Pokemon Legends: Arceus review - An unfinished project for a series stuck in time

sportskeeda.com:

The hype and fanfare of Pokemon Legends: Arceus comes from the fact that the game was touted to be heralding a new genre of Pokemon games. We have for ages been playing a long series of this cuddly monster title. However, with Arceus, we were promised a whole new vision of it.

And Game Freak delivered, to a certain extent. We've got a semi-open world. We get a whole new way of encountering wild Pokemon and catching them, a new traversal mechanic, among various other things.

But somewhere in the world of successful open-world games like The Witcher 3 and Elden Ring, Pokemon Legends: Arceus falls short of living up to its expectations.

One can say it is a harsh comparison, but then the game tickles my nostalgia just fine and brings a refreshing way of playing Pokemon while somewhere falling short of going the whole way.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus takes players before any of the technological comforts that we have grown accustomed to have been invented. There is no Pokedex as we know it, rather a rudimentary one that we have to fill, and Pokemon are seen as dangerous wild creatures where the thought of having them as a partner fills people with dread.

In Arceus, the protagonist has been dragged back centuries to the medieval world of Hisui. They were treated with contempt on arrival but slowly won over the locals until the fall. There are also a few nods to the later titles in the series - like the name of the two clans.

Pokemon Legends does away entirely with the structuring of gyms and gym badges. The protagonist is inducted into the Survey Corps of the Galaxy Expedition Team, studying the Pokemon found in the region and dealing with any issues springing from them.

The player's primary task in Pokemon Legends is to complete the