I first caught wind of Rain World around 2023, a few months after I joined Backloggd. I had affectionately heard it referred to as “backlog-core”, in that everyone wants to play it but no one actually does. Well, after doing my own research on the game, I decided I didn’t want to be one of those people, and so I tried out the demo, really liked it, and decided to buy the game. A wiser man would have bought it for $25 on the PlayStation or Xbox store. But me? I’m a physical game collector, and unfortunately for me, the Limited Run release of this game came out in 2018. Resell price? $137. And that was one of the cheapest I could find. No matter, I’m a very stupid person and bought it anyway.

To paraphrase a line from my VA-11 Hall-A review (a game I also spent an unreasonable amount of money on)...it was worth it. Rain World is unlike any game I have ever played before, and I doubt I’ll ever find anything like it.

Gameplay is king, so I’ll start there. Rain World has you play as this adorable little creature called a slugcat. It's very cute, but it's also edible. And A LOT of things in Rain World are hungry. I won’t sugarcoat it—this game is fucking HARD. Your movement is wobbly and imprecise, there are very few offensive and defensive options when you find something that wants to eat you, and all the tutorial tells you is the controls. For many people, these are clear signs that the game is much too difficult and that your time would be better spent doing something else. But those people are WRONG. The game is hard, don’t misunderstand. But there is meaning in the struggle.

When you start this game, you are given an intro cutscene and some basic movement mechanics. Everything else about this game is for you to discover. It's up to you to figure out how to navigate this overgrown mechanical landscape, how to deal with these funky multi-colored lizards (and MANY other types of creatures), and if these small objects are food or just something that can fit in your mouth. I have never played a game that left so much up to the player to learn for themselves and it is so insanely enjoyable. One of the first thoughts I had about Rain World that was more than just “wow so pretty!” or “goddammit I died again” was that it truly captured the feeling of being prey in a hostile ecosystem. Where you don’t even know about all the different things that can end your life, and you have no idea what is food and what isn’t, and death could be a few seconds away and you can’t do anything about it other than accept your fate and recognize that this life is just naturally unfair. And yet, it feels so rewarding when you finally figure out that yes, there is food in these long red seed pods if you just hit it hard enough. The small victories matter, and as you progress through the game and begin to master its systems, you grow beyond the clumsy wet cat that can barely scrounge up enough food to survive the night, and you truly become a part of the ecosystem like any other.

The ecosystem itself feels insanely realistic. There are dozens of creatures, all with their own behavior and niches that they fall into, and as you explore and progress, you begin to realize they don’t exist solely to challenge you, but that they are a part of the world just as you are. There is a food chain that goes from the smallest batfly to the largest vulture, and creatures will attack and eat each other just as they eat you. Naturally, this means you can use these behaviors to your advantage, and skirt by dense creature encounters if you’re lucky. When you’re not fighting for your life it can be fun just to watch groups of different creatures size each other up and duke it out. The design of the creatures are really cool too; naturally I don’t want to spoil much, but even just playing the demo, I was continuously surprised by the novel ways they kept killing me. Like, just…what? What do you mean that flying worm grew a needle out of its head and launched itself at me? Like, what was I even supposed to do about that? I was constantly impressed by how odd and occasionally brutal my deaths could get. But that’s just life down here. The creature AI is also ridiculously good at mimicking what real animals might do, and it's different for every creature, so what a green lizard can do is different from what a purple lizard could do. I know I shit my pants the first time I saw a lizard climb a pole. And it's reactive too; the way you behave around certain creatures—lizards and “scavengers” in particular—affects the way they treat you in future encounters. There’s so much to these creatures that you’ll be learning new things about them no matter how far you’ve progressed in the game already.

The movement system is similarly pretty hard to wrap your head around when you first start. It feels just a smidge unresponsive, but not in a bad way, more like you're a baby deer that just figured out how to use its back legs, and realized that throwing its weight around causes momentum to carry the rest of its body with it. You can climb poles, long jump, crawl forwards and backwards into small gaps—and if you’re like me and just pressed as many buttons as I could all at once when confronted with the slightest bit of danger—you may accidentally do a backflip or ground slide, and then spend five minutes trying to figure out how on earth you could replicate it because “oh my god that was hype, I just juked the fuck out of that lizard!” The animations do wonders in immersing you in the role of slugcat, from the way your tail swishes as you fly through the air after a jump, to the way your head whips around as you eat your juicy berry in measured bites. I also want to dedicate some time to talk about the humble spear, a tool you’ll find in great numbers during your fight for survival. It is a platforming tool as much as it is a weapon and boy does it feel good to go ultra instinct and wall-jump from side to side only to stick that spear into solid steel and create a handhold to escape danger.

