Battling has never been Pokemon’s strongest suit. It’s the underlying mechanic of the entire game, and it’s through battling that you ultimately achieve victory, but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who plays purely for the battle system. Even on the competitive scene, where duking it out is the be all and end all, the vast majority of players were pulled into Pokemon by its other elements, then just stuck around. Strong Style and Agile Style, introduced by Legends: Arceus, make the combat finally worth paying attention to.
Pokemon’s turn-based system is well off the pace of other turn-based games, as our own Eric Switzer has already written about. The types, along with the EV and IV numbers under the hood, make for more interesting gameplay, but it’s still very sedentary. Worse, battles take an age with so much text to go with every move, and with the game telling you which moves are super effective, effective, or not very effective, even the types barely matter. Or at least, knowledge of them does not.
Legends: Arceus does not fix all of these issues. In fact, because you’ll frequently find yourself battling two or three wild Pokemon at once, they take even longer than they normally should. Typing and effectiveness, meanwhile, is still signposted. But Pokemon has always made changes to the formula inch by inch, and Legends: Arceus represents the biggest leap forward the formula has ever taken - it just needed them to look to the past.
Agile Style and Strong Style was one of the earliest features revealed for the game, and it allows you to change your moves in two select ways. Agile Style makes them quicker, meaning they will disrupt the battle order in your favour - it’s no longer ‘you take a turn, opponent takes a turn, repeat’. The cost of Agile Style is that the move is weaker. Strong Style is the opposite - it’s stronger (duh), but disrupts the battle order in your opponent’s favour.
There are some downsides still. The battle order isn't always disrupted enough by these moves, which can mean Strong Style is just a freebie. In longer battles though, Agile comes into its own, and lets you play with more experimental tactics than usual.
This introduces a host of new ideas to the formula. I’ve been playing Pokemon for 25 years, and I have never used a status move. Status inflicting moves, like Hypnosis to put a ‘mon to sleep or Toxic to poison them? Fine. But boosting my Special Attack? Nah, you’re alright, have a Thunder Punch to the jaw instead. I know I should use Swords Dance or Dragon Dance, but I also know I’ve been playing since I was five, and I’ve never met a Pokemon game I couldn’t beat.
Thanks to Agile Style, I’m able to use them. A quick Baby-Doll Eyes to lure them in, then kapow: Mach Punch City. Or, in the dying embers of battle, I can muster out one last great hope with a Strong Style Crunch and turn the tide in my favour. It gives you extra layers to think about, and makes the whole system far more interesting without really changing anything.
The lack of change is a good thing though. Pokemon has often backtracked on changes introduced to refresh the formula, and if this was too big a shake up, we’d never see it again unless we get another Legends game. Given that we’re still waiting for word on a new Let’s Go, I’m not holding my breath. The battle styles, though, fit perfectly with the current system and can be easily folded in.
The catching mechanics in Legends are completely different, and will likely not reappear in Gen 9 for this reason. The battle styles might just come back, and if they do, that could be Legends’ biggest contribution to Pokemon.
