I apparently had way more to talk about the Spiritomb and the Daybreak quests than I anticipated, and also completing the Pokedex (mostly because I was going for 100% completion) took a bit longer than I expected. Thanks, Pichu and Cleffa and Chingling.
But I have every single Pokemon captured.
Every single research at level 10.
(Except for Darkrai, who I can't unlock without spending US$60 for a chibified remake that doesn't add anything new)
Every Unown, Spiritomb Wisp and Old Verse obtained.
...not all sidequests done, but basically all except for the stupid balloon game and the solo battle nonsense. So everything of significance.
Time to meet god.
Professor Laventon is the first to congratulate me for completing the Pokedex, though he mentions that the whole 'seek out all Pokemon' thing is meant to lead to one specific goal... a goal that he doesn't want to interfere, because it's something that I have to do alone. And, indeed, it is in fact something that I get to do alone. No last-minute tagalongs in the form of Laventon or Akari or Cogita, and no surprise villainous return by Volo -- probably one of the bigger plot twists in this game!
So once more, I ascend the Spear Pillar. My party is made up of three gods and three mortals. On one side are Dialga, Palkia and Giratina, all in their Origin Formes. The three angelic dragons created by Arceus himself, the building blocks of the universe itself. And on the other side of my party are three mortals. My starter, Decidueye. One of my earliest party members and the first noble we fought, Kleavor. And the ever-stalwart Goodra.
Finally.
After 70 hours of playtime... behold! Arceus! He who was ancient when the universe was young! The thousand-armed god who shaped the universe! Born of the egg that existed before reality itself existed! The heavenly fount from which all light pours across the lands of Hisui!
ARCEUS!
There is just a moment. I face Arceus, and Arceus faces me.
All to meet Arceus, good ol' Llama-face himself.
And he roars.
And my god-phone transforms into a glowing ball of light.
And the drums begins to play against a dark screen.
And it's Dark Souls boss time.
And... And to say that this battle was hard is kind of a understatement. The last one of these battles that I did was, what? Thundurus in the ocean? That was insanely easy. Origin Dialga was slightly more frustrating, but that took maybe three, four tries. Arceus took nearly twenty. There's no mercy here, and the hardest part of the fight is actually the first part.
Oh, and I'm technically throwing 'Mysterious Balms', but it really is... glowing balls of light that my phone has transformed into? Okay?
And as the phases go on, Arceus does have a couple of extra moves based on his different plates. There's one very easy one where he uses the Fire Plate to cause almost the entire field to explode other than a ring around him. There's the Electric Plate, where he has four lightning orbs, and I have to hit him four times otherwise he will thunderbolt the entire battlefield. There is the Ghost Plate, where he basically... does Shadow Force! Disappearing, then cracking the screen, then charging at me!
(Yes, I know, it's called Zap Plate and Spooky Plate and whatever, I don't really remember.)
I love that the Judgement attacks Arceus uses -- which, as always, takes the form of a clusterfuck of laser beams -- has special effects now. The Dragon-type one looks like a cluster of Draco Meteors, the Flying-type one has feathers exploding out of it... I also saw the Fighting-type one at one point, and it is disappointingly not a bunch of laser-beams ending in fists. Boo!
I also love that the music actually gets a bit more and more hectic as the phases count down, getting straight-up disturbingly distorted in the final phase. I really can't appreciate just how alert the music ended up making me in the final run.
Ultimately, after way too much frustration and repeats... Kleavor beats Arceus. Humble old Kleavor.
And then Arceus just stands there like it ain't nothing. It's just a test. Barely a game to him, barely a tickle. It's not like when we brought Giratina or Palkia down low and humbled them to the level of mortals. No, Arceus is the fucking god of this universe, and you better respect him and his giant ring.
But Arceus commends me for seeking out all Pokemon, and my devotion to a goal. I have proven my actions, just like the ancient hero (will we ever know who this is?) and Arceus is joyful to see the same truths proven anew in a different time and space. He's happy to have brought me into this world, and Arceus bestows his blessing. And then, I quote, "and I bestow upon thee a part of myself".
