Pokemon Legends: Arceus

[Himu]

[Uncle]

"whether or not game freak can deliver on the loft promises of a breath of the wild style pokemon game remains to be seen"

it's not and they've walked it back to compare it to monster hunter instead

"first mainline pokemon game to not have two versions"

it's not a mainline game as seen by the designation "pokemon legends," this is like expecting pokemon snap to have two versions

this guy seems kind of dumb

[Himu]

Holy shit

https://gamerant.com/pokemon-legends-arceus-hisui-region-seasons/

[Himu]

"whether or not game freak can deliver on the loft promises of a breath of the wild style pokemon game remains to be seen"

it's not and they've walked it back to compare it to monster hunter instead

"first mainline pokemon game to not have two versions"

it's not a mainline game as seen by the designation "pokemon legends," this is like expecting pokemon snap to have two versions

this guy seems kind of dumb

It doesn't have to be BOTW and MH inspired is just as awesome considering MH is about HUNTING monsters.

[bork]

[Tuckers Law]

That…actually looks cool?  The “GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE NOT FINAL” in the corner for a gameplay video of a game coming out in less than two weeks makes me leery, though.

[naff]

yeah, it looks aiiight. i'll probably play it :p

[Let's Cyber]

I think the new systems look interesting. The gameplay video did a lot to turn me around on this.

I will say a lot of these designs look fine as 2D sprites but watching them in 3D run/fly/roll around in an open world is extremely jarring. 

[naff]

it's good. monster hunter lite structure. progression is really similar, hub town, expand your access to the maps/where you can fast travel to with camps and connect with other clans, fight (capture) trash mobs and items in field maps on your way to fighting your chosen bad boi monster/alpha pokemon. should've called it pokemon hunter world :p

[HardcoreRetro]

Didn't expect these review scores at all.

86 average on Metacritic so far.

[Tasty]

Let's Go Eevee has 80%. Why are we still acting like Meta is some quality arbiter lol.

[bork]

Let's Go Eevee has 80%. Why are we still acting like Meta is some quality arbiter lol.

 

Was that a bad game?  I'm not up on my pokemans but I thought it was just the first game with waggle crap?

[Tasty]

I don't think it's controversial to say it's the worst Game Freak developed Pokemon game, and the worst remakes. There's really no reason for it to exist other than Pokemon was on a yearly factory churn and they had to slap something together for the Switch's first year.

I own the Pokeball Plus accessory because I'm a sucker, of course. But that was pretty much the end of my personal affinity for Pokemon.

[Let's Cyber]

Let's Go Eevee has 80%.

Game journalists are a bunch of genwunners confirmed.

[naff]

exploring and catching pokemon is fun af, even the battles with alphas and the special time rip world events can be pretty engaging, but the difficulty only really comes in weakening them enough to catch and not kill. I know these games are for kids, but it's still way too easy to the point the design just feels lazy. 5 minute story event cutscenes and leadup. 1 hit kill every boss's pokemon with any random mon you've caught in the last few hrs. zzzz

[Let's Cyber]

Despite talking shit about this game months ago and despite having too many games to play, I picked this up today. Will report back with impressions

[Hamarr]

Is this noob friendly?  I have never played Pokémon before and haven’t touched a jrpg in years. 

[HardcoreRetro]

It's a kid's game. Just pay attention to the text and you should be fine.

[Let's Cyber]

Quick impression: Game is enjoyable and I'd recommend it. All the old Pokemon core elements are still there but this feels like a natural evolution of the old formula. Like naff said, the structure is a lot like Monster Hunter.  They took the barebones wild area concept and expanded out on it. No more transition scenes, you just jump straight into battle and the fights are quick and snappy. Agile and Strong styles at least add a new wrinkle to the combat. I like collecting resources and crafting, but I know that turns some people off. Pretty grindy and repetitive if you want to max out a Pokemon Dex entry but "grindy" isn't unusual for this series, obviously. 

I know it's meme to say "This looks like a PS2 game", but this legitimately looks like an up res GameCube game. Some of the textures looks straight out of Twilight Princess. With that said, It makes me feel nostalgic in a way like we're getting some long lost Pokemon game from like 2005. If you're horribly bothered by jaggies, low res textures, pop-in and blocky shadows, probably safe to just skip this one.

