Pokémon Legends: Arceus has made so many innovations and changes to the franchise, no matter what some salty clickbaiter has to say about it. Whether it’s something big, like the mechanic of catching Pokémon in the overworld; or something small, like being able to evolve Pokémon on command without the need for them to level up again; there’re many things in this game that I hope stick around for later Pokémon titles. Another change that the game has made is in the form of the system in which players battle other Pokémon. However, the implementation of the change leaves many fans questioning if it’s for the best that it stays.
There’s a lot of opinions on the battle system going around, but the most I’ve seen, albeit by a short margin, is that it’s terrible. I’ll get this out of the way now, people have valid reasons to think this way about how battling works in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. However, I still disagree with the overall sentiment that it’s straight-up bad, and I’d like to go over why I feel that way. Yes, I am that filthy casual. Before I get into it though, let me give you a rundown on how battling in this game works and how it differs from previous Pokémon titles.
Action Speed
For starters, there’s still turn-based combat but it’s very different here. In older Pokémon games, you had both Pokémon choose their move first. When they’re done, the fastest Pokémon (being the one with the highest Speed stat) uses its chosen move before the slower Pokémon follows suit. Things like using items and switching Pokémon out have priority though, so any trainer that does those things will always have that effect occur before the other Pokémon makes its move. There are exceptions that can apply to both rules, but that’s the general gist of it.
In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, the speed of your Pokémon still determines the order of action. But this time, the fastest Pokémon will choose its move to then immediately use it, while the slower Pokémon chooses its move to use afterwards. With a high enough Speed stat, a Pokémon can choose a move to use multiple times in quick succession. This speed also determines when a trainer can use items or switch there Pokémon out, so those things don’t have priority anymore.
Mastered Moves/ Strong and Agile Style
The action speed of your Pokémon, as well as the power of the moves they use, can be altered with the use of Strong Style and Agile Style Moves. Strong Style raises the power and accuracy of a move while reducing action speed, and Agile Style raises action speed at the cost of power and accuracy. Using either of these styles will also reduce the PP of the move that the style is used in conjunction with. However, there are moves that naturally function as Strong Style moves (like Hyper Beam) and Agile Style moves (like Quick Attack). Those moves can be balanced to function like regular moves by using the opposing Style of the move they naturally function as.
Offensive and Defensive Stats
Let’s move to other stats now. There are five other stats in Pokémon, but we’re gonna focus on four here: Attack, Defense, Special Attack, and Special Defense. A Pokémon’s Attack and Special Attack stat determines how much damage they’ll deal with an attack move of that respective type, while their Defense and Special Defense stat determines how resistant they are to attack moves of that respective type. This is still the same in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, but what’s different is how the game handles boosts and decreases to those stats.
In traditional Pokémon, there are several moves that can raise or lower those stats individually. A lot of those moves were taken out of this game (along with other attack moves), and the ones that stayed received a change. A move that would have boosted or decreased only the Attack or Special Attack of a Pokémon will now affect both of them instead. The same goes for moves that previously affected Defense or Special Defense (for example, Calm Mind was a move that raised a Pokémon’s Special Attack and Special Defense stat when used; now it raises the Attack, Special Attack, Defense, and Special Defense stat). This has less to do with the moves themselves and more to do with how the game now groups both offensive and defensive stats together in that context. Whichever opinion you have about the battle system, it cannot be denied that this is insane.
Held Items/Abilities
Pokémon could also use held items that had various effects in battle, such as an item that boosted a certain type of move’s power, or a berry that healed a Pokémon once it was badly damaged. However, Pokémon Legends: Arceus removed the ability for Pokémon to use held items. Speaking of abilities, it’s the same story, with the exception of Regigigas’ Slow Start (which will never be unfunny to me).
Status Effects
And finally, we have status effects. While they largely work the same, there are a few notable changes. For starters, confusion doesn’t exist anymore, and any move that confused the user afterwards got a new effect called “fixation,” where the move would get stronger the more the Pokémon used it in a row. The status effects of being frozen and sleepy have been replaced with frostbite and drowsiness, respectively. Rather than being unable to attack in either of them, frostbite just inflicts damage over time like burn (which is in this game and still functions the same), while drowsiness works like paralysis, where the Pokémon only has a chance to not attack but their defense is lowered instead of their speed. There’s also the fact that all status conditions last temporarily for a specific amount of turns the Pokémon has in the battle.
