Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl & Legends: Arceus

[Sonicka]

IGN's review is probably the most unbiased and accurate so far (in terms of the score).

I've managed to play this for a little bit now, and undoubtedly it feels like a massive step in the right direction for the series and this is what I want Gamefreak to ultimately hone in on now - forget a duel Gen 9 release... actually forget creating Gen 9 monsters altogether, we have nearly 900 already. Stop. Focus on refining the gameplay and making the experience a fun and refreshing one. 

Now, Arceus most certainly isn't the next Breath of the Wild revloution - but as the next mainline entry it attempts the same ideals by throwing away the regular conventions of it's main series - and whilst it isn't a complete Home Run, we're closer than ever to a proper evolution for Pokemon. 

What caught me off guard is that it is actually a lot more fun to run around catching the 'mons' than I anticipated, and the free roam/action orientated approach to regular RPG elements and battling lends more immersion to the game. The missions structure of catching particular Pokemon and completing the Pokedex in this manner are a challenge and there are some unique ways of tackling these Pokemon that surprised me. 

However, despite the Pokemon being in the game world with you with variants, various sizes and all sorts of Pokemon running/flying/floating away from you or attacking you - the world still looks like a shiny beta sandbox, is horrendously empty, and the Pokemon feel like they are literally just dotted wherever. The areas just don't feel lived in, nor are they appealing to look at and roam around in - yet because Pokemon are in this world (and their animations are improved)... it still weirdly still lends it some kind of charm. It's a weird one to properly explain or put my finger on as to why it works and I almost hate that Gamefreak got away with it again. Playing docked I noticed lots of jank from VERY low polygon and texture effects, water visuals where rivers just didn't flow in any direction or reflect properly, and Pokemon & NPC's running at several frames per second the further away you are from them before they pop off the screen (which is a distraction for me personally TBH).

In an era where BOTW, Monster Hunter Rise and Xenoblade DE & 2 exists on the same platform and have larger worlds with dozens of characters and  multiple monsters on screen with little to no issues - Pokemon Arceus just doesn't have any excuse to look or run this terribly. 

I think it's safe to say this will still be a success for Gamefreak - so I hope this just gives them opportunity to refine and improve on what works, at least to give it's fanbase a proper world they truly deserve to wonder around in next time. If Gamefreak were to stop pulling their punches or not be upheld to yearly/biyearly releases then a dedicated game with a 3-5 years development cycle would surely be worth the wait. 

 

[Red Hot Jack]

I will say once again something unpopular... that as much as I'm liking the new take on Pokemon with this prequel, they should just implement it into a mainline Pokemon.

I like how this looks different, maybe I don't necessarily like the focus of the game, for some reason this is making me interested in playing BD/SP remakes because I do miss the formula, the Pokemon formula has been done to death but I still like it, if they want to go real good and real ambitious GF should just integrate some of these elements into main Pokemon titles, and if Arceus is successful they might do it. For example, the open areas which are like improved Wild Areas, the wild Pokemon attacking you, good story material, the attention to the monsters' moves and personalities, animations, the expanded and more detailed Pokedex, etc.

[Blue Blood]

I'm still avoiding spoilers with this game and haven't made huge progress in the game yet. I've just heard about the first Noble Pokémon, to give you an idea of where I am. 

But... I found a shiny already. A shiny Shinx! Are shinies common in this game? Because I can't believe that this is the second song that I've found during my first day playing a game. There was Wingull in Ultra Moon, and now Shinx in this game. 

[Salamander]

I think there are a few pre-set shinies which will always appear, sort of like the Red Gyarados.

[Sonicka]

Red Gyarados, maaaan that takes me back years.

Actually… Is there a Red Gyarados in this game? 
 

10 hours ago, Red Hot Jack said:

I will say once again something unpopular... that as much as I'm liking the new take on Pokemon with this prequel, they should just implement it into a mainline Pokemon.

I’d be ok with this as well. If they could keep the action based capture and battle mechanics (as in, don’t transition to battle) for future games, that would be great.

Also GF just need just make all routes and towns either fully open (or as 3D camera controlled segmented areas) like here rather than the one “wild area” of Sw/Sh. 

Ultimately, Just give the player some freedom - as that is what is so nice about this title. 

