Pokémon Legends: Arceus - Nintendo Switch
[{'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2022', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': "The game so far is fun, I'm enjoying having the ability to either battle or just throw a ball to catch Pokemon. This is the new direction Pokemon has taken and it was the correct one. I'm hopeful that the future titles will do the same type of gameplay and evolve from this to be even better, BUT on the Amazon aspect, I never received the Garchomp Kimono Set code."}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2022', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-4 review-rating', 'review_body': 'This game is ‘Monster Hunter Stories’, but more toned down with pokemon theme: Start at hub world. Get missions to collect/observe certain pokemon, go back with findings. Don’t know why people are calling it ‘Zelda Breath of the Wild’ of pokemon games\n\nOnly one version of the game this time. Don’t need to purchase two versions to collect all pokemon.\n\nSingle player focused game. No trade evolutions (pokemon with trade evolutions before use items to evolve now), able to obtain all starter pokemon in wild post game. 242 total pokemon at launch.\n\nTechnically 240 since two are gifts for having save data on Switch from other games (more on this later). May have more due to mystery gifts in the future\n\nYou can trade pokemon if you want, but no online battling. Unless Nintendo decide to patch in online battles later; not a competitive game except for speedruns.\n\nGameplay is more involved than mainline pokemon games; having to sneak and hide behind grass in real time instead of touching pokemon and pressing A and use D-pad buttons to win. More focused on the trainer than pokemon battles (more on this later)\n\nStory. Origin of pokemon, or at least first in the timeline. Try to complete the first ever pokedex. You explore the Hisui region. Characters/NPC have family lineage to recent games due to their appearance. You can choose which clan (diamond and pearl) to join.\n\nMore story: text heavy than previous mainline pokemon games. Disappointed there’s no voice acting\n\nGraphics is the one of the best from the pokemon series thus far, but not the best graphics on Switch overall especially the environmental graphics. There are framerate dips at times depending on how many things are happening on screen\n\nIf you have save data from past pokemon games on switch, you get additional bonuses\n\nFor Pokemon Let’s Go games you get Pikachu and Evvee masks by talking to the clothier after joining the Galaxy Expedition Team\n\nFor Sword and Shield save data you get Shaymin, by doing a side quest post game. Also Shaymin Kimono Set by speaking to clothier\n\nFor Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl save data you get Darkrai post game, and Modern Galactic Set clothes\n\n--Gameplay:\n\nMix of Pokemon safari, and pokemon battles. Follow same gameplay flow as monster hunter games.\n\nThis game is more about exploring and catching pokemon. Battles can be totally speed luck based (more on this later)\n\nInstead of focusing on beating elite 4 (No gyms in this game); you’re working with the survey corps to collect data on wild pokemon via missions NPCs give you.\n\nFor example: NPC will ask you what pokemon to catch, and you go out on mission to capture one\n\nSince you’re collecting data, there are sub missions/quests you must do to complete the pokedex like catch a pokemon a certain way (not being spotted, catching a lighter/heavier version), see them use certain moves a specified amount to times, or simply defeating them.\n\nBasically you’re just doing a series of check list quests.\n\nStory progression is gated by how many quests you complete. Can be frustrating for those who just want to see the main story and not quest grind\n\nYou can catch pokemon without battling like giving them food first then throwing pokeball to catch. Or just sneak up and throw a pokeball at them\n\nMost of the time you don’t engage in pokemon battles (unless you do a quest that require you to do certain moves or boss battles). It’s easier just to throw a pokeball as a trainer (Like Ash trying to catch a pidgy in first episode of the anime) than battling a pokemon till they reach near 1hp, maybe do a status effect, and throw pokeball.\n\nNo static movements from wild pokemon in overworld or random encounters. Different pokemon have different temperaments/personality: some just let you catch them for free (can catch multiple pokemon in succession if group together, or when they’re sleeping), run away from you, or attack you (sees you as a threat and put on angry face as you get closer). Higher level pokemon (alpha pokemon) will appear bigger with red eyes.\n\nThere are shiny pokemon you can spot in the overworld. The game does give you a notification sound if there’s one nearby. When hear this sound, save your game! (you can save at anytime). If you mess up catching the shiny, you can reload the save and try again.