Pokémon Legends: Arceus

[Moonface]

The only thing irking me with the visuals is the inconsistency of the quality. Some textures and models look crisper than others, which makes blurrier textures look muddier when they overlap.

I wonder if flight is a late game mechanic though, since you can't travel everywhere in the world right out of the gate and have to unlock areas through quest progression. Although even on foot I don't see how that restriction will work other than slapping up invisible walls where when hit the player gets notified they're not experienced enough to venture to that area yet and get automatically turned away, and if that's the way it'll work I'd find that annoying like I talked about with other games in another thread. For how soon the game comes out, it doesn't feel like we've learned a lot more about the game itself in terms of how it plays, but just who and what is in it.

[queenzelda]

I've decided to not get this title until I watch some one play it, and the gameplay I see impresses me because so far I'm not very impressed with what I've seen. *shurg*

What would you want to see that would be a factor in winning you over?  

My seeing there's an actual story and not a ton of side quests I have to do in order to get some where.

Sidequest1: Collect 10 of this pokemon in this area for uppity region lord for your pokedex. FEEL HONORED

Sidequest2: Collect 15 of this pokemon in this other new area to make your rival jealous!

MEH. No thanks. I don't care about side quests and having to collect Pokemon because reasons. I want to collect Pokemon on my own, not be told to do so. *shurgs*

[Moonface]

@queenzelda: It would probably be okay to make the game start with having the player be encouraged to filling the Pokedex with quests and such, but then moving away from that and into actual story territory with things like the possessed Pokemon and such. But the marketing so far makes it seem like they're just going to be ways to add more challenge to the game and mix things up with Pokemon you've seen before rather than just increasing level numbers which doesn't do much except within battles.

The concept of the game intrigued me at first but I feel like less has been shared about this game than any of the other Pokemon titles. I'd be curious to know how much coverage this game has had in Corocoro compared to other games because usually that magazine is prominent for having the news of any Pokemon game before it gets officially put out by Nintendo worldwide, yet for this game I can't even recall hearing anything being initially from that magazine.

[ShiraNoMai]

Yeah, it's not just you: places like Bulbapedia and Serebii don't have much info on it because there hasn't been a whole lot of coverage on it!

I can't tell if that's a curse or blessing in disguise. I hate knowing everything about a new Pokemon game these days cuz then it ruins all the fun and mystery of exploring a new thing. But also, not doing it is pretty sus? Who knows. Games' out pretty soon. I gotta finish Diamond before then

[Moonface]

Pokémon Legends: Arceus: Gameplay Preview
Another gameplay overview video has been released, this time in a language more of us here can understand.



So for me this video pretty much cements that this game is mostly made up of just doing various quests that involve items or Pokémon, and any story is just tied to Noble Pokémon, since the ones with the red eyes are just alpha's, a.k.a. stronger Pokémon. I'm also under the impression the world isn't 100% open, and the way they're restricting access is by making each region locked off, since the player can't just walk out the front gate of the village and has to select a map location to be transported to.

[queenzelda]

I watched that video this morning, and everything just being side quest heavy just isn't grabbing me. Even with the 'story' of the 'Nobel Pokémon' I'm still meh towards PL:A. I'll watch streamers play it and see if my mind is changed, but I'm still not getting it right away. Something tells me that PL:A just won't be the type of Pokemon game for me.

[Moonface]

I think I'd have to wait and see what reviews say about this to consider getting the game to try it for myself. I was intrigued with the idea of exploring an open world and just seeing what I find, but it doesn't look like the concept is going to match what I was hoping for with how it's being executed.

I wonder if this game could end the trend of two versions for Pokémon games going forward though? There's never been a singular mainline entry until this game, and unless there are Pokémon that can only evolve via trading I don't see why anyone would care about trading in this game. I also wonder if sales will be lower than normal because everyone who would buy both versions will now only need to get a single copy, and I'm sure there's lots of people who do that.

[ShiraNoMai]

I can see them stopping the dual version bullshit going forward if this is the kind of game they're approaching. Or not, cuz conversely this title is also about the research and discovery of Pokemon, which would in theory lend itself to the idea of "hey in this version, I discovered THIS Pokemon!"

I'm keeping my eyes on this game. Still seems quite intriguing. I'm only half way done with Brilliant Diamond so I doubt I'll finish in time for this release next week, but watching others play may help.

[Moonface]

A fair amount of copies of this game ended up in the wild way before launch which obviously resulted in a lot of leaks. I've been looking at a decent amount of it mostly to see opinions of those playing the early copies and to see if there's anything interesting that the marketing for this game just never cared to show, and I've been more impressed by this game from the leaks than any of the marketing for it.

The majority of opinions I've read on the game have been that it's incredibly good as a game to play, and lacks in areas such as QoL and visuals but the core base is done very well. It sounds like a similar case to Breath of the Wild where it has a really good starting foundation to build off of for the following game to really fire on all cylinders.

[Karo]

So I got it around 9 P.M and I have to say I am really enjoying it so far I'm still just in the first area, but considering Pokemon stories this one was pretty entertaining to me. I also really did like the whole, "PROVE YOUR WORTH OR BE FED TO THE BUIZELS!" which I think is the tone I'm looking for in my Pokemon games!

Also I maybe tried to battle a level 40 Rapidash....it wasn't my brightest moment, but it had red glowing eyes and was giant so of course I wanted to try to catch it! I've yet to actually get attacked by a Pokemon yet!

I also do like this battle system more it familiar, but different though I must admit...it kinda stinks that Pokemon don't seem to start with non-attacking moves for the research task that are moves I feel like I'm just going to be switching back and forth until I discover how to get those moves or a better way to draw out said moves.

[Dragon Lord]

I forgot to pre-order my copy and only got a last-minute order in Thursday night before I went to work, so I have to wait a little while longer to get mine. Excited to get it and try it out though! Should be here next week some time. Gives me a little more time to finish off Brilliant Diamond.

[Moonface]

What starter did you pick @Karo?

I'm still on the fence about picking this up but if @ShiraNoMai gets it I might try it and see if it can keep me engaged better than a regular Pokemon game could.

Also Karo did you try out the first person view mode yet?

[Karo]

I went with Cyndaquil surprisingly enough mainly cause I looked up the final evolution and I kinda liked it typing the most of the starters. Though designwise I think I like Oshawott best but that really is more of a color change than a different design.

Not yet, so my opinion is I feel like this is a great direction for the games to go cause I really do like the exploration and the gameplay loop is really fun and does really add this whole Pokemon are wild animals. Not all of them are aggressive toward humans and some actively will hunt humans if they see them. It really make it feel more realistic and frankly I love the idea of Pokemon actually being a threat instead of the vague warning of, "Don't go in the wild grass Pokemon might attack!"

Now I'm still only in the first area, but I will say in a way I'm enjoying it more than I enjoyed Sw/Sh and I did like Sw/Sh.

[Moonface]

So the other areas are locked off behind progression walls right? I assume each area opens in order similar to how new routes can be taken during progression in a regular Pokemon game?

[Karo]

That basically it its locked behind story progression, but there are a lot to do in certain area and lot of research task to do to complete your Pokedex and I don't think heir a cap at how many stars you can get as long as you have enough research points. I went up to rank 2 in my star rank before I did the Mai request. The Pokemon actually seem pretty tough and there can be time where your Pokemon can definitely faint...and it doesn't seem to feel like you are always stronger than the wild Pokemon? Unless you grinded or got way ahead of the story.

Now story wise...I was a bit overleveled for a few of them so I do kinda wish they did a scale type thing for that difficulty, but I seriously haven't done much story yet really.