Throughout the 25-year history of Pokemon — well, 25 years for the U.S., and 26 years for Japan — the gameplay mechanics have remained mostly the same amidst significant graphical changes in every mainline entry. In previous games, Pokemon battles are initiated through sudden encounters with wild Pokemon and trainers, capturing Pokemon is done in the middle of a battle, and the gameplay experience is linear. What makes Pokemon Legends: Arceus more unique than the rest?
First and foremost, Pokemon Legends: Arceus is the very first open-world game in the Pokemon franchise. As such, it breaks its rigid, linear gameplay traditions and manifests gameplay mechanics that are consistent with other open-world games. It might resemble The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in a superficial sense, but it actually adopts elements from Monster Hunter. Rather than it being a single open-world, the game is sectioned off into distinct regions with a central hub area. Also, much like Monster Hunter, the player goes on excursions to these regions but also returns to the hub in order to improve their abilities, progress the story, purchase items, and pick up side quests — or requests, as they’re called.
The second most important point is that you can catch wild Pokemon without battling them. However, the ease or difficulty in catching them depends on their behavior, which you need to pay close attention to. While some of them stay perfectly still, others will either run away from you or come charging at you, prompting you to engage them in battle by summoning whatever Pokemon you want from your party. The neat part is that you can move your player character around and watch the battle play out at every angle for the first time ever. Even better, the battles are no longer turn-based; the Pokemon take their own initiatives to make their first move. Sometimes your Pokemon may go first, and other times the opposing Pokemon will do so instead, which may not be an ideal situation for players who are so used to having their Pokemon strike first every time.
You will also encounter higher-level Pokemon very early on in the game, especially larger ones called Alpha Pokemon. The levels of the opposing Pokemon normally increase gradually as you progress through the game’s story, but in Pokemon Legends: Arceus you’ll occasionally cross paths with Pokemon that are at advanced levels no matter how much work you put into training your Pokemon. It’s highly recommended that you battle Alpha Pokemon when your team reaches levels and attains the amount of EXP equal to or more than those of the Alpha Pokemon.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is also the first Pokemon game to introduce crafting. Since the game takes place in an era of Sinnoh’s history that is reminiscent of 19th century Hokkaido, the supplies you would normally get in previous Pokemon games — Poke Balls, revives, potions, etc. — are very difficult to come by. You’ll have to gather the materials to make them from scratch in the true open-world game spirit. You can either go to a workbench at the craftworks in Jubilife Village or take out a crafting kit wherever you are in case of an emergency.
Another break from Pokemon tradition is that there are no Pokemon Gyms. In fact, you don’t actually battle against other trainers as often as you normally would in a traditional Pokemon game. Instead of Gym Badges, the only way you can command the respect of higher-level Pokemon is by earning stars from Captain Cyllene of the Galaxy Team Survey Corps. You can get stars by filling out the Pokedex and completing research items for the same Pokemon you have caught before.
The setting of Pokemon Legends: Arceus might have fans thinking that it’s a spin-off game like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon or Pokemon Colisseum, but in actuality, it’s a mainline game. By setting the game centuries into Sinnoh’s past, it is telling an origin story about the practice of catching and training Pokemon, as well as researching them, Team Galactic, and the Diamond and Pearl Clans in order to have a deeper understanding of the nature of Pokemon, the innovations that simplify their lives, and the state of affairs in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl and their remakes.