\n\nThere are random in-game events called ‘Mass outbreaks’ where there’s a large concentration of a particular pokemon in an area marked on your map. Going there will have higher shiny spawns especially if you keep catching the same pokemon in a herd/group\n\nIf a pokemon attacks you; you can throw out a pokeball and have a traditional turned based pokemon battle. Pokemon battles are seamless with no screen transition with no different graphics/art like past games. Battle animations are less static where pokemon shake to attack like previous games, actually have unique animations\n\nIf you don’t throw out pokeball to battle, wild pokemon can attack your trainer character and have them black out if you don’t get away in time. If you black out this way or in battle; you lose some items you’re carrying. If you go back to where you blacked out, you can’t get items back…but if you’re connected to Nintendo Online you can find other people’s item they dropped. Instead of getting exact items, you are told what items they held and get only currency for it (which is a bit weird)\n\nDuring pokemon battles, you still have 4 moves to select from. Can use Strong, agile style for each move. Latter has chance to attack first but weaker. If you have high speed stats you can attack multiple times, and vice versa with your opponent. Also can do regular move without strong or agile if you want to do something in between.\n\nYou can’t view your or other pokemon stats during battle, so you can get frustrated when they attack multiple times and you just have to assume they’re way faster than your pokemon\n\nNoble pokemon count as boss battles. Must throw bombs (from trainer) at them, while simultaneously dodge roll from their attacks. Once they get tired, you can throw out pokemon and start pokemon battle\nSince the RPG turn-based is toned down, best to play with pro controller especially when going against nobel pokemon. One of the noble pokemon is so OP (more so than Cynthia in Pokemon BDSP)\n\nTrainer you control move in full 360 degree motion in open world instead of 8 directions. Camera is more 3rd person over the shoulder than top-down.\n\nThere is a day/night cycle. One in-game day is around 20-25mins\n\nOpen world. Use pokemon like wyrdeer, basculegion, and Braviary to help traverse world. Able to control them in real time while traversing. There’s fall damage which is annoying.\n\nCollect materials and craft. Break rocks, collect flowers, shake trees, stuff laying on the ground. You can craft at anytime with items on your person, or at crafting table (use items in storage)\n\nA lot of clothing options in game. More options unlock as you progress through the game. Able to customize individual clothing parts like hat, shirt, pants, kimono/outer wear, shoes and glasses.\nAt hairdresser you can change hairstyle, and eyebrow/hair color\n\nNo pokemon breeding or held items. No Ditto due to timeline\n\nPokemon don’t evolve automatically. Must go into menu and press to evolve. Game will give you notification if they can evolve or not\n\n-9 types of pokeballs: Pokeball, great ball, ultra ball, heavy ball, leaden ball, gigaton ball, feather ball, wing ball, jet ball\n\nPokeball, greatball, ultra ball function as you expect\n\nHeavy, leaden and gigaton is for stealth/sneak up catching pokemon, low range\n\nFeather Wing and Jet ball for catching nible pokemon and pokemon in flying in air. Long range\nNo master ball seeing the timeline of the story\n\nNo EVs, IVs. Instead of EL (effort levels). Each stat can upgrade to 10. Use particular items to upgrade stats by any amount. No need to breed, battle same pokemon 100s of times, and use protein/vitamins to increase particular stat. No need to mix-max. Pokemon of same nature have exact same stat.\n\nOverall fun game if you want to be an apprentice pokemon researcher, and not the best there ever was (Pokemon).'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2022', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': "Although it may not be perfect in every little aspect, overall it's the game I have been waiting for. I have been playing Pokémon since Red and Blue were released, so over the years I have been craving something a little more than the typical format. We got close a couple of times with the GameCube installments, and Let's Go may be the most original thing done to a remake.. but Arceus is something completely new and I am LOVING it. The game plays as a real life scenario with Pokémon, you run around and catch them and can even be attacked by them. This is truly my childhood dream, the most realistic Pokémon game yet."}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2022', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': 'The open world concept is well overdue for this franchise, but it felt small compare to some recent entries in the genre, perhaps GF will expand the world via patches in the future. All future Pokemon games should follow this framework moving forward!'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2022', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': "Game is great, won't pre-order from Amazon again they don't give pre-order bonuses that you are supposed to get."}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2022', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': 'It doesnt feel that historical (they have lightbulbs, puff-ball hats and baseball caps?), exploring is surprisingly boring (only one sigular town), and it is a game of grinding. In order to fully unlock a pokedex entry for bidoof, I have to catch 25 of them, 20 catches must be without being seen, evolve three bidoofs, defeat 15 of them... and report all of it first to the "professor" and then to my commanding officer so I can go up in rank and be allowed to go to a different area so I can grind catching and fighting a different type of pokemon? I thought this was a game of exploration and discovery and being the first pokemon professor (basically). Its not breath of the wild meets pokemon, its pokemon go meets cheap, botw rip-off. Its mechanics would be fun for someone who only plays pokemon to build "the most optimal team" by having a ton of every kind of pokemon, choosing when it is allowed to evolve and toggle between all learned moves... but I play for fun, not math and statistics. And this... isn\'t fun.