Pokemon Legends: Arceus

 Switch
User Score
8.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 3825 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,951 out of 3825
  2. Mixed: 388 out of 3825
  3. Negative: 486 out of 3825
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. NickDark
    Feb 21, 2022
    2
    The game might be great but these graphics make me puke. Mario 64 looks more pleasing in my eyes. It's like a beta fan made game made by 1 person.
  2. leiru
    Jan 29, 2022
    2
    Repetitive mechanics, empty scenarios giving the feeling of a dead space, short draw distance provoking popping and poor graphics that will undermine the overall experience. I cant beleive one of the most profitable IPs ever is not able to pull off a mechanics revamp and move to 3D. Time to say goodbye to GameFreak.
  3. ladycalista
    Jan 29, 2022
    2
    Just retched. The battle system is the worst since the early generations and nothing is explained at all. Wild Pokemon that are 15 levels lower than my party will randomly take turn after turn after turn and kill me before I get to act during a battle. The crafting mechanics are bad, the areas are too big without convenient traversal, the Pokedex filling is really boring and assumes you'llJust retched. The battle system is the worst since the early generations and nothing is explained at all. Wild Pokemon that are 15 levels lower than my party will randomly take turn after turn after turn and kill me before I get to act during a battle. The crafting mechanics are bad, the areas are too big without convenient traversal, the Pokedex filling is really boring and assumes you'll catch the same Pokemon again and again and again. I don't want to catch the same Pokemon again, I want to catch new ones, but I'm stuck seeing the same 4-5 Pokemon over and over as I throw Pokeballs at bidoofs trying to fill up a meter.
    Just play the mainline generation 8 games instead if you want a Pokemon experience on the Switch, those are much better.    … Expand
  4. Masrani
    Jan 30, 2022
    2
    Also sry, ja Pokemon macht mal was neues aber dennoch ist das Spiel nicht fertig. Ich erwarte von einer Millionen Franchise Marke wie Pokemon mehr als nur eine mehr schlecht als rechte Kopie von Monster Hunter Rise Elementen. Das Spiel hat eine Unterirdische Grafik und selbst für die Leistungsschwache Switch ist das nicht ok, siehe MH, BotW, Xenoblade chronicle etc. Ich verstehe auch nichtAlso sry, ja Pokemon macht mal was neues aber dennoch ist das Spiel nicht fertig. Ich erwarte von einer Millionen Franchise Marke wie Pokemon mehr als nur eine mehr schlecht als rechte Kopie von Monster Hunter Rise Elementen. Das Spiel hat eine Unterirdische Grafik und selbst für die Leistungsschwache Switch ist das nicht ok, siehe MH, BotW, Xenoblade chronicle etc. Ich verstehe auch nicht wie der Gameplayloop Spass macht, denn es besteht eigentlich nur aus Rollen und Ball werfen + manchmal etwas Kämpfen auf nem sehr einfachen Schwierigkeitsgrad. Dieses Pokemon hat einfach alles Wegrazionalisiert, was Pokemon ausmacht. Es gibt kein PVP, nur eine Handvoll Trainer kämpfen, keine Ligen oder wirklichen Challenges, keinen richtigen Plot (hatte Pokemon nie aber man hier ist die Story echt flach) usw. Die Gelbcolorierten Boss Pokemon muss man auch nicht bekämpfen, es reicht zu Rollen und dem Vieh ein Säckchen an die Birne zu werfen dabei wirkt es nicht sehr fordernd.
    Das Spiel bietet eigentlich nichts ausser Grind, da du x-mal dieses Pokemon fangen musst, x-Beeren geben sollst und x-mal dieses Pokemon Person A-Z zeigen sollst. Die hohen Wertungen, kann ich nur verstehen, wenn sie von Casual Spielern kommen, welche leider ausser den Mobilegames keine wirkliche Gaming Erfahrung besitzen. Ich sage nicht das Spiel kann einem nicht Spass machen aber für mich jedenfalls ist dieser ewige Grind und die Wiederholenden Aufgaben mit der minimalistischen Grafik und der etwa 20h beschäftigungs Foltertherapie nichts.

