Pokémon Legends: Arceus (28th January 2022)

[Mokong]

There's a free shiny Ponyta in a side quest I got in the village after calming Kleaver down.

 

[Glen-i]

11 minutes ago, Mokong said:

There's a free shiny Ponyta in a side quest I got in the village after calming Kleaver down.

Yep, got that myself.

But we all know freebie shinies don't count. After all, no-one ever says that Gyarados was their first shiny.

[Glen-i]

Oh, another thing I don't appreciate. Abilities and hold items being removed.

What with the vastly reduced movepool Pokémon have, it makes a lot of Pokémon less unique.

Carnivine without Levitate is just plain wrong.

[Mokong]

1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

Oh, another thing I don't appreciate. Abilities and hold items being removed.

What with the vastly reduced movepool Pokémon have, it makes a lot of Pokémon less unique.

Carnivine without Levitate is just plain wrong.

I didn't notice the abilities were gone. I guess I just assumed they were there

The hold items kinda makes sense as this is meant to take place at a time when Pokemon were first becoming domesticated so nobody has taught to train them to hold stuff or realised they can?

But from another point of view it was probably Game Freak trying to not make this feel like a mainline game so when they hopefully decide to use this as a base for Gen 9 they have things to add back in and know where to improve.

 

[Ashley]

Yeah it intentionally feels like they're stripping it back to basics and if I recall correctly abilities and hold items weren't in the first generation were they? Not that I think they're trying to just recreate the first generation, but rather we need to not think of this as generation 9(?)

I think if the game does well and they decide to do more things like that will creep back in but it comes back to an earlier point; this game isn't about battling. 

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, Mokong said:

The hold items kinda makes sense as this is meant to take place at a time when Pokemon were first becoming domesticated so nobody has taught to train them to hold stuff or realised they can?

The people of that era, sure. But it's worth remembering that playable character is heavily implied to be from the time of modern day Pokémon, they use that fact to handwave away why they've got a knack for training Pokémon. I find it hard to believe they can't get their head around giving a berry to a Pokémon. That's basic stuff for them.

Gonna be interesting how they handle Arceus in that regard. That Pokemon's entire point revolves around its ability and the various hold items designed for it.

22 minutes ago, Ashley said:

Yeah it intentionally feels like they're stripping it back to basics and if I recall correctly abilities and hold items weren't in the first generation were they? Not that I think they're trying to just recreate the first generation, but rather we need to not think of this as generation 9(?)

In reality, this is probably close to the answer. A lot of the things that bug me in Legends are things that I disliked about Let's Go. And playing Legends only solidifies my theory that this is more of a sequel to Let's Go than anything else.

That said, the negatives are less of a deal-breaker so far. They've toned down how central nonsense like chucking Poké Balls blindly at full HP Pokémon is and the Candy system isn't quite as broken. (It still strips away any form of selective optimisation though. Every Typhlosion will be the same because you might as well max every stat) I can honestly say that I don't want to stop playing yet. More then I can say for Let's Go.

Although, I have to ask. Where are all the reptiles? I'm at 50-ish Pokémon in my dex and I've not seen a single one!

I want my lizards, damnit!

Edited January 30, 2022 by Glen-i

[Ronnie]

Going back to basics seems likely. In the same way that BOTW was so similar to the original Legend of Zelda on NES.

[MindFreak]

Ouch. Those rifts are not easy! Got a couple of rare catches but almost blacked out so had to run. 

And that satchel is just too small and it's ridiculously expensive to expand it beyond 5 extra spaces. 

I also really fast run out of materials for crafting PokéBalls. 

Edited January 30, 2022 by MindFreak

[Glen-i]

8 minutes ago, MindFreak said:

I also really fast run out of materials for crafting PokéBalls. 

Have you gone to the second area yet? The resources you get there are more generous compared to the opening area.

Also, just making sure, but don't forget to sell Stardust and Nuggets. That's what they're for.

[Mokong]

16 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

The people of that era, sure. But it's worth remembering that playable character is heavily implied to be from the time of modern day Pokémon, they use that fact to handwave away why they've got a knack for training Pokémon. I find it hard to believe they can't get their head around giving a berry to a Pokémon. That's basic stuff for them.

