Pokemon Legends: Arceusdeviated significantly from the standardPokemongame formula in favor of presenting players with a more open-world experience. While this could have posed a bit of a risk to the title’s success, it appears to have paid off. Reportedly,Pokemon Legends: Arceushas the highest user score on Metacritic sincePokemon HeartGoldandSoulSilverback in 2009.
Metacritic is an online portalthat consolidates the reviews and opinions of highly respected critics from around the world. While their opinions may not always sync up with the opinions of the average gamer, sites like this help potential players make informed decisions on what games to buy. In recent years, thePokemonfranchise has suffered criticism for stripped-down gameplay, simplified stories, and questionable design choices, butPokemon Legends: Arceusseems to have bucked the trend.
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As of writing, it appears thatPokemon Legends: Arceushas attained a Metacritic user score of 8.0 out of 10, placing it ahead ofmost of the series' recent mainline titles.Pokemon BlackandWhiteearned a user rating of 7.6 out of 10, while the sequelPokemon Black 2andWhite 2got a respectable 7.9 out of 10. After that, bothPokemon XandYandPokemon Omega RubyandAlpha Sapphirereceived scores of 7.5 out of 10.Pokemon SunandMoongot a higher 7.6 out of 10 andPokemon Ultra SunandUltra Moongot 7.7 out of 10, but after that, it was all downhill until now.
Pokemon Let’s Go PikachuandLet’s Go Eeveegot a user score of just 6.3 out of 10, which could be explained by the games being remakes. However,Pokemon SwordandShieldgot an even lower score of 4.6 out of 10, and they took players to an entirely new region. Apparently, a trip to the brightly-colored Galar region wasn’t enough to impress fans, and neither was a return to Sinnoh.Pokemon Brilliant DiamondandShining Pearlreceived a user score of just 5.3 out of 10, indicating that fans were less than impressed by the Gen 4 remake games.
AlthoughPokemon Legends: Arceuswas released only recently, the game already appears to beaddressing major and minor issueswith thePokemonfranchise. With this in mind, it may be easy to see how this title managed to gather so much attention from fans. It remains to be seen whether futurePokemongames will follow the example set byPokemon Legends: Arceus.