    Positiv: - Was neues probiert

    Negativ: - Freche MH Rise Kopie von Mechaniken (Map mit Biomen, Quest Dorf, crafting, etc) in viel schlechter
    - Unterirdische Grafik
    - Wiederholender langweiliger Loop und Grind
    - keine Voice Ausgabe in 2022 (Das wäre doch mal ein Fortschritt)
    - Nur etwas mehr als 200 Pokemon
    - Keine guten Funktionen aus älteren Teilen übernommen (Mega Entwicklung, Schwierigkeitsgrad, Pvp etc)
    - Reduktion der Attackenmovesets auf ein Mimimum
    - Kein Multiplayer
    - Framerate einbrüche aus der Höhle
    - Wird sich verkaufen wie heisse Schokolade weil halt Pokemon drauf steht

    Fazit: Hiesse dieses Spiel nicht Pokemon, dann würde es wohl als schlechter Monster Hunter Rise Wannabe Klon abgestempelt werden. Nostalgie ist echt ein Grausamer „ich Aktzeptiere alles Faktor“.    … Expand
  5. BuffMantis
    Jan 30, 2022
    2
    Low effort slop from the highest grossing franchise in the world. Plays and looks like a unity asset flip
  6. WhiteRaven95
    Jan 30, 2022
    2
    after a few hours the same man again and again feels like a bad mobile phone game it's not the full price
  7. square1
    Jan 31, 2022
    2
    It is just a disrespect to players to deal with such an outdated graphics, if GF doesn't know how to develop a 3D game they should stick to 2D.
    The game itself could be a nice spin-off from the main series more focused on the grinding and "lore", the main problem with it is that the open-map world feels empty, you can't interact with anything but the small number of pokemon you find along    It is just a disrespect to players to deal with such an outdated graphics, if GF doesn't know how to develop a 3D game they should stick to 2D.
    The game itself could be a nice spin-off from the main series more focused on the grinding and "lore", the main problem with it is that the open-map world feels empty, you can't interact with anything but the small number of pokemon you find along the way. Overall it kills the immersion and make you feel bored pretty soon.    … Expand
  8. Fer1678
    Feb 28, 2022
    2
    Legends Arceus is a pretty disappointing game.
    The game has solid mechanics, but they have a lot of problems, and it's pretty likely they'll be forgotten for next games.
    It's unacceptable how the game actually limits the player in simple things like swiming, which is a human capability, I get that being helped by Pokémon for every simple task is something that comes all the way from 1st    Legends Arceus is a pretty disappointing game.
    The game has solid mechanics, but they have a lot of problems, and it's pretty likely they'll be forgotten for next games.
    It's unacceptable how the game actually limits the player in simple things like swiming, which is a human capability, I get that being helped by Pokémon for every simple task is something that comes all the way from 1st gen Pokémon games, but this game seemed like the perfect opportunity to change that, making the player interact in more ways with world the player is in, making exploration and catching Pokémon more enjoyable.
    My next point, the Pokémon battles are the same. Trailers hyped a lot of people by showing new refreshing battle mechanics, making it look like it was going to be more than just moving the stick and pressing the A button ... That before seing the reality. Once again, you are limited to a pretty repetitive turn based combat, and once again, I can see why people actually defend this because that is something that... Well, has been in Pokémon games since the very beginning, but I think I can speak for a lot of players when I say I would have liked to see and play with a different battle style.
    Graphic-wise this is mediocre. I can't see why people actually say it doesn't matter or actually say it is Nintendo's hardware fault, just take a look at BOTW, or some pretty heavy ports like Doom, Doom Eternal, The Witcher 3. Seeing forests with the bare minimung account of trees is disappointing, and it affects immersion. Some areas look plain, with almost no Pokémon to be seen until they pop out of nowhere. And no, I don't say this game needed Ray-Tracing or 4K textures, but as I said, just taking BOTW, that game looks much more solid in graphics.
    Once again, Gamefreak reuses 3Ds' Pokémon models, those that have come all the way from XY, and now they can't justify it AGAIN saying they wanted to make Pokémon look "better", because they are lacking animations in the world asides from walking, swimming or moving the 3D model with no additional animations from the ground to a tree... That until the Pokémon disappears. This game has less Pokémon than Sword / Shield, and that is shameful.
    This was the perfect game to add voice acting, and I can't see why they can't do it, it could save immersion, make the game more enjoyable and actually help convey the emotions of the characters, but once again, they didn't, making the game feel plain, literally wasting somewhat of a decent story the game is trying to tell. A lot of games, even f2p games have high quality voice acting.
    Nintendo Switch has shown to be capable of more than this stuttery mess. And I can't believe this game took ALL of Gamefreak's attention, making BDSP as bad as they are. These two recent Pokémon games have made me see that anual releases may not be the way to go if we want to see decent quality again in Pokémon games.    … Expand
  9. GraduateBard97
    Jan 31, 2022
    2
    I honestly really disliked legends of Arceus, and I think i'm just done with mainline Pokémon for a while. Aside from the technical issues that we all knew would be coming, the game just isn't fun. The catching got really boring for me after a while. The weaker mons just went in and it felt like a chore to battle everything else. At some point it felt like "why am I just fighting theseI honestly really disliked legends of Arceus, and I think i'm just done with mainline Pokémon for a while. Aside from the technical issues that we all knew would be coming, the game just isn't fun. The catching got really boring for me after a while. The weaker mons just went in and it felt like a chore to battle everything else. At some point it felt like "why am I just fighting these Pokémon, there's no reason my ultra or great balls shouldn't just be able to deal with this", which left me wondering why i was bothering to even engage in the dex.

