Welcome back to Thrak Attack! What's your adventure? and welcome to the very first Wireless Wednesday! The weekly review post about video games! Today's adventure takes us to the Hisui region of the Pokemon world which may be Sinnoh in the past or may be Sinnoh in another dimension, the game doesn't entirely clear that up. It's been about two weeks since the game was released and I have sunk about 40 hours into it so it's safe to say I am ready to review it! So let's jump right in!
This is not your typical Pokemon game. The basic premise is still there, you are tasked with completing the Pokédex and documenting every Pokemon in the region but this time the game gives you incentive to reach that goal and gives you different tasks and research points to find for each Pokemon. The battle system is still there although with minor tweaks but you don't technically have to enter a battle with a wild Pokemon in order to catch it and the game flows in and out of battles so quickly its not a chore to battle anymore, the game is also about exploration but does it right this time creating 5 vast areas to explore each with unique Pokemon, items, and environmental hurdles. Needless to say this is the most advanced and quite possibly the best Pokemon game ever.
There's one huge, and only, downside to the game... It looks awful. I know a lot of people say that it's "stylized" but boy did they pick a horrible style. For example, there is one character who wears a beautiful ornate kimono and it looks great, but if you look at details on the other side they're pixilated and blurry. Finding Pokemon in the water is atrocious because you can barely see them through a cheap splashing animation, and when you see a Pokemon from a far they look like someone made a flip book of that Pokemon and it really takes you out of the experience.
That's it though, that's my one gripe with this game. Everything else is amazing! The dropped satchels mechanic to get you evolution items is super fun, the linking cable being adapted as an evolution item is amazing, the outbreaks and distortions are really great additions to an already explorable world. It's just fantastic! You can also craft items like potions and poke balls which gives you incentive to find items in the world.
We can also talk about Jubilife Village which is the main hub of the game. When you first start the game there are no Pokemon in the town at all, the people are terrified of these creatures but as you go through the game and complete tasks for the townsfolk your village begins to become filled by these Pokemon that are helping create a better life and village for these people.
Honestly the reason why I love this game is everything it is asking you to do has a great incentive to complete. I want to complete the Pokédex to finish the story, I want to catch multiple of each and battle multiple to complete the Pokédex, I want to complete my side quests to fill up my village with Pokemon, and I want to explore the world to find items to help make the game easier. Everything has a purpose in this game, I just wish it looked better.
When reviewing games, I award stars to these categories... art style, controls, UI, smoothness, plot, characters, music, gameplay loop, length, and overall feeling. This game receives stars for all except smoothness and art style.
Pokemon Legends Arceus receives 8 out of 10 stars.
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