Pokémon Legends: Arceus (28th January 2022)

[Mokong]

34 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Nah. I was rift farming and it was part of a mass gathering. The thing popped up but swam off. I wasn't willing to reload due to getting what I needed from the rift.

Rift farming? If there a method to get rifts (and/or mass outbreaks) to happen?

They seem very infrequent for me

29 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

I'd probably be more sympathetic if this game didn't give out shinies so often.

My game must be broken so I've only found one in 35 hours gameplay

 

Anyway one thing I wish the game would allow would be to let me throw out Pokemon and Pokeballs while on Wyrdeer or Ursaluna. You can on Basculion (bet I spelt all those wrong) why not the others?

Find myself forgetting to use them as I like to run through tossing Pokemon at ore and trees

[Hero-of-Time]

1 minute ago, Mokong said:

Rift farming? If there a method to get rifts (and/or mass outbreaks) to happen?

They seem very infrequent for me

Not really. It's just a waiting game. I just stick the game on in handheld mode whilst I'm playing another game and just check the map every 5 mins or so.

[Ike]

Where do you get Pop Pods from? Now I need them, I can’t find them.

[Glen-i]

54 minutes ago, Ike said:

Where do you get Pop Pods from? Now I need them, I can’t find them.

3rd area, near water.

[Julius]

Saw credits roll a few hours ago.

Overall, probably the best main story in a Pokémon game for me in a good while (I'm trying to weigh up just how high I hold Sun & Moon's story, and separate my enjoyment of how well the 20th anniversary celebrations were handled from the story -- but if it's better than that, it's probably the best we've had since Gen V). I wasn't a fan of how the last hour or two became a barrage of exposition, cutscenes, and a light sprinkling of battles, though, but was surprised once again by the quality of the soundtrack and, weirdly enough, the cinematography of the last few cutscenes. It really made what was going down feel epic, bordering on what you'd expect to see in the anime. 

Spoiler

The roof getting blown off of the temple at Spear Pillar was freaking awesome. And I sure as heck wasn't expecting a choir to come in to kick off the final bout before they went full synth-heavy EDM x Dialga/Palkia Battle Theme, making it sound like a Galar track. Loved every moment of it. 

 

Some choice snaps from the last few hours, including a hilarious kick-off to the final Request from Zeke and Wanda...

Spoiler

Final team didn't change much from my previous post, only evolved Gabite after completing it's Dex entry: 

Naturally, they all fell asleep moments after the group shot, which I had to capture 

I'll probably be training up a Ralts to a Gallade to take Machamp's place (I do have an Alpha Gallade, but don't want to use any Alphas if I can avoid it), didn't really get the chance to do so today with how the story took the wheel towards the end. Ideally would've been a Lucario I was going for seeing as I used a Gallade in my Brilliant Diamond team, but meh, with a partial Steel type already on the team it's best to go for greater coverage and variety. 

Oh, and yeah, I've changed my look one last time for the post-game. The gradual transition I forced on myself throughout the game to just add that extra bit of immersion and satisfaction was well worth it, and my journey from a shaved head to super long hair is now complete, meaning I look as cool as I've ever looked in a Pokémon game 

Some stellar customisation options in this game compared to the many games prior, really hope they continue down this path and we see many more options in future games. I just wish that your character card photo updated (rather than just being generic pre-built trainer #4) and that you had more control over customisation from the very start. 

The journey is still a little ways from being over, as I at least want to finish every Request, catch every Pokémon, and reach the maximum rank, so I'll be saving my final impressions for when I've had the chance to get all of that done and absorb the soundtrack. 

But yeah, I find it really hard to disagree with what @Hero-of-Time said after completing the game. For all of the growing pains with the transition being made into a fully 3D main series game (that is actually designed with 3D gameplay and mechanics in mind) and a fair share of quality of life missteps, and despite this year looking so obscenely stacked when it comes to potential quality titles, I can't see myself not bringing this up when we start talking about personal GOTY's towards the end of the year.

I've had an absolute blast playing through this game and can't wait to see how Game Freak incorporates some of these ideas into their next main series entry, as well as what we might see next, if anything, for Legends. 

Edited February 9, 2022 by Julius

[Ike]

8 hours ago, Glen-i said:

3rd area, near water.