    The game is also horribly unbalanced. With your ability to catch alpha Pokémon, if you catch one then you basically sweep till the next power up, then you sweep again. Rinse and repeat. The alpha Pokémon are so far ahead of everybody and everyone else it makes the game a massive breeze. Sure you can self inflict rules to not catch them, but honestly, it shouldn't have even been an option. The mons offer good enough rewards defeating them, they should have been uncatchable mini bosses.
    The pokedex honestly feels like padding. I'm glad its more involved, don't get me wrong, its an improvement, but the option to go further than research level 10 is nothing more than an excuse to get you to play the game more, it doesn't offer anything substantial and nothing you can't get going well below research level 10 on every Pokémon in a given zone. Now instead of simply completing the dex, the player for true completion must watch a magicarp use splash 100 times, watch the tackle, ember, fire wheel, and almost every other move's animation dozens if not hundreds of times. You must catch every Pokémon a minimum of 15-25 times, for many more because you need to catch them while they're unaware of you, watch Pokémon eat food who knows how many times, beat Pokémon with a certain type of move a ton of times (which adds to the problem of seeing repeated animations) and this is far worse than other Pokémon games because you can't disable battle animations, and its required to beat the game.

    The world is probably the worst part of the game. I'm not talking about the look (although I also dislike the art style), but the actual play world is just bad. Its so empty. There is nothing to do in each zone other than catch Pokémon. Nothing to look at other than Mt. Coronet, nothing in the world to interact with that's fun. There should be more to do than resource gather or catch, I want to have fun things to do while I'm engaging in the main game. It feels like a parred down version of what it could and honestly should be. Every zone feels the same. While yes, one zone is swampy, another is cold, and one is the sea, they feel the same to explore. The only reason I remember differences between the zones is because Its so fresh in my mind. In a few months its going to all blend together. If I recall correctly, there was a pathway in the first zone that went up and to the left (might have been the 3rd), and that reappeared in the snowy zone. Not a pathway going up and to the left, the exact same pathway. It had the same side, same slope, same geometry, same everything.
    The art also looks bad. I don't mean graphically, I don't care how it looks graphically, I mean the art style. The game is bland, boring, and really uninspired. Its clear they were trying for ancient Japanese art, but it doesn't translate to the game at all. Compared to other games on the swtich with more inventive art styles, and other Pokémon games like unite or xd tournament, the game just feels like a smear of brown with some green and blue mixed in. The fan made stuff looks better than the actual game. I honestly think it should have looked like the end of the reveal trailer, that would have been fantastic.

    The characters are all also super bland. Its the same issue with the zones, in a few months, they're going to blend together again. I'm not expecting a story or characters in Pokémon akin to xenoblade, but I am expecting something more, especially since this Pokémon game is the most story and character driven game since gen 5. I can honestly say I will remember gen 6 characters better than these ones, and its because they had distinctive designs.

