Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl & Legends: Arceus

[Kuzu]

Pokemon games have almost always prioritized the characters over the plot, so that's not too shocking.

[Blue Blood]

52 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

Pokemon games have almost always prioritized the characters over the plot, so that's not too shocking.

A nice thing here is that the story is actually about the Pokémon, not just the people. The people aren't quite as transparent and one-note as before either. 

[Kuzu]

I mean, I generally like the human characters so I don't quite agree, but I can understand if you just don't care or like the human characters at all.

[Blue Blood]

I don't think I've ever particularly liked any of them. Some of cool in a very shallow way, like Silver or Cynthia, but none are particularly good characters. Rival characters ever since Gen 3's Brendan/May have been been annoying sources of corny dialogue about friendship and ^_^. Then you have the gym leaders, processors and champions who are all wise and powerful, spouting similar exposition. And finally you have the evil teams who are just all the same. Team Skull at least were funny though, I'll give them that.

I'm just bugged increasingly by their designs. Since around Gen 4 and definitely by Gen 5, the art style has shifted more and more to round shapes and soft edges with fewer small details and increasing big, wide eyes. There's more emphasis on making designs cute. In applies to the Pokémon too, in which case the Pokémon species often display too much personality. But when it comes to humans, they just look goofy and ugly. I hate the big clown shoes and other bulbous features use so much these days (see Irida). It's very much a matter of the art style. I just don't like it. The characters designs tell you exactly everything you need to know about them too. 

[KoDaiko]

OK so while I haven't gotten the game (yet), my siblings been playing. And hearing their experience and watching them play has gotten me preeeetty interested, enough to consider buying one. Plot is meh...(maybe it'd be different when I play it myself) and new variants are eh...but the gameplay looks very engaging and fun.

Just one thing that bothered me:

Spoiler

Darn you Arceus, what did the train guy do to deserve this??  Yeah he looks pretty badass and has accepted his fate and all that...but he had a life and family!

[Salamander]

Official art for all the new Pokemon/forms appears to have finally been released!  I've yet to see a full, easy-to-browse repository for them, but if you check out Bulbapedia or Serebii.net's Twitter gallery then they're pretty quick to look up individually or as a set.

As I thought would be the case, some of them look a little better once you see the 2D art, like Sneasler or Origin Forme Dialga.  In particular, I finally see what they were going for with Arcanine's colour scheme - the dark grey is meant to resemble rolling smoke!  But it only really works in the 2D art, I think; others may disagree.  On the other hand, I think Enamorus's official art actually makes it look a little worse as the head of its "snake" is more visibly not actually a snake; the illusion isn't as convincing.

[Blue Blood]

Some of the Pokémon look better in the artwork, but I honestly thought that the new batch of Pokémon/forms in PLA was pretty strong anyway. The only one that I actually dislike is Overqwil, because it's so boring and gimmicky. The artwork does nothing to fix that. And as for Arcanine, that was one of my favourites right off the bat. The dark red and black along with the rock typing made it very obviously volcano themed from the offset. 

The artwork is leaning ever more into the cartoony style though. I really don't like that. 

[NegaMix]

Most of the artwork for the new Pokémon does make them look a bit better. It's enough that I'm beginning to change my stance on some of them, namely Sneasler, Ursaluna and Origin Palkia.

The rest though... eeeeh. I'm still not big on them, and Origin Dialga still looks really bad to me.

[Sonictrainer]

We're getting a Presents on Pokémon Day

I'm guessing PLA will get DLC

[Blue Blood]

A year after BDSP and PLA were announced. I'm just expecting DLC and updates to the shitty café mobile game. 

[Teoskaven]

Maybe they'll finally talk about Pokémon Sleep, lol.

[Salamander]

1 hour ago, Teoskaven said:

Maybe they'll finally talk about Pokémon Sleep, lol.

Same, but for Detective Pikachu 2.  It could still happen!

[Zaysho]

Dunno if I'll end up writing a whole thing later but I think after a lot of my misgivings about the game, I can come in here and honestly say I really liked Pokemon Legends Arceus. Just completed the dex and caught Arceus (hell of a fight, at that) and I'm pretty satisfied now. It's the most "RPG" Pokemon has felt in a long time, and it is all the better for focusing on the single-player experience. I can only hope Gen 9 adapts some of those things, even if some of those things are basically ideas ROM hacks have been doing for ages (i.e. get rid of trade evolutions for the love of God).

The game isn't without its share of tedium, but at the same time cuts the fat on a lot of the things that have bogged down Pokemon games when it comes to training up a team you can be really happy with. The basic changes to IVs, EVs, buffing/status moves, even easy swapping of movepools makes virtually everything viable (as evident by the one NPC with the stupidly strong Bidoof, Starly and Shinx) and fun to use in a way that mainline doesn't allow. I don't think the entire mainline system needs to be changed, especially because the buffing moves in particular would probably break competitive, but the Effort Levels function exactly like EVs but without needing to min-max your stats, and the lack of proper IVs basically cuts out the work to get your ideal Pokemon. A steady movepool that can be switched out at will from a menu instead of some rigmarole with an NPC to help them "remember" a move is also a huge boon in developing more strategies for challenges. Some of my favorite Pokemon to use consistently in my run were Scizor, Sneasler, Toxicroak, Flareon, Machamp, and others and a big part of what made them so good is Calm Mind/Bulk Up and the range of moves I could swap in depending on the challenges.

So, yeah. Arceus good. It's got its rough edges, but I had a blast with it beginning to end.