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2022', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': "This game is amazing! I've played it for about 17 hours so far, since release day yesterday. Here's what I've seen so far.\n\nPros-\n1. Mostly open world which is really nice.\n2. You can interact with lots of NPCs and they don't all look the same.\n3. You can battle wild pokemon or just throw a ball at them.\n4. You can do all kinds of side quests outside of your main quest.\n5. Character clothing and hair is changeable.\n6. Rideable pokemon.\n7. The option to either craft or purchase pokeballs, revives, potions, etc.\n8. Alphas are amazing and HUGE.\n9. Graphics are nice and everything has been smooth running so far.\n\nCons-\n1. Limited inventory space. You do have storage at your dwelling and camps though. You can expand your bag for a price.\n2. No ability to jump with character despite areas that it would be very beneficial.\n3. No option to let a pokemon walk with you outside of the ball.\n\nNotable things that I'm neutral on-\n1. No gyms\n2. There doesn't seem to be the option to customize your dwelling.\n3. You can't swim. You get a mount that does later in the game.\n\nI'll update as I play more. I'm sure I missed a few things here. Overall really worth it and made really well."}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2022', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': 'I preordered this game, just got it and am playing it right now. Pokémon are the best and to interact with them in an open world is awesome. Reminds me of Zelda BOTW and that took several months of my life to complete. If you’re a kid, get your homework done early, because time will fly by quickly. If you fail your classes because if this, your parents will be pissed.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2022', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': "This game is phenomenal. Don't get me wrong, if you're someone who doesn't care about storylines, nitpicks graphics and has a hard-on for EV/IV or constantly battling, this Pokemon game might not be for you. And that's totally cool. But for the rest of us who simply enjoyed the stories, characters and all of the Pokemon this is a HUGE step forward for the franchise.\n\nYes, the game can be a little dialogue heavy here and there, but the dialogue doesn't just take away the rest of the game. If you wanted to spend 5+ hours just exploring and catching Pokemon, there's nothing stopping you. You don't have to power through the storyline. (I did, and it took me approximately 33 hours). There are plenty of fun side quests. Most of which are easy and fun. Catch such and such, show me their Pokedex page, craft this... It's nice. Honestly doing a few side quests in between the storyline missions was a good way to break up any potential feeling of monotony.\n\nAnd even though I've beaten the storyline, there's end game content and missions. I still have dozens of Pokedex pages to finish and countless research tasks. Exploring the region becomes easier andore rewarding the further along you get in the game... And there is NOTHING more satisfying than exploring the open world areas and having a shiny spawn.\n\nSome other near steps taken with this game that I enjoyed was the crafting. If you don't want to spend all of your money on PokeBalls or potions... Just make them! Pokemon don't instantly evolve when conditions are met - you get a notification telling you they can, and it's up to your discretion when you let them. Moves!!! It always kinda nerve-wracking when a Pokemon would learn a new move... Because unless you're dead set on a particular move set, it was hard to know if you were getting rid of something that could late game, potentially get you through some tricky scenarios. This game is much more natural in that when a Pokemon learns a new move, it's in a list of moves accessible to them. You can also change and alter the 4 moves they can use at any time via the menu. So there's no end to how easy it is to change up any given scenario if you're in a pinch.\n\nYes, while the game is a little rough in some areas graphics wise there is so much more to be celebrated with this game. Honestly, if you try this game with expectations, you might be disappointed because of how different it is. But if you take care to play this game with an open mind I'm willing to bet you'll enjoy it.\n\nI've spent 20 years playing Pokemon and I can definitely say that I hope they continue in this direction. It lived up to and completely exceeded the hype."}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2022', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': " I love this game immensely! From crafting to finding new ways to complete the Pokedex entries. Yes, in this story, you are completing the first ever Pokedex (does that make Oak like Edison?). But it's more than that. Side missions of various intentions. Some are about catching a Pokemon to show them or their completed Pokedex entry.\n\nSome revolve around the unique traits of a certain Pokemon (Request 36 is my favorite), such as Request 73. Leif, Duna, and Tarush are having a serious debate on which is the real Burmy, but only because they've only seen one version each of its three cloaks of grass, sand, or trash. So, you gotta find all three and show them they're all correct.\n\nThe Ride Pokemon is seamless, and pressing Left or Right on the D-Pad switches instantly between rides. You can glide through maps with ease once you get all of them, but each one makes the journey easier.\n\nAll in all...WHY DONT YOU HAVE IT YET??"}]