    The game did improve on the PC (mass release), moves, seeing the true size of Pokémon on the overworld, and evolutions, I think all of those should stay. I like those.
    I also enjoyed the boss fights. The main draw for me was interacting with Pokémon in the overworld, and they were a fun way of doing that while also showing the destructive might of Pokémon, and showing how truly dangerous they were.

    The final thing I really enjoyed was the time the game was set in, learning about Pokémon with everyone else, and watching as people are afraid because of how little they understand about Pokémon is a really fun thing to experience, I just wish the rest of the game was as good as that.    … Expand
  10. lucagerevini
    Feb 2, 2022
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A livello tecnico credo sia una delle truffe più grosse dai tempi di Cyberpunk. Texture che non si caricano pur essendo ad una qualità infima.
    Frame rate che passa magicamente dai 20 fps ai 5 quando vuole.
    Gameplay ripetitivo, contenuti inesistenti, menù ideati da chi non sa cosa voglia dire fare un menu.
    Ti tiene incollato perché infondo ci si può anche divertire ma non è possibile nel 2022, sulla console che ha fatto girare BOTW ormai anni fa, avere un livello tecnico così infimo.
    Spero si sveglino perché se no siamo messi davvero male…
    Pokemon così non va bene.    … Expand
  11. kchewz_official
    Feb 9, 2022
    2
    Lack of polish and horrible graphics don't make up for a few minor gimmicks. The game is still years behind.
  12. Jinouga
    Feb 4, 2022
    2
    The absolute minimum. A review.

    With Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Gamefreak has created a game, that is on the one hand loved and praised to heavens and on the other hand, objektively critisesed to bare bones. But how is this even possible? Wouldn't a really good game be critisesed only by haters without any foundational and objektive reasoning? Pokemon Legends: Arceus tries to be and is    The absolute minimum. A review.

    With Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Gamefreak has created a game, that is on the one hand loved and praised to heavens and on the other hand, objektively critisesed to bare bones. But how is this even possible? Wouldn't a really good game be critisesed only by haters without any foundational and objektive reasoning?

    Pokemon Legends: Arceus tries to be and is very different from your classic Pokemon game. The changes in gameplay are refreshing and it's clear, that Gamefreak finally pushes Pokemon to new grounds. The gameplay is very different and very pleasing. You can through a Pokeball to a Pokemon and catch it WHILE you are already on your way to a tree with fruits on it. And you trough a ball to the tree and your Pokemon collects the fruits. Then you have different maps where you go to do quests, like in the Monster Hunter games. This concept on it's own is very nice and can be quite adicting.
    The story is also quite interesting. You get to know the beginning of the Sinnoh area, where only settlers exist and cities are yet to build.
    However, this where the negatives come in...

    1. Grafics/Artstyle/Tech: High and grafics are by all means no necessity. But what Gamefreak delivered here, is a disgrace. A punch into the gamers face and eyes. The world is empty, there literally are 3-4 types of different tree designes that where just copy pasted like in a map editor. The textures are muddy, low res, edgy, polygonal. Some designes unironically look like they copied them from an N64 game (trees). Look at the god damn lava! Like they didn't allow the designers, to give it texture and make it look like actual lava and not pumpkin soup.
    60 FPS are also no requirement for a game. But somewhat stable 30 FPS like in breath of the wild, Xenoblade Chronicles games or Monster Hunter Rise should be the expectable. ESPECIALLY from a BILLION Dollar company, that owns the biggest and most successfull franchise of all time. The framerate constantly is below 30 and in some areas the lags are maddening... Breath of the wild on the WiiU was smooth as **** in comparison. It baffles my mind how reviews credit the game to be "technically faultless".

    2. Pokemon and Charcters: From a game, that want's you to explore a world full of animals (Pokemon), that want's you to study them and build the pokedex, you could expect, that they interact with each other or have some kind of behaviour. But no. Nothing. The Pokemon just stand there and go from point A to point B, without a reason. The don't yawn, scratch their ears, scream at ech other, play around, eat grass/fruits/insects, smell etc. There is no Evoli cuddling with another, or Starly building a nest. They are lifeless creatures. They could very well scarecrows that are mechanically moved between point A and B.
    The Characters in this game have like no gestures. The head looks like a robot when the look from one person to another, eyes don't seem to moved at all apart from the eyelids. And in centuries of RPG developement, earning billions and billions of USD, Pokemon has still no voice acting (s if they wouldn't have an Anime where they could borrow actors from. FOR THEIR OWN FRANCHSIE).
    Also... why the hell can't we fly UPWARDS?