Otherwise the obvious stuff to work on really is the visuals or game engine, hire some staff, spend more money, whatever. I don’t know their current internal practises, processes or plans, but I am currently not a fan of the annual release schedule - it is like it’s mandated to release something regardless of quality. 

Actually, BD/SP just came out under two months ago, and Snap earlier in the year… so Arceus could have waited at the very least until late 2022 / early 2023 with another year of active development to tidy and spruce up. Doesn’t matter that it’s supposed to compliment the remake because of the region - there was no excuse to release it looking the way it does. 

[Blue Blood]

This is a really small thing, but I notice that they have Pikachu it's original cry back in this game and I'm so pleased to hear it. 

Okay so I need to stop playing for the night. Bloody hell, has this game got me engaged. Its so good to be truly enjoying Pokémon again. The whole system of catching and battling Pokémon has been wonderfully streamlined, and you very easily get into a loop of training, catching and completing field research. I'm loving it so far. For the first time in forever, a Pokémon game is making me want to catch Pokémon and to train them. 

I can see the problems already though. The world is pretty barren, for a start. Whilst there are Pokémon to find everywhere, there's no value to exploring and getting a lay of the land. Pokémon just sit out in the open or, occasionally, in fruit trees. There's nothing find or other than catching and battling. No puzzles, no unique Pokémon spawn points that are difficult to get to, no creative types of battles... It's like Game Freak have created a great new framework here for Pokémon gameplay, but now they need to work on fleshing it out. And that's to say nothing of the presentation. This game has a tutorial that lasts at least a couple of hours, and constant exposition from still-unvoiced characters. The story is all way-point to way-point too. And if graphics count... Ooof no. They aren't good. Usually they're still quite pleasing aesthetically, but the fidelity really is rock bottom. 

That all said, I'm still really liking the game. It's a lot of fun. Can't wait to carry on playing. I'm only in the second area. 

[Salamander]

The world design was definitely my big concern, and it really sounds like L:A is a bit of a prototype so far as that's concerned.  With that said, I will applaud them on their use of PokéRide to increase your traversal options; that, and tying each to a specifically new Pokemon, is exactly what I wanted them to do after Sun/Moon.  And it only took them five years!  (Let's maybe not get excited about L:A mechanics making it into Gen 9.)

I'm actually finishing up another monster-collecting game right now, Shin Megami Tensei V (total number of monsters featured comes to 240-odd, the same as L:A; a decrease from the previous game... and one the fans are actually happy with as it means each gets more time to shine, take note).  Honestly, I hope people at GameFreak are playing it too, as this game's world design and approach to exploration are basically exactly what I want from a Pokemon evolution: It's set in a series of large 3D exploration areas with a lot of verticality and careful design to make them feel unique, and while there's always only one road to the next area then there are multiple ways to get there, along with plenty of side-areas, hard-to-reach spots with chests, hidden collectibles, curated sidequests often leading to unique encounters in tailored locations, special enemies too powerful to beat when first encountered, etc.  Increase the environmental diversity, add more traversal options through PokéRide, and put a town at every chokepoint and a puzzle dungeon at every other town, and you'd have yourself a great Pokemon game at even half the length.

[Blue Blood]

So I've fully evolved my starter, Oshawott, and seen the other two starters fully evolved as well. Thoughts below:

Spoiler

Hisuian Samurott is a bit boring. It's just a slightly edgier version of the original Samurott. I was hoping that they'd get really creative with the Samurai motif, but they didn't. I do like that this is still believably a species though and not a character, like many of the newer Generations of starters. It's not bad, but also nothing special. My main hope was that it wouldn't be the same type as an existing starter. Unfortunately it's water/dark, which not not as interesting as Greninja.

Typhlosion is the king of the pack. I love the way it looks. It's an interesting spin on the original. Instead of being a fierce honey badger, this dude is a cute little dope. Props for also being the only unique starter type here as well. Whilst there are other fire/ghosts, I think I like this the most. 

And Hisuian Decidueye is... Kill it with fire, please. I was actually never a huge fan of Decidueye tbh. This design though is just hideous. It's nice that it's thematically kind opposite of the original, but nah. Shits ugly. Also it's the same type as Chesnaught, which is way better imo. 

 

[FlameStream]

This game does quite enough for me to enjoy a Pokemon game again.

