Pokemon Legends: Arceus is officially out, and reviews for the game coming in at the moment seem to be overwhelmingly positive, which bodes very well for the future of the series. With new Hisuian forms and evolutions for several Pokemon species and a new creature altogether, Pokemon Legends: Arceus is taking the best bits of the existing formula, while also reshaping it. The game is a quite revolutionary one, as it is the first semi-open-world Pokemon game with crafting, Pokemon dealing damage to Trainers, boss battles that take the place of Gyms, and more, all packed in one huge release.
Furthermore, Pokemon Legends: Arceus is adding plenty of new features or reworking existing ones, both things that add to the experience more than what the game is actually missing - Pokemon abilities, held items, and breeding. One of the most interesting new additions comes from the new status conditions and weather effects, as well as some past ones being changed in a way that makes several Pokemon types and species more balanced and competitive than before.
In fact, Pokemon Legends: Arceus has a total of five new status conditions, three weather effects, and a terrain effect. Among them are Frostbite, Drowsy, Obscured, Fixated, and Primed for status conditions, Snow, Strong Sunlight, and Fog for weathers, and Jagged Splinters for the new terrain effect. Frostbite and Drowsy respectively replace Frozen and Asleep, which would completely prevent some Pokemon from acting for a few turns. Now, the former acts like Burn because it deals damage at the end of the turn and reduces the special attack of the target, and the latter makes the target inclined to fail to act and take extra damage.
The other three work as follows: Obscured envelops a Pokemon in mud to raise its evasiveness, Fixated applies on repetition moves that make the Pokemon use it over and over again, and Primed makes a Pokemon increase the damage it deals. Snow is another very interesting addition to Pokemon Legends: Arceus, making Pokemon more likely to get Frostbite and fail to act due to Drowsy, while also boosting the Speed of Ice-type Pokemon. Strong Sunlight increases the Speed of Grass-types, instead, while Fog makes all moves less accurate. Jagged Splinters substitute old effects such as Stealth Rocks, now dealing damage to Pokemon who are on this perilous terrain.
One of the main issues leading to the game's launch today always was the graphics controversy for Pokemon Legends: Arceus, which some say the new weather effects make worse due to occasional lag. Still, the game is sitting at 85% positive reviews, with many comments stating that this is the best Pokemon game in a very long time.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is now available for Nintendo Switch.