    3. Quests and Progression: The quests... repetitive, boring and uninspired. It's like Gamefreak thought of a way to artificially increase the length of the game. They send you from point A to point B to talk to someone, just to be sent back to point A. And this feels like, they want you to spend time with walking around between speechbubbles, because they just haven't thought of enough content.

    All in all, the game is obviously rushed and needed at least a year if not two, to really be worth a full prized AAA game, from probably the most wealthy gaming company in the world. Every other independent devstudio could have done game that looks appealing to the eye, implement animations to pokemon and characters, think of actual quests and a better way to fill the pokedex (kill or catch 25 of this pokemon to get the pokedexentry). This game, didn't even try to be good to make money, because the pokemon company knew from the very beginning, that it will print them millions and millions of lovely, fresh and green USD. They didn't even try to hide tha fact, that they didn't spend much money on the development, with good visuals, like EA does.

    Pokemon Legends: Arceus is the result of a company who only want's our money, because they already have built up their reputation with the first 6 generations of Pokemon games, the anime and merchandise. They know that they only have to do one thing, to be able to make more money with Pokemon TM : The absolute minimum (and even less than that).    … Expand
  13. Dangusse
    Nov 14, 2022
    2
    completely rushed. it has some cool aspects to it, especially if you want to use it for shiny hunting, but the boss battles are all terrible, the ride pokemon function worse than 20+ year old games, and the graphics are become laughably bad, down to 1fps 2d sprites at like 30 yards away. the game is extremely imbalanced and has extremely clunky mechanics and slow/boring quests that againcompletely rushed. it has some cool aspects to it, especially if you want to use it for shiny hunting, but the boss battles are all terrible, the ride pokemon function worse than 20+ year old games, and the graphics are become laughably bad, down to 1fps 2d sprites at like 30 yards away. the game is extremely imbalanced and has extremely clunky mechanics and slow/boring quests that again are worse than games from when i was a sperm cell. this is not pokemon botw, it's a cash grab. it's shameful how small and empty the settlements are, as well as general move speed while walking being weird and uncomfortable - i have to click the left stick at all times in order to move faster than a snail? i have to constantly switch ride pokemon every 2 seconds, and if you use the braviary you are more than likely to instantly die on your first try because of how unacceptably bad the controls and it's movement are.

    i can't stress enough that this game has potential, but it barely feels like pokemon. i dont even look at what pokemon im using because the battles are all 1hkos that last 2 seconds, and this plus the extremely broken jet balls made it far too easy to get to max level very fast. critics are lying, fans who say it's good are either highly impressionable or have not made it far enough into the game to see how much of a leaky bucket the mid to late game experience is. also, almost all of the new pokemon variants appear to be trash in combat and many of them have very underwhelming design and backstory.    … Expand
  14. Lov3Glov3
    Jul 19, 2022
    2
    I honestly don't understand this game. The point of the original games was to go on an adventure, battling other trainers, collect badges and catch all sorts of different pokemon. Now, you're basically confined to one area, battling rarely happens (it's honestly a second thought), and now you are catching multiple types of the same pokemon. It's almost like the developers looked at PokemonI honestly don't understand this game. The point of the original games was to go on an adventure, battling other trainers, collect badges and catch all sorts of different pokemon. Now, you're basically confined to one area, battling rarely happens (it's honestly a second thought), and now you are catching multiple types of the same pokemon. It's almost like the developers looked at Pokemon GO and thought, "we can make a AAA title for this, minus the bonus of going outside and interacting with others." I honestly don't understand how this is making pokemon fans happy.… Expand
  15. klambert
    Jun 12, 2022
    2
    This game had the potential to be so great. Alpha pokemon, the catching system for land-based pokemon, cyndaquil do be quillin'.

