Legends: Arceus Still Lacks Pokémon: Let’s Go’s Best Innovation
In almost every other facet of its gameplay, Pokémon Legends: Arceus is the most user-friendly Pokémon game to date, but it still bizarrely lacks the best innovation from the Pokémon: Let’s Go games, specifically the option for the player to auto-sort their Pokémon collection. Completing the Pokédex is Legends: Arceus’overarching goal, not winning a series of badges like in most Pokémon titles. Given this, players have more incentive than over to amass a large collection of the mythical creatures of Hisui, especially since some Pokédex entries require capturing multiple Pokémon of the same type. Where Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee offered a variety of ways for players to sort their Pokémon, Legends: Arceus falls back on manual sorting. This adds a considerable amount of needless tedium to the game, which is more inexcusable considering Game Freak implemented perfectly functional auto-sorting in their first Pokémon title for the Switch, Pokémon: Let’s Go.
Some gamers hope that Pokemon Legends: Arceus’ sequel travels to the future, taking a different approach to the time-travel narrative, but more Pokémon fans would benefit from the series adopting a simple innovation from a past game. Although the Let’s Go games featured only about 150 different Pokémon, auto-sorting still made the game much more enjoyable. Being able to sort Pokémon by alphabetical species name, by Pokédex number, by level, and other criteria, made organizing simple. Locating a specific Pokémon for a trade could be accomplished with a quick sort, rather than pouring through pages of stored Pocket Monsters. An auto-sort option would have made the larger Pokédex of Legends: Arceus much more manageable. It would have been even more welcome with the number of Pokémon in Pokémon: Sword and Shield, to say nothing of the sprawling expanded Pokédex from Pokémon: Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.
The requirement of a fully complete Legends: Arceus Pokédex for the true ending means players will be doing a lot of catching, perhaps more so than usual, if they want to see game’s full story. Players may often release redundant Pokémon, rewarding them with Grit items that can increase their favored Pokémon’s stats. There are still reasons to hoard a collection of the mystical beasts, however. The quest called “The Sea’s Legend” requires the player to place three specific Pokémon in their party in order to lure out Manaphy. Even if players can decipher the cryptic clues laid out in the Canalave Library of Pokémon: BDSP, they still need to find the three Pokémon needed for the quest, which could be buried somewhere in their pasture. Players also might want to keep strong Pokémon with different elemental types, or set some aside to trade with friends. There are numerous similar examples where auto-sorting would benefit players and save time.
With its large, open-world style environments, and less linear progression through them, it is arguable that Legends: Arceus is the most replayable Pokémon game to date. Unless a future update adds in the key auto-sort feature from Pokémon: Let’s Go, each playthrough will unfortunately have the added tedium of manually sorting Pokémon housed in the pastures of Jubilife Village. Some veteran players might argue that manually sorting Pokémon is part of the charm of the series. Nothing prohibits anyone from doing so, and ignoring the feature, as with any quality-of-life improvements in games. With auto-sorting available for items and crafting parts in Legends: Arceus, the lack of auto-sort for Pokémon themselves remains an inexplicable omission. More time spent sorting Pokémon means less time catching and battling them. It causes players to spend more of their time in Jubilife village, essentially performing tedious clerical work, instead of exploring the vast wild areas beyond the village’s gates.
The Pokémon franchise marches on as strong as ever, as fans have shifted to scouring the Pokemon: Scarlet and Violet trailer for secrets. The duo will make up the fifth traditional Pokémon game for the Switch, and while there is reason to be excited for Scarlet and Violet, it remains to be seen if they will bring back the best feature of the Switch’s first JRPG Pokémon adventure. The motion controls of Pokémon: Let’s Go were divisive, but its auto-sort option put it ahead of Pokemon Legends: Arceus, at least in that respect. Game Freak would be wise to add this crucial quality-of-life feature to the new games, so players can spend more time interacting with their Pokémon and less time sorting them. As the series’ overall list of Pokémon grows, and Pokémon Home functionality improves, being able to quickly organize a Pokémon collection will only become more crucial. This makes the auto-sort from the Let’s Go games becomes less of a nice perk, and more of a near-mandatory feature, with each installment.
Each Pokémon game has its own fan-favorite features that some would like to see return. Some feel Pokémon Go needs Sword and Shield’s Dynamax mechanics, while others hope Legends: Arceus’ new capturing mechanics return for the next mainline entries, Scarlet and Violet. In truth, a new Pokémon game introducing an original gimmick to set one region apart from another is fine. If the Dynamax phenomenon remains a unique aspect of the Galar region that helps gives give the region character and distinctiveness. A basic bit of game functionality is another matter. No Pokémon game following Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee should have omitted Pokémon auto-sorting, yet this key feature seems to have been cast aside. It is surprising it took so long for the franchise to introduce an auto-sort mechanic for collected Pokémon, but even more surprising that after it was introduced it did not remain an ever-present option in subsequent titles.
The earlier time period featured in Legends: Arceus showcased a more primitive era when it comes to collecting Pokémon. The first Pokéballs are introduced as more steampunk than super-science. A few Pokémon aiding with field work foreshadowed the Pokémon job system of other games. The pastures and training areas of Jubilife precede the future Pokémon Centers. Showing this formative period in the world of Pokémon was a clever bit of storytelling in Legends: Arceus, accomplished with the narrative device of time travel.
From the player side of things, it is not the advancement of the computerized Pokédex or the presence of the Poké Mart that makes the Hisui-era game appear primitive. Rather, it is the fact that Pokémon Legends: Arceus omitted the best feature from Pokémon: Let’s Go, the simple ability to quickly sort a Pokémon collection, that makes the newest Pokémon title seem to have moved backward in time, in terms of game design.