It's very different in some aspects compared to the formulas of past games, to the point where I'm sure that a sizeable group will end up rejecting it. But so far, I feel that it's a good new direction for me.

(And I'm currently hoping the next Sonic will make me feel the same lol)

[Blue Blood]

One gameplay feature that I can say definitely needs to be fixed in future instalments is Pokémon management. I hate that all Pokémon I catch are automatically sent to the box in the order I catch them, unless I have spaces in my party in which case those get filled first. It's so frustrating. I wish that upon capture, I could choose to keep a Pokémon or release it. I know the idea of catching a Pokémon and then immediately releasing it seems odd, but it's so annoying that after every trip I'm releasing a good 90% of the 30+ of the Pokémon I just caught. And it didn't help that there's no auto-arrangeme options in the Pokémon boxes either. The storage system is still very much as it is in the main games, which just isn't suited for games like Let's Go and PLA where you're catching an entire games worth of Mon every 30 minutes. 

And also on that note, is there any way to mark Pokémon as favourites or whatever so that you don't accidentally release them? I'm worried that I'll release something I don't want to.

Games still tons of fun, but the visuals got particularly bad in the second and third areas. So I'm up to the fourth area now and just got the fourth ride Pokémon. I was not expecting it either as a mechanic nor the Pokémon itself. I really want it on my team, but my team is kind of full already. This is what I've got:

Spoiler

Hisuian Samurott: It's growing on me. I really like it.

Ursaring: It was always one of my faves, and as soon as they mentioned Ursaluna I was so excited to have one on my team. Still trying to figure out how to evolve it though. Even as an Ursaring this thing has crazy high attack already.

Luxray: I told myself that I'd finally play through a Sinnoh game without one on my team. But then I found that Shiny Shinx in my first few hours and no way I'm not carrying around this trophy for the entire game. 

Scyther: I was intending to use Kleavor, but I've not found out how to evolve it yet. And even if I do, I don't think I will. I've actually never used Scyther before and I'm enjoying it. It's a better design than Kleavor anyway, and like Scizor it has the same BST. 

And I've got two more slots to fill, because I don't like rotating my team very much in the story. 

Hisuian Growlithe: I wanted to use it from the moment it was revealed, and having seen an Arcanine in the story I really like that too. Only found one so far. I was hoping to find an Alpha, just for the novelty of it. 

Hisuian Qwillfish: Shit just looks cool. Nice way to bring back this Pokémon in a less forgettable way. 

Sneasler: This thing looks awesome. I like the typing too. 

 

[NegaMix]

16 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

And also on that note, is there any way to mark Pokémon as favourites or whatever so that you don't accidentally release them? I'm worried that I'll release something I don't want to.

Most games have the option to mark a Pokemon with up to six markings, but that's probably the closest you'll find to "favouriting" a Pokemon. There's no way to outright prevent a Pokemon from being able to be released in the current games, to my knowledge.

[Blue Blood]

53 minutes ago, NegaMix said:

Most games have the option to mark a Pokemon with up to six markings, but that's probably the closest you'll find to "favouriting" a Pokemon. There's no way to outright prevent a Pokemon from being able to be released in the current games, to my knowledge.

Yeah. I've been making my party Pokémon like that, but there's still always just a risk. At least it informs you if you're about to release a Shiny, which is nice. The only reason that this is an issue is because the whole Pokémon storage solution hasn't seen any real changes since the Gen 3 games. Back then you weren't expected to catch hundreds of Pokémon regularly, much less release them.

Anyway... I'm at the end game now. There can't be much story left. This is the most fun I've had playing Pokémon since I was a child. I really love this game. 

[KHCast]

So someone was talking about this on Twitter, and I didn’t even think about any potential future legends games. What do you guys think about this?

 

 

 

 

[Blue Blood]

The thing is, most of the rubbish stories in Pokémon games can be summarised as "once upon a time there was a legendary Pokémon that did a thing in this region and now evil team wants catch it". Even the Alola games manage to be this, with the addition of some daytime soap opera drama. There's ample opportunity for any Legends games to pick up the slack on these untold stories. I guess that Sinnoh was actually the best place to go, because it was all about the creation of the entire world and its suitably epic. Next would probably be... I guess the Kalosian war? Yeah, that would be interesting. I'd like to see that. Alternatively I'd really like to see a medieval Galar. Galar is my favourite region thematically, because I'm English and the region just felt so English without being all based on London. SwSh were trash though and did it no favours. 

