Ever since I played my first open-world game (Morrowind), whenever somebody has asked me what my dream game is, my answer has always been the same- open-world Pokémon. It seems like such an obvious smash hit- explore the world, interacting with actual wild Pokémon, you know, realizing the dream that we've all had since Pokémon fever first hit all those years ago. Well, I'm happy to report that Pokémon Legends: Arceus really is everything I had hoped for. There is still lots of room to grow, but this game really revived the magic that many of us longtime Pokémon fans have been trying to recapture since those days on the playground in the late '90s.
In episode 29 of Tales from the Backlog, I'm joined by Jared Moss of Play Along Podcast to share our thoughts on the open world structure, comparisons to Monster Hunter, catching mechanics, and a few tweaks to the battle system. Play Along Podcast is a book club style video games podcast, where co-hosts Jared, Ben and Ky pick a game, break it into sections, and report each week for their progress and thoughts on that week's section. They've covered many popular and interesting games in the past, such as Disco Elysium, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker, Super Mario RPG, Metal Gear Solid, and many others. I am a fan of their show and would recommend anyone who likes video games to check them out with this link, or search your favorite podcast app!
You can listen to episode 29 of Tales from the Backlog in the player below, or you can follow the links to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podcast Addict, Stitcher, Google Podcasts or search "Tales from the Backlog" in your favorite podcast app!