The art design and environment of Rain World does just as much to sell the feeling of living in a hostile world as the creatures do, if not more so. The art in this game is STAGGERINGLY beautiful. I think this may be the prettiest game I have ever played. There are times where I just stopped everything I was doing to stare at the background and just took it all in. Every area has its own distinct vibe, and all of that is thanks to the god-tier art. Rain World is an industrial landscape overrun with nature, and it shows in the towering metal skylines peppered with flora and flecks of color. The sound design and music? Oh my lord. I could cry. It's this perfect mix between relaxing and isolating, and it also knows when silence is the best soundtrack. I’m listening to it as I write this! When the music gives way to quiet, and the quiet gives way to pounding rain at the end of a cycle…that is something truly special.

The story and lore of this game is best left to be discovered for yourself, and unlike other reviews where I’ll mention a few small out-of-context details here and there, I firmly believe this game is best played knowing absolutely nothing about it. That goes for gameplay and exploration too—it is tempting to give in and Google some details about the game just so you can have an easier time playing it—but if you can help it, go in blind. I did have to look some things up, so I’m no saint in this matter. But the beauty of this game is that you have to piece it together yourself. There are some mechanics and features that it absolutely kills me to omit from this review because they’re sooooo cool. Even if you’re dozens of hours in and still have no idea what built all of these big buildings and why the rain kills you, I promise, you will get some answers eventually. There is a real payoff to exploring every inch of this map.

All of these elements combine into an experience I’ve honestly struggled to put into words. Even this review is a little more esoteric and flowery than I usually get with my writing; admittedly that might be a crutch for not knowing what I’m really doing with this one. The way you figure out the gameplay is the same way you figure out the story—piece by piece, in uncertain terms, and and never being truly sure you have the full picture. Just as you as a player do not fully understand the world you’ve stumbled into, your slugcat cannot hope to understand the history that’s been left for it to uncover. Everything here is beyond you. You are but one piece in this puzzle, and you can’t solve it alone…but you are all you’ve got. It’s not a player-centric game by any means. There’s…this beauty, in the unforgiving and unknowable. I get a weird feeling playing this game. It's an indescribable sensation. The main menu music inspires this sense of longing within me and I don’t even know why. Maybe I left a part of me in those flooded hallways.

Feelings and musings aside, the game really does have a lot to interact with if you survive the near-vertical skill curve at the very beginning. It has officially supported mods—I don’t know what the situation on PC is, but on console they’re literally in the main menu itself. There’s a lot of good quality of life features in there to smooth out some of the rougher parts of Rain World’s design, like extra tutorials and UI elements to display some of the under-the-hood mechanics. And if you play on PC, there are of course tons of other mods that add wayyyy more things than you could do on console. There’s also a big-ass DLC: Downpour, which I have not played but will definitely be playing eventually that adds several more campaigns with new slugcat abilities and like, triple the amount of areas the base game has. And apparently there’s a SECOND DLC coming out on PC soon called The Watcher? Which I just learned about today? And it’s supposedly twice the size of the Downpour? That’s crazy. Apparently the DLC is a bit more game-y and strays a little from the themes of the base game, but hey, that’s one of the things DLC is good for—trying new things free from the constraints of the original work. Regardless, Rain World without any DLC is still an unforgettable experience.

I don’t really have much bad to say about this game. I’ve heard apparently the easy difficulty slugcat Monk loses access to the lore bits you can get on normal (Survivor) and hard (Hunter) difficulty. That is pretty bad actually, I’m not going to lie. But apparently there are mods to fix that available on the subreddit for this game. Another common modder W. I think the amount of bad a player has to say about this game boils down to if they like the challenge and unfairness that is inherent to the experience. I for one think those factors greatly elevate the gameplay and story, but of course not everyone is liable to do that and that’s okay. Play the demo and see if the game clicks for you. If you don’t like the demo, the full game isn’t likely to change your mind. But if you love the demo, then MAN...are you gonna like this game. I know I do. If you got this far, thanks for reading.

I remember when Pokemon Legends: Arceus was revealed alongside Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, that Legends: Arceus seemed infinitely more interesting. It's set in the past? I’m a history major! That’s awesome! I bought it having seen minimal gameplay, and thus was incredibly surprised by how unique it was, not just because it was so different from other main series Pokemon entries, but because what lay before me was a Pokemon game willing to take a risk in its design. Revolutionary.