Ah yes, I forgot about that whole time traveller bit at the start.... think I intentionally forgot about it as it seemed so unnecessary. Like why can't you be a character from that ear's Kanto or Johto that moved to Hisui to join the Survey Corps. But other than that I am enjoying the rest of the story so far. (Up to calming Linnigant).

One change that I am not liking however in the gameplay is when a Pokemon learns a new move and you only see a prompt that they learned a move but you aren't automatically shown what it is and the option to update moveset. You have to go into the menu manually to find out what it was.

The similar change for Evolving I don't mind as you can have more control of when to evolve if you want to hold off for a bit instead of being forced to cancel it whenever you level up. 

[Julius]

5 minutes ago, MindFreak said:

And that satchel is just too small and it's ridiculously expensive to expand it beyond 5 extra spaces. 

Yeah, noticed this too. Even emptying out your satchel into storage is pretty useless because you're likely going to be picking up similar items anyways the next time you're out in the field, so you're left just putting the harder to find items where you only collect 1 or 2 in a run in storage to free up slots. 

Giving me major Breath of the Wild weapons vibes to be honest, in that there's just a bit too much for your inventory to handle and there comes a point where it's a pain to keep upgrading your inventory space, though I'd say it's much worse because:

i) there isn't a risk-reward nature to deciding what to keep on you. It's exclusively a tedious process. 

ii) the items are one-use and do very little to actually change a mechanical aspect of the game, whereas in BotW, different weapons really can change things up. 

I know it's a holdover from this style of game, but I'm not a fan either. I wish they made it unlimited and then used that as a launchpad for more quests where you're gathering things to help upgrade parts of Jubilife Village. 

What makes it crazier is that there's a great enough variety of items in the first area to actually end up with a full satchel in the first place. 

13 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Also, just making sure, but don't forget to sell Stardust and Nuggets. That's what they're for.

Gah, something that bugs me with Stardust - because of the way the description is worded ("it can be sold at a low price to shops"), I actually tossed a few early on! 

I know it's a wording change in the description they made way back in Gen VII (before that I'm pretty sure it was "it can be sold at a high price to shops" - which is nuts, because I swear they sell for the same amount anyways), but I genuinely thought that they'd taken the extra step with the economy and some of the sale prices of items had changed based on the fact that Hisui barely has an economy to begin with at this point, and that because it's so unexplored, that Stardust is somewhat in abundance at this stage, meaning it has a relatively low value! 

D'oh! 

[Mokong]

Oh forgot to say, I LOVE that they added an item that can be used on Trade Evolution Pokemon as an alternative to actually trading them.

Found a Link Cable item in one of those Distortion fields and evolved my Kadabra straight away

And the Unnown puzzles seem like they will be fun to figure out. Only found A so far. Don't know why but always found it fun trying to read in Unown

Reminds me of ironically reading Braille visually in Gold/Silver a bit.

Took me awhile to find A though, don't know why but I was expecting he would be just floating easily visible not so well hidden

 

[Glen-i]

I... Have never run out of space in my satchel so far. And I collect everything in sight. Glad I saved up enough money that by the time I could upgrade it, I got around 12 extra spaces straight away.

Probably helps that I only ever bring one type of potion, revives, and each type of ball I have each time I venture out. That's a habit I've had from PMD.

It took me a while to properly realise it, but try to remember that you can press R on the item menu to cycle to your Key Items and use that portable crafting kit to free up space in your satchel, if you're desperate.

The next upgrade costs 7,000 for me. I've got over 17,000, so I might as well. I'm just thankful you don't have to look for Zygarde Cells 2.0 to do that. I would've gone nuts.

I knew this game would do that again. Definitely just gonna look up Serebii for that once the credits roll.

EDIT: BTW, @Mokong. That Link Cable item? You can thank Mystery Dungeon for that. That's how they got around trade evolution in a series that has no trades.

It's staggering and really surprising how much Legends has taken from Mystery Dungeon. I mean, I like to joke about how the Delta Episode in ORAS is literally one of the plot points of the first PMD, but a part of me always thought that it was possible that it was a coincidence, but after playing Legends? Nah, it's definitely intentional, and it's great. PMD has some great stuff in it I always would've liked in the mainline series.