[bork]

Quick impression: Game is enjoyable and I'd recommend it. All the old Pokemon core elements are still there but this feels like a natural evolution of the old formula. Like naff said, the structure is a lot like Monster Hunter.  They took the barebones wild area concept and expanded out on it. No more transition scenes, you just jump straight into battle and the fights are quick and snappy. Agile and Strong styles at least add a new wrinkle to the combat. I like collecting resources and crafting, but I know that turns some people off. Pretty grindy and repetitive if you want to max out a Pokemon Dex entry but "grindy" isn't unusual for this series, obviously. 

I know it's meme to say "This looks like a PS2 game", but this legitimately looks like an up res GameCube game. Some of the textures looks straight out of Twilight Princess. With that said, It makes me feel nostalgic in a way like we're getting some long lost Pokemon game from like 2005. If you're horribly bothered by jaggies, low res textures, pop-in and blocky shadows, probably safe to just skip this one.

Was going to say- it reminds me of Skyward Sword HD, albeit with some more detail  The environments are better.  Mentioned it in the random gaming thread but the mClassic really helps to make this look a lot better on a TV.  I still think this looks noticeably better than the previous Pokemon games and it has a solid framerate. 

I don't have much experience with Pokemon games and went from trying Red on the OG Gameboy back in 1997(1998?) to Sword in 2019, but this game feels 'smoother' and even just general movement feels better.  I tried Brilliant Diamond after this last night and it came off as pretty archaic in comparison.

[Tuckers Law]

How’s the world exploration feel?  I’m a sucker for good exploration in a game, and find the idea of a Pokémon game with good exploration pretty appealing.

[Let's Cyber]

 So far, I haven't really found any crazy unique items or secret areas from exploring, per say. You're primarily looking for new pokemon, that's really the main even. And finding Alphas to fight/capture.

Your movement and traversal tools are pretty limited compared to something like Breath of the Wild. It's not on that tier for discovery and exploration.  I should mention I'm still messing around on the starting map and haven't unlocked any of the ridable pokemon yet, those probably change things quite a bit.

[bork]

So far, I haven't really found any crazy unique items or secret areas from exploring, per say. You're primarily looking for new pokemon, that's really the main even. And finding Alphas to fight/capture.

Your movement and traversal tools are pretty limited compared to something like Breath of the Wild. It's not on that tier for discovery and exploration.  I should mention I'm still messing around on the starting map and haven't unlocked any of the ridable pokemon yet, those probably change things quite a bit.

It's nice to see there's some fast travel options available almost right from the start.  Made me not mind venturing way out to find more pokemans knowing that I could go right back to the base camp in seconds. 

I dunno what it is, but with the sneaking stuff in tall grass, I just kept thinking of the Snake Eater theme.  There's a video mashup somebody needs to make.

This game really feels like a step in the right direction for this series and I hope they continue with it.

[Let's Cyber]

This game really feels like a step in the right direction for this series and I hope they continue with it.

I think the path forward is the mechanics and open worldness of Legends, bring back traditional gyms and mix in the good aspects from the Sw/Sh DLCs.

[james]

Are they going to port it to Switch? Looks fun but I dont want to pull out my 3DS

[naff]

I got a microwave oven for my house spooky

[Let's Cyber]

I'm digging the soundtrack. One tune will remind me of an old SNES JRPG and then the next track will sound straight out of Pilotwings 64. It's weird and quirky and I kind of love it.

[naff]

there's some bangers for sure. possibly spent more time in crimson mirelands coz the tunes be so good





finished up the mainline scenario, got most of the wisps, 2/3rds of the pokedex complete. haven't played for a few days, but i'll keep at the postgame i think. still v fun running around collecting mons. been playing around with some mods. haven't found any way to increase the draw distance and LoD sustainably yet. managed to make trees appear in the distance and have rocks, npc's etc appear farther away but there's still the very clear cut render line for detail as you run around.

[paprikastaude]

The gameplay is good and makes sense for actually feeling close to being a Pokemon catcher like in the animu for once. But you just can't ignore the horrendous look of it. This game is like if you had the gameplay of Halo, but stuck in the campaign of Duke Nukem Forever.

All I could think of was how good the gameplay would be in a normal budgeted world (Final Fantasy-tier) that looks like the shows instead of what feels like a Steam Early Access game.