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Admittedly, the Pokemon game formula has been in need of a shake up for a while prior to the release of Pokemon Legends Arceus. As every new title is announced, lots of fans will gripe about the fact that Pokemon just hasn’t shaken it up as much as a 20-year franchise might have.
With the release of Pokemon Legends Arceus, though, that seems to have changed. The game offers quite a bit of shakeups to the formula, with a new combat system and revised gameplay loop built around the technology available now, instead of aping the original systems from the GameBoy era.
Detective Pikachu concept artist RJ Palmer took to Twitter to express his thoughts about the changes to the latest Pokemon game, despite criticisms about its less-than-stellar presentation.
“Pokémon Legends Arceus really does a lot right in terms of pushing the franchise forward. It may be ugly as hell but it’s extremely fun in a way the games haven’t been in years. Really recommend to disillusioned Pokémon fans”, he says in a tweet.
“In a lot of ways it feels like the first real step into 3D that other franchises had. This is like a Sonic Adventure move to 3D, it’s just happening 20 years late. It’s messy but feels like a big creative swing”, he continues.
Pokemon connoisseur and critic Laura Kate Dale was also relieved to see that the general consesnsus of the title was that it was positive.
“I will say this about Pokémon Legends Arceus. I am really relieved that the general critical concensus seems to line up with my praise”, she says.
A Series That Needs A Breath of Fresh Air
As a lifelong Pokemon fan, it’s hard to disagree with a lot of these opinions. In our review of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, we brought up that the series’ biggest flaw was just how much it clung to the game it was remaking.
Pokemon Legends Arceus is almost a rebuttal of that- feeling more like an experiment on what new features fans would be most excited to actually have in the game if they were in a game as detached from the regular Pokemon formula as possible. Thinking about things like turn orders to lock down your opponent is an inherently fun way to play the game, as is having to actually think about each Pokemon’s personality traits like their aggression to decide whether or not to just go for it and chuck a Pokeball vs fighting them.
It’s got its flaws, particularly on the visual side, but changing what Pokemon Battles are is a good way to change up the game while sill making it, at its core, a Pokemon game.
One thing’s for certain though- on a personal level, the next mainline Pokemon game going back to its old format would be a huge turn-off for me from the series.
