SPOILERS! Legends: Arceus Playthrough Discussion

[Bull Of Heaven]

Didn't post about it yet, but I did get Arceus a few days ago, so the playthrough is done as far as I'm concerned.

Some slight mixed feelings about the game, but overall it's pretty good. Probably A-tier, I think.

• The graphics are bad, but I don't play Pokemon for the graphics, so oh well. The overall aesthetic of Hisui is okay.
• The story isn't groundbreaking or perfectly executed, but I think it's pretty good. I enjoyed seeing the different perspectives of the various wardens, watching Adaman and Irida try to hold things together, and watching the clans start to put their differences aside. The conflicts with certain characters are reasonably interesting, and smaller characters like Akari and Cyllene are good too.
• New Pokemon and forms aren't bad.
• I'm not a big fan of the battle system, but credit for trying something different and interesting. The Noble/Arceus fights are kind of fun.
• Being pushed to actually get all the Pokemon, and getting an actual good reward for it, is a nice touch. I also think it makes sense to make us work hard for Arceus. But it was a slog toward the end, as I was mostly just looking for distortions and grinding lost satchels, and it roughly doubled my playing time from the rest of the story. This isn't exactly a complaint, just kind of a mixed bag I guess.
• Since I was more interested at first in advancing the story than thoroughly exploring, I found it slightly annoying that I had to get my rank up to progress. I guess it makes sense as a way of making sure you don't go too far in over your head as you unlock new areas. I was glad that the story was uncoupled from my rank during the climax.
• As others have already discussed, this game doesn't seem great in terms of replayability. This is normally a strength of the series, not only because of postgame battle facilities, but also because you can play through the game with different Pokemon. I might do a second playthrough of PLA eventually, but I'm not sure.

If I had to choose between more Legends games and more of the traditional formula, I would choose the traditional formula. But I hope we get both. In the end, this game is fun and different, and it opens up some exciting possibilities for the future.

 

[R_N]

I do understand that it can feel poorly balanced, though I think this is another attempt from GF to create some sort of ""level scaling"" to the game, to try and prevent from just "grinding to victory".

SwSh had a pair of these iterations if you think of it, with Wild Area pokemon scaling to the part of the plot where you are, and Isle of Armor DLC also changing levels on trainers based on your level.

I don't mind the Arceus one too much, I almost like it, albeith I do feel that they should have gone a bit less hard on "nerfing" the level differences.

I do appreciate however that they keep iterating on it: one of the main problems of turn based games (and thus, Pokemon) is that most of the time any roadblock can just be bruteforced by leveling.
Bearing in mind level scaling can also go awfully wrong (see one of the most infamous examples, Final Fantasy 8, which was probably the most known example of how to *not* do level scaling), but I think GF's approach is very promising, and I would like to see more of these in the coming games (mainline or not): having a coherent way to prevent overleveling can also open to have more strategy in the trainers' rosters that doesn't become irrelevant because your starter is 10 levels higher and roflstomps them anyway (aka, the BDSP issue notably).

(also yes, I do agree abilities would have added a interesting strategic layer to Arceus, but I suspect some of them would have been just weird to implement or even "see without previous knowledge" and that was why they got skipped)

I feel like it wasn't a way to tackle something akin to level scaling or get it so you can't grind past something, per say, I think it was done for 2 reasons

1. They want to decentivize battles. The general gist of the game is they want you to catch a ton of stuff, with a battle being punishment. Everything can beat you up, battles take much longer to catch things, if they're not beating you up then they're about to run away you fuck up you imbecile you total dunce throw a ball next time dumb dumb
2. It sells the "pokemon are very dangerous" aspect that pervades all of LA (alongside stuff like Alphas and being attacked on the field)
3. There's like 15 trainer battles and only one reaches 5 and another reaches 8; the above aspects happen to pair "nicely" in theory with you going in with a full team of 6. Just keep sacking pokemon, you'll win by numbers alone; battle of attrition. As such there's little need to bother rebalancing it.

if the game had more of a battle focus I think they'd probably have hued closer to the traditional systems.

I'll also say again that if someone wants to grind, they should be allowed to & that I see this as a feature not a bug with turn based rpgs, but we've talked about this before so I'll leave it there

 

[Ironmage]

I feel like it wasn't a way to tackle something akin to level scaling or get it so you can't grind past something, per say, I think it was done for 2 reasons

1. They want to decentivize battles. The general gist of the game is they want you to catch a ton of stuff, with a battle being punishment. Everything can beat you up, battles take much longer to catch things, if they're not beating you up then they're about to run away you fuck up you imbecile you total dunce throw a ball next time dumb dumb
2. It sells the "pokemon are very dangerous" aspect that pervades all of LA (alongside stuff like Alphas and being attacked on the field)
3. There's like 15 trainer battles and only one reaches 5 and another reaches 8; the above aspects happen to pair "nicely" in theory with you going in with a full team of 6. Just keep sacking pokemon, you'll win by numbers alone; battle of attrition. As such there's little need to bother rebalancing it.

if the game had more of a battle focus I think they'd probably have hued closer to the traditional systems.