Sarcasm aside, I genuinely love Legends: Arceus. As with all Pokemon games though, it has numerous flaws that have been increasingly harder to ignore as I age out of the series’ target demographic. Keeping with its uniqueness from other Pokemon games though, most of these flaws are NOT shared by the rest of the main series. Legends: Arceus has a whole new set of problems…and a whole new set of praises! The ways this game shakes up the formula are actually really fun, and unlike most Pokemon games, I never really got bored of playing it for long stretches of time. It's a shame that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet dropped a lot of the things that made this game so enjoyable. Hopefully Legends: Z-A will return to correct GAME FREAK’s mistakes…but I have my doubts.

Anyway, let’s start with the pros of this game—and more specifically, the gameplay.

First off, Legends: Arceus is “open world”. I say open world in quotation marks because it’s not really “open” and doesn’t have a lot of things to do in the world. The various areas of the Hisui region players romp around in are very large, but have loading screens between each of the different biomes. And really, the only things to do in the world are Requests (this game’s quest system) and catching Pokemon (luckily, a pretty fun thing to do). The open world of Legends: Arceus in and of itself isn’t really something to praise, but what it does to make Pokemon catching and behavior more complex certainly is.

The most basic role of the open world is to allow Pokemon to just “exist” in the world without the player forcing an encounter with them (like with encounters in tall grass in the other main series games). Wild Pokemon can be approached from multiple angles, and behave and move in different ways that changes the way you approach them. Bidoof run up to you all cute like, Starly run away as soon as they sight you, and Shinx immediately start lobbing Electro Balls at you. As such, players have to actually think about how they’re going to get close to wild Pokemon in order to catch them. Higher thought in Pokemon catching? Say it ain’t so.

Because of this and a whole host of other features, the process of catching Pokemon in Legends: Arceus is the most in depth and fun it's ever been in the entire series. In the overworld, players must aim the Poke Ball they wish to throw—as opposed to just clicking a button during battle. It’s amazing how this simple change makes the entire game way more enjoyable. Poke Balls aren’t the only thing you can throw; you can also toss smoke bombs to obscure your approach as you close in for the perfect shot, “scatter bangs” to make noise and attract the gaze of nearby Pokemon, bait to attract hungry Pokemon, and clumps of mud or spoiled Apricorns to stun Pokemon and give you an opportunity to strike (or run away).

For most wild Pokemon, players need to use stealth to catch them, so they don’t run away or attack (which prevents them from being caught without starting a battle or stunning them). This is done with the aforementioned Smoke Bomb, crouching and hiding in bushes, or simply lingering outside of the Pokemon’s notice by hiding behind something or climbing high above them. Stealth is rewarded with the back strike mechanic, which drastically increases catch rate on a Pokemon if your Poke Ball strikes them from behind. It's an insanely satisfying mechanic.

And should players attract a hostile Pokemon’s attention, they better be prepared to either nut up and start a battle, or get ready to dodge attacks because Legends: Arceus isn’t afraid to have Pokemon attack you outside of battle. That’s right, you have health in this game and you can DIE. That hostile Octillery seems really harmless until it fires its death-ray Hyper Beam at you. Hostile Pokemon in this game are scary little fuckers. Electro Ball and Shadow Ball tracks you, Poison Powder and Thunder Wave disable everything in a 6 meter radius, and Rock Slide dumps (wait for it) rocks on your head no matter how far away you are.

Crazy to think Dawn and Lucas from Diamond and Pearl are out here putting stickers on their Poke Balls while Rei and Akari in Legends: Arceus are fighting wild bears with their fists. God forbid you attract the attention of Alpha Pokemon. They’ll knock you right off any mount you're using and hound you with attacks that hit harder and faster. They’re also actually intimidating at times—they’re like twice the size of their normal counterparts and their loud-ass cry is all distorted and echoey. They’re very cute when you catch them though.

Luckily, in addition to the array of tools players have to distract and misdirect wild Pokemon, there are three main types of Poke Balls at your disposal with different types of physics when thrown. Standard Poke, Great, and Ultra Balls fly in a normal arc; Heavy, Leaden, and Gigaton Balls fall off very quickly but have much higher catch rates; and Feather, Wing, and Jet Balls sail far through the air in almost a perfectly straight line. Poke Balls will do the trick for most Pokemon, but Heavy Balls are great if you can get in close, and Feather Balls are great if you decide “I don’t want to be anywhere near that Alpha Parasect.” Feather Balls are also good if you want to capture flying Pokemon—as in, wild Pokemon that literally fly above you in the air that you could only hope to hit with a Feather Ball like a professional sniper. Seeing a flying Gyarados in the Obsidian Fieldlands for the first time hits different as a longtime Pokemon fan confused on why Gyarados is a Flying-type.

