Legends Arceus is the best Pokémon game ever created as of generation 9, change my mind.

[Poke Dragon]

Legends Arceus actually had the best quest indication system so far, as unlike the Alola games, it told you what you need to do next without being intrusive as well as keeping track of sidequests. The only upgrade thing I didn't like was paying ridiculous sums of money just to increase get one extra slot in the satchel, which eventually changed the game from exploration to griding, which is always a negative for me because the main point of open-world games is exploration.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

Not the best Pokemon game ever, but certainly the best one we've gotten in years.

 

[mastermind lissi]

While I still haven’t managed to beat it, it’s given me lots of story ideas for a thing I’m doing with the game (it fits the persons character, the whole “survive if you can” sort of thing being a good story plot for this certain character) (
oh and volo at the end with arceus and giratina gave me ideas for her and origin forme Dialga ) sorry if none of this makes sense

 

[Pasio]

A rather unique point from me but is something I genuinely do care about. To me, a Pokémon game requires at least somewhat efficient opportunities for great PvP matches in order to be in the top spot, especially if they're classified as main series games.

This doesn't mean Legends Arceus is low on my list for the lack of PvP, but I prioritize games like what we had on the 3DS over it, then put Legends Arceus above where I find PvP and its benefits being overshadowed by where it was at its peak.

 

[akrasia]

I just think the progression method was weak, I don't care to fill out a checklist for pokemon I don't care a whole lot about just so I can continue the story in a game i paid for. I understand why they did it, but it just felt like an artificial roadblock to my experience when I just wanted to consume more of the story.

 

[Greninjaman]

At least some of the tasks are easy:
Catch X amount of this Pokémon
Evolve X amount of Pokémon
See Pokémon use (insert name of move) X amount of times

In fact, if I recall, evolving a Pokémon automatically lists the new Pokémon as seen and caught (evolving Budew into Roselia would mark the Roselia as caught in the Pokédex even if you never actually caught a Roseila in the game yet).

 

[colours]

i think L:A, if nothing else, managed to bring something unique and refreshing to the table in an era where pokemon gaming felt generally very same-y and formulaic. that's not to say that there's anything particularly wrong with the formula, but L:A proved that sometimes it's nice to change things up a bit. i think expanding into a lore of an existing region proved to be a far more intriguing avenue from a worldbuilding standpoint than simply revising old regions with no real changes. you have all these characters in a distant past in sinnoh who, of course, bear uncanny resemblances to a lot of present-sinnoh characters (which was fun on its own), but you also learn of their culture, how they came to be and their circumstances and i think most interestingly is that pokemon weren't always regarded as cute and cuddly creatures, but rather actual dangerous wild animals that can and will kill you if you aren't on your guard.

my biggest criticism however, is that much like Let's Go, it prioritizes the catching aspect far more than anything else. i think this part depends on whether or not you care for catching more than battling, so for some this is more of a plus, but for me, i wasn't into Pokemon Go for this reason and L:A didn't really help draw me in for this aspect. i caught a lot of pokemon because i felt i had to, not really because i wanted to, and it felt a lot like a chore, although admittedly there's some charm in having a checklist of sorts for each pokemon, as it gave me something to do, at the very least.

speaking of battling, i find it rather interesting how it's possible to be outnumbered by several other pokemon and that even at high levels, you can very well be in danger by pokemon well over half your level simply because of sustained damage over time. credit where credit is due in that this adds a layer of urgency to battles in the sense that you have to think quite quickly in how you approach these situations, i think for most people they may find these battles rather frustrating than engaging, and i don't blame them for that.

i'd also be remiss if i didn't mention alpha pokemon which are essentially the core to L:A and they introduce quite the menacing and intimidating mechanic for sure, at least for most of the game. late game and even end-game they likely end up being whatever, but i think starting off they gave quite the scare which... yknow, is a lot of their point. props to game freak for introducing a new way of world interaction here, especially with how alpha pokemon will not hestiate to obliterate the player if they're noticed.

anyway, without going into too much into my thoughts of it.. is L:A really the best pokemon game ever created? i'd argue not, at least it's not THE best pokemon game ever created (i find it rather hard to topple the likes of pokemon colosseum and XD and even pokemon mystery dungeon, but i guess that makes me old), but i'd argue it easily earns its spot as far as one of the best pokemon games.

 

[VeggiePopper]

I know it's been nearly 2 years since the game was released, but I still want to add my two cents to this discussion, since I think the game does deserve to be talked about, even today. Beware, wall of text ahead! Otherwise you can skip directly to my conclusion, which will remain unhidden.