I'll also say again that if someone wants to grind, they should be allowed to & that I see this as a feature not a bug with turn based rpgs, but we've talked about this before so I'll leave it there

I actually think there's one more reason. Damage is high so that healing items get used. After all, you put effort into finding those resources and crafting those potions and revives, and the game doesn't want you to decide that that effort is no longer worth it. But if they keep getting used up because you keep taking loads of damage, then you keep having an incentive to go out and find more materials and spend more time at the crafting bench. Same logic as why BotW had breakable weapons.

 

[R_N]

I actually think there's one more reason. Damage is high so that healing items get used. After all, you put effort into finding those resources and crafting those potions and revives, and the game doesn't want you to decide that that effort is no longer worth it. But if they keep getting used up because you keep taking loads of damage, then you keep having an incentive to go out and find more materials and spend more time at the crafting bench. Same logic as why BotW had breakable weapons.

oh i just started buying potions with my huge sums of cash after the first area tbh

 

[Rarycaris]

I never had the cash for potions because I was spending every penny I got on crafting recipes and bag space, the latter of which in particular feels needlessly expensive which is probably my biggest criticism of the game.

 

[R_N]

I never had the cash for potions because I was spending every penny I got on crafting recipes and bag space, the latter of which in particular feels needlessly expensive which is probably my biggest criticism of the game.

No lie until i needed one for a quest i didnt even know there was a recipe shop
I promptly never used it again. honestly in general I just kinda stopped using crafting outside of emergency ball refills. It was just easier to buy a bunch of balls.

Once bag space breached 10k i stopped that too. The bag space is really ridicuolous both in terms of how you only buy one at a time and how expensive it gets.

 

[Bull Of Heaven]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention in my earlier post that limited bag capacity is awful.

I don't know where some of you guys got all this money you've been talking about. Maybe it's because I did zero crafting, but I was regularly spending all of my money on balls until very late in the game.

 

[R_N]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention in my earlier post that limited bag capacity is awful.

I don't know where some of you guys got all this money you've been talking about. Maybe it's because I did zero crafting, but I was regularly spending all of my money on balls until very late in the game.

i got a few large sums of money from selling junk from rifts, but I also just got, like, a lot of stardust from enemy drops and breaking up ore. Oh and quests, you get some decent windfalls from quests.

 

[Nokocchi]

Maybe it's because I did zero crafting

It is. It most definitely is. You can craft the whole game without buying a single potion or ball, allowing you to use the money on tutors, clothes, bag stoarage, and new recipes for crafting.

 

[Lightchao42]

I tried fighting the final final boss for the first time. My thought process:

Spoiler

"Well, I may have lost all but one Pokémon, but that wasn't TOO bad. I wonder why everyone lost on their first try...
Oh hey, it's Giratina? I bet it's going to drag Volo into the Distortion World like with Cyrus...
Wait, Giratina wants to FIGHT me?"
*Giratina uses Shadow Force and one shots Goodra*

So if I'm getting these last plot revelations right...

Spoiler

Volo wants to create a new universe, so he gets Giratina to tear a hole in spacetime so they can fight Arceus, but for whatever reason they don't fight Arceus. Giratina wants revenge on Arceus for banishing it, or at least that's what Volo presumes. I'm guessing Arceus sent the player to Hisui to stop things from getting worse. But why did Dialga/Palkia go berserk? Maybe it'll be explained if I win.

On another note, when do the kami crew become available to catch? Enamorus is the only new Pokémon I haven't seen yet and I want to know what's up with her.

 

[R_N]

I tried fighting the final final boss for the first time. My thought process:

Spoiler

"Well, I may have lost all but one Pokémon, but that wasn't TOO bad. I wonder why everyone lost on their first try...
Oh hey, it's Giratina? I bet it's going to drag Volo into the Distortion World like with Cyrus...
Wait, Giratina wants to FIGHT me?"
*Giratina uses Shadow Force and one shots Goodra*

So if I'm getting these last plot revelations right...

Spoiler

Volo wants to create a new universe, so he gets Giratina to tear a hole in spacetime so they can fight Arceus, but for whatever reason they don't fight Arceus. Giratina wants revenge on Arceus for banishing it, or at least that's what Volo presumes. I'm guessing Arceus sent the player to Hisui to stop things from getting worse. But why did Dialga/Palkia go berserk? Maybe it'll be explained if I win.

On another note, when do the kami crew become available to catch? Enamorus is the only new Pokémon I haven't seen yet and I want to know what's up with her.

