Catching Pokémon has never been as fun as it is with Pokémon Legends: Arceus starters. Still, I feel bad about living up to the «gotta catch ’em all» slogan in this game, because it’s so easy and so cruel.
From day one, the Pokémon franchise has centered around one mission: “Gotta catch ’em all!” The “’em” in that command meaning the adorable or frightening monsters that populate the world alongside humans. For trainers interested in adding to their collections, catching all the Pokémon takes drive and patience. There are now hundreds of Pokémon that can only be obtained by grinding through turn-based battles, trading, or finding special items for evolution. The latest entry in the game series, the Nintendo Switch’s Pokémon Legends: Arceus, changes the monster-catching formula dramatically, in ways that make catching Pokémon easier than ever in a mainline game. There’s just one drawback: I feel terrible doing it as I invade a once-peaceful landscape. In previous mainline games, like Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, players have to run through the grass (or other special environments) to initiate turn-based battles against wild Pokémon. In Legends: Arceus, you can walk up to a Pokémon in the overworld and chuck a Poké Ball at them directly, as if playing a third-person shooter. If you want, you can still battle that Pokémon in a traditional turn-based battle, but it’s also possible to bypass the entire fight by surprising and catching a Pokémon on the spot.