Edited January 30, 2022 by Glen-i

[Ashley]

Looks like the launch in the UK went well:

Seems he got it wrong before and it's actually done better:

 

 

 

[Ike]

On 29/01/2022 at 2:09 AM, Glen-i said:

There's a stamina meter behind the scenes. Run too much and you'll have to wait for it to recharge.

Turns out it was my Joycon. Had to recalibrate it as it wasn't fully registering upward movements.

[Mokong]

Ok one thing that is starting to annoy me (unless I have missed something), is being unable to travel between areas without having to first return to Jubilife Village! Am I seriously missing something? I can fast travel between camps and points of interest within the area that I am in but not to one in another area?

Especially with how the map is. Like if I am in Crimson Mirelands and want to go to Obsidian Fieldlands, I gotta travel to the Village first then from there to Obsidian...but as Obsidian is between Crimson and the Village you have to imagine the character goes through Obsidian to get to Village just to go back to Obsidian

 

Also I just evolved my starter to a Typhlosion. Despite trying to avoid spoilers I did find out the starters final form is a new Hisuian form. But I at least managed to avoid what it would look like. I loved Typhlosion back in Gold, thought he looked awesome, so was looking forward to what his new form might be.

The new type he gets makes for an interesting combination with Fire that I thought would be cool.... But I gotta say I am unfortunately not feeling his new look

His original look he was a badass angry fire badger, but this new look he looks dopey and bored. Just a vacant stare like he is uninterested.

Even his flames look poorly designed.

I still have him in my team for now as he is my highest level (37) but I found a Chimchar while ticking off side quests so have him in my team and unless my opinion of Typhlosion changes by time I get Infernape leveled up this will be the first game where I drop my starter before finishing the game and that will feel very odd.

[Mandalore]

26 minutes ago, Mokong said:

Also I just evolved my starter to a Typhlosion.

Same, I was surprised by the final evolution. It's like it just couldn't face anymore of the grind. 

[Glen-i]

2 hours ago, Mokong said:

The new type he gets makes for an interesting combination with Fire that I thought would be cool.... But I gotta say I am unfortunately not feeling his new look

His original look he was a badass angry fire badger, but this new look he looks dopey and bored. Just a vacant stare like he is uninterested.

As soon as I saw mine evolve, I knew people wouldn't like it.

Spoiler

Ghost/Fire, eh? Not the most original type combination. Chandelure and Alolan Marowak have already done that. But it is a very good combination, competitively speaking. Both of those Pokémon see some use in the competitive scene.

With Typhlosion being faster then Chandelure and having access to Eruption, this might actually save it from the mediocrity it currently suffers from.

Oh wait, Legends Arceus doesn't let you battle other players... Maybe that's why it's lost it's interest? What's the point of a cool type if you can't utilise it?

See, the problem with the choices of starter this game has is that all three of them evolve into their generations "badass" Pokémon. Every generation has at least one starter like this, and it tends to contrast nicely with the more serene (Meganium, Serperior, and Primarina) choice or silly, dopey one (Feraligatr, Emboar, and Incineroar).

But what happens when all three starters become badass? Well, it just looks one-note and boring. This was another reason I suspected regional variants for the starters. There's no variety in the three original starters when put together.

Now, I've not seen Decidueye or Samurott in this game, but I expected at least one of the starters to get a controversial personality change, and it seems like Typhlosion is that Pokémon.

I'm actually OK with it. Not the best regional form I've seen. But it's not awful.

Edited January 30, 2022 by Glen-i

[Hero-of-Time]

After 25 hours of playing, the credits have rolled. 

Before I start I will say that going in to this game I seen very little of it. Outside of a couple of official trailers, I kept my distance from any leaks and most of the gameplay footage, even from Nintendo themselves. I was on the fence about buying the game but after the reviews were released I really liked what I was hearing about the game. I decided to take a chance with it.

Hands down, this is one of the best Pokemon games I have played in a long time. After the disappointment of the Diamond/Pearl remakes, as well as how New Pokemon Snap turned out, I was so happy with what I got here. This is exactly the step the franchise needed to take in order for it to evolve into a game from this decade. There’s so much that they got right with this.