But I'd also like to see new regions in this style. There's no need to just revisit existing locations. 

[Salamander]

I'd say that Legends: Kyurem is probably the obvious direction, if they want to tie it in with the next "faithful" remake; Wild West Pokemon plus the original dragon seems like a winner.  I've seen a number of people propose a Legends game based around the Kalos war, but I just don't see GameFreak pulling off a game with huge armies of Pokemon and people clashing; they can barely animate cutscenes as it is (with occasional striking exceptions).  Legends gameplay seems to necessitate an essentially "undiscovered" region, largely unpopulated and with few outposts of civilisation, and even medieval Kalos and Galar wouldn't be that (appealing though the idea is).

[Sonictrainer]

On 1/31/2022 at 1:26 AM, Blue Blood said:

One gameplay feature that I can say definitely needs to be fixed in future instalments is Pokémon management.

Item Management also needs some work:

• the Satchel only separates Items into Regular & Key Items. We at least need a separate section for Poke Balls
• While the trunk is essentially a Pokemon Storage System for Items, with 6 Boxes, the organize button will organize all 6 boxes instead of just a single one. I had originally went ahead and separated the Boxes into Vitamins, Evolutionary Items, & Berries manually but the organize button just deleted all of that work.
• Bagin sucks. Although he will use his magic hands to add extra spaces to the Satchel, he raises the price everytime. I wouldn't be so angry if maxing out your Satchel didn't require spending 42 Million Ingame Dollars. There has got a be a better solution to increasing Satchel Space than this.

 

[Blue Blood]

All inventory management in this game is rubbush, you're right. Now that I'm actually using bait and lures, I've realised just how inadequate the quick menu is too. 

Also I just lost a whole day's worth of post game progress because the game crashed. This game has autosaves, but I'd actually turned them off because Pokémon instinct has taught me to do so. Oh well... 

[Sonictrainer]

Quick PSA: Cherrim has a 0% catch rate in its Sunshine Form

[Blue Blood]

1 hour ago, Sonictrainer said:

Quick PSA: Cherrim has a 0% catch rate in its Sunshine Form

Cherrim has a 0% chance appearance rate, or so I'm convinced. I've been trying to find it and Cherubi since getting that mission at the very start of the game. Shit don't exist. 

[FlameStream]

I'm only on the second map, and was surprised that you can mount there. I was expecting them to only be available after certain progress on foot.

The current way of being able to escape danger immediately since it's castable in combat trivializes that aspect further than it already is I feel.

[Salamander]

9 hours ago, Salamander said:

I'd say that Legends: Kyurem is probably the obvious direction, if they want to tie it in with the next "faithful" remake; Wild West Pokemon plus the original dragon seems like a winner.  I've seen a number of people propose a Legends game based around the Kalos war, but I just don't see GameFreak pulling off a game with huge armies of Pokemon and people clashing; they can barely animate cutscenes as it is (with occasional striking exceptions).  Legends gameplay seems to necessitate an essentially "undiscovered" region, largely unpopulated and with few outposts of civilisation, and even medieval Kalos and Galar wouldn't be that (appealing though the idea is).

So I thought more about this and came up with a possibility which is unashamedly my dream region: The Crown Tundra.  That was an area which was acutely disappointing to me, as I think Scotland absolutely has what it takes to inspire a full region of its own and instead there was just nothing Scottish about it at all.  But if you did it as a Legends game, set in the time of clans and wilds, really committed to it as its own region with a decent list of new Pokemon beyond just new forms, it could be something incredible; the potential is there.  Just give Calyrex a new form with some actual charisma, and we're sorted.

7 hours ago, Sonictrainer said:

Item Management also needs some work:

• the Satchel only separates Items into Regular & Key Items. We at least need a separate section for Poke Balls
• While the trunk is essentially a Pokemon Storage System for Items, with 6 Boxes, the organize button will organize all 6 boxes instead of just a single one. I had originally went ahead and separated the Boxes into Vitamins, Evolutionary Items, & Berries manually but the organize button just deleted all of that work.
• Bagin sucks. Although he will use his magic hands to add extra spaces to the Satchel, he raises the price everytime. I wouldn't be so angry if maxing out your Satchel didn't require spending 42 Million Ingame Dollars. There has got a be a better solution to increasing Satchel Space than this.

