Putting the monsters back in your pocket.
There’s not a person alive who doesn’t know what Pokémon is these days, not a single soul who couldn’t correctly point out Pikachu in a line up of every pocket monster there has ever been. The series’ success has seen it spread its easily merchandised charms to all corners of commercialism, from Funko Pops to painfully expensive handmade headphones. We all know what it is, because there’s no escaping Pokémon or its message of working hard to be best friends with a colourful and compliant pocketable pal. There are new Pokémon, old Pokémon, regional Pokémon, and removed Pokémon but they all amount to the same thing; a bundle of stats to inevitably catch and battle with, another thing for the internet to draw cute fanart of. Pokémon are pleasant, predictable, and passive — until now.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus is quick to rewrite everything we think we know about the series; so quick we don’t even know it’s happening. Why is everyone so afraid of battling pokémon, when that’s what Pokémon games are for? And why are they all talking about how dangerous the world outside the village is with a steely seriousness that can’t be anything other than a bad attempt at a joke? ‘But what if you get killed?’ Killed? By a Pokémon? Hah, right!
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