    Unfortunately, that's about where the good stops. The game looks absolutely terrible for an open world game. Damage is whack. Wild pokemon 40 levels below your alpha pokemon will wipe it in 2 1x effective hits. A wild alpha will wipe your entire party,    This game had the potential to be so great. Alpha pokemon, the catching system for land-based pokemon, cyndaquil do be quillin'.

    Unfortunately, that's about where the good stops.

    The game looks absolutely terrible for an open world game.

    Damage is whack.
    Wild pokemon 40 levels below your alpha pokemon will wipe it in 2 1x effective hits.
    A wild alpha will wipe your entire party, 20 levels above it, with one move.

    The maps load/render distance is terrible. They know the hardware of the system they made, do they not?

    Catching pokemon in water is hot garbage.

    Forced exp share is an ass idea that gives waaaaay too much xp, and yet, somehow, you're still *constantly* leveling random pokemon that nobody wants to use for no apparent reason to fill the pokedex information of pokemon you've already caught.

    The story is kind of meh, even for pokemon games.

    The "boss fights" are bad in every aspect, either being absurdly easy or zoning you in a corner for 2 straight minutes for literally no reason.
    All of this, and the game is still about a 7.9.

    So let's talk about the **** satchel.

    For absolutely no reason whatsoever, GameFreak limits your base inventory capacity to about 1/4 of the amount of berries in the game. The only way to get more is from satchel merchant, the single stupidest idea in the history of gaming. By the time you're spending 40k$ on a single inventory space expansion, you still can't hold every berry in the game. This continues, slowly increasing every purchase, up to a million. Why a million? Who knows. Will you ever have a million? No, likely not. Will satchel merchant ever have a million? Oh yes, he'll take it from you so you can hold more berries. Then, you lose items on fainting, and you can faint to a stream out of combat, for no reason other than shoehorning NSO where it doesn't belong.

    Now we're at a 2.5

    They also limit your starting pokemon storage space, despite insisting you catch every pokemon 17 times, though this does eventually start to expand on its own.

    They could have made this game so great. They improved a fair bit, then threw everything out with the baby and the bathwater to shoehorn in nonsensical garbage mechanics just because they could, and certainly not because they should.    … Expand
  16. Unkn0wn_Dev
    Aug 16, 2022
    2
    una porquería jugablemente, visualmente, narrativamente. El mundo está vacio y muerto, parece un apocalipsis, esta lleno de bugs, sus graficos son lamentables y el gameplay es aburrido. se nota que no le han puesto cariño ni empeño, hasta Pokemon espada y escudo (que tambien apestan) son mejores que esta cosa. no lo compren bajo ningún concepto. terrible
  17. Riverseagle
    Sep 19, 2022
    2
    This game is fun at it's core. I greatly enjoy running around the world and catching Pokemon.

    That being said, the fun core gameplay is presented in a horrendous low effort package of terrible environment work, awful lighting, hideously blurry and often muddy textures. Barebones animations , one dimensional characters that lack all substance and a story so lazily written it borderline    This game is fun at it's core. I greatly enjoy running around the world and catching Pokemon.

    That being said, the fun core gameplay is presented in a horrendous low effort package of terrible environment work, awful lighting, hideously blurry and often muddy textures. Barebones animations , one dimensional characters that lack all substance and a story so lazily written it borderline makes no sense.

    Pokemon Legends Arceus looks worse than PS2 games from 2004. While graphics don't make or break a game, it is hard to enjoy playing a game when it's hard to look at it. At it's core I don't even mind if a game doesn't look great. My favourite game of all time is a Gamecube port of a Dreamcast game. But Pokemon Legends Arceus, a triple A release from a studio like Nintendo being priced upwards of $90 in some regions, has no right looking and running as poorly as it does. It reeks of a low effort game rushed through to release.

    Some people will argue that it only looks bad because it is on the Switch. This is simply untrue. Beautiful games exist on the Switch. Just look at games like New Pokemon Snap, Breath of the Wild (the game this game tries to emulate), Monster Hunter Rise, Splatoon 3 and more.

    The Nintendo Switch's is not to blame for PLA looking and running as bad as it does.

