Topic: is Pokemon Legends Arceus any good?

Just wondering if Legends Arceus is any good or should i stick with getting Pokemon Shield/Sword?

last time i played a pokemon game was the Sun/Moon games for my 3DS

If buying physical, I would suggest picking up the complete edition of either Sword/Shield if you can (which is sadly discontinued) if you're after a more traditional Pokémon experience. Despite some of the whining and moaning that goes on about it around these parts, they're quite good. I would skip the remakes unless you're absolutely starved for more Pokémon.

Overall, Legends Arceus is the best of the lot. While it has some elements in common with the traditional Pokémon structure, it plays more like an action RPG, and is similar in some respects to the Xenoblade series and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in that you navigate a semi-open world.

yes I am buying physical like i always do with other Nintendo Switch games.

Pokemon shield I still want to buy sometime but just wondering about the Legends Arceus game

@XandertheWise

Opinions vary wildy, but IMO Pokemon Legends is the worst Pokemon game on Switch and this is backed up by it being the worst selling main series game.

@Screen it’s not the worst selling main series game though. It’s ahead of Ultra Sun & Moons lifetime sales in a few short months, give it another few months and it will leap frog a bunch of the other entries too.

I'd say yes

@jump

With the exception of enhanced editions and remakes. It technically outsold Platinum, but those always sell worse.

@XandertheWise
I think the game was good enough.

@XandertheWise Getting Shield is definitely a great idea since it's the best traditional Pokemon game you can get on Switch (in my opinion). As for Legends Arceus, I personally highly recommend it. The story is immensely engaging and interesting, the added action elements to the core Pokemon loop are incredible, the new Pokemon are great and it has some of the best music in the entire series. If you're into Zelda/Monster Hunter, I think you're going to really enjoy it.

@Screen I've actually been meaning to ask you this since seeing you in the PLA thread but I'd love to know what about Arceus makes you not like it? As someone who personally loves it, I have an inkling I might know what you'll say but I'd still like to hear you out regardless.

@Screen "and this is backed up by it being the worst selling main series game."

Sorry but this is such a BS statement considering it sold 12.6 mio copies in just two months.
That's like saying "This two months old game hasn't outsold the multiple years old games yet, that means it's bad". Also releasing only two months after the last Pokemon games obviously didn't help either

@Topic
For me who has played every single entry since Ruby/Sapphire Legends Arceus was the most fun I've had since B2W2. Pokemon SwSh on the other side was the most dissapointing one, but the DLCs were good. So if you get SwSh I'd recommend to get the DLCs too since they make the game much better

@Fizza

The biggest problem and really the only thing I can't forgive, is lack of any meaningful multiplayer. This is the core mechanic behind the franchise, it would be like making a LoZ game without combat or puzzles. The battle system might not be balanced for it, but the game is just so short compared to other main series games.

I think the game is too easy, If the game is going to give you a level 85 Garchomp, the NPCs should have comparable levels otherwise you just feel overleveld for the whole game. Playing the game naturally and just using the strongest available mons makes it near impossible to lose. Tbf all pokemon games are easy, but the first two totems are free wins.

I don't really like the idea of being a trainer from the future, it removes that sense of progression you get from other games where you slowly build up power. Here you start at the top and have nothing to prove. This is my most subjective argument.

I also really don't like most of the new pokemon/forms. Voltrob and Electrode are really cool, but both new Origin forms for Dialga and Palkia are hideous.

Finally I think making a game about completing the pokedex as the main goal, and also making it the most tedious pokjedex to complete is only going to appeal to a very niche group of completionists, and will be a big turn off to casuals. Obviously the fact that I'm griping about a lack of competative means I'm not a casual, but the point stands.

Now credit where credit is due. The catching mechanic in this game is strikingly better than anything that came before it and should be a staple in all future main series games, and the story while IMO bad is at least attempting to be interesting, something lacking on a lot of games main series or otherwise. The linking cable also needs to be a series staple, but ironically trivializes the only multiplayer aspct of the game.

Hard to say. I finished it, but only because I wanted to get it over with. Is that a bad sign? Oh yeah. But I still feel like, if I could only download 1 pokemon game from switch's offering, it would be this one, as the others are just really bad. Not counting New Pokemon Snap that one is fantastic, but the mainline Pokemon games and remakes have all been really bad on Switch, and I say that after putting multiple hundreds of hours in all of them, I have a huge love-hate relationship with this franchise. Anyways, Arceus is fresh. I like it, but I also would rather chop off my leg than read its boring dialogues.

