Let's Play Legends Arceus, Part 1: We Isekai

LEGENDS ARCEUS!

Okay, I've actually not paid any attention about this game at all since its release in January 2022, mostly because I didn't have access to my Nintendo Switch and... and for some reason, I thought this was going to be a relatively minor side-game? That, and also the fact that I was kind of... burned by Pokemon Sword/Shield, which kind of felt like the absolute bare minimum of what a Pokemon game should deliver, and that's with the DLC's in tow. The fact that the DLC's are so fucking expensive, so much content is locked behind terrible multiplayer game modes and the lack of a national dex are all kind of just giant pieces of straw that broke the proverbial Numel's back. It got me so kind of bored that I didn't even pay attention to Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, especially when I heard that it's basically a one-to-one remake... that kind of made me kind of lose interest in the franchise for a bit. 

But we're not here bitching about the clearly-rushed Generation VIII, no. We're here to talk about my first couple of hours playing through Pokemon Legends Arceus. 

And... and it's a brand-new story, and I am kind of absolutely charmed even from the very first sequence. Unlike most Pokemon games, we start off with our character floating about in the formless void, dressed in a T-shirt, shorts and sandals, and our mobile phone (probably not an iPhone) fall into the void... and then GOD SHOWS UP! Or, well, Arceus. He talks about the typical stuff we hear in the beginning of a Pokemon game, except he's actually a GOD so all this talk about 'you're about to meet wondrous creatures called Pokemon' actually feel pretty damn ominous and awesome.

I'm literally isekai'd into the Pokemon world. I mean, this isn't the first isekai Pokemon game; Mystery Dungeon exists and I probably should play the remake of that at some point... but damn, I didn't actually expect that! Did I get hit by bus-kun? ...does the Pokemon World even have buses?

And then we wake up in front of the kooky professor Laventon, and... and he's got a funky hat? Apparently labcoats exist in feudal-era Sinnoh. Or, as I already know about the game, 'Hisui'. I absolutely love this very charming tutorial level. It's basically just telling us about the Pokemon world (which I can actually say I'm familiar with!) and the fact that I literally fell out of the sky, wearing weird clothes (Laventon's weird-ass purple beanie is weirder than my t-shirt, surely?) does make it very believable, narrative-wise, that the professor would grill me and that my character would be rather baffled at whatever's going on. 

Also, Rowlet, Cyndaquil and Oshawott! They are adorable. I'm nowhere smart enough to know if the graphics quality is better or on par with Sword/Shield, but the backgrounds are definitely superior! The three cross-generational starters run away and this leads to tutorial of the brand-new mechanic... which is a far superior way to implement the 'throw a ball' mechanic than the terrible way that Let's Go did. I really would've played Let's Go a lot more if they didn't force the ball-throwing mechanic down our throat, or refine it the way this game does... but... deep breaths. I'm not here to bitch so much. 

And I do really like that Laventon gives us a bit of an intro to all three starters before I pick them, giving us a brief description of the Pokemon before I go and do the ball-throwing tutorial. I get 50 Pokeballs in one go, and the Pokeballs in Hisui look... look a bit more rugged. These are Apricorn Pokeballs, I assume, and they are old-fashioned and all because of the time period that my character is running around in.

There's a bit of an interesting thing where Laventon actually emphasizes that all Pokemon can shrink, and the Pokeballs just facilitate that. I suppose I don't think any of the actual media have confirmed that it's the technology behind the Pokeballs that do so, but I've always assumed for the past 20-odd years or so that it's the balls that shrink the Pokemon... blowing my mind, here, Laventon. 

Oh, at some point during this, I also stumble across a glowing item on the ground and... and it's my not-iPhone, transformed to have a custom Arceus casing with his golden ring and stuff! It's called the Arc Phone, and... and as cool as it is, my first thought when I saw it is "man, that'd jab me in the thigh if I put it in my pocket IRL". My second thought is to giggle because Pokemon literally just transformed my phone into a goddamned Digivice.

Also, something that has been vastly improved since Sword/Shield? My character actually emotes now! The Sword/Shield protagonist is so wooden and looks borderline sociopathic because everyone around him actually has a decent amount of expressions... and I absolutely love that my character here can lower his head in confusion and go :O out of shock when he sees the Digivice Phone. 

Professor Laventon talks about his dream to create a Pokedex and document every Pokemon -- something that has been an absolute afterthought in so many other Pokemon games -- and then bring me to Jubilife City. Only, instead of being a metropolis in the 2010's, this is a Feudal-era village that wouldn't look out of place compared next to Genshin Impact's Inazuma or Breath of the Wild's Kakariko Village. 

Again, the overworld is nothing short of gorgeous, the buildings and the camera angles look good, and.... I don't know. It just blows me away so much that this is a Pokemon game.

I just spent so much just... just walking around Jubilife City and talking to every single NPC. I don't know if it's just the new format which feels different compared to a standard Pokemon game or what, but it's just so... so fun, y'know? Just talking to these random NPC's that inform me more about the place? Of course, most of the characters in Jubilife -- including the professor and the guards -- have a symbol that resembles the Galactic insignia, and we're told that the big castle-like building here is founded by the "Galaxy Team", so I'm not sure how that's going to tie in to Team Galactic in D&P. It would be very interesting if this super-friendly kooky professor is actually going to be a villain -- did we ever have a Pokemon professor actually turn out to be a villain? That'd be cool, actually. 

