With all the joy and controversy surrounding the discharge of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet this previous week, it’s straightforward to overlook that there was certainly one other Pokemon sport that got here out earlier this yr. Pokemon Legends: Arceus was usually fairly well-received and praised for lastly doing one thing totally different with the collection, nevertheless it was additionally criticized for its poor graphics and bland open-world.
Hindsight is 20/20, however with Scarlet and Violet releasing with far more urgent graphical points and bugs, Arceus nearly seems to be like a masterpiece compared. And perhaps it’s, at the least so far as the idea of a Pokemon open-world is anxious. After spending nearly a full weekend plugging away at Pokemon Violet, I discovered myself eager for the radiant sunsets of the Obsidian Fieldlands in Hisui, so I went again to enjoying Arceus as an alternative.
Graphically, the distinction is night time and day. Pokemon Legends: Arceus isn’t probably the most graphically spectacular or groundbreaking sport round, however its artwork route retains it wanting fairly and constant, and at the least you don’t have NPCs strolling round at 10fps. Going additional than that, although, I shortly realized how a lot I missed the open-world exploration of Arceus, and the way it obtained so many issues proper on the primary strive that I’m wondering how Scarlet and Violet took so many steps again this month.
To start out, the Pokemon fashions in Arceus aren’t sized realistically like they’re in Scarlet and Violet, however that’s truly a quality-of-life function. Too usually in Pokemon Violet, I discovered myself squinting on the display screen attempting to determine if that was a flower or a Pokemon on the bottom. Tiny Pokemon within the open-world make it troublesome for gamers to establish them clearly, and never solely that, it’s additionally nigh unimaginable to inform in the event that they’re Shiny.
There’s additionally the truth that as a result of the Pokemon are so tiny, it’s straightforward to maintain by chance triggering battles with them if you simply wish to journey off on Miraidon. It’s past irritating to get out of 1 battle, and switch round solely to instantly enter one other one with a random small Pokemon you didn’t even see within the first place.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus utterly avoids this situation by permitting the gamers to interact after they wish to. Operating right into a Pokemon doesn’t begin a battle, and as an alternative you need to throw a Poke Ball at it to interact in any respect, whether or not you wish to catch it proper off the bat or combat it as an alternative. There’s no slowdown within the pacing both, as Arceus simply helps you to throw a Poke Ball at one goal and instantly comply with that up with one other toss at one other Pokemon which may’ve caught your eye.
The result’s an open-world that feels dynamic and thrilling. You’ve got Berries you need to use to distract wild Pokemon when you sneak up on them from behind, there’s the vital again seize mechanic that will increase your possibilities of touchdown a catch, and maybe the perfect a part of all of it is that the time taken to transition between battling and exploration is so insignificant in comparison with how it’s in Scarlet and Violet.
There’s little or no in Pokemon Legends: Arceus that holds you again. The liberty of exploration and with the ability to select what you wish to have interaction with is a crucial a part of open-world video games for me, and Arceus understands that. Then again, even when Scarlet and Violet have been instantly magically freed from efficiency points, its open-world would nonetheless really feel tedious to discover because of how sluggish capturing and battling is.
This isn’t to say that Arceus is the right Pokemon sport. After all it isn’t. The dearth of coach and Gymnasium battles was one thing I sorely missed in that sport, which I drastically loved returning to in Pokemon Violet. There may be plenty of repetition and tedium that comes with finishing the Pokedex in Arceus as properly, as you’re usually required to catch multiples of a single Pokemon and fulfill different varied situations.
With all that mentioned, although, there have to be some type of center floor between Arceus and mainline video games like Scarlet and Violet. Pokemon Legends: Arceus lay the inspiration for what might be a very wonderful Pokemon open-world sport, and all it wanted was the basic method of combating eight Gymnasium leaders and the Elite 4 to essentially deliver every part collectively. As a substitute, what now we have in Scarlet and Violet is only a rehash of untamed areas, sluggish battles, having to meticulously whittle down a Pokemon’s well being right down to the crimson earlier than you possibly can catch it, and did I point out sluggish battles? As a result of every time Klawf’s Anger Shell capacity triggers and I’ve to sit down via 5 stat adjustments and animations, I age about 50 years.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus obtained the open-world proper the primary time. Recreation Freak simply must construct on that, and the way forward for the Pokemon collection might actually find yourself being one thing to be enthusiastic about. Oh, and I suppose not having the participant character fall via the world each time we attempt to catch a Pokemon can be good too.
