Pokemon Legends: Arceusis arguably one of the most innovativePokemongames in a long time because it dares to revolutionize a well-tried formula that lasted for over 25 years now, and it challenges it in many ways, too.Pokemonfans went from running into wild creatures in tall grass from hiding in it to catching Pokemon in the overworld, all while managing limited resources and trying to survive in the wilds of the Hisui region.Pokemon Legends: Arceusis missing core features like held items, breeding, and abilities, and yet it still manages to introduce new ones that make the gameplay loop compelling and quite refreshing.
Items are still ever-present inPokemon Legends: Arceus, though, and players can find heaps of different types of them - from crafting materials to the usual potions and Poke Balls, including plenty of evolution items. Speaking of evolution items,Pokemon Legends: Arceusplayers can evolve Haunter into Gengar completely soloif they want, and the same holds true for all other trade-exclusive evolutions in the game - including Pokemon like Porygon Z, Steelix, Alakazam, and even more. In fact, items that are normally supposed to be given to Pokemon and then trade in order to evolve them can now be used on those creatures directly, evolving them immediately. On top of that, Pokemon that were only ever evolved through trades and without held items can now evolve thanks to a precious, rare item: the Linking Cord.
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Pokemon Legends: Arceus' Solo Evolutions Perfect the Experience
Pokemon Legends: Arceusis designed as a solo experience, and while trading and online connectivity are still available throughout the game, this title was conceived to be fully playable alone. The game’s theme of Pokemon trainers being scarce because people are afraid of the creatures is a recurring one throughout the different acts that makePokemon Legends: Arceus' story, and thus it makes sense for players relying only on themselves to complete the Pokedex by catching them all - this time for real.
Pokemon Brilliant DiamondandShining Pearlneeded trade-exclusive evolutions to go awaytoo, and players were very unhappy with this because many creatures were impossible to get in any given playthrough unless they were traded with other trainers. This approach has been there ever since Generation 1, back when players needed physical linking cords to connect their consoles and get the trade going, so it’s wholesome and very clever to use an item called Linking Cord to evolve trade-exclusive creatures this time around.
The main problem with trade-exclusive evolutions is that they prevent players from achieving the team composition they want, forcing them to choose different Pokemon that they might like less. Making some Pokemon evolve through trading as a mechanic shouldn’t be removed from the series entirely, but players should have alternatives - whichPokemon Legends: Arceusdoes provide. HavingPokemon like Magmar and Electabuzz capable of evolvingsimply by using their respective evolution items on them is a fantastic change, and it also stimulates players to actually go out of their way to catch different species of Pokemon and find rare items.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus' Linking Cordshould become a staple of the franchise moving forward, and starting in Generation 9Pokemongames should allow players to have more options to evolve their beloved pocket monsters. One could argue that having trade-exclusive Pokemon pushes sales of different versions of any given release more as well as tries to build a branching community, but manyPokemonfans end up playing on their own because they prefer so, and they shouldn’t be forced to change that. Having the ability to evolve any given Pokemon completely solo changes and enhances the experience, and taking that away from future games would be a huge step back.