All in all, the catching mechanics are an actual breath of fresh air for a series that doggedly refuses to change its core gameplay loop. They incentivize players to approach Pokemon catching with tact, and reward careful, steady stealth to nail that perfect shot. Or, if you’d like, you can just smack a Pokemon with a snowball and quickly sprint behind it for the back strike if you’d like. Whatever floats your boat.

Of course, you can opt to battle wild Pokemon instead of sneak around all day, and luckily, Legends: Arceus changes up the battle mechanics as well. Perhaps the largest change is the introduction of action order. In the other main series games, players get one action per turn, and then their opponent gets an action. This is not the case in Legends: Arceus, as there are now a lot of opportunities to increase the amount of actions per turn—both for your Pokemon, and the opponents. The Speed stat still influences which Pokemon gets to move first, but now if it’s high enough, the faster Pokemon might get two turns in a row.

Similarly, the new Agile and Strong style moves affect action order. Agile moves reduce damage and the likelihood of additional effects (status conditions, stat changes) from occurring, but increase the user’s action speed. Strong moves are the reverse; increased damage and effect likelihood, but they lower the user’s action speed. This adds a new element of strategy to battle, even just a little bit—should I Agile Style Swords Dance and buff my offensive stats before striking with a normal move? Or will a Strong Style Liquidation take down my opponent in one shot?

The aforementioned back strikes also grant the user the first turn automatically when wild Pokemon are struck with a Poke Ball with your Pokemon in it. This is a lot of fun if you’re trying to take on a wild Pokemon that’s much higher level than yours. If you can give yourself enough turns before the wild Pokemon can fight back, you’ll reap the benefits of massive EXP gain. But if you fail to secure the advantage, you’ll just get swept. Dare I say this mechanic adds actual strategy to a Pokemon game? It’s a far cry from spamming super-effective attacking moves every turn until you win. Plus, it works much better in a game where most battles are against lone Pokemon.

There are a couple other changes to battles that don’t impact the game as much, but are nevertheless great. Two new status conditions were introduced to replace the two most annoying ones. Drowsy replaces Sleep and Frostbite replaces Frozen; finally, we are freed from guaranteed failures to act during battles. Players can also finally throw Poke Balls when faced with multiple targets (and players will certainly be faced with multi-Pokemon battles in the wild). Being unable to throw Poke Balls because it’s “impossible to aim” was always bullshit, so it's good Legends: Arceus changed it.

EXP share is always on, like how it is starting with the Let’s Go games, but unlike the other games where you can’t turn it off, it’s pretty necessary in Legends: Arceus since there’s very few Trainer battles. Incredibly rare modern EXP share W. Running from wild Pokemon battles actually keeps the wild Pokemon around in the overworld, meaning you can hop right back into the battle if you feel so inclined; it's great if you mess up a back strike and want to reassess the situation or heal your Pokemon.

The ability for Pokemon to attack you outside of battle is turned up a notch with the Noble Pokemon “boss fights”, and while I have my gripes with these fights as some of the only interesting events the story has going for it, they are admittedly kind of fun. Noble Pokemon are wayyyy larger than Alpha Pokemon, and so draining their “health bar” by pelting them with offerings (more on that later) whilst dodging their huge-ass attacks is actually fairly engaging. I also like the Eternal Battle Reverie minigame that unlocks after completing the Pokedex. You choose which battle to fight, they get more difficult over time, and the higher the difficulty of the battle you win, the more points you get to buff yourself or modify future fights in between rounds. Then simply battle as long as you can. I only ever did one run of it, but I really liked it! The battle system in this game is just really fun, and since Trainer battles are few and far between, it's great to be able to go through a gauntlet of them.

While I think the changes to catching and battle mechanics are the real advantage of this game, the main gameplay loop involves completing the Pokedex. But unlike every other Pokemon game where that is also your goal, Legends: Arceus has players complete the first Pokedex. And you’re helping Professor Laventon write it himself. Firstly, not only is that just cool from a story standpoint, but it's also pretty fun! Every Pokemon has a certain set of research tasks to complete in order for Laventon to complete its Pokedex entry, and it's up to the player not only to capture every Pokemon, but also observe them doing different things.