Spoiler: Review/Opinion/Rant goes here

Personally, I have mixed feelings about PLA. On the positive side, it is the most creative game pretty much since the series' debut nearly 30 years ago. The stealth element when catching Pokémon is deeply refreshing, and gives the gameplay some depth and inventiveness that the franchise had been lacking pretty much since Gen III revamped the battle system with the introduction of double battles and abilities. The Agile and Strong styles may be simple, but I prefer it that way, because by remaining simple, it doesn't feel gimmicky, unlike all previous (and future) one-gen-battle-mechanics (e.g. Megas, Z-Moves, et al), but it does add to the strategy element; besides, as it doesn't require a plot-relevant item and doesn't have to do with the story, was easier to carry into future games (to bad they didn't). To that, you have to add Alpha Pokémon - they bring a nice challenge (mostly in the early stages of the game) and prioritize the strategy element when you have to decide whether to try and battle them, or pass them by and come back later when you are better prepared. And if you do fight them, you're up for a treat. Catching a Lv 35 Golbat when your team is in their 10s does make for some bragging rights. Now that I'm on the battle system, I have to give credit for PLA's battle animations; for the first time ever in the main series (and the first since Battle Revolution), Pokémon do make contact, run to each other, and have true -if somewhat simplistic- battle animations rather than being static and just have the model hop on their place (without even a jumping animation) when "performing" an attack. I'm baffled as to why they reverted to the static Pokémon for SV. All of that makes the Pokémon world finally feel alive.

Talking about the game structure, the semi-open world system is a nice bridge between SwSh's Wild Area and SV's true open world, and, if I'm being honest, it's the best approach of all three. Allow me to elaborate on that: we all know that the Wild Area was a failure, as the "open world" was limited to one, and only one, section of the whole map, whilst the rest of the game was a series of hallways, making the Wild Area pointless and out of place. On the other side, SV does feature a full open world; however, in my mind it also fails because it's completely unbalanced: Gyms don't have variable teams to accommodate to the player's progress. For instance, I remember the Origins mini-series, where Brock asks Red how many badges he has and when he replies he has none, Brock chooses a beginner team - I would have expected something similar where each Paldea Gym Leader is coded with different teams depending on the player's badges; without that, you either tackle Gyms in the intended order, or go through a nightmare fighting Lv 40 teams with a Lv10 party then blaze through the rest of the game. But I digress, I'm not here to diss SV, but to talk about PLA. My point here is that SV's open world fails to me because it forces the player to follow the designated path, somewhat defeating the open world's purpose. Legends, on the other side, doesn't have a true open world, I give you that. But it doesn't need to, as it gives you enough freedom to explore each area at your own pace, and there's lots of sidequests which you can opt to do or not, and most of them don't require a particular achievement so you can do them in any order you like. Thus, there is enough freedom and the game offers a good balance between linear and open world-style games.

There's also the game's plot. While it has some serious flaws in its simplicity and its pacing, the mere fact that it's not your usual "beat gyms, defeat the evil Team" story deserves a mention. Going back in time, maybe even to an alternate universe; the mystery on whether your character is actually DPPt/BDSP Lucas/Dawn or just a doppelganger, learning about the development of the Pokémon World and how humans got to become friends with Pokémon not only makes for an interesting concept, but it also adds to the series' lore (some retcons and contradictions with previous statements notwithstanding), and the open ending that doesn't reveal if your character achieved to go back home or stayed trapped in Hisui for the rest of their life makes for a bittersweet note, not seen since Black and White. All in all, it's an interesting twist to the Pokémon formula, and for that, I praise Game Freak. You also have some great characters, and how Kamado becomes one of the main antagonists while remaining on the good guys' side, brings a respectable "gray vs. gray morality" depth that has never been brought to the series plots.

With that in mind, I do have my beefs with the game, both in terms of gameplay and story. Regarding the former, the most obvious grievance is the lack of series-long features, such as trading and, overall, multiplayer game, be it local or online. Remember when the most ground-breaking feat of the original Pokémon games was trading and battling? Well forget about it because PLA has NONE of that! Breeding, abilities, double battles (somewhat confusing given that there are lots of instances when you have to fight more than one Pokémon), all of that is gone. How can I celebrate that the battle system was given a strategy element with the introduction of the Battle styles, when at the same time, so many battle features were removed? It just baffles my mind. It tries to add depth to the battle system but it also makes it hollow with what was removed. The game sure lets you know that this is a Gen VIII game with its nods to Galar (the Galaxy Hall building has a huge Galarian Weezing on its structure, for Pete's sake!), but that becomes moot the moment when you can't interact with any other games. In the past, FRLG's references to Hoenn, for example, has the purpose of establishing the multiplayer features with RSE; same for the Gen IV games and so on. As for PLA? Nah, you just get Galar references for the sake of it. Forget Galar, you can't even interact with BDSP, the games it's supposed to complement! That is a huge disappointment in my book.

