The story has excellent pacing, moving players along without feeling rushed, and leaves ample room for exploration between storyline beats. However, this small flaw does not take away from the otherwise engaging plot, and while the overarching story is constrained by having to fit into the existing Diamond and Pearl mythos, it does a great job expanding into a believable tale within those limitations.
While in general this is an excellent system that continues to make the world feel real and lived in, some quests lack adequate direction and NPCs fail to provide helpful reminders or follow-ups to them. To further flesh out the story beyond the simple goal of acquiring a bevvy of new research material, players are tasked with tackling a variety of side quests, which highlight the burgeoning relationship between people and the local Pokémon. Many side quests have a direct callback to the original Diamond/Pearl storyline. Completing a Pokédex entry encompasses a variety of actions, including feeding a species a certain number of times, battling and catching a certain number of times, using specific moves, and using strong or agile moves a certain number of times. Sneaking up on Pokémon to capture each unawares or coax one towards you with items is a fun new twist to the Pokémon formula and creates an engaging experience found nowhere else in the franchise. Trainers are able to run, ride certain notable Pokémon, or stealthily skulk about. Once players get outside of Jubilife Village, the game’s single hub, there’s a big wide world to explore. The player’s fearlessness in the face of three escapees from the resident Professor intrigues the local populace and quickly gaining the new hero their usual task of catching ’em all, with a twist: completing the Pokédex no longer simply involves catching each species, but studying them in a variety of ways. The overarching premise is simple: the player has fallen through time and space to a point in the past, before Pokémon and humanity lived in harmony. One of the smartest decisions made is starting players with just enough information to engage with the mystery, ensuring gameplay immediately takes centre stage.
However, with a quick jump into the action, an engaging gameplay loop, and oodles of freedom to progress forward any way the player wishes, Arceus creates an experience found nowhere else in the Pokémon series. Yet when Pokémon Legends: Arceus was announced, I wasn’t convinced it would be for me in still screenshots and curated videos, it was hard to tell if the new gameplay loop would feel different enough from the traditional turn-based mainline games. There’s an argument to be made for ensuring the cohesion of a long-running series, but I’ve always found it’s the experimental games in the Pokémon franchise that interest me the most. Since their first appearance on the Game Boy over 25 years ago, the main Pokémon games have maintained a fairly unchanging linear path of progression.