Most people know that I’m not a huge fan of making a game open world just for the sake of it. I think far too many developers just think they can slap their game into an open world setting and everything will work out fine. With Pokemon, the franchise has screamed for something like this for a long time and it definitely works well. Often when playing an open world game there is lots of empty space and there’s nothing really encouraging you to explore the world. With this game I found myself searching every nook and cranny, not just for new Pokemon but also for supplies/crafting materials. This means I would spend a very long time just wandering around, taking in the world and just generally exploring, something which I very rarely do on a game with worlds that are this big. I would often get rewarded for being inquisitive, with me spotting rare Pokemon and also catching a few shiny ones in the process.

I love the fact that most things you do net you experience points. Gone are the days of random trainers blocking your progress with a battle that is a complete pushover. Here, you can battle the wild Pokemon, concentrate on the Pokedex or even just run around collecting resources by using your Pokemon. It means there is a bit of flexibility in how you go about things. It also means that you can change thing up if you get bored doing a single thing. As for me, I love grinding in games and seeing the experience bars fill up in the Pokedex entries certainly appeals to the gamer inside of me.

I’ve been concentrating of getting a perfect entry for each of the Pokemon has allowed me to rank up not only my dex levels but also the Star rating that you get from the captain, which in turn allows me to craft better things. It also gave me the added benefit of having a good amount of cash at my disposal. I see a few people on here are struggling with cash in the game and I would advise to concentrate on updating the Pokedex. At the moment my character is running around with 100k in his pocket. The beauty of this addition to the game is that you really have to use Pokemon that you have no intention of using. As others have said, in past games you would catch a Pokemon for its entry into the log and then just leave it in the box. You can’t do that here if you want to have perfect entries. Will I perfect them all? Who knows, but I’m certainly enjoying trying to do it at the moment.

I’ve encountered a fair few shiny Pokemon during my journey. Here’s what I’ve nabbed so far. I’m not a fan of some of the colour variations though. For instance, Remoraid was a nice purple colour but when it evolved to yellow/brown. The thing should have stayed purple! Speaking of evolutions, I’m loving what I’ve seen of the new forms. Again, keeping away for the gaming media has allowed me to go in with fresh eyes and seeing the evolution of my starter (Rowlett) was an awesome surprise. It looks so cool and fits very nicely with the setting of the game.

Spoiler

Before the release of the game, there was a lot of discussion about how the game looked and ran. In terms of how it runs, i've not really seen any huge issues. I've played the game mostly in handheld mode and it's ran fan. There were a couple of graphical glitches with moving grass but other than that i've not really noticed anything. Graphics wise, I think the game looks great and has come a long way since it's initial reveal. The character models are the usual Pokemon standard but some of the environments are quite stunning. Here's a few quick snaps.

Spoiler

One of my big pet peeves in the mainline games are how the characters act and how basic the story can be. Thankfully, both of these things weren't issues for me in this entry. I found pretty much all the characters really enjoyable and quirky, with some being better than others. Some of their designs were top notch as well. The main village some of them live in is quite cozy and relaxing. As for the story, it was quite compelling, at least in terms of Pokemon mainline game standards. 

The boss battles in the game are fantastic. Again, I was very surprised by these and a couple of them were quite challenging. Not being able to rely on your Pokemon and instead having to roll and doge to find an opening was great. All those years of playing Monster Hunter and the SoulsBorne games have paid off! I can imagine younger players really struggling with a couple of these fights, especially the latter ones.

The crafting in the game is another welcome addition to the game. Being able to craft supplies on the go has been a life saver at times. Not needing to fly back to the store in order to get some potions or Pokeballs something that wouldn’t have really worked in this open world setting and I’m glad I they addressed it for this game. I will say though that the bag is too small. Even with me adding large amount of upgrades to it, I still find that I run out of space a lot of the time, especially when I’m searching the world for everything it has to offer. It’s not a deal breaker but I would have preferred a storage solution that had infinite capacity.

