Massive build up revolves around any popular franchise release, but the more info we get on Pokémon: Legends Arceus, the more underwhelming it seems. In all of the prior games, there has been one crucial thing for people to use, allowing more access to have fun with. This is, of course, the online battling feature. Youtubers and normal players alike would find issues with just a base game featuring a harder difficulty after you beat it for the first time. In this case, the AI gets smarter and becomes more like real players. Still, that isn’t enough. Making friends with the community and battling is one of the ways to do that. Simply having a battle against people can increase one’s mind by forcing you to make predictions based on what the enemy player can use. Social interaction is a big part of the Pokémon experience too.

Legends: Arceus has decided to scrap this feature, sending the community into a state of more or less open hostility. As lots of players like to be competitive and train the best possible Pokémon, the decision to leave out online play is appalling. After all, the main attraction of Pokémon, an RPG-like game with actual decent multiplayer, is its online play. With the join avenue allowing your friends to be a part of the experience, multi battles and the enternalink are great additions. Pokémon X and Y has an actual friends list and passersby who are online. It’s only gotten worse since, and now one of the top features is gone. As a seasoned vet of Pokémon from 2008 to 2022, I know most parts of games and how to beat them. Once you’re done with that, a post game is a must and the online features must be viable for a quality Pokémon game. There is no semblance of a post game from what we know, besides of course completing the Pokédex, and getting rid of the aspect for getting more Pokémon to make stronger teams. 

The idea of the playthrough team is the team that you use in your first run of the game when you’re still learning or still have the main story to go through. These are going to be your naturally highest level team members because you used them the most. But unless you went out of your way to find which Pokémon gave the correct 

EVs, this team would be a mismatch of EVs. Pokémon are normally only used for the playthrough or to help level up weaker Pokémon rather than in terms of competition; That’s what online battles are for. Now, I can see the argument that this is set in the past. There was no link to battle, but guess what, as long as you can pay money, you can trade with your friends. Isn’t that just delightful? 

Games have, like said prior, an air of hype. They are put on a golden pedestal. Even announcing things such as this isn’t enough to turn people away, but the other portion of killing this game is that trading is only allowed if you pay for it. Now combine the two ways to connect: it’s either you don’t have the money, or it’s just been deleted. As all of this was free, but not anymore. While the Legend of Zelda-like aspect is wonderful design, we want our battling back, even if it’s something separate.