The gist is

Spoiler

Giratina tore open the rift, but Arceus wasn't coming through. The frenzy was that power leaking through and striking. It had an adverse affect on one of Palkia/Dialga (where as the other was seemingly fine [at least for the time being] and could be your sword/shield so to speak) just like it did the Nobles.

The Incarnates become available after beating that boss. It's the last sidequest of the game





Which side note, is a little brow raising. It's quest 94. 92 & 93 are the Darkrai & Shaymin quests...so if you don't have the SWSH & BDSP save bonuses your quest log will just always have a 2 number gap. Feels a little weird, ike they should've gotten some other moniker and/or been after the Incarnates quest.

 

[The Crusade]

No lie until i needed one for a quest i didnt even know there was a recipe shop
I promptly never used it again. honestly in general I just kinda stopped using crafting outside of emergency ball refills. It was just easier to buy a bunch of balls.

Once bag space breached 10k i stopped that too. The bag space is really ridicuolous both in terms of how you only buy one at a time and how expensive it gets.

For real, I didn't know the guy sold recipes either until I'd already defeated Giratina. I only knew him as "that guy who wants a doll costing wood x3," and wood is a bizarrely uncommon resource. I also had foreknowledge that Cogita would be demanding wood, so my meager stockpile went to her. Only once I'd paid off Cogita and then found more wood for the crafting guy did I learn that he actually sells something.

Also, I have yet to discover how deep Bagin's pockets can go. My next payment to him is like 200k. I expect the ceiling to be 500k at minimum.

 

[Kurona]

Also, I have yet to discover how deep Bagin's pockets can go. My next payment to him is like 200k. I expect the ceiling to be 500k at minimum.

Guess again...

 

[R_N]

Guess again...

The sheer extortion...ridiculous. It takes well over 4 million total to get everything.

 

[The Crusade]

Guess again...

I did say at minimum. After 500k, the obvious next guess is 1M.

Now the only questions are (1) what Bagin does with his megafortune, and (2) whether the player can get Kamado or Zisu to chew him out afterward.

 

[misterdarvus]

So how do you manage your inventory? What's your most efficient kit to not waste space in your satchel?

Do you need every tier for every type of pokeball? What kind of food/bait that you should bring for every situation?

 

[R_N]

So how do you manage your inventory? What's your most efficient kit to not waste space in your satchel?

Do you need every tier for every type of pokeball? What kind of food/bait that you should bring for every situation?

I keep potions, some tumblestones (& iron, sometimes), a smoke ball if i rememebr to have them and when i Have them i make sure to put them to just before the balls, the balls (primarily ultra, though i usually keep a few heavy & feathers on hand just because....well i have them so why not), then the berries, and then the rest just kind of lays there. Oran berries are, honestly, the best bait. They kind of work on everyone so its like...why bother with specialized bait, you know? and then the rest just clutters up the inventory and then dumped in a chest later.

Like I'll use them if I have them but I rarely ever use the cakes and junk. And I just found myself not bothering with crafting so after a while i never even bothered making potions or anythign else.

When a rift starts forming I back track to camp and dump everything but the healing items and balls so I have as much room as possible for loot

 

[The Crusade]

So how do you manage your inventory? What's your most efficient kit to not waste space in your satchel?

Do you need every tier for every type of pokeball? What kind of food/bait that you should bring for every situation?

I'm well on my way to Lv.-10ing my dex, so I'll tell you what I keep in my satchel (52 slots).

• Ultra Balls (x33), Gigaton Balls (x31), Jet Balls (x25).
  • Gigatons and Jets are crafted. Be mindful it takes a lot of iron. Ultra Balls are easily replaced through the shop instead.
  • Lesser balls are not necessary and IMO a waste of inventory space. Ultra Balls are cheap in this game.
• All potions up to Max Potion (x37).
  • Max Potions are surprisingly easy to craft and notably independent from all the others.
  • Super Potion, Hyper Potion, and Full Restore require non-natural crafting reagents. These can honestly be skipped.
• Revive (x35) and Max Revive (x8)
  • Hard to leave home without them. If you're not using leeks for Potions, use them for Revives.
• Grit Dust (x95) and Grit Gravel (x6)
  • I keep stacks of these in my inventory. They can be traded to Zisu for higher-end grit items. Pebbles and Rocks I use instantly.
• Apricorns, Iron Chunks, and all Tumblestones.
  • Essential to crafting balls. The number doesn't matter. Just be frugal with your iron.
• Smoke Bombs (x18), Scatter Bangs (x20).
• Vegetable matter: Medicinal Leeks, Pep-Up Plants, Vivichokes, Caster Ferns, Swordcaps, Direshrooms.
  • These are useful for crafting Revives, Potions, and Choice Dumplings.
  • Any Sootfoot Roots and Pop Pods can be immediately converted into Smoke Bombs and Scatter Bangs respectively.
  • Add Bugwort if you want Stealth Sprays. I've managed to get by just fine without them.
  • I'm also carrying Doppel Bonnets and Iron Barktongue just because they're uncommon finds. Might clear those out.
• Bait items: Dazzling Honey, Hearty Grains, Mushroom Cakes.
  • These mostly exist in case the wild Pokémon does not take to Oran Berries, of which I have hundreds.
  • Unless it's required for a quest, I don't see any reason to have more than one cake variety.
• Berries: Oran, Sitrus, Leppa, Hopo, Nanab, Pinap, Razz.
  • Oran Berries are the only bait you'll need... most of the time. Sitrus Berries should be reserved for crafting Max Potions.
  • Leppa and Hopo Berries are good for PP replenishment. 'Nuff said.
  • Nanab, Pinap, and Razz Berries are all some of the best healing in the game. Nanab x2 makes Hyper Potion obsolete.
• Miscellany: Stardust, Wood, Balls of Mud.
  • Stardust and Wood can both be crafted into more lucrative items. Just stockpile them until you find some shards.
  • The mud is admittedly just taking up space because I'm sick of discarding it every time a Buizel or something drops one.