These things range from seeing them use different moves, use those moves in different styles, catch them stealthy or at certain times of day, evolve them, watch them eat, stun them with objects, and other tasks like that. Despite my praise for it, I’ll admit that it isn’t the most interesting gameplay loop. I’ll touch on my criticisms of it in the cons section. Still, with how much I enjoy the catching and battle mechanics, I find it much more engaging than completing the Pokedex in the other main series games. And since tasks can be completed even if you aren’t using the Pokemon they correspond to, you can get them done very quickly if you know the best ways to multitask them.

My favorite part of the Pokedex is its design though. It’s an actual book, complete with notes inserted between the pages, and Polaroid-style photos stuck to each entry. The appearance of the book becomes more worn the more entries the player has completed, which is a very fun detail the artists could have totally ignored. Also, all of the Pokedex entries are written from Laventon's perspective as opposed to an omniscient third person perspective. They occasionally reflect this personal thoughts and biases, such as Raichu’s detailing it could knock out a Copperajah from Laventon’s “homeland” (suggesting he’s originally from Galar). Porygon’s is really fun since it's a digital Pokemon stranded out of time: “It has no discernible heartbeat and does not seem to draw breath, and yet it appears to function without issue. I cannot even begin to explain this utterly bizarre anomaly.” Some part of me just loves seeing Pokemon described through the lens of someone living in the world with them. I hope we get something like this in Legends: Z-A, even if the circumstances in that game are different.

Legends: Arceus also includes new regional forms and even new cross-generational evolutions, which I will always be a fan of. This small batch of new Pokemon absolutely rocks. The Hisuian starters all bang super hard, and Hisuian Arcanine, Lilligant, Zoroark, and Electrode are all super creative designs. Shoutout to Electrode in particular for being our first standard Electric/Grass-type, and exchanging the standard Poke Ball design in favor of Hisui’s wooden Poke Balls. The new cross-gen evolutions also give some massively overlooked Pokemon relevance. Basculegion, Wyrdeer, and Ursaluna all look amazing and get better typings.

Most Pokemon games since Gen 4 have had some way to show affection to your Pokemon outside of battle, and Legends: Arceus is no different—you can let your Pokemon outside of their Poke Balls and watch them emote and interact with you. Unlike those games however, I like that Legends: Arceus lets you do this wherever you want; all you gotta do is toss your Poke Ball at the ground, and they’ll just pop out and act all cute and shit. You can “speak” with them, pump your fists to make them assume a battle stance, and they’ll “talk” to your other Pokemon if they’re let out too. They also curl up and go to sleep if left idle and that is so damn cute!!! Love the interactivity.

Finally, Legends: Arceus introduces a lot of quality of life changes that make moment-to-moment gameplay much more enjoyable, and removes a lot of the annoying contrivances that the main series stubbornly insists on keeping. For one, nicknames and moves can be freely changed from the menu, as opposed to having to go to a specific person to edit. The Name Rater and Move Reminder should have been removed ages ago; thank goodness they finally did it. Next, trade evolutions were completely phased out in favor of item evolutions; though this was probably only done because held items aren’t a thing in Legends: Arceus. Still, for someone with no Nintendo Switch Online (and for other people with no friends), this is literally a god-tier change. The Linking Cord item should be standard in every future game from now on (it isn’t lol), even if it's just as a secondary option in addition to normal trades.

Level-up, new move, and evolution ready notifications are moved to the side of the screen in an incredibly unobtrusive manner, as opposed to being multiple messages that must be button mashed through at the end of a battle. Again, another god-tier change; one of my main gripes with Pokemon that I only really noticed when I became older was how slow it plays since messages are only shown one at a time. Legends: Arceus fixes this by speeding the process up.

Speaking of evolution ready notifications, evolution is now manually controlled—Pokemon will only evolve if you choose to do so in the menu. I suspect this was added so that players could avoid evolving their Pokemon if they haven’t finished filling out the tasks for its first stage, but it's a feature that I wish stayed in Scarlet and Violet because of how convenient it is. Legends: Arceus also removes the need to level up a Pokemon if it already met the conditions for its evolution—for example, catching a level 50 Oshawott lets you evolve it into Dewott and Samurott immediately. Another little annoyance sent screaming into the abyss.

Legends: Arceus is also the best Shiny hunting game, not even because Shinies are so much more common (up to you whether you like that or not), but because it plays a sound cue whenever you see one. Obviously, it’s done because players will be approaching Pokemon at much farther distances than in past Pokemon games, but it's still great. Fans of similarly elusive Mythical Pokemon will also have a field day with Legends: Arceus, as every Mythical Pokemon introduced in Gen 4 are indefinitely available in this game; albeit Shaymin and Darkrai require SwSh and BDSP save data on your Switch respectively. No limited-time events to give you “the fear of missing out” with this game.