I also have to agree to most of the complaints about how the overworld feels somewhat empty and becomes monotonous and tedious after some time. I acknowledge that Game Freak followed Breath of the Wild's influence, but they did it a little too close, to the point that they also implemented its flaws -- My main beef with BotW was that the "wild" element and the "Hyrule was devastated and overtaken by nature" story caused an empty overworld with nothing more than a couple human settlements and a lack of variety in the biomes, with most of the overworld consisting of grassy fields and forests. Legends amps that up, with only one village, and very few humans in the rest of the island. Likewise, Pokémon trainers can be counted with one hand, and trainer battles (essentially the series' main challenge) are nowhere to be found save for a few checkpoint fights. Although you now have Alpha Pokémon and Noble Pokémon to serve as bosses and make up for the challenge, these are sparse as the former are optional and the latter are saved for plot advancement; therefore, hard battles remain rare, leaving the bulk of the game to battling wild Pokémon, which becomes tiring as the game progresses, and with most of the sidequests, and even the main story advancing as you catch more and more Pokémon, with Pokédex objectives amounting to capture several of the same species, the game becomes a glorified Pokémon Go, and we already have the Let's Go pair for that. I admit it does make sense storywise, as you are supposed to research for the first Pokédex ever, so it's logical that you have to catch several individuals to compare and all, but come on, it's not like Pokémon gameplay matches the story and lore to a tee (I'm looking at you, Pokédex statements!).

Speaking of the story, Legends's plot has a very interesting premise. However, the whole timetravel scenario ends up kinda wonky when neither the protagonist's origins nor fate are revealed; the fact that we didn't get a DLC or anything to resolve that hanging thread takes several points away from the character's journey and leave the player with a feeling of emptyness and an incomplete quest. Moreover, the whole "Arceus sent a random kid to the past only to catch all the Pokémon and fill out a Pokédex" seems kinda dumb for the Almighty Sinnoh, the creator of the Pokémon Universe (Multiverse?); even for Pokémon standards it stands as one of the lamest excuses for the player's journey. The whole paradox of a person from the present traveling to the past, interacting with the ancestors of their own acquaintances and maybe even becoming their own grandparent (if the PC is indeed the real Lucas/Dawn), or else why the Sinnoh protagonist has a random identical stranger who also happens to be an extraordinary trainer (maybe you're NOT Lucas/Dawn, but are indeed their ancestor), is never explained. Saying that leaving that mystery unexplored is disappointing is an understatement. Then you have the full cast of characters. I know the "identical ancestor" trope is deeply settled in time travel stories, I concede that, but I still find an abuse on said trope, and a huge lacking of original character designs and people not related to DPPt's cast is underwhelming as well - so many recycled BDSP models makes me dizzy! Also, Kamado's arc, while I did mention that has an interesting twist, is at the same time frustrating: once he becomes an antagonist his personality changes way more than the story would have make sense, going from a rational figure of authority to a near-fanatical close-minded guy with his bias against the player, and the fact that you never gain his trust again, not even when you resolve the catastrophe he blamed you for, left me shaking my head -- Once again, the story feels incomplete and "resolutionless". It makes me think that there was indeed a DLC planned to resolve everything but it was scrapped to continue with SV's development and deliver Gen IX on time (because this is Pokémon and we have to fulfill the release calendar). So, overall, it was an interesting premise with a poor execution.

It also didn't amuse me the overreliance on Galar. I know, this is a Gen VIII game and thus it was expected; it is already a tradition that all non-main-pair games get a few nods to the newest region, but in this case it was a detriment to the Hisui/Sinnoh's lore. Implying that Kamado comes from Galar takes away from the "founding of Sinnoh" experience. I know it is based on real life history, with Hokkaido being settled by foreigners; however in real life, those settlers were mainland Japanese, not British. And if we go by overall Japan-Rest of the World relations, Japan's contacts with Western culture before the 20th Century were mainly with Dutch and Portuguese explorers, oh, and by the way, Portugal is part of the Iberian peninsula, the basis for Paldea, and with PLA being released only months ahead of SV, having Kamado's original homeland be Paldea would have been a great way to build hype for Gen IX and would deepen the worldbuilding for the series overall. Just imagine what a bombshell it would have been if Paldea was first namedropped in Legends Arceus! Such a missed opportunity. After all, we did have glimpses of SV on SwSh, and we had the strange souvenir in XY which was later revealed to come from Alola. Therefore, foreshadowing the next-Gen's region, specially this close to its release, wouldn't be out of context.