After all of that, I still have a sprawling 12-13 open slots for stuff like shards, nuggets, evolution items, and Seeds of Mastery. Even if you haven't been keeping up with Bagin like I have, just cutting out frivolities like honey/grains/beans and Super/Hyper Potions should spare you the walk of shame whenever a spacetime distortion appears.

 

[DragonWhale]

100% complete. Grinding out the 6k points after lv10ing all the pokemon was pretty brutal, but at least 100%ing this game took only half the time it took to 100% PMD DX. Thankfully I never evolved my pokemon so I had a bunch of evolution tasks available (and they're all worth 20 points).

Perfect clearing all the pokedex is something I will never even consider doing lol. Looking at Magnemite's tasks it's blatantly obvious they intended for Magnemite to be a natural spawn and not exclusive to distortions. Seriously, enjoy catching and defeating 15 magnemite each (30 total). I'll just take the full star rank and take my leave.

 

[The Crusade]

Looking at Magnemite's tasks it's blatantly obvious they intended for Magnemite to be a natural spawn and not exclusive to distortions.

Exhibit B: Magnezone is an overworld spawn at Mt. Coronet, yet its more basic stages need a Bermuda Triangle to manifest.

 

[ManchildMine]

So, after basically completing the postgame, I have to say that this is probably one of my new favorites. 9/10 for me.

The sheer extortion...ridiculous. It takes well over 4 million total to get everything.

Now the only questions are (1) what Bagin does with his megafortune, and (2) whether the player can get Kamado or Zisu to chew him out afterward.

It's obvious that Baggins is the Barry/Palmer ancestor and Palmer uses the money Baggins extorted from you to make the Battle Tower/Frontier

smh my head.

 

[Kurona]

It's obvious that Baggins is the Barry/Palmer ancestor and Palmer uses the money Baggins extorted from you to make the Battle Tower/Frontier

smh my head.

this is only about 5 million in ~1900 after all. What'll over a hundred years of inflation do to that fortune if properly invested...

 

[R_N]

View attachment 405233
100% complete. Grinding out the 6k points after lv10ing all the pokemon was pretty brutal, but at least 100%ing this game took only half the time it took to 100% PMD DX. Thankfully I never evolved my pokemon so I had a bunch of evolution tasks available (and they're all worth 20 points).

Perfect clearing all the pokedex is something I will never even consider doing lol. Looking at Magnemite's tasks it's blatantly obvious they intended for Magnemite to be a natural spawn and not exclusive to distortions. Seriously, enjoy catching and defeating 15 magnemite each (30 total). I'll just take the full star rank and take my leave.

Seriously, even the fossils cap out at 10, and those appear to be very common inside their rifts (i found SO MANy shieldons). The magnets feel like rare spwans WITHIN a rare spawn. It's wild.

Exhibit B: Magnezone is an overworld spawn at Mt. Coronet, yet its more basic stages need a Bermuda Triangle to manifest.

a bermuda triangle in an entirely different area

 

[Kurona]

Seriously, even the fossils cap out at 10, and those appear to be very common inside their rifts (i found SO MANy shieldons). The magnets feel like rare spwans WITHIN a rare spawn. It's wild.

It was sort of the opposite with me -- I did find lots of Shieldons yes, but Cranidos took me AGES to get a second one for the research. It took until like my fourth space-time distortion to get one? I started theorising it was because I picked Irida lol

 

[Kurona]

Putting it here since it's the latest Pokémon game thread and maybe some other reasons, new Nintendo Direct slated for tomorrow evening. Probably nothing about Pokémon since they tend to go in their own directs now, but just in case

https://twitter.com/x/status/1491049653936267268