Three more little nice quality of life mechanics before I get into the story of Legends: Arceus. For one, you can press ZL to toggle first-person mode, and as long as you hold it down you can stay in that mode. Not that practical but I like looking at my Gastrodon face-to-face. Two, you can enable pressing the right stick down to toggle on and off the HUD in the settings. The graphics in this game aren’t all that great, but having no HUD makes Legends: Arceus a little cooler. Lastly, while I generally dislike tutorials in Pokemon games, the tutorial in this game shows a type matchup chart (that you could then screenshot with your Switch). I know a lot of players still struggle to remember them all, so that’s a great addition to the ever-present forced tutorial.

Now, I’ll move on to the good things about the story, and luckily for this long-ass review, this part should be short because I don’t think the story is very good. My criticisms are for the end of the review though.

First off, I can at least say that Legends: Arceus has a lot of good ideas, even if they are executed poorly. The protagonist is plucked out of present day Sinnoh (their appearance suggests it’s literally Dawn/Lucas) and sent back into the past, when Sinnoh was known as Hisui, Pokemon were feared instead of loved, and the Diamond and Pearl clans debated on whether their deity “almighty Sinnoh” represented space or time. That is an insanely cool pitch for a Pokemon game.

Hisui being set in the past means we get a lot of nifty archaic designs for common Pokemon items to fit the theme. Poke Balls are now made with natural Apricorns, and are thus wooden with metal clasps, and they shoot fireworks when successfully capturing a Pokemon. Potions are now a salve made with ground up plant matter encased in a glass jar. Clothing is more traditional, with kimono and geta sandals being purchasable customization options. And yet, because of space-time distortions being a major plot point, players can also expect to see anachronistic items like the Dubious Disk, and anachronistic Pokemon like Porygon, Shieldon, and Cranidos. The theming is really neat and the contrast between the past and future is fun too.

The architecture and UI elements are similarly themed. The opposing Diamond and Pearl Clans, who have settled Hisui for centuries make their homes in tents with wooden supports, while the Galaxy Team, who have recently made their home in Hisui, have entirely wooden homes, paper windows—and in the case of the Galaxy Team headquarters—a massive brick building reminiscent of Meiji-era Japan. The map elements are styled off of woodblock paintings, and even the game’s cover art portrays Mount Coronet in a style similar to Katsushika Hokusai’s Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. (You might know Hokusai from the Great Wave of Kanagawa, that ocean wave illustration.)

The characters of Legends: Arceus are…not that great. Most of them are pretty forgettable, though main characters like Adaman, Irida, Cogita, and Volo occasionally have their moments. It's cool to see Adaman denounce Irida’s leadership based on the short time she’s been leader, since his Diamond Clan worships Dialga (which controls time) as the true manifestation of almighty Sinnoh. Meanwhile, Irida dislikes the Galaxy team for constraining the space Pokemon exist in via Poke Balls, since her Pearl Clan worships Palkia (which controls space). Cogita is mostly an exposition machine, but her manner of speaking sounds very cool, I’ll give the writers that. Her telling the protagonist to “bind the world together” with the Red Chain is fucking awesome. And Volo…don’t need to say much about him. If you know, you know.

The only story events I think are truly memorable are the encounters with Giratina (y’know…that encounter) and Arceus. Good story or not, the portrayal of those Pokemon in Legends: Arceus is badass. They’re putting Dialga and Palkia to shame. The Giratina encounter is too cool to spoil. It’s a genuine challenge in a Pokemon game, which is very rare these days. And the sound design for Arceus is fucking killer. Plus, Legends: Arceus introduces the Legend Plate, which allows Arceus…to do something I won’t spoil because I actually laughed with glee when I first used it. Genuine, unadulterated happiness using that item. Unironically one of my favorite moments in the entire game (which might not be the most glowing endorsement of it now that I’m thinking about it lol).

The last pros I have to say concerns some miscellaneous design elements that I mention in basically every review I write. The suboptimal graphics of Legends: Arceus will be discussed later, but I wanted to mention that I think the lighting and skybox is actually above average for a Pokemon game. The amber lighting and dramatic shadows during sunsets are very striking, and the starlit sky on a backdrop of “jagged” clouds looks very good as well. Legends: Arceus also has some pretty good remixes from DPPt; again, Giratina and Arceus come to mind.

Okay, the cons. There are a good amount of them. I’ll start with gameplay criticism.