I also love that the wacky steampunk-looking smokestacks in the Galaxy Hall is actually modelled after a Galarian Weezing. That's adorable. There's also a main bridge called Canala Bridge, presumably in reference to Canalave City in D&P? 

All the houses and very-obvious houses are inaccessible to me at first, but talking to the random villagers tell me that... there's some Attack on Titan shit going on here. The people are living peacefully and the music is nice, yes, but they're also living in fear of the Pokemon whose claws and fangs are apparently much more powerful than any weapon they have. I was about to call bullshit on that, but... but spears aren't going to do much good against a feral Aggron or something, huh?

Speaking of Attack on Titan, there's apparently a "Survey Corps" and Laventon belongs to it, and it's kind of clear that the game is edging for me to join this. The quest marker tells me to go to the restaurant called teh Wallflower, but the green-mustachioed Beni is an absolutely rude jackass to me. Also, the female protagonist Akari shows up, being all confused about my presence and talking about how she once got attacked by a Thundershock. We also get to see the leader of... Team Galax? Cyllene? Who is obviously Cyrus's ancestor or something. Cyllene is stern and kind of a douche, talking about how 15-year-olds are good enough to be child labour work for my keep, and, in a very rare usage of the word 'death', actually talks about how I'll be exiled from the village possibly to my death if I fail a test tomorrow. 

(Also, Cyllene stress-eats. A lot. Off-screen. That's kinda funny).

So obviously instead of explaining what the test is likely to be, Professor Laventon and Akari take me eating potato mochi, which I didn't know until today is actually a real thing. Apparently, the huge glowing portal thing on top of Mount maybe-Coronet is a "Space Time Rift". They know space-time rifts exist, apparently, although Akari doesn't believe I'm an isekai protagonist. 

Also, Akari and the soldiers here are clearly super-incompetent, because they have trouble even catching a single pokemon, let alone three. Laventon directs me to my quarters, which is very nice -- I like that I have a 'base' to sleep in! It feels pretty obviously like a house that I can upgrade, and... and I like that. Secret Bases are one of the coolest ideas in Pokemon, and they barely bring back any sort of customization like that. There's the minimal-effort resort-villa thing in either Generation IV or V, but that's honestly just checking off a checklist for furniture to unlock.

And then we cut to a beautifully rendered cutscene of the Hisui wilds with good ol' Bidoof and Bibarel, before a massive lightning bolt tears apart a tree. Okay?

The next bit has me wake up and go meet Cyllene, who tasks me with catching three Pokemon -- Bidoof, Starly and Shinx, basically the 'starter route trio' of Sinnoh. Cyllene is being kind of cold to me, but... but it's fair? I am a random stranger from god (literally!) knows where, and as an unskippable dialogue reminds us, people get seriously fucked up by Pokemon. Now we hear the accounts of a survivor whose partner Pokemon was overwhelmed, yes, and that's a survivor, but you just know that someone out there got mauled by a Luxio and turned into Shinx food. Imagine those cute kitty-cat Shinx faces feasting on poor Yojiro's partner.

Also, we get quests, and quest-markers, and even a pretty cool minimap! It's something that's so... so mundane in RPG games these days, but I don't actually remember the last Pokemon game that had a proper map beyond, like, the world map. I think Colosseum might have had it? It's been a decade since I played me some Colosseum. I also get a bag, although my outfit is still the modern-day T-shirt and pants. I guess I don't get the fancy Hisuian clothes like Akari does until I finish the tutorial. 

Laventon gives us the option to pick our starters, and... I should really be picking Oshawott here since I've played so many Generation II games with Cyndaquil and Rowlet was my starter for two runs of the Alolan region, but... but... I just really like Rowlet, y'know? Cyndaquil's definitely my bro. Oshawott's cool. I don't dislike Oshawott at all. Hisuian Samurott, as I saw him when I did my reviews, is cool. But... but Rowlet's my bro, you know? So yeah. Starter get!

After getting my starter, I kind of get full rein of running around at least a huge chunk of the Team Galaxy base, and as with Sword/Shield, they really do put in a fair amount of effort in making the indoor environments look good. There's Cyllene's office and her giant stacks of paper, poor lady. Laventon's office is filled to the brim with random knicknacks, and we get to see Cyndaquil and Oshawott hanging out in their respective little habitat, and presumably Rowlet would've hung out on that bonsai-looking tree. There's also a... strange... steampunk machine? Does Meiji-era Japan have steampunk machines?

Also, rather interestingly, is that there's an infirmary! Complete with infirmary beds (where poor Yojiro is just unconscious) and a couple of Nurse-Joy-looking people. Apparently, Meiji-era Japan has Snellen's eye charts! It's little details like these that make me giggle. The basement seems to be entirely devoted to what looks like a Pokeball crafting R&D department... again, I absolutely love every part of this. 

...and with that, that's where I'll stop for now! I know it's a bit short and it's just me gushing over the game, and I haven't even gotten to the part where I can play with my Pokemon yet, but I'm genuinely happy to play around in this brand-new game. I know I'm almost half a year late compared to the rest of the world, but hey, here we go with some Pokemon content. I'm just... just basking in this game in general. It's so pretty, the world feels genuinely fresh and different in a way that I don't think I've felt in a while in a Pokemon game.