually made sense. My friends told me that such a game would never exist, that Game Freak wouldn’t stray from the formula that had made Pokémon the best-selling series of all time.

Fast forward a decade (with change) and Game Freak has now released Pokémon Legends: Arceus. This is a pseudo-open-world game with free-roaming Pokémon, an emphasis on exploration and discovery, and a plot that sits back and lets the player decide. The combat is familiar but has new elements that greatly add to the complexity of the gameplay. Could it be that the game I described lo these many years ago has come to fruition?

Let me start with some of the more apparent and over-discussed aspects of Pokémon Legends: Arceus. It's not the prettiest game on the Switch, with some very fuzzy edges and plain textures the scenery. However, the style matches with the design of both the Pokémon and the human characters you encounter; I personally didn't find that the art direction detracted from the experience. The game definitely looks better in handheld mode, as the smaller resolution hides the attempts at anti-aliasing around the foliage.