Let's Play Legends Arceus, Part 25: God Descends

 

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.

I play the Azure Flute, and... and there's a wonderful cutscene as a glowing staircase that leads up into nowhere manifests before me. And I ascend it. Walking up it, I somehow end up in space -- a platform with the Sinjoh Ruins runes carved on the bottom, surrounded by auroras that form force-field walls. The background beyond this platform is just... glowing green sky, and atop is space. I don't think this is just a platform above Sinnoh, no. This is the fabled Hall of Origin. Arceus's realm itself. there is a cool bit where my character looks around, before  Arceus appears out of nowhere behind me in the camera-panning trick that Legends: Arceus loves so much. 

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. 

This creator god that was the subject of all the legends, all the motivations, the man behind the man, the creator of the dragons and lake guardians and the other legendaries, the subject of all the Old Verses. I fought the guardians of space and time. I fought the renegade demon-dragon of antimatter. I proved myself before the guardians of willpower, emotion and knowledge. I faced the prince of the oceans, the hedgehog of gratitude, the lord of the volcanoes, the continent-pulling titan and the crescent-moon steward of dreams. I quelled the forces of nature that ruled over storm and thunder, over abundance and fertility.

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. 

Without going in-depth to every single battle mechanism that Arceus has, in the first phase, Arceus only has two moves -- Judgement, where he just shoots laser-clusters that I have to alternately dodge left and right, but it's so fast paced. And then there's also Draco Meteor, where I have to dodge both a fast-moving concentric wave that emanates out of Arceus, but also a ring of Draco Meteor about to rain down from the heavens to smite me, a mere mortal. A combination of these two.. . dodging them alone isn't too hard if that was the only thing I had to do, but it isn't. I also have to throw balms at him. Which is where I often falter. 

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.)

But the most thrilling part is the battle segments, and there's just something so cool at fighting Arceus and being able to send out good ol' Giratina to roar in defiance in Arceus's face, before spamming Dragon Claw. One thing that this Arceus has, though? When casting Judgment, it automatically transforms to whatever type the Pokemon it's facing is weakest to. So when faed against the terrifying prospect of the samurai-archer-plant-owl that is Decidueye, Arceus summons the Flying-type Plate and transforms into Flying Type, before unleashing Judgement upon poor Decidueye. 

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! 

Every single member of my party got a chance to shine thanks to how many times I kept dying and resetting the fight, but the most thrilling exchange has to be my Goodra shooting a Hydro Pump, and then Arceus replies with a fucking Hyper Beam. With how impressive the animation of both of these attack, manifesting in gigantic fuck-off Dragon Ball Z beams of utter destruction, it's pretty awesome to behold.

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".

So yes. We are going through the cosmic horror story trope, the Dungeons & Dragons trope that... that the Arceus that we see and use and are familiar with in the game. The llama-looking guy with a flowing hair and a giant golden ring, the creature with a base total stat of 720... that is merely a part of Arceus. An Aspect of Arceus, if you will. The true Arceus is much more vast, much more incomprehensibly powerful, and it also solves one of the weirder plot points where Arceus is described in Generation IV dex entries as a 'being with thousand hands'. 

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. 

And as I return to Jubilife City, with everything to do in the game (other than the Solo stuff) completed... there's a brief bit when my Arc-Phone makes some noise, and directs me to my house and ultimately my bed. Turns out that this is yet another endless mode, the "Eternal Battle Reverie", as Arceus brings me in my dream, Sandman-style, all the way to the Hall of Origins where he has what's basically a Battle Frontier with legendary Pokemon as the opponents. Very neat, and the idea that Arceus spent time to organize this with the rest of the legendaries (or even creating brand-new Dialgas and Tornaduses for the challenge) is kinda funny. 

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. 

And finally, Laventon gathers all the Galaxy Team members in his laboratory, being so jubilant that the Pokedex is finally complete. Can I say how cool it is that this game doesn't need me to fucking trade and do trade evolutions to get every single Pokemon? I love that so much. Cyllene commends my work and gives me a Shiny Charm, Beni is happy to treat the whole Galaxy team to lunch... and through it all, Kamado still wonders whether my exploits are driven by a selfish curiosity or a genuine desire, while also still calling me an 'asset' and a 'mysterious stranger who fell from the sky'. Yeah, yeah, Kamado, you mustachioed dipshit. Everything must be about you and your paranoia and how I relate to you, huh? No, you can't be happy that the pokedex is completed, that I just met god himself and proved myself worthy. Man, Kamado, piss off.

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.