    Game Freak not putting any effort into it is what's to blame and it's just disappointing.    … Expand
  18. Elwoodwrap
    Dec 15, 2022
    2
    I gave this game a solid 15 hours before giving up from boredom. I just found the story to be boring and was not a fan of the controls or lay out. I like that Pokémon tried something new, but this did not do it for me.
  19. ScreenS
    Jun 5, 2023
    2
    If you want a great story in the Pokémon world, play anything else

    If you want rewarding gameplay and a fun loop, play anything else If you are a completionist, play anything else If you are competitively focused there’s no multiplayer, if you’re a solo player it’s still the worst main series game as there’s nothing to do beyond catching 50 of each Pokémon. A total waste of time and    If you want a great story in the Pokémon world, play anything else

    If you want rewarding gameplay and a fun loop, play anything else

    If you are a completionist, play anything else

    If you are competitively focused there’s no multiplayer, if you’re a solo player it’s still the worst main series game as there’s nothing to do beyond catching 50 of each Pokémon.

    A total waste of time and resources that tried to appeal to nobody and succeeded.    … Expand
  20. Dranakar
    Jan 30, 2022
    1
    This game is such a let-down, so much so that I submit my first review to metacritic.
    I will say, I've loved pokemon since red/blue and even though this is a step in the right direction I am not going to congratulate them for innovating 15 years too late.
    TLDR: Grindy, not great-looking, handholdy fetch quest that is detached from the idea of you caring for the pokemon you catch - the    This game is such a let-down, so much so that I submit my first review to metacritic.
    I will say, I've loved pokemon since red/blue and even though this is a step in the right direction I am not going to congratulate them for innovating 15 years too late.

    TLDR: Grindy, not great-looking, handholdy fetch quest that is detached from the idea of you caring for the pokemon you catch - the game.

    I'll assume the game starts at a score of 10 and we can see how it progresses shall we?

    Firstly the game puts you on rails for 2 HOURS in an unskippable tutorial that starts and stops every 5 second to do another cutscene. And you can't turn off the waypoint marker, cause you know, who likes exploration and figuring things out? (-2 points)

    The grind is unbelievable and it requires you to grind to grind endlessly to progress between areas - so an arbitrary grind-gate instead of a challenge you have to overcome. If that wasn't bad enough they've somehow gotten the idea that catching 1000 identical pokemon is exciting and wholesome, it's not and never will be. (-3 points)

    Boss battles are all the same, using some weird TPS system where you throw bags at them, and have to dodge just at the right time, so now we're skipping pokemon battles entirely? (-1 point)

    Dialogues have non-options until you choose the "right" option. If there is only 1 option don't pretend like I have 2 (-1 point)

    The world feels and looks plastic-like. This is an nintendo-only developer that has access to reach out to BOTW team, there is no excuse to look this shoddy. Furthermore traversal in the environment is quickly eliminated with uncontextual fast-travel and a steed that rides the entire map where-ever you are in < 1min. ( -1 point)

    Everything you do in the game is a fetch quest, which as per my last point is trivialized. (-1 points)

    And don't get me started on what a disgrace this was for the pokemon music.    … Expand
  21. Gelider
    Jan 29, 2022
    1
    Un juego mediocre y repetitivo… está fatal hecho y sin cariño . Me parece lamentable!!!
  22. Kasukisan
    Jan 31, 2022
    1
    Es una basura de 60 dólares. Nintendo pública lo que sea y aún fanbase la recibe con brazos abiertos.
  23. Jonas-san
    Jan 31, 2022
    1
    Je donne un point pour le renouveau de la série, qui arrive enfin à évoluer dans le bon sens.
    Tout le reste est négatif, on a la une bêta : Difficulté toujours ridicule, techniquement a la ramasse, monde vide, scénario gaga, pokédex peu généreux, pas beaucoup de choses à faire au final.
    En espérant que le prochain pokémon Legends soit plus travaillé.
  24. lalahand
    Jun 27, 2022
    1
    It has improvements compared to SwSh, but overall still a boring game. Map is very empty. Zero fun for exploring the map. This game ask you to repeatedly catch Pokémon, which is no fine and tiring.
  25. laloting
    Jan 30, 2022
    1
    es increíble que pusieran este juego a la venta con la baja calidad que tiene tanto en lo visual como en el gameplay, es obvio que lo único que quisieron hacer con este juego es aprovecharse de los fans (increíblemente ciegos) de pokemon
  26. eltabaco
    Jan 31, 2022
    1
    Cosas que me gustarían A MI en un Pokemon de nueva generación:
    - Empieza como el Arceus pero nadie te viene a llevar de la mano durante 4h.
    - La nueva pokedex es mucho más interesante pero incluso la llevaría más lejos, me gustaría tener que estudiar a los pokemons de verdad. cosas malas de este pokemon: este juego reduce los frames de animaciones de pokemons a pocos metros para que    Cosas que me gustarían A MI en un Pokemon de nueva generación:
    - Empieza como el Arceus pero nadie te viene a llevar de la mano durante 4h.
    - La nueva pokedex es mucho más interesante pero incluso la llevaría más lejos, me gustaría tener que estudiar a los pokemons de verdad.

