What Is The Story
Narratively, Pokemon Legends: Arceus is a sort of prequel to Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. The game is set in the ancient past, when the Sinnoh region was known as Hisui and the concept of Pokemon trainers and a Pokemon League hadn’t yet been established.
You are cast in the role of a new recruit to the Galaxy Team, an expedition group that undertakes various surveying missions across Hisui. You’ll venture out to different areas of the region to fulfill these missions, with your overarching goal being to capture Pokemon and ultimately catalog the region’s first Pokedex.
What Parents Need To Know
Parents need to know that Pokemon Legends: Arceus is a role-playing game available for the Nintendo Switch. As expected from the greater Pokemon universe, Legends challenges players to catch and train powerful creatures known as Pokemon. But Pokemon Legends is the first major Pokemon title to completely change its objective. This time, the goal is to catch Pokemon as part of one of the first research expeditions studying Pokemon and their capabilities hundreds of years before the events of the other main games in the series. Those familiar with the franchise wont be surprised to hear that there isnt much violence or other questionable content in-game, but families should note that Legends has some online features they should be aware of, including the ability to send and receive Pokemon and picking up lost bags of other players.
Agile Style And Strong Style
As with the core Pokémon games, each Pokémon can remember up to four moves at a time. However, in Legends: Arceus, each of these moves can be performed in one of two styles: Agile Style or Strong style.
- Strong Style: Increases power but reduces action speed.
- Agile Style: Increases speed but reduces power.
You’ll need to use these styles accordingly to get the upper hand on your opponents. For example, Strong Style is the way to go if you think you can knock out the other Pokémon in one hit. Meanwhile, if you need to sneak in a few more attacks before your opponent can strike, you’ll want to use Agile Style.
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Are There Bonuses For Playing Other Pokemon Games
Yes! If you’ve played other mainline Pokemon games on your Switch, you’ll receive a few extra bonuses in Pokemon Legends.
If you’ve played Pokemon Brilliant Diamond or Shining Pearl, you’ll be able to embark on a post-game quest to capture the mythical Pokemon Darkrai. This quest will only be available after you’ve cleared the main story and watched the credits roll. You’ll also be able to claim a modern Team Galactic uniform from the clothier.
You’ll have a chance to catch the mythical Pokemon Darkrai if you have save data for Pokemon Brilliant Diamond or Shining Pearl on your system.
If you’ve played Pokemon Sword or Shield, you’ll be able to embark on a research quest to catch the mythical Pokemon Shaymin. Pokemon Let’s Go players, meanwhile, will receive free Pikachu and Eevee masks for their character.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus launches exclusively for Nintendo Switch on Jan. 28. Everyone who picks up a copy of the game before May 9 will get two bonus customization items: a Hisuian Growlithe kimono set and Baneful Fox mask. You can read more about the game in CNET’s Pokemon Legends: Arceus review.
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The World Just Makes Sense
Placing the cute creatures among believable fictional fauna has been a series staple since the beginning, which adds to player immersion and strategy. Its a relief Game Freak was able to nail this in its first full 3D game.
Theres joy in figuring out for yourself that bug type Pokémon are in low-lying, warmer locations, and that you probably wont find many populating the snowy mountainous areas where huge Abomasnow lumber about. It feels satisfying as a trainer to strategize and build out my six-creature team before I plan to explore a volcano, where Magmar patrol.
Game Freak appears to have learned from its Sword/Shield expansion pass chapters. The Wild Area feature of 2019s Sword/Shield game was a halfhearted attempt at a 3D environment, with a world that didnt really fit together or make sense. But the expansion chapters took baby steps to correct this, introducing interesting mazelike caves, large locations that stand out in the landscape and non-playable characters to advance the story.
Arceus takes those learnings further by giving us towns within the seamless worlds of each biome. Sure, the characters that scatter the world dont have much to say or do, but every Pokémon game is like that. Deep interactions with characters are outside the scope of what the series has offered. But at least the placement of people, classic locations from other games and monsters is thoughtful.
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Pokmon Legends: Arceus Battle System
Not every Pokémon in Legends: Arceus needs to be battled to catch it. When you approach, some Pokémon will be friendly, others will hide, and others will need to be weakened before you can catch them. Players throw a Poké Ball with one of their Pokémon at a wild creature to start a battle. The battle then begins right there in the overworld without going into a separate battle mode.
The combat order is determined by either Pokémon’s stats, including Speed and status conditions. A box displays in the upper right corner, letting you know the order in which Pokémon will be able to attack.
Pokmon Legends: Arceus Crafting
You read that right. Crafting is being brought into the mix in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. You can craft different Poké Balls, Smoke Bombs, and other items with the help of materials found in the wild. This also means there are plenty of items to pick up as you wander around ancient Sinnoh. Keep plenty of space available in your storage so you can gather all of the materials you need.