Tl;dr: in my opinion, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, is still a deeply flawed game... and I'm sort of ok with that; I am aware that there is no perfect Pokémon game after all, (IMHO HGSS and B2W2 are the ones that got the closest to that). It's an entry that gave me lots of headaches and baffling moments, but I still enjoyed it way better than SwSh or SV, both in terms of gameplay and story, and. mediocre as it is, it was indeed the greatest Pokémon experience I've had in I-don't-know-how-long. Thus, my verdict is that it is the most unique an interesting (though not necessary the best) entry in the series since the Black and White series over 10 years ago, and for that, I appreciate the developer's effort and I would like to either see a second Legends game that corrects Arceus's faults, or else that its additions to the franchise are implemented to the main series. Is it the best Pokémon ever created as of Generation IX? Not by a long shot -- Once again, my personal take is that said honor would go to HGSS or B2W2. But it IS the game that's closest to fight for that title since Gen V, which is already an achievement on its own.

 

[brirend]

Th

While I do agree that after beating the story of the game there's not much to do, but the exciting story and gameplay more than make up for the limited content.
The unoriginal characters weren't lazy. In my opinion, that only added to the excitement of the game. By adding characters that we knew, we were able to experience the game as it was meant to be: the ancestors of Sinnoh building their civilization.
How do you expect the developers to do so much with this already huge game? What do you want now, a fully animated, fully open world, Ultra HD + VR game? Not gonna happen any time soon. Not even for Gamefreak. And the world is very full of Pokémon; just full enough, in my opinion. They did a perfect job figuring out exactly how many Pokémon needed to spawn in the game so that we weren't annoyed by now many there were, but still not bored that there weren't enough.
Give the developers a break, it was their first open world game. Think about it logically: would you rather have a few open world sections or a 1-hour loading screen? It was a pretty good way to keep the players in check, in my opinion.
Your opinion on exploration I think is just straight up wrong. There are lots of different locations in the game that you can explore, by Wyrdeer, by Basculegion, or by Braviary. Wherever you go, there's always something new around the corner.
The gameplay is not as you think. The way we can battle the Pokémon ourselves is outstanding, and I love the twist of the player hiding in the grass instead of the Pokémon. The developers did a great job implementing the gameplay into the controls to make it as easy as possible to do what we want to do, but sill made the game hard enough to be a challenge.

You lost the debate the moment you blew off all his valid criticisms with your wild exaggerations and condescending tone. "Fully animated, fully open world, HD+VR game" is condescending as hell.

 

[Pasio]

On another note, Legends Arceus has less content than traditional Pokemon games from Emerald onward. Sure its main story takes up more hours than other mainline Pokemon games, but that's not because the story has more content. It's because the game requires you to go through an extremely tedious and repetitive grind in order to progress through the main story. It's like if you were playing through Pokemon Crystal but were required to capture every single Pokemon in the game before you could enter the Pokemon League. The actual content itself is less than what the majority of Pokemon games have to offer, as there aren't any external features outside sending your Pokemon out and watching them roar/bark/cry, there aren't any long-lived battle challenges in the game, and there isn't a PvP to satisfy battlers. There's next to nothing for many players to do after completing the main story, unless they are extremely into collecting Pokemon thousands of times over and farm the easiest shiny encounters in main series Pokemon games.

As a disclaimer, the main story for Legends Arceus ends when you obtain Arceus. A lot of people mistaken it for ending when the credits roll, but the official Legends Arceus website, TPCi, Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, and even the Legends Arceus missions logs all point the end of this game's main story to achieving Arceus, rather than rolling through the credits.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

(i find it rather hard to topple the likes of pokemon colosseum and XD and even pokemon mystery dungeon, but i guess that makes me old)

Nope, not old, just a person with great taste!

 

[Sheep]

Hey everyone, just popping in to remind everyone to stay respectful when posting - not just in this thread but everywhere else in the community. Being needlessly dismissive of others' opinions is frowned upon and not conducive to a welcoming forum environment. Please stay constructive and respectful when leaving comments, and try to keep post dates in mind when responding as there's not really a need to quote reply a comment from over a year ago.

Thanks for understanding, happy posting!

 

[MrMeowPuss]

I played this game when it originally came out, loved it , then put 100+ hours into SV then came back to PLA to help finish my Living Dex.

Honestly I have to say this game still feels like it’s a step ahead of SV in almost all areas, I love the graphics, the mechanics and the story is great too!

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

Honestly I have to say this game still feels like it’s a step ahead of SV in almost all areas

Agreed!

 

[Mew2]

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is definitely one of my favorite Pokémon games. It's the only one besides Pokémon Yellow where I went to capture all of the Pokémon in the game and complete my Pokédex.

 

[Neodith]

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is definitely one of my favorite Pokémon games. It's the only one besides Pokémon Yellow where I went to capture all of the Pokémon in the game and complete my Pokédex.

Ikr! Best game!