As a kid, the “Pokémon” video games always filled my life with adventure. In my imagination, those monsters popped off the screen, indulging my mind with flourishing visions of stylish moves and rampant animal fights. I explored exotic regions, attempting to capture all the Pokémon my 7-year-old brain deemed “cool” enough to accompany me. I felt like a pixelated explorer, living my life in 32-bits.

For a brief time, “Pokémon Legends: Arceus” gave me that rush of nostalgic adventure. This new release in Pokémon’s 35-game lineup is how I imagined “Pokémon” as a kid. Battles are fully animated in 3D. Monsters dash around the semi-open world in real-time, fleeing, ignoring, or fighting you depending on the species. The Pokémon have more personality. At times, the experience gave me the same feeling the anime did: a sense wonder. 

“Pokémon Legends: Arceus” is a new leap in the series. Combat, capture, and exploration have all changed for the better. Combat has changed the least and remains classic, turn-based fun. Now, a Pokémon can use style variations on certain moves. One style hits faster but weaker, and the other hits slower but stronger. This switches up the strategic flow of combat, so one Pokémon can attack more than once in a row, depending on the combination and speed of the moves.

Capture has changed immensely. Monsters now roam freely around the world. To battle them, throw a Pokémon at them. To capture them without battling, throw a Pokéball. Some Pokémon run as soon as they notice you, so the player has to sneak to approach. Other Pokémon ignore you, while some aggressively try to attack you. The player can get hit by wild Pokémon and loose health, so you either need to run or throw out one of your monsters to fight.

Exploration is entirely different. The Hisui region is a feudal version of Sinnoh from “Diamond” and “Pearl.” Only one town is available: Jubilife, and it serves as the player’s hub. From there, the player explores different sections of Hisui, including wetlands, plateaus, forests, mountains, and islands. The game gives you access to legendary Pokémon that the player can use to ride, surf, fly, and climb throughout the world. The player isn’t restricted to specific paths like in past games. Instead, they are free to explore. 

The downside is that there is nothing interesting to see while exploring. The world is lifeless with few points of interest and dull, repetitive scenery. The only things populating the planet are roaming Pokémon. Other than catching and fighting monsters, there is not much to do.

Pokémon are specific to certain areas, which incentivizes exploration so the player can complete the Pokédex. There are no gyms and there are few trainer battles, so catching and fighting Pokémon for the Pokédex is one of the few ways for players to make money and level up.

Instead of gyms or dungeons, the boss battles revolve around taming a rampaging Pokémon by dodging their attacks, chucking balls at them, and fighting them with your Pokémon. Most of the trainer battles are short and anticlimactic. The game is not challenging since it mainly revolves around catching ‘em all.

The graphics are also monstrous. The art direction is comprised chiefly of browns and grays, making everything look like desaturated sludge. “Pokémon” is the highest-grossing media franchise of all time and there are mobile games from indie developers that look better than “Pokémon Legends: Arceus.” It’s unforgivable for Game Freak and Nintendo to release a game valued at $60 in this graphical state.

The game’s story is incomprehensibly dull. The starting tutorial alone can take up to two hours, through which you will be mindlessly clicking through hundreds of dialogue boxes. The presentation is like a visual novel, and the text itself is lifeless and overly serious. This game is marketed towards kids and nostalgic adults, yet it spends most of its time talking about ruptures in the space-time continuum. There’s just no reason for something so convoluted and tedious to waste so much of the player’s time.

“Pokémon Legends: Arceus” is a lifeless game that somehow manages to be a fun and nostalgic reinvention of the “Pokémon” franchise. The gameplay and open-world aspects are a leap in the right direction for the series, but the flaws cut so deep that the game is only worth the price tag if you have 20 hours to waste.