Pokemon Legends: Arceus User Score is Highest the Series Has Had in Years

gamerant.com:

Pokemon Legends: Arceus deviated significantly from the standard Pokemon game formula in favor of presenting players with a more open-world experience. While this could have posed a bit of a risk to the title's success, it appears to have paid off. Reportedly, Pokemon Legends: Arceus has the highest user score on Metacritic since Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver back in 2009.

Metacritic is an online portal that consolidates the reviews and opinions of highly respected critics from around the world. While their opinions may not always sync up with the opinions of the average gamer, sites like this help potential players make informed decisions on what games to buy. In recent years, the Pokemon franchise has suffered criticism for stripped-down gameplay, simplified stories, and questionable design choices, but Pokemon Legends: Arceus seems to have bucked the trend.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus Pokemon 'Talk' to Each Other

As of writing, it appears that Pokemon Legends: Arceus has attained a Metacritic user score of 8.0 out of 10, placing it ahead of most of the series' recent mainline titles. Pokemon Black and White earned a user rating of 7.6 out of 10, while the sequel Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 got a respectable 7.9 out of 10. After that, both Pokemon X and Y and Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire received scores of 7.5 out of 10. Pokemon Sun and Moon got a higher 7.6 out of 10 and Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon got 7.7 out of 10, but after that, it was all downhill until now.

Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee got a user score of just 6.3 out of 10, which could be explained by the games being remakes. However, Pokemon Sword and Shield got an even lower score of 4.6 out of 10, and they took players to an entirely