When Pokémon Legends: Arceus was announced in February 2021, the editorial team wondered whether the game would live up to its promises: an “open-world” Pokémon game with no Gyms, no routes and Pokémon visible everywhere. Several years after its release, the answer is nuanced but positive: it is an uneven game in its execution, but one of rare ambition for the series, and the most original in a very long time. Here is our review, written as we would write it today, with the benefit of hindsight on the updates and the sequels.
Our verdict
A Pokémon game that finally dares to change its pace. The explore, observe, catch, study loop is excellent and the Pokédex is a true engine for the game. The graphics and the repetitive requests dampen the enthusiasm, but the whole remains one of the most memorable entries in the series.
What we like
- Real-time catching that changes everything
- A Pokédex to fill, endlessly motivating
- Hisui, a coherent and brand-new atmosphere
- Readable battles thanks to the turn order
- Huge post-game thanks to update 1.1.0
What we like less
- Technical execution lags behind
- Requests are often repetitive
- Few Trainers to battle
- Pokédex limited to 242 Pokémon
- Simple main story with no real narrative high points
A journey into Sinnoh’s past
The game takes you back to a time when Sinnoh was still called Hisui, long before the events of Diamond and Pearl. You arrive after falling through a rift in the sky and join the Galaxy Expedition Team, an expedition that founds Jubilife Village and has the mission of creating the very first Pokédex. Humans live apart from wild Pokémon, which they often fear, giving the story a harsher tone than usual. The characters of Hisui details the clans, the guardians and the mythology of the Greater Sinnoh.
The main story spans 27 missions and revolves around five noble Pokémon, three lakes and a clash with the two deities of time and space. It mostly serves as a common thread: most of the appeal comes from discovering the region. Our walkthrough chapters follow it step by step.
Catching in real time
This is the big new feature. Wild Pokémon roam around on screen, and you can approach them by crouching, hide in tall grass, throw a Poké Ball without going through a battle or start a fight by sending out your own Pokémon. Some species flee, some ignore you and others charge at you. If you take too many hits, you are rescued and you lose some of the items in your satchel. The result is a rare kind of tension: you learn to read the behavior of each species, to aim from behind to catch it by surprise, to choose your Ball, and you can almost physically feel the difference between a successful catch and a hunt that goes wrong.
Crafting rounds out this loop: you gather materials, combine them at the workbench and make your own Poké Balls, potions and bait. Our page on crafting and recipes covers the recipes. The whole thing is coherent and makes you want to linger out in the wild. Alpha Pokémon, those giant red-eyed specimens, add welcome spikes of difficulty.
Battles more tactical than they look
Battles are still turn-based, but the turn order replaces the old sequence: speed, styles and moves decide who goes next, and a queue of the next six turns is displayed at all times. Every mastered move can be used in Strong Style, which is more powerful but slower, or in Agile Style, which is weaker but lets you act sooner. Abilities, held items, Eggs and breeding are gone: the focus is on moves, types and effort levels. Freeze and sleep are replaced by the frostbite and drowsiness statuses. The system is clear, snappy, and at first surprises veterans before winning them over.
The noble Pokémon offer boss fights in which you dodge in real time before sending out your Pokémon: it is the most spectacular part of the game. On the other hand, Trainer battles are rare, which will weigh on those expecting regular duels.
The Pokédex, the engine of the game
To complete a page, it is no longer enough to catch the species. You have to complete tasks: see it use a move, catch it at night, evolve it. Each task earns points that raise your rank and open up the next areas. This system, which replaces Badges, is the heart of the game. It pushes you to look, to experiment, to come back, and it stays addictive: you always want “one last Pokémon” before heading back. The page on the Pokédex and research tasks goes into detail.
The Hisui Pokédex has 242 Pokémon (238 required to complete it), including seven brand-new ones (Kleavor, Wyrdeer, Ursaluna, Basculegion, Sneasler, Overqwil and Enamorus) and sixteen Hisuian forms, detailed in the Hisuian forms. The evolution conditions, which are sometimes new, are described in the Hisui evolutions.
A presentation with two faces
Hisui has a real visual identity: Japanese-inspired landscapes, warm lighting and a 110-track soundtrack supervised by Go Ichinose. The game nonetheless lags behind technically: soft textures, late scenery pop-in, sometimes stiff animations and areas that feel empty compared with other open worlds. The press was divided: Famitsu gave it 38/40, Nintendo Life 9/10 and jeuxvideo.com 16/20, while IGN gave it 7/10, criticizing precisely a world it found empty, ugly and at times tedious. The game stands at 83% on Metacritic. You can find the press review we published at launch.
Our own feeling falls somewhere in between. The style works, and so does the variety of biomes, but the game cannot compete with the open worlds of home consoles, and you notice it when you switch from Hisui to other games. The Nintendo Switch does what it can.
The weak points
- Uneven requests: out of 122 requests, many boil down to bringing back an item or showing a Pokémon. The most interesting ones are described in the side requests.
- Ranks and tasks that drag on: completing the Pokédex to 100% takes a lot of repetition.
- A story that fades: the plot is easy to follow, but it is not as memorable as its mythology.
- Fewer Pokémon: with 242 species, the Pokédex is the smallest of the eighth generation, and it contains no species introduced after Sun and Moon, apart from the game’s seven brand-new Pokémon.
How to play it today
The game runs on all Nintendo Switch consoles and on Switch 2 (identical behavior, see the technical sheet and updates). It is compatible with Pokémon HOME since version 2.0.0, which lets you bring in the Pokémon from the Hisui Pokédex. Update 1.1.0 adds dozens of requests, the Dream Challenge and the Lone Path: install it before you start, because it greatly extends the game’s lifespan.
If you are discovering the game today, start with our getting started page and then follow the walkthrough. If you have finished it, take a look at the post-credits challenges.
Verdict
Pokémon Legends: Arceus is not a perfect game, but it is the most refreshing in the series in years. Real-time catching, crafting, the turn order and a Pokédex finally rich in things to do make it a standout entry. Despite its graphical limits and its sometimes repetitive pace, it deserves a 16/20.