Spoiler

Once mounts are unlocked I found getting around the world even more fun. The way they work as well is also pretty slick. You can easily transition between land, air and sea, with you not even needing to press a button to do so if the ocean flows into the land and then a cliff. It makes traversing the world really fast and smooth. The only negative I can say about the mounts is the flying ability. I was hoping I could fly around the world but it’s more of a glide mechanic than a flying one. Still, it is faster than galloping along the land.

The credits may have rolled but there’s still plenty for me to do. I’ve unlocked 120+ entries in the Pokedex, there’s post game missions to do, villager requests to complete, perfect entries to fill and shiny Pokemon to find. This is without a doubt a MASSIVE step in the right direction for the franchise. The Let’s Go games were my favorite Pokemon games on the Switch but this has comfortably taken the crown. I didn’t start playing the game until Friday evening and yet I've already put in a stupid amount of time into the game. Long may it continue.  

[Julius]

Sees a white 'H' on a light blue background

Great to see you again H-o-T, hope you've been keeping well! 

Edited January 31, 2022 by Julius

[Glen-i]

If there was any game I expected him to come back for, I had a feeling it would be this one.

Quite surprised you actually dig the open world aspect of it though, @Hero-of-Time I don't think the lure of rare Pokémon is enough for me. I'm still getting annoyed with how long it takes to get anywhere. Much like Xenoblade X, the battle system is the only thing keeping me chugging along. The first noble Pokémon fight was legit fun though.

That said, I'm really missing the more varied options I'm used to from battles. Legends has dumbed down the battles, no doubt about it. The moves are severely cut, a lot of secondary effects are removed. Stealth Rock is basically just Fire Spin now. Stat boosting moves can't stack and can only raise stats one level. (This might be due to how wild Pokémon choose random attacks, this stops them from stacking loads of Defense boosts and becoming almost impossible to kill) Status Effects are only temporary and not as effective as they were before. Abilities are gone, hold items aren't a thing, and the Let's Go EV system, while not as broken as it was in that game, still strips the ability to specialise a Pokemon's stats for it's role. It all just got me jonesing for some proper battles and I booted up BDSP and managed to get to 49 straight wins in the Battle Tower.

So kudos to Legends for getting me to do that, I suppose...

I'm getting that sinking feeling I had with Let's Go again. Some things I would like to see from Legends in a more traditional game, but there are also some things I really don't want to see.

Edited January 31, 2022 by Glen-i

[Hero-of-Time]

8 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Quite surprised you actually dig the open world aspect of it though, @Hero-of-Time I don't think the lure of rare Pokémon is enough for me. I'm still getting annoyed with how long it takes to get anywhere. Much like Xenoblade X, the battle system is the only thing keeping me chugging along. 

I just enjoy how laid back and relaxing the whole thing is. As I mentioned, i've mainly played the game in handheld mode and had the Simpsons playing on the TV in the background pretty much the entire time. I'm finding it to be the perfect game to kick back to.

[Glen-i]

27 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I just enjoy how laid back and relaxing the whole thing is. As I mentioned, i've mainly played the game in handheld mode and had the Simpsons playing on the TV in the background pretty much the entire time. I'm finding it to be the perfect game to kick back to.

Different strokes, I guess. Because I do the exact same thing to kick back with the Battle Tower I mentioned before.

In comparison, I can't relax with encounters in this game. Stealth is an effective tool, and that really stresses me out in games. When I found that Shiny Kricketot, I don't think I've been that panicked since, well... Metroid Dread. With the amount you've found in such a short time, I'm convinced they've upped the chance of it happening here.

Edited January 31, 2022 by Glen-i

[Hero-of-Time]

9 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Different strokes, I guess. Because I do the exact same thing to kick back with the Battle Tower I mentioned before.

In comparison, I can't relax with encounters in this game. Stealth is an effective tool, and that really stresses me out in games. When I found that Shiny Kricketot, I don't think I've been that panicked since, well... Metroid Dread. With the amount you've found in such a short time, I'm convinced they've upped the chance of it happening here.

Just save the game as soon as you see it. If you cock up then simply reload. Sorted.

[Glen-i]

9 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Just save the game as soon as you see it. If you cock up then simply reload. Sorted.

That works!? I guess that I just assumed it would reroll the spawn if you did that. Cheers!