 

Inventory management is something Pokemon has always managed to be terrible at.  Even once they started sorting items into different pockets, there's always one that seems to contain all manner of miscellaneous junk.  (But I'm also of the opinion that Pokemon's item list needs a Dexit-style trim.)

[Blue Blood]

Regarding the end-game...

Spoiler

Dialga and Palkia caught me off-guard. Despite the supposedly-warring Diamond and Pearl clans being ever-present throughout the plot, I actually thought that the big reveal of the Pokémon appearing in the rift was going to be Arceus. I didn't even consider that Dialga and Palkia were going to be the final bosses until I had to choose between Irida and Adaman. At this point I picked Dialga thinking that it would make Dialga a boss fight (amd also because Irida has a stupid design that I didn't want following me around). But what it actually did was make Dialga an ally whilst I fought Palkia, and Arceus himself isn't present until the post-game. It was a nice twist, or at least a twist to me because I overlooked the obvious. The Origin Forms of both are... not the best though. The idea to make essentially Arceus-ify them both is great, but the execution looks so strange. 

Another detail that I really liked in the end game was the creation of Spear Pillar. It's one of the few areas that's so clearly a 1:1 recreation of DP's Sinnoh, but when you first area there it's a beautiful and pristine temple. There are statues of the 10 Noble Pokémon, and they all get destroyed during the final boss. That was just so cool to see that little bit of lore.  

Typically Pokémon lore is pretty shit. It's a bunch of impressive lip-service, but we never see what actually happens. Much of the lore of PLA unforunately falls into that category. There are a bunch of references all over, like the lookalike characters and similar location names, but they never go much deeper than being fun little nods. The geography doesn't even match up particularly well, for the most part. The game kind of failed on its whole "the beginnings of Sinnoh" plot. It's still the best Pokémon plot ever though. All past games have had really bad plots, or at leas in the case of Gens 1 and 2 the pots barely existed and it was just about being the strongest trainer. 

[Salamander]

As somebody who's not playing the game, I'm curious to hear what makes Legends: Arceus's plot so good.  Just reading a synopsis online doesn't make it sound that radical, but I know that's not the same thing as the actual player experience.

For my part, though, I think the major sin of your average Pokemon game - apart from recycling essentially the same plotline over and over - is the bizarre pacing, where the main storyline consistently wraps up between the seventh and eighth gyms and puts you back on the normal track.  There are very few games in the series which don't do this, and it's so strange that you can save the region/world from crisis but still be tasked with jumping through official hoops by better trainers who were nowhere to be seen when it mattered.

[Sonictrainer]

The plot this time is closer to the Mystery Dungeon Spinoffs than the Mainline Games.

[Blue Blood]

4 hours ago, Salamander said:

As somebody who's not playing the game, I'm curious to hear what makes Legends: Arceus's plot so good.  Just reading a synopsis online doesn't make it sound that radical, but I know that's not the same thing as the actual player experience.

For my part, though, I think the major sin of your average Pokemon game - apart from recycling essentially the same plotline over and over - is the bizarre pacing, where the main storyline consistently wraps up between the seventh and eighth gyms and puts you back on the normal track.  There are very few games in the series which don't do this, and it's so strange that you can save the region/world from crisis but still be tasked with jumping through official hoops by better trainers who were nowhere to be seen when it mattered.

It's not an amazing story. It's not "so good". Every other mainline Pokémon games each has a utterly shit plot that's entirely formulaic. In the Gen 5 and Gen 7 games where they tried to do something a bit different, the stories ended up being predictable and ridiculous. The story in PLA is better than in those games. 

You're still just some random child, who just so happens to be a Pokémon prodigy here to save the day. That's never going to be interesting. But without typing out a full plot summary, the gist of it is that you aren't just battling your way through gyms (/trials) until you confront the evil team who's planning to use legendary Pokémon to do something evil. Stuff actually happens. Some things are genuinely surprising. 

Spoiler

The best twist is when you get exciled from The Galaxy Expedition and Kamado turns out to be very flawed (he's not evil though). 

It was just enjoyable, and no other Pokémon game has ever had an enjoyable story.