Switch Game Review: Pokemon: Legends Arceus

 Pokemon: Legends Arceus is one heck of an ambitious effort by Game Freak to make this series go open world rather than the top down approach of exploration for the first time (that this writer can recall at least) in its history.  It Came out to mass hype amid release and solid over 13 million copies all told.  A massive success noted afterward, and this game through and through did get a lot right. What did they get right? What was lacking? All that and more below!

Positives:

1. Pokemon Goes Open World: It was ambitious like I said, and it ended up being a good type of ambitious. Open world with Pokemon works. I actually enjoyed the open world ability to Legends Arceus and what you can do with it.  Howevet there is one caveat that I will explain below.

2. The Story: The Story I also liked quite a lot overall.  I felt it was a great adventure, took you to a lot of places that presented challenges and the ability to see a lot of the world you are in.  That next part leads me to..

3. Progression: There's a lot to use here with progression.  You're own progression is a good start.  The story allows for that, and the way you can build a team is entirely up to you, and you can progress your team how you feel.  You can progress a lot of your Pokemon how you feel and I feel there's a lot to your own ability to shape how you do this story mode.

4. Alpha Pokemon: I could have said challenge but this works too because this is a major focus on your team and in some of the quests you do. I enjoyed the challenge of keeping my party alive while also figuring out the right HP to get to catch them (if you can even catch them to be fair.) 

Negatives:

1. Limits to Open World: Ah yes, the dreaded "there is too much of not enough happening" with open world.  I'll give Pokemon this, it's designed to catch Pokemon but again there is a lot of space but not a lot that is being utilized with that space in this game.  There are a lot of games that have this issue with open world before Legends Arceus and after.  This is something that if Game Freak went with in the future it would need to be fixed in time.

2. Bugs: Game Freak struggled with this early.  When I got the game it didn't have bugs or any issues but that's because I bought it so much later so they had all the updates done with it.  Again, this has been an issue Game Freak that predates Legends Arceus and after.  Hopefully they will get these products finished.

Reaction/Rating:

Pokemon: Legends Arceus won a couple of awards in its time and was able to do be nominated for a few more.  However, it's a perfectly good game with some flaws initially and throughout. It's a fine game and honestly has a lot of great qualities.  If Game Freak goes with open world going forward, they could use this as a springboard.  Overall, a 8.5 out of 10 feels like a good grade here.