The most obvious one is that if you aren’t a “number go up” person, you will probably not enjoy this game’s main goal of completing the Pokedex. Luckily for me, I am (to an extent). Without the catching and battle mechanics, I won’t have enjoyed completing the Pokedex nearly as much as I did. So, if you’re a person that doesn’t really care about the mechanics of Legends: Arceus one way or the other, you probably won’t enjoy filling in entries by doing the same 20 or so tasks over and over again. There isn’t much else to do other than that and some battle minigames like Path of Solitude and Eternal Battle Reverie. For being “open world”, there sure isn’t a lot of world to be open in.

Another big criticism is that even though the introduction of action order adds a lot of depth to Legends: Arceus’ battles, the removal of features like Abilities and held items subsequently returns the level of strategy to average. I can at least understand the removal of held items from a story perspective—Pokemon-human interaction isn’t very common in Hisui, so Pokemon aren’t just gonna hold an apple core or piece of charcoal because some human told them to. But why aren’t Abilities here? Is it because a lot of Abilities wouldn’t work quite right? (For example, Shadow Tag isn’t very useful in wild Pokemon Battles, and Own Tempo is pointless because there's no confusion or Intimidate.) Is it naive of me to think that removing Abilities is just a cop out so the developers didn’t have to do the legwork for changing Abilities to fit the game? Maybe. But that’s what I think anyway. There’s also a bunch of moves, volatile status conditions, and weather conditions/terrain missing for similar reasons. Way to make battles more boring right after you made them more interesting.

Status moves that buff attacking and defending stats were also reworked in Legends: Arceus to buff both offensive or defensive stats. Swords Dance will increase Attack and Special Attack, and Calm Mind will increase Attack, Special Attack, Defense, and Special Defense. Despite me listing this in the cons section, I don’t think this is a bad idea in a vacuum. The distinction between Attack and Special Attack, while certainly there, has always been a little arbitrary, introducing complexity for the sake of making things more complex. (Is that a weird take? I wasn’t around before the physical/special split. Maybe I’m crazy.)

The reason I think the change to status moves is a negative is because it just reminds me how much artificial complexity there is in the main Pokemon series. There’s a lot of additions that increase the amount of mechanics to remember, but don't actually make battling feel more deep. I think of the Pokemon battle system as “ocean wide, puddle deep”, and the change to status moves forces me to confront that reality head on.

Like the other Generation 8 games, Legends: Arceus introduces new cross-generation evolutions for Pokemon from past generations. Accordingly, the developers try to ensure continuity by making the new evolution methods impossible to perform in past games, so players can’t say “why has no Trainer ever evolved their Ursaring before if it's possible to do so?” The problem with this approach is that all of the simple and easy to intuit evolution methods (like stones, trades, happiness) have already been done, so new methods just get more and more obscure, to the point where the only way a new player could hope to figure them out is by googling it.

Let’s see, Legends: Arceus has you ‘checks notes’...expose Ursaring to a Peat Block on a full moon? Level up Basculin after taking at least 294 HP in recoil damage without fainting. Have Stantler use Psyshield Bash in the Agile Style 20 times? Hoo boy. At least it's no Runerigus. Usually I’d only level a criticism like this at the first games in a generation, but I am NOT playing Pokemon Sword again for a long time.

Legends: Arceus also introduces quests, which are fine. The main series has basically always had quests, Legends: Arceus just has the decency to write them down for you. The requests (side quests) however are very middling. They aren’t offending bad enough to be a detriment to enjoyment or anything, but very few of them are engaging enough for me to actively like them. I think the only ones I saw as more than just tasks on a list (ironic that I’m complaining about that) are the ones that gave you research task points. Drifloon playing with children is funny. Alolan Vulpix and Shiny Ponyta sightings are fun. The rest is just eh.

Now the story…it’s mid. Dare I say bad. I mentioned early that the idea of Legends: Arceus rules. A modern protagonist is sent to a past with rival clans and scary Pokemon? Sign me up. Such an idea could explore themes of religious conflict, Pokemon “domestication”, the separation of myths and history, human impact on the environment, and the protagonist grappling with losing all they’ve ever known and being thrust into an unfamiliar land where they are condemned as an outsider. Aside from the outsider part, a grand total of zero of these themes are explored in any meaningful way. I guess I’m expecting too much from a Pokemon game? What should I expect from a Pokemon game story-wise? I feel like “more than what we got” is an acceptable answer to that question.