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Present: History In Electronics
19731978: Early video games, and Color TV-Game
The growing demand for Nintendo’s products led Yamauchi to further expand the offices, for which he acquired the surrounding land and assigned the production of cards to the original Nintendo building. Meanwhile, Yokoi, Uemura, and new employees such as , continued to develop innovative products for the company. The was released in 1973 and managed to surpass bowling in popularity. Though Nintendo’s toys continued to gain popularity, the caused both a spike in the cost of plastics and a change in consumer priorities that put essential products over pastimes, and Nintendo lost several billion yen.
In 1974, Nintendo released , a arcade simulation consisting of a image projector with a sensor that detects a beam from the player’s . Both the Laser Clay Shooting System and Wild Gunman were successfully exported to Europe and North America. However, Nintendo’s production speeds were still slow compared to rival companies such as and , and their prices were high, which led to the discontinuation of some of their light gun products. The subsidiary Nintendo Leisure System Co., Ltd., which developed these products, was closed as a result of the economic impact dealt by the oil crisis.
19791987: Game & Watch, arcade games, and Nintendo Entertainment System
19881992: Game Boy and Super Nintendo Entertainment System
19931998: Nintendo 64, Virtual Boy, and Game Boy Color
19992003: Game Boy Advance and GameCube
Pokmon Legends: Arceus Should You Play It
If you’re a fan of Pokémon, then you ought to pick this game up. I often got distracted from the main storyline simply because I was having so much fun discovering, battling, and capturing Pokémon. The Alpha Pokémon especially gave me something to work towards as I strove to fill my party with enormous creatures. I never missed the gyms or standard format of previous Pokémon games. This one stands on its own and provides the modern Pokémon RPG experience we’ve waited too long to play.
That being said, the vacant world, with hardly any trees and poorly rendered visuals, is a major letdown. This game deserved better graphics than it got, but it’s still a great game all the same. With any luck, Game Freak will work on another game like this down the line and will improve the visuals and mechanics even further.
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Pokemon Legends: Arceus Features Two Different Move Styles
Battling will also be as simple as reaching for the Pokeball of one of your team near a wild Pokemon to seamlessly enter battle. From here, Pokemon battles will be much more familiar, but it’s this way of interacting that will, hopefully, feel a lot more natural and realistic.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is also bringing different move styles to the table. When you enter into battle, you can choose between Strong or Agile styles, which have different effects. Should you choose Strong Style, the power of the move will increase but the speed will be lowered, while Agile Style decreases power and increases action speed. These styles look set to add a new layer of strategy to Pokemon battles.
Certain Pokemon you battle with may also be able to take multiple turns against their opponent depending on your Pokemon’s speed stats and moves.
An Open World To Explore
Until now, Pokémon games certainly offered freedom, but each time in a well-defined area. Things change with Pokémon Legends Arceus, whose huge map is open-ended like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It is therefore possible and even recommended to explore everything, moreover for that you can count on three special Pokémon which serve as mounts Cerbylline on land, Paragruel on sea and Gueriaigle in the air!
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What Makes Pokmon Legends: Arceus Different From Other Pokmon Games
Pokémon Legends: Arceus is an open-world game that focuses less on battling trainers and more on catching and learning about Pokémon. Rather than going on a set journey to earn gym badges, you explore vast lands, sneaking around and catching Pokémon and eventually battling against powerful Noble Pokémon. And when we say battle, we dont mean a Pokémon battle we mean putting up your dukes and dodging their attacks as they try to kill you.
The game is filled with side quests and huge areas filled with Pokémon that make for a great open-world exploration game.
Pokmon Legends: Arceus Review: Verdict
Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a great game, its visual shortcomings notwithstanding. While some of the turn-based mechanics can seem unfair, the games expansive world is simply joyful, filled with adorable creatures and exciting surprises to discover. Although Pokémon Legends: Arceus isnt perfect, its pitfalls make me excited for future Pokémon Legends titles, especially if they continue to explore the interesting relationship between humans and Pokémon.
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El Pasado De Una Regin Envuelta En Misterio
Pokémon Legends Arceus nos muestra la historia del protagonista, un jóven que ha sido enviado al pasado por la legendaria criatura que le da título al juego. Es así como el personaje da a parar a la región Hisui, la región Sinnoh en una era antigua inspirada en el Japón feudal. En esta época, el mundo es muy distinto al actual ya que los Pokémon son considerados peligrosos y diversos grupos están enfocados en crear una enciclopedia que recopile los datos de todos los especímenes que habitan en este lugar.
En efecto, la Pokédex no existe en esta era y el Equipo Galaxia, el grupo antagónico de Pokémon Diamante y Perla, se maneja de forma distinta en esta época: la asociación se encarga de capturar y estudiar a los Pokémon salvajes para armar el primer gran recopilatorio de datos sobre las criaturas de Hisui. Dado que el protagonista proviene de un tiempo donde los humanos y los Pokémon coexisten pacíficamente y tiene un talento innato para capturar y entrenar a estos monstruos, este se une a los rangos de la agrupación para ayudar en su tarea mientras descubre más sobre las razones detrás de su viaje en el tiempo.