That's why I couldn't find them then, thought they were in the second area. Thought I had seen them but my satchel was full. 

[Hero-of-Time]

I'm starting to think the latest patch has altered the spawn rates of the drifts/distortions. I've not seen a single one all evening and having checked around on the internet it seems others are having the same problem. Things were already a nightmare to find without this happening.  

[Julius]

28 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I'm starting to think the latest patch has altered the spawn rates of the drifts/distortions. I've not seen a single one all evening and having checked around on the internet it seems others are having the same problem. Things were already a nightmare to find without this happening.  

Well, damn, that sucks. I'm not even at the point where I'm rift hunting but they weren't exactly plentiful to begin with! 

I normally hard save and back out to the Switch menu but don't close games when I play on my Switch unless I'm swapping to another game entirely, so I guess I'll just need to be careful to not install the patch for now 

[MindFreak]

I've never had to wait long once I've entered an area before a rift appeared. 

However, the new patch also makes it easier to catch Cherrim (which I still haven't found any of!).

[BowserBasher]

Do you need to have reached a certain point in the game for the rifts to start appearing. I don't think I've seen one at all since I started playing.

Just got the third mon you can ride and heading to the new area.

[Julius]

1 minute ago, BowserBasher said:

Do you need to have reached a certain point in the game for the rifts to start appearing. I don't think I've seen one at all since I started playing.

Just got the third mon you can ride and heading to the new area.

If I'm remembering right I didn't come across any in the first area but did come across some during my first time visiting the second (I remember because Croagunk were being a pain and then one appeared), so I think you should have access at this stage. 

Unfortunately, as far as I'm aware, it's kind of random. A message should pop up on the screen to let you know one's forming (once it has you can check the map to see where it is and set a waypoint to it) and then you've got a few minutes to get there before things start going down inside. 

[MindFreak]

In the few minutes you have, heal your Pokémon and stash everything but Potions, Revives and Poke Balls. Then you are ready. 

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I'm starting to think the latest patch has altered the spawn rates of the drifts/distortions. I've not seen a single one all evening and having checked around on the internet it seems others are having the same problem. Things were already a nightmare to find without this happening.  

I checked Serebii's site, and there's no hard evidence of this. It's possible that it's just a placebo effect.

I've not noticed any difference with their spawn rate.

[Hero-of-Time]

I had 2 hours of no rifts and so I decided to close the same down and fire it back up. Since doing this now I've had 3 rifts appear. Phew!

[Julius]

Took a bit of a break yesterday before digging in today to start making some headway on completing the Dex. 

As I'm only going for catching them all rather than getting complete Dex entries, I haven't had to touch a Rift since the end of the story in search of rare Pokémon, as it seems like I've picked up all of the Pokémon I needed to get from the inside during my sprints through them during the main story. At this point, I'm actually only going into them in search of evolution items, to save me having to pick up a whole lot of satchels and having to trade in points. I'm specifically looking / saving for a Leaf Stone, a Dawn Stone, and two Razor Claws, which is proving fun to say the least. 

In terms of the Dex, as the main story is complete, I'm not moving forwards with the post-game just yet, and have instead finally opened up a guide and gone through. Like I did with Brilliant Diamond, I've started by listing every Pokémon I need, and the easiest route to getting them: evolution and / or location, if an evolution item is an option, if they're tied to a Request or Mission, etc. At the start of my session I had 61 Pokémon that I still needed to catch, but through using the evolution items I already had to hand (I already had an army of Eevee on hand to evolve, thankfully) as well as just collecting every resource I came across for EXP with Eevee leading the charge (for that happiness maximisation -- I accidentally evolved one into a Sylveon instead of an Espeon, so am now on my second Eevee that I'm attempting to make a psychic  ) I have already whittled that figure of 61 down to 26, more than half of which are tied to post-game Requests and Missions, so yeah, really decent progress on the Dex front.

I do still have the Spiritomb and Cherrim Requests ahead of me, though, so it's not all sunshine and rainbows just yet; the former will need a guide for sure, and the latter is me potentially sticking on a podcast for hours, hoping the gaming gods smile upon me and throw some RNG luck my way.

The Pokémon to give me the most trouble so far has been Munchlax, had to go back to Jubilife a couple of times for the little guy to spawn, but he chose a nice picnic spot once he turned up at least:

I've gone in search of a couple of outbreaks at this point too, so managed to nab another two Shiny Pokémon: Buizel and Goomy. 