There’s just so much wasted potential with this story. The characters are all nothing-burgers with dope designs, like pretty much every character in the series that isn’t N, Lillie, or Lusamine (I haven’t played Violet, don't flame me pls). If you’ve played Legends: Arceus, can you tell me the name of Kleavor’s warden? I can’t because he’s not memorable enough to make an impact despite being the warden of the first Noble Pokemon you quell! Speaking of Noble Pokemon, why on earth are they our problem? They get zapped by holy lightning and get really mad. Doesn’t change the fact that three out of five of them are located literally nowhere near human civilization. I kinda think I agree with Mr. Kleavor Warden, Kleavor wasn’t really harming anyone. Sarcasm aside, the Noble Pokemon are pretty much the only impetus for anything happening in the story, yet they aren’t a very good one in my opinion. They’re good for boss fights, but not really for storytelling.

The story is also very predictable, though most not-Sun-and-Moon Pokemon titles are. You’re telling me the Legendary Pokemon are the source of all our problems? Who would've guessed? And it’s that legendary? Color me surprised. The announcement of the completion of the Pokedex is also insanely anti-climactic, much like the celebration after quelling the Legendary Pokemon is. The battles preceding them are pretty cool though. I think the only other positive thing I can say about the story is a backhanded compliment—at least it's not that invasive and lets me enjoy catching Pokemon in relative peace.

I have a few nitpicks with the story as well. They’re less major systemic flaws, and more inconsistencies and unanswered questions though. One, why does throwing offerings at a Noble Pokemon make them more calm? It does give players cool boss fights that actually feel different than normal gameplay, so maybe I shouldn’t question that. But would you like getting pelted with tiny bags over and over, even if they had your favorite food in it? I sure wouldn’t like getting a bottle of Mountain Dew Purple Thunder thrown at me. Two, “every Pokemon can shrink itself down to miniscule size” is a really stupid explanation for why Poke Balls work. I’ll reluctantly accept it though, because frankly it's the only explanation that makes sense. Three, Volo mentions “HP” in one of his dialogues. If Pokemon are unstudied, mysterious creatures, how does he know what that is? Four, how does Laventon even know the Pokedex is complete? This is the first Pokedex ever devised in Hisui. What if there’s a secret fourth evolution in the Pikachu line that no one has ever seen before?

Okay, I’ll move on to design and artistic choices now. First of all, the elephant in the room—the graphics are kinda mid. The same tree models are copy-pasted ad infinitum, models pop-in over long distances (most visible when flying on Braviary), textures are all mushy and blend together, and many areas are super empty, with little variety in plant life or terrain. This has the side effect of also making battle environments mid, since they take place in the same environment. Even if you argue that Legends: Arceus was made in a shorter time than the other main series games, Sword and Shield’s Wild Area and Scarlet and Violet’s everything have the same issues. The Switch can run Breath of the Wild, and that game looks sick. What’s the problem here?

Voice acting should also probably be added in full to the series by now. Ever since Pokemon games started having long cutscenes and highly detailed 3D renders, it's becoming increasingly odd for there to be no voices whatsoever. Some good voice acting would make the emotional moments in these games absolutely killer, and give even shallow characters some depth. I will give Legends: Arceus credit for actually having voice acting on a limited scale though. Protagonists Rei and Akari make various grunts of exertion when throwing Poke Balls or while taking damage. It’s certainly better than nothing.

Finally, I’ve got a bit of a weird criticism. Most of the new Pokemon and regional form designs are based on traditional Japanese and Ainu culture, which without context is very cool. Despite this, I can’t help but feel a bit weird about it, given that the setting of Hisui directly parallels the colonization of Hokkaido by the Meiji-era Empire of Japan, during which the Ainu were forcibly relocated and assimilated into Japanese culture. I guess this cultural insensitivity is the price paid for having a historical Pokemon game. Frankly, I feel conflicted even having this in the review, since I don’t know all that much about how the topic is treated in Japan, but I still feel like it’s my duty as someone who majored in history to at least mention it. (I also cut this paragraph from earlier in the review, so sorry if it sounds super out of place.)

Ultimately, I think Pokemon Legends: Arceus was a fantastic step in the right direction of the Pokemon series, though most of its best features were immediately rolled back in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Oops. Like most Pokemon games, it's missing a lot of things that could elevate it to being a “good game” instead of just a “good Pokemon game”. But with great catching and slightly-less-great-but-still-good battle mechanics, GAME FREAK really struck gold with this entry and they deserve credit for that. This is a great foundation for a truly epic Pokemon game, and it's definitely a title to try if you’re a hardcore Pokemon fan (shame it’ll only get more expensive from here). I really hope Pokemon: Legends Z-A can capitalize on what made this game good and give us a banger next year.

Objective rating: 3.5 stars
Subjective rating: 4.5 stars