Legends: Arceus Is The First Pokemon Game To Make Me Feel Something In A Very Long Time

thegamer.com:

Pokemon celebrated its 25th anniversary last year - an incredible accomplishment made even more impressive when you consider how many Pokemon games that have launched during that period. The Pokemon Company discovered a formula people loved in Red & Blue and has stuck with it persistently. Give players a map, cover it in Pokemon to catch, and throw in a few gyms with badges as prizes for defeating their leaders. 25 years later, most of us still love that formula. It's safe, it's comfortable, but it works.

That's exactly why Pokemon Legends: Arceus has generated so much buzz, before and since it launched. Yes, there have been countless Pokemon spin-off games over the course of the past two and a half decades, but this feels different. Like it might be the norm moving forward if people enjoy it enough. I thought the former as we approached Arceus's arrival, and I was okay with that. I thought it would be like Snap or Stadium. A cool offshoot that occupies my time before I'm welcomed to a new region and I repeat what I've been doing in Pokemon games since the mid '90s. But Legends brought something different.

RELATED: Legends: Arceus’ Alpha Pokemon Are Everything Nobles Wish They Could Be

I would have been entirely okay with just another spin-off. At least, I think I would. It wasn't until I fired up Arceus for the first time and started to get acquainted with the Hisui region and those who call it home that I realized we have been missing out on something more by not letting Pokemon games evolve beyond the formula they have been using for so long. The weird nonsensical elements of a Pokemon game's story are still there. Someone falls out of the sky and not only are they seemingly okay with that, but those who found them's