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What We Said About Pokmon Brilliant Diamond And Shining Pearl
If a good remake is defined by its loyalty to the original, then Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are very good remakes indeed. They are Diamond and Pearl down to nearly every detail, looking nicer than ever before with a few small tweaks, most of which are pretty good ones. It leaves in some of the originals roster flaws, but theyre largely forgivable if youre like me and have some degree of nostalgia for a time when Pokémons scope was smaller. And yet, I cant help but be disappointed that Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl werent braver in how they improved upon the originals in the same way other Pokémon remakes were, bringing even some now-historic improvements back to correct historys mistakes. Of course, I still had a perfectly pleasant time revisiting both Sinnoh and the simultaneously simpler yet more challenging era of Pokémon that took place within it reminded me of a time when this series asked a bit more of us. – Rebeckah Valentine, November 19, 2021
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There Is No Pokmon League Or Regular Trainer Battles In Legends: Arceus
Unlike other Pokémon games, Pokémon Legends: Arceus doesnt feature Gym battles, Gym Leaders, or a Pokémon League to conquer. This vastly changes the players mindset while exploring and removes the emphasis from battling and leveling up. Instead, Pokémon Legends: Arceus encourages players to explore the territory and learn all there is to know about Hisui. Instead of battling Gym Leaders, players are asked to battle Pokémon Legends: Arceus Wardens to prove themselves worthy. Additionally, the Galaxy Expedition Team judges how much progress the player has made by how many research points and levels they accrue, rewarding a Star Rank that increases a Pokémons obedience level and improves rewards.
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Pokmon Legends Arceus Preview
- Publisher: Nintendo, The Pokémon Company
- Developer: Game Freak
- Availability: Out January 28th on Switch
We have, finally, been treated to an advanced look at the latest overview trailer, however, and that gives us just a little bit more of an idea as to what this game is really all about. It’s still a hands-off preview, though, still just the same trailer that’s been released to the public today, and there were no opportunities to ask any proper questions to follow up, which means we can’t really give you our own critical impressions of how it’s shaping up.
What we can do, however, is explain it all. So let’s dive in: what, exactly, is Pokémon Legends Arceus?
This is the first of many departures from the usual main series games. In light of you building, rather than filling, the Pokédex, catching a single Pokémon of a given species doesn’t completely fill out its Pokédex page. Instead, it’ll add a bit of info to the page – a literally, hand-written page – and you’ll need to fill out research tasks for the local professor to uncover more. These tasks include things like catching different numbers of the Pokémon, feeding it different kinds of food, observing it use certain moves in battle a certain number of times, or watch it displaying other “certain behaviours”. This seemingly increases that Pokémon’s research level in the Pokédex, until its page is fully completed.
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Overview: Discover Pokmon Legends Arceus
Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a 2022 action role-playing game developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for the Nintendo Switch. It is part of the eighth generation of the Pokémon video game series and serves as a prequel to Pokémon Diamond and Pearl . The game was first announced as part of Pokémon’s 25th anniversary event in February 2021, and was released worldwide on January 28, 2022.
The game follows the protagonist, sent to the past, as he travels to the Hisui region based on the island of Hokkaido at the start of Japanese colonization. Centered on exploring several open areas of the region populated by Pokémon, the game’s objective is to complete a roster of the region’s Pokémon, known as a Pokédex. Pokémon Legends: Arceus received generally favorable reviews and was a commercial success, having sold over 12 million copies.
How To Complete The Pokdex
You add information to your Pokédex by catching Pokémon. But catching a Pokémon once wonât be enough to complete its Pokédex entry!
Youâll need to keep studying that Pokémon and complete research tasks to increase your research progress on it and flesh out its Pokédex entry.
Completing these research tasks will also contribute to your work with the Galaxy Expedition Team and raise your rank as a team member, granting you access to new areas.
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You Have Something To Take Care Of
Battling Pokemon and filling the Pokédex should keep you busy. But if you have time left, that’s good: Arceus has everything planned! Make objects like blinding bombs or Masse Balls thanks to the workbenches of Rusti-Cité and bivouacs, go to the Maison du Textile or the Capillary Art, treat yourself to a photo session with the Photographer. There’s plenty to do, including admiring the Pokémon you’ve caught at the Pasture Ground, since you can only carry six of them.
What Is Gameplay Like
Players are out to complete the first-ever Pokédex by working with the Galaxy Expedition Team. You’ll be given research tasks, and fulfilling them earns you points. As you earn more points, you’ll move up in the rankings and be able to explore new locations.
Whenever you’re away from Jubilife Village, you’ll be able to stop by Base Camps to rest up, buy supplies, or craft items. Just like Pokémon centers in core Pokémon games, if you faint in battle, you’ll wake up at Base camp.
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