And lastly, I'll end this post with this horrifying image of a giant Lopunny's blood red eyes piercing through the gritty sunset haze, looking like a crazed Titan, munching away on the flesh of an unfortunate passerby trainer...

...or an Oran Berry, you decide 

[MindFreak]

5 hours ago, Julius said:

As I'm only going for catching them all rather than getting complete Dex entries, I haven't had to touch a Rift since the end of the story in search of rare Pokémon, as it seems like I've picked up all of the Pokémon I needed to get from the inside during my sprints through them during the main story

After the story ends, a few new Pokémon are added to the rifts. I'm unsure if this is the main story or the post content story, though. 

5 hours ago, Julius said:

I do still have the Spiritomb and Cherrim Requests ahead of me, though, so it's not all sunshine and rainbows just yet; the former will need a guide for sure,

The same for me. However, I find that finding those Wisps is "easy" enough by just gliding around in the dark on Braviary, looking around. Found all Wisps in Crimson Mireland that way recently. But then again, some are hidden in caves which is a bad move.

Edited February 11, 2022 by MindFreak

[Mokong]

End credits have rolled

Really enjoyed that. The whole section leading up to the end game was very different from a standard Pokemon game and was a welcome addition.

Gotta say I did love the different boss battles through the game, great that they came up with something different than just another standard Pokemon battle for the bosses. Hope they do something similar in Gen 9.

Looks like there are a good few post game main quests to do so looking forward to those.

Gonna tick off the backlog of side quests I've left build up first though

Still have a bunch of unowns to find. Aside from A I've not really looked at the clues yet. Found about 5 others just by chance

 

[Glen-i]

Finished the 4th Noble fight.

God, that was the worst area ever! It's humongous and boring and an utter slog to get through. The open-world fatigue is really starting to set in here and the Pokémon aspect is starting to give way. I dread the next area...

Edited February 11, 2022 by Glen-i

[Ashley]

God the cutscenes at times...

Why did we need one to talk about Kleavor only to walk down stairs to have another one to talk about Kleavor again. 

The constant cutscenes to introduce another cutscene just feels like being at work. 

[Julius]

19 minutes ago, Ashley said:

Why did we need one to talk about Kleavor only to walk down stairs to have another one to talk about Kleavor again. 

Have you heard of our lord and saviour Kleavor? 

Edited February 11, 2022 by Julius

[Glen-i]

14 minutes ago, Julius said:

Have you heard of our lord and saviour Kleavor? 

I named my Kleavor Kevin.

I dunno, he just looks like a Kevin, y'know?

[BowserBasher]

Played a good couple hours or more just now. Finally saw some of those rifts and entered one. Dang they some mean Mons constantly coming off you.

Spoiler

OK so I have got three mons I can ride now, just got Basculin so am traversing the waters. Unfrenzied the Arcanine, and just got my forth star so I can head to the next area. Had to go back and do a lot of catching mons in the earlier area to get the points needed to get that start though. I'm guessing they get a bit easier to get, or maybe I just wasn't doing enough during normal play. Anyway managed to get enough now and whilst I was I got my first shiny. Didn't at first realise it was as it was evening in game and I thought the sunset was just playing a trick on the mon, but then I checked.

It may not be much but he's mine.

 

Also I love that you can just go around catching mons or battling them with so much ease. Managed to do this

I bet you couldn't do that in previous games.

I'm enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would. Taking my time with things and just doing bits at a time, or doing nothing at all and just going around the world looking for mons.

Next up for me is off to the newest area after getting the forth star.

[Ashley]

Given you can choose when to evolve a Pokémon if you hold off long enough that there's two evolutions I assume it would only do one at a time, right?

Like I'm pretty sure it would be just curious if anyone has tried. 

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, Ashley said:

Given you can choose when to evolve a Pokémon if you hold off long enough that there's two evolutions I assume it would only do one at a time, right?

Like I'm pretty sure it would be just curious if anyone has tried. 

Definitely one at a time, as my level 36 Chimchar can attest to.

[Mokong]

This vid might be useful to anyone trying to farm Distortions

Not really a method to force spawn, but more how to make the RNG work for you and not against