@Screen Fair enough, that's a pretty detailed thought process. I like the Pokedex progression myself, though that may just be the fact that I'm the kind of guy who finds grinding out tasks in games utterly captivating most of the time, and the lack of multiplayer never bothered me since I always went into it with the impression it was going to be a Pokemon game more laser focused on a lasting single player experience rather than it being the tip of the iceberg like in every other game (in other words, leaning into a Zelda styled-game rather than the traditionally strategic gameplay we're used to).

Completely fair criticisms though, I'll (hopefully) never get on someone's case for a subjective opinion.

I personally didn't find Arceus that captivating.
It was fun in the first two areas, but it quickly became very monotone and repetitive.

And the game looks awful. There's no details or textures.

I haven't had this much fun with a Pokemon game since the GBA days. I think the world gameplay is by far the best any Pokemon game has ever offered, putting a lot of emphasis on the trainer and exploration.

It is by no means a perfect game, but it was a huge step in the right direction for the series in many ways. If they combined the good parts of Arceus with the non stagnant parts of the regular series, they could make a Pokemon game that is actually objectively a great game again after decades of bland games. Sadly it doesn't look like they are doing this with the upcoming mainline games.

Multiplayer really isn't the core mechanic of the Pokemon franchise, that's catching and training Pokemon. Actually I'm pretty sure most people who play Pokemon don't care about multiplayer at all (although I agree that it is a shame it isn't there in PLA)

Depends what you consider the good parts of Arceus and the non stagnant part of the regular series, but combining the openness of Legends Arceus (actually it's even more open) with the core gameplay of the regular series (lots of trainers, gyms, etc) seems like the right direction to me

I think being able to see and catch the Pokemon in the overworld makes the Pokedex far less tedious to complete in this game than in the others. Yes, there's also the tasks you have to do to fully complete the 'dex, but there's a decent variety of them and you only have to do a few for each Pokemon, so I still find those tasks more enjoyable than trying to complete the Pokedex in a traditional Pokemon game.

Also, it's not really the main goal. You need to complete the Pokedex for the true ending, but you don't have to do that. I haven't completed it yet and I still got a good 40 hours out of the game just from doing the main quests and some side quests, and I'd be satisfied with it if I left it there and never came back to it.

And I'm personally glad it doesn't have proper multiplayer because it means you can catch every Pokemon without needing to trade. It would be nice to be able to battle other players too, of course, but I probably wouldn't.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is good game for me, because of my weird personality which makes me hard to progress in other core games. Because I want Pokémon, that I catching for a team, to have quite good potential/stats. So I check Pokémon potential via IV calculator and if I not like it, and that's is a lot of times, I soft reset and try again until I catch the one with potential I like it. Then I EV train from begging and even make my starter to kill those trainers who cannot be skipped or it's gym trainer to get unneeded EV which with last games from 7th Generation (Let's GO games) became even more complex to do, because they made whole party always gain exp. But with Legends: Arceus that doesn't matter, because stats work much easier way there, so all Pokémon of same species has same potential, so I can breeze trough game with way more relaxing matter, because I only try go for nature there and it's catching game to begin with.

Best answer I can give is that it depends on what you’re looking for in a Pokémon game. If you want more open level design, slightly more interactive environments with more expressive Pokémon, and a greater lean towards action combat then PLA will suit you over SwSh. However SwSh has far more Pokémon, more moves, PvP, and the standard combat system from previous games that’s overall more deep than PLA’s. SwSh is more like previous Pokémon games while PLA is a bit more experimental

It also seems (emphasis on seems) to be the direction they're going for Scarlet and Violet so it'll be interesting to see where that goes.

To OP, as someone who owns both games I think it really depends on what you want.
How much do you need the core Pokemon RPG experience? If you don't want to deviate from the standard formula then go for Sword and Shield, but honestly I found SwSh a letdown. They start out pretty strong and have some great quality of life changes – like stuff the series has needed for years, stuff that will make you go 'why has it taken this long to do it like this?!' – but IMO the game finishes on a super weak note and the story is kind of stupid.

I haven't finished Legends yet but it's some of the most fun I've had with Pokemon in years. It feels fresh and I have that sense of wonder I had back when the series was still young.
It's not perfect. It looks like ass, it's slow to get off the ground, and to me it really could have done with some sort of voice acting, even the Zelda/Fire Emblem approach of partially acted lines. All that having been said, it's charming and it really does feel like it's its own thing separate from the core RPGs.

If you can eventually afford and want both, I say get Legends first then buy Sword/Shield secondhand later down the line.

If you love the Pokemon games, get SwSh first.
If you love Pokemon itself, get Legends first.