    cosas malas de este pokemon: este juego reduce los frames de animaciones de pokemons a pocos metros para que no explote el juego. Que en la charla con la jefa esa el Abra tiene la animación de la cola a la mitad de frames y está a 3m de ti.
    Poco se habla del tutorial de 2 horas que tiene el Pokemon Arceus para cuatro mecánicas que tiene el juego.
    Perder horas volando por el más vacio esperando que un shiny aparezca a los dos metros de distancia de visión es horrible, en comparación a los juegos clasicos me parece muy completo con sus fallos obviamente, el tema de la Pokedex me gusta mucho, siempre hablo de mi gusto personal y no defiendo a gamefreak.    … Expand
  27. Kroztty
    Jan 30, 2022
    1
    Por 60 dólares es un timo, no da ni para una beta, diria que lo pillen en rebajas pero es Nintendo, esas cosas no pasan aquí.
    De mal en peor, Gamefreak supera su nivel de ineptitud con cada entrega de la saga, para comenzar
    tienes un tutorial forzado el cual es absurdamente largo, gráficos y arte al nivel de un Indie de baja calidad y una jugabilidad no aprovechada. Las criticas    Por 60 dólares es un timo, no da ni para una beta, diria que lo pillen en rebajas pero es Nintendo, esas cosas no pasan aquí.
    De mal en peor, Gamefreak supera su nivel de ineptitud con cada entrega de la saga, para comenzar
    tienes un tutorial forzado el cual es absurdamente largo, gráficos y arte al nivel de un Indie de baja calidad y una jugabilidad no aprovechada.
    Las criticas positivas en su mayoría son de fanboys de Nintendo en general, argumentando que es un "pequeño paso" y llevan diciendo eso desde que la saga abandono el 2D.    … Expand
  28. PHE_AT_SL
    Feb 7, 2022
    1
    Legends Arceus is just incredibly ugly. In addition, so much is not ideally thought through and is boring and repetitive. I just don't know how an "established" company like GameFreak has so little attention to detail. I just miss it in too many places. No.. Without me.
  29. BlackWhis
    Jan 29, 2022
    1
    Frechheit so was raus zu bringen.
    Schlechte Grafik, langweilige quest. Durch und durch schlecht.
  30. edu8
    Jan 29, 2022
    1
    Vergonzoso acabado técnico. Texturas muy pobres. Mecánicas aburridas, repetitivo.
Page:

Awards & Rankings

41
#41 Best Switch Game of 2022
2
#2 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2022

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 118 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 102 out of 118
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 118
  3. Negative: 0 out of 118
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jan 30, 2024
    80
    Definitely not a bad game. It handles its mechanics perfectly, and as long as it doesn't try to talk at you, you'll enjoy it. It's the first step on the road to new games with Pokémon on the cover, and the good sales could be the main reason to continue similar work and experimentation. [Issue#317]
  2. Game World Navigator Magazine
    Oct 19, 2022
    85
    Acreus came out just a few months after Diamond & Pearl remake. Isn’t that too soon? Actually, no. Pokémon Legends: Arceus is the most innovative, revolutionary, and maybe simply the best Pokémon game of the last decade. [Issue#259, p.48]
  3. Nintendo Force Magazine
    May 13, 2022
    90
    This really does feel like a big step forward for a series that famously plays things safe, and I'm excited to see where the franchise will go next! [Issue #58 – March/April 2022, p. 72]
See all critic reviews »