There’s more things that can be gone over, but I think the things I chose to cover are the most important. If there’s a change you feel should be addressed, say so in the comments for everyone reading this to go over. But for now, since you (hopefully) understand the basics of the battle system and how it differs from Pokémon’s normal battling, let’s talk about how good or bad these things actually are. I’m gonna be referring to the aspects of the battle system as if they are applied to player-versus-player situations. So let’s get into it.
My Casual Opinions
I’m personally very fond of how turns and choosing moves work in this game. It feels closest to how real battles would occur in turn-based combat, rather than both the Pokémon at a standoff waiting for each of them to use a move. This also makes battling feel closer to how it does in the anime, even though the games still have a long way to go in that aspect.
I understand how it takes the strategy out of battling by a great amount. You no longer have situations where you can switch in a Pokémon that would be immune to whatever attack your opponent had planned for the Pokémon it was going to OTK. There are also no more situations where a player can anticipate the opponent switching, to then choose an attack for the Pokémon that would take the previous one’s place…which they would then OTK (it’s baffling how so many people lost Pokémon from trying to do that in this game).
However, with the removal of that aspect of strategy, I’d argue that another was added with this system. When confronted with switching out your Pokémon for whatever reason, the strategy lies in either choosing a Pokémon fast enough to gain an action speed advantage over the other Pokémon, or one that can take hits from the other Pokémon on the field. Of course, that’s not to say the strategy involved in this battle system is as deep as that of the traditional system, cause it’s far from it. But it’s something that I think does enough.
As for the “gimmick” of this game, being Strong Style and Agile Style moves, I like them. They’re a nice change of pace from the old gimmicks, which seemed to focus more on flashy over-the-top displays of power and a trainer’s “bond” with their Pokémon, rather than strategy and balance with it being used and used against you. The fun of it is subjective, of course, but it’s definitely a balanced mechanic, since any Pokémon and move can fully utilize them. With the changing of some moves to work like the styles as well, that makes it even better, with how some moves can essentially mix two styles together and balance out to be a normal move, like Strong Style Quick Attack.
Now, when it comes to the grouping of the stats… I said that it was insane, and I did not mean that in a good way. Pokémon have two separate Attack and Defense stats for a reason, and it’s still the same in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. It makes no sense for a Pokémon to be able to affect two or all of them at once with a move that should only affect one or two. Why is Calm Mind raising Kirlia’s Attack and Defense stat? Why is Bulk Up raising that Lucario’s Special Attack and Special Defense stat? There’s now no difference between the two of those moves except their typing, by the way. However, some Pokémon in the game can learn both of them for some reason, such as Sneasler through tutoring. Simplicity isn’t always a bad thing, but this aspect of the battle system makes no sense to me in any context of the game.
Now let’s talk about the removal of held items and abilities. Thematically, the lack of items is perfectly fine. In the setting of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Pokémon are generally seen as terrifying monsters; even with the handful of people that can use Pokémon in battle, it’d be weird for there to be someone in that setting that’s just selling items for Pokémon to hold. That’s not even to mention the question of why many of the items would exist in that time period.
From a player-versus-player perspective though, it simplifies things even further. Even as a person that wasn’t a huge fan of using items, the ability for players to do so gave them so many possibilities on how to handle the Pokémon they battled with, and they just don’t have that complexity here. As thematically accurate as the lack of items is, GameFreak could’ve found a way to make it work somehow. As for abilities, I don’t have anything to say that I haven’t said about items…if Regigigas gets to keep Slow Start, bring other abilities back as well, at least ones that would work with this game.
And finally, we come to our last topic: statuses. All I can really say is, I love it. Having to deal with certain status conditions for an entire battle was a frustrating component of the traditional system. It goes away a bit too quickly here in my opinion, but the idea of them being temporary is amazing and I hope it stays. I also like what they did by adding frostbite and drowsiness. Getting hit with the frozen and sleep statuses, especially when the moves that cause those effects feels like such a chore to get through since you simply can’t do anything for a brief moment. While the frozen effect has the caveat of being rare, you can’t say the same for the sleep effect. So I’m overall happy about how statuses are handled.
That’s everything. Like I said, there are valid reasons to dislike the new battle system and have problems with it. But there are upsides to it as well, and I wouldn’t consider it a bad system. The most I’d say about it is that it’s…different, or…needs some tweaking. But it’s not definitely bad. In any case, I’d like to see this system utilized for competitive battling, problems and all, just to see how it goes.
Enough about my casual opinion though, what do you think? Do you like the battle system in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, or do you hate it and hope it never returns? Why do you feel the way you feel about each of them? If you’re on the “hate it” side, what would you do differently? I’d love to hear your thoughts.