Pokémon Legends: Arceus has been a huge success, generating more than 6.5 million sales in its first week alone. The game brings some new elements to the series that future Pokémon games definitely need – at least that’s what MeinMMO author Lena believes.
What stands out to you about the new Pokémon game Legends: Arceus? The widely criticized poor graphics? The empty landscapes or Pokédex entries that require you to use Splash with Magikarp about 100 times? The legendary screenshot where the protagonist stands on a cliff looking at a bunch of texture mush with water?
It’s a shame because Pokémon Legends: Arceus has much more to offer than that. If one is willing to give this completely fresh and novel game in the main series a chance, they will get to know some features that they won’t want to miss in future Pokémon games and that can greatly enhance the gameplay.
Today, I would like to mention 7 features from Legends: Arceus that must continue to appear in the main series of Pokémon games and simply cannot be overlooked.
1. The large explorable areas in open-world style
While in the other Pokémon games you run from route to route, which are not particularly large, in Legends: Arceus, you have the opportunity to travel in 5 large areas and explore them one after the other.
While the story indicates in which order this happens, you can do and leave what you want within the area.
In the areas, various weather conditions await you. While the Obsidian Fieldlands feature wide, lush green meadows partly covered with colorful flowers and trees that sway gently in the wind, the White Frostlands are marked by bitter cold, strong snowstorms, and gray trees stripped of their leaves.
In the future, I hope for more of these free, huge, explorable areas, all of which are designed differently.
It seems they might even implement this in the upcoming 9th generation of Pokémon. Game Freak advertises a seamless transition between the areas and an open world. Legends: Arceus hasn’t quite achieved this yet, as there are still short loading sequences between areas.
2. Freeing Pokémon from their Balls at any time
A brand new feature that I would have even liked to promote to 1st place: You can release your Pokémon from their balls anytime and anywhere. Either to shake trees, collect berries, gather ores, or simply to admire them.
I believe I’ve already spent way too much time releasing my favorite Pokémon from the ball and just watching them sleep, sit, or make various noises.
If you catch a rare Pokémon or even a Shiny, don’t you want to see it in large on the Overworld too? Shinies or Shiny Pokémon have a different color than usual. They are not commonly found.
If they implement this feature in future generations, I would wish that they could not only be released for farming or admiration but that they could even follow you once you let them go.
Past editions like Sword/Shield, Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee, or HeartGold/SoulSilver already allowed Pokémon to follow you. Combining both features would be the optimum.
3. The freely roaming, diverse Pokémon
Also completely new: The pocket monsters now have different visible sizes. While some are tiny and light, others are real heavyweights and classified as heavy Pokémon. Sometimes it is even your task to catch different weight classes for your Pokédex.
You can see the differences even before catching them in the Overworld, as they roam freely everywhere and are always visible to the player. No Pokémon hides in tall grass and suddenly attacks the trainer.
The Pokémon even have different behaviors, because some are shy and flee from you, while others are aggressive and want to take you out. Elite Pokémon are particularly special: They are always ready for a fight as soon as they see you and are particularly large and strong.
You can catch them and it’s really amusing to see that the baby Pokémon Pii in elite form is just as big as its final form Pixi.
It would be great if they continued to take over the different sizes, behaviors, and freely roaming Pokémon. There’s nothing worse than a huge cave with 20 Zubat suddenly and continuously attacking you on the way through. Or when you’re searching for a specific Pokémon and encounter 30 Magikarp first before a Barboach finally looks you in the eyes.
4. No flood of unnecessary Trainer battles
Pokémon Legends: Arceus has done away with many Trainer battles. The focus is mainly on battling wild Pokémon and catching them. In previous editions, you had to mindlessly battle 20 Trainers in a row and became massively over-leveled, but in Legends: Arceus, you’re spared from that.
The Trainer battles can be counted on one hand and are mostly not very difficult. The focus has really been put completely on Pokémon, which I think is good, but maybe not entirely optimal.
One could find a pleasant balance between the two and place some challenging Trainers in the Overworld that can be fought if desired. Sometimes, I’ve missed some Trainer battles after flying across the map for 5 hours and catching Pokémon.
5. The new transitions and mechanics
In previous Pokémon games, triggering a battle required a new screen to load: the screen would go dark and the battle would load. Now, the transition into a battle is seamless.
As soon as a Pokéball from your own pocket monster is thrown at a wild one, the battle begins without any fuss or loading screens. It’s a small feature that I have come to really love over time.
The same goes for catching Pokémon: it resembles its counterparts Pokémon GO and Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee, where you don’t necessarily have to battle to catch a pocket monster. You can alternatively simply throw a ball at the creature.
Additionally, bait, berries, or items like sticky balls help make it easier to catch Pokémon. However, in Legends: Arceus, you still have the option to catch Pokémon the classic way, that is, through a battle. A very good mix that I wouldn’t want to miss.
6. The Crafting System
Another absolutely new feature for the Pokémon series: Crafting. You can stand in front of a workbench and use materials from the wilderness to create your Pokéballs and other items like potions and revives. Later, you also receive an item that acts like a workbench and you carry it with you. With it, you can craft different Pokéballs and more using the items in your bag.
Your Pokémon assist you in gathering materials from the Overworld. Also, wild Pokémon can drop items that will help you as well. If you don’t feel like farming or crafting, you can simply buy items for crafting and even the finished balls and tools.
It’s an optional, cool feature that kept me entertained during the first 50 hours of gameplay when I didn’t feel like doing a side quest or catching Pokémon.
7. The Quest System
The last point is the quest system in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. I have always wished for this in Pokémon games and it has finally been implemented properly.
The quests vary from “Find my lost Pokémon” to “Give me 5 berries and I will be happy.” Other residents want a specific Pokémon to be given to them or to see it. The twist? The Pokémon actually stays visible in the village with that resident when you have to give it to them.
Some Pokémon even evolve, and the bond with the NPC grows. In Legends: Arceus, the people of the world are afraid of Pokémon. It is not yet common to live and fight alongside them.
Therefore, it’s additionally nice to see in such quests how the people start to get used to the pocket monsters and even form strong bonds with them. Through the various tasks, you can even see the progress in the town.
For example, new houses are gradually built when you bring certain Pokémon to the construction manager.
This also provides players with additional variety to the usual gameplay, which I would like to see in future Pokémon games as well.
I certainly hope that this game is not a one-off and that Game Freak will continue to go in a similar direction.
Since Legends: Arceus is the prehistory of the Sinnoh region from Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, one could bring more games in this direction. The Kalos region from Pokémon X/Y or Unova from Pokémon Black/White would be incredibly suitable due to their extensive story.
We will have to wait and see whether this game ends like Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee or Quest and was only implemented once as a test, or if more will follow in the future.
What do you think about Pokémon Legends: Arceus? Did you give the game a chance despite its graphics and can you name additional features that excite you? Do you perhaps miss anything?
Some actually miss a very important feature regarding the herds: Pokémon Legends: Arceus is incredibly successful, but according to players, it lacks an important feature
