Over the weekend, I finally finished my playthrough of Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

Legends: Arceus is a very different sort of Pokémon game compared to the main series.

The biggest difference is probably the game’s structure. Instead of taking a journey across the region to challenge other Trainers, you have a city that serves as a hub area, from which you travel to large zones to catch Pokémon.

Catching Pokémon is the major focus here, much more so than in past Pokémon games. You can now catch Pokémon without getting into a battle first, by throwing Pokéballs at them on the field.

I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. Sneaking up on Pokémon to have an advantage, cautiously approaching Pokémon that are prone to running, seeing if I could avoid a battle… it ended up being a big part of the experience.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is not open world (and was never marketed as such), but instead has several large regions unlocked over the course of the game. You’ll want to explore them to find Pokémon and also gather materials to use for crafting.

I’m not sure I’d say exploration is a major focus, since there isn’t a lot to do beyond finding new groups of Pokémon, but I had fun with it.

Now, this is set in an era when most people living in Hisui don’t understand Pokémon. Many are even afraid of them. You’re basically creating the world’s first Pokédex. Pokédex entries aren’t considered complete until you’ve finished a number of tasks with that Pokémon, such as catching them, seeing them perform certain moves, and defeating them with certain move types.

Not only does this system mean you’ll probably catch a lot more Pokémon than usual, it also encourages you to rotate different Pokémon into your team much more often.

Combat is still a big part of the game, but it’s also different than in previous games. Turn order is decided ahead of time based on speed, and you can change it depending on the move you pick and whether you use the new Strong and Agile stances. This means you can end up attacking twice in a row, or sacrificing a turn later on in exchange for a more powerful move now.

I also noticed that level seemed to matter a lot less than in previous games. In past Pokémon games, having a level advantage means you can steamroll past just about anything, but that wasn’t the case here.

Between that and the encouragement to rotate your team, as well as some other changes, I found Pokémon Legends: Arceus to be the most challenging Pokémon game I’ve played in a long time. I went into battles – especially battles against other Trainers, which are much less common but still occur – knowing that I might run into trouble.

(And because of these changes, I didn’t mind that your current team all gets experience from battles whether they participate or not!)

Now, let’s talk about the story. It doesn’t have a huge emphasis on story, but I’d say it’s stronger than in early Pokémon games. It’s interesting enough and has some memorable moments, and it doesn’t get in the way constantly like in Sun and Moon.

There are also several small changes to streamline the experience, like being able to change your Pokémon’s moves or nickname from the menu. Summoning Pokémon separate from your team for field skills also makes a return, although here it includes things like scaling mountains and sniffing out buried items.

It’s not a perfect game; there are a few things I found annoying. You have limited inventory space and have to pay to expand it one item slot at a time, so you have to regularly put items into your storage box. Crafting materials can be used from the storage box, so I wish you could just send them there automatically. There are also certain Pokémon that only appear in the dimensional rifts that spawn somewhat rarely, which added unnecessary tedium to the final stretch of catching them all.

Yes, I caught all the Pokémon in Hisui, something I’ve only done once before, when I completed the regional Pokédex in Pokémon White.

After the main story credits roll, there are numerous post-game story quests that continue the main story and are absolutely worth doing, and then after that it’s simply a matter of completing the Pokédex. I didn’t complete all the entries, but I did catch all the Pokémon, and the payoff for that was worth it.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a very different Pokémon game in a lot of ways, but I really enjoyed it. It disappoints me even more now that Scarlet and Violet opted for a direction I don’t care for, because Legends: Arceus is the most fun I’ve had with a Pokémon game since Gen 5. If they make another Legends game with this style, I’d absolutely get it.