It's always been my personal headcanon, of course, because it really didn't make sense for Arceus to basically be the god of the setting, but can be captured in a Pokeball and is only slightly stronger than the other legendaries and even some non-legendaries.
So yeah. The Arceus we're familiar with is just a part of Arceus that goes around to witness the world through mortal eyes. And I receive Arceus... and a brand-new item called the Legend Plate, which unlocks the titular "Legend Form" of Arceus. Which... looks like the default form of Arceus, but now Arceus's Judgement transforms to fit whatever the enemy is the weakest towards. Very cool.
And thus... Arceus is captured. There isn't any tasks to complete, unlike the other legendaries. My character just instantly alreadyb undertstands Arceus from the battles against him. Laventon meets me, and gets emotional as he realizes that the Pokedex is complete, and says that his dream is a reality.
There's a short scene where Cyllene and Kamado bring me up to the rooftop of the Galactic Building. I refuse to give Kamado the satisfaction of telling me information and being self-satisfied, though they still go along with telling us what the origin of the Galaxy Expedition Team's name is all about. Kamado used to give his teammates the names of celestial bodies (are Cyllene and Beni actually planetary bodies?) as part of his aspirations, and one of his sponsors (which he shamelessly tries to deny) mentions that Kamado has a whole damn galaxy under his control. The conversation ends with Kamado telling us that eventually the Galaxy Team would have to be disbanded once cooperation with Pokemon and the two other clans can be maintained... but Cyllene tells Kamado that she will make sure she and her descendants carry the legacy of the Galaxy team all the way to the future.
...which, of course, ends up with Diamond and Pearl giving us good ol' Cyrus, who has twisted great-great-great-grandma Cyllene's wishes and noble ideals into... well, into a mixture of Volo and Kamado's brands of insane logic, anyway. It is nice to acknowledge this, though.
After the celebrations, Akari has one final line left... and then...
I think that's it, guys. That's... that's Pokemon Legends Arceus.
Such a great game. I really do feel like while it's far from perfect -- and I have stated many times my frustrations about some of the sidequests in the postgame -- this game delivered the quasi open-world experience that Sword and Shield promised and didn't really manage to deliver the flavour of. And this game still manages to deliver a very rich story, tying it into the lore of Sinnoh, with very powerful supporting cast members. It incorporated the Pokemon into both the overworld and into many parts of the story, for once making the limited cast actually almost justifiable. A very rich post-game. A great way to fill your Pokedex without reducing it to a simple 'catch the creature and forget about it'. Not to mention new forms, new exploration gameplay, actuall boss fights that don't involve battling... yep. I do still think that they really could've given us a bit more Arceus at the end of the day, but... but this is probably the most fun I had with a Pokemon game since the sheer novelty of buying a Pokemon game at its debut date with XY and its 3-D graphics.
And I have to admit that I've been kinda feeling somewhat burnt out on the franchise (everything IRL about Sword/Shield's development and packaging with the DLC's and incomplete Pokedex and truncated story was frustrating; Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee was a cute but hollow remake; I didn't even feel compelled to touch the Diamond/Pearl remakes since they added nothing), but this game single-handedly revitalized my love for the Pokemon gaming franchise in general. Anyway... I don't want to raise my hopes up, but hopefully Scarlet and Violet manage to also be as satisfying as this. Great playthrough! I loved this.
This was a great read. Seeing your excitement and frustration at the aspects of this game was so much fun reading. Honestly it felt like I was reading or watching something from the anime/ manga at times. Sorta sad to see it come to an end... But hey, now it's time for a new adventure.
ReplyDeleteThis has such been a fun game to play through. I don't think I've had as much fun playing a Pokemon game like this since... Pokemon Y? Pokemon Sun/Moon, maybe? But every other Pokemon game afterwards either had flaws that made me not fully enjoy the experience, and if you could probably tell from my Pokemon output in the blog... I basically skipped over the Diamond/Pearl remakes, and I didn't even buy Legends Arceus until a couple months after its release. And even then it's just so that I can finish it before Scarlet/Violet came out!
Delete...which is going to happen in like, a month or two, which means that you guys get to see me being excited and frustrated in a whole other game again!