I'm not expecting Game Freak to come out with some crazy good writing about deeper topics, Sun and Moon used their one and only "Good Writing" Token (I'll talk about Gen 5 someday, just you wait) but I just think including it was weird. It's one of those things where you can't half-ass it, just don't.Remember that both the Diamond and Pearl clan are also comprised of people who moved to Hisui, in contrast to the Celestic.
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Pictured: Traditional Ainu headwear
I'll argue the bigger issue is the Celestic being a stereotypical precursor culture that disappeared except for Volo and Cogita, which sidesteps the whole issue of colonization by having Hisui be abandoned by people, which just flat out doesn't happen in real life. Either way, I don't the devs are going to 1:1 mirror historical issues in a series with electric rodents. The Hisuian groups aren't even the only indigenous Japanese group to appear in a Pokemon game.
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Remember the Draconids?
Basically, the whole plot of Arceus isn't going to delve deep into the complication relationship with how cultures evolve, assimilate, and migrate beyond "People should accept one another" and "People and Pokemon are inseparable". That last one I'll argue is stronger because L:A is also about how modern Sinnoh came to be, with the player character gaining the respect of the Galactic Corps and the Diamond and Pearl clans by not fearing Pokemon and considering them partners, which amazes most characters.
Anywho, I wanna talk more about the game since I got my main thoughts out of the way, now.
Something I didn't touch on before is that to me, Legends Arceus feels like it was a tech demo for like a year and a half, and then they decided it had to be Sinnoh for the upcoming and newly decided "Year of Sinnoh". And what is the easiest way to do that?
Make 5 small areas with one hub world, and make most of the game a set of small repeatable tasks with little actual notable content. To me, Hisui in general feels like an excuse, and that's what bothers me further.
Hisui is just (from how I see it) an excuse to be able to make 5 barren lands with little shit going on with a plot that justifies it being a poor collectathon, and no one can convince me otherwise. Look at Hisui's maps and tell me that this shit could not have been made without it even being a Sinnoh-related game. The forest in the first area has Sinnoh music, sure, but also it is literally just a forest. Sure it has some Sinnoh Pokemon, but with a swap to say, Kalosian Pokemon, boom! This could be any forest in Kalos.
Not only are most Hisuian Pokemon not even from Sinnoh, meaning they probably could have been made before they decided the game would be Sinnoh themed, but also the game misses what makes Sinnoh, to me, Sinnoh. The Canalave Library, Mount Coronet connecting various biomes. I barely even think of beaches when I think of Sinnoh, the beaches it has feel like "it's a Pokemon game it has to have beaches". I really like exploring towns with history.
This may be weird, but I am really into urban exploration. My favorite bits of Pokemon lore are about how people live day-to-day with Pokemon, not really "what did the Gods do", though that is interesting to me sometimes as well. I think part of why people missed going into houses in Scarlet and Violet so much is you get to see how people live with Pokemon in various parts of the world, while in Hisui we get some of that learning, but I don't feel like I'm exploring urban environments, just small shacks.
I think this is going to really annoy some people: Pokemon are not supposed to be mindless monsters. Period. They are not supposed to be adversarial by nature as a collective. Period. Pokemon are not animals. Period.
Since, funnily enough, right around Sinnoh, Game Freak has moved into the direction of Pokemon sentience. They are people, not necessarily pets. I mean the dialogue has changed so much even in just a short time. It goes from early gens of stuff like "My Nidoran shit on the carpet!!! Let's battle!!!" to "My Blitzle helps me at work by bla bla bla, it really enjoys the activity."
I mean, if I am to mention Gen 5 writing again, the intro deadass has N speaking to your Pokemon, and getting verbal replies. Pokemon can speak. They may have more animal-esque traits and an ecosystem, but they are not monsters that will hunt you down mindlessly like Garchomp in Legends Arceus will do.
This was also around the time of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, and for the record the Pokemon that attack you in those games have reasons too, beyond just being feral monsters. For instance, in PMD1 there is a major territorial crisis and anxiety amongst the Pokemon because of these natural disasters literally destroying the world, Rattata does not care about who you are, it is trying to get the fuck out of Death's Door.
That's all to say, I think a brutal depiction of Pokemon just doesn't make sense anymore. Pokemon is fundamentally not edgy, as the Pokemon evolve in the games, they have evolved in the real world brand too. Hydreigon can go berserk! But that isn't because it's an apex predator, that's because Ghetsis harmed it, or it's going through actual, sentient body horror. If it was in Legends Arceus? Oh it's on the spot, it's rushing to fucking kill you.
What about the good old Wild Grass Gonna Kill Ya routine? For a few generations now, canonically the Pokemon you find are fighting you and found because they are willing to be, they stay by roads and want to test trainers via battle to test worthiness. Badda bing badda boom.
This just doesn't make sense to me, I would get if you are trying to catch it, or battling it. But Shinx just sees you and wants to throw hands, and it is mechanically annoying too, so... Pretty please?
To be fair, Legends Arceus actually has a fine reason, I guess. These Pokemon could maybe just have largely never interacted with humans, I guess. But it feels more like a strive to be edgy than to make sense.
Speaking of which, what if an action game only had basic attacks and you need to be hit like five times to actually die? Honestly the "action combat" aspects of Legends Arceus could be thrown out besides the actual bosses. I don't think I ever died due to actual Pokemon. I fell of a cliff like thrice, though. It was annoying.
ok I really gotta stop talking about this game that I don't even think is bad I just think it's mid and overrated
I'm not gonna get into that last thing lest I find another topic and write another two or three paragraphs about it
cyaa