Steven Holmes

Boring and lifeless. Nintendo continues their trend of minimal effort and relying HEAVILY on the name recognition of their decrepit old IP’s to carry the game. Arceus is not the change to the Pokémon formula you’ve been waiting for. Yes Arceus does introduce some novel new concepts such as the freedom to explore a more open world and participate in your Pokémon’s battles, but once you dive into the game you’ll be stricken with a terrible feeling of buyers remorse as you realize how shallow this game is. I bet you heard it had Zelda BOTW style traversal, NOPE, more like clunky Morrowind mountain climbing. What about the open world, is it interesting and alive? Nuh uh, just some boring hills with textures swapped out in the different environments. Do the different species of Pokémon each have unique AI so you can see how they behave in the wild? Heck no, they randomly spawn in to a mostly empty environment, then wander around a bit waiting to fight or be captured. If you enjoy doing fetch quests and don’t mind hours of terrible nonsense dialogue boxes then maybe you can get some enjoyment out of this game. But for the vast majority of people this is going to be something they pickup because of the hype, end up only playing for a few hours, and then regretting it. Don’t be fooled by Nintendo fanboys. Save your money and hopefully Nintendo will try harder next time.