Pokemon Legends: Arceus has taken the world by storm, with players of all ages jumping into their own Pokemon stories with all the vigour of a ten-year-old choosing their very first starter. Most are drawn to the open world environments and interactive Pokemon going about their lives in the overworld, but there’s more to Legends: Arceus than just a Sinnohfied Breath of the Wild.

There’s a lot of waffle in the game, I’ll grant you that. The story does enough to keep you interested, but it would be much more interesting - not to mention more streamlined - if the Professor and countless side characters stopped yapping for a minute to let the game actually unfold. But among this waffle, there are times when smaller stories really shine, and that’s when they make the Pokemon the characters.

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The best example of this is during The Lordless Island quest - consider this your spoiler warning if you haven’t reached this point of the game yet. Those of you that have reached this point will know exactly what I’m going to talk about, and it’s a very small Hisuian Growlithe.

During the quest, you learn that a small Growlithe’s father, the previous Lord of Firespit Island and the Cobalt Coastlands, died while saving a Pokemon from drowning in the sea. The fact that this Arcanine, which is four times weak to water, jumped into an ocean to save another Pokemon is impressive in itself and tells you a lot about the monster’s character.

However, this selfless act left its child with severe emotional trauma - and who can blame it? The poor little thing watched its father die. Some trainers tried to force it to evolve and take its father’s place, but its warden Palina stood its ground. However, when its friend is stolen by a heartless trio of bandits, the Miss Fortune Sisters, we have to step in and help.

After tracking down the stolen Growlithe and beating the sisters into submission, they try to come for you again. I’d beaten them easily so I was happy for a rematch (if a little bored by the prospect), but a growl from behind me told me that I wouldn’t need to use Kleavor again right now. Growlithe was stepping up to the plate to defend its friend, and promptly evolved on the spot in order to better protect it.

Pokemon Legends Arceus Makes Pokemon The Characters For Once

Some other shit goes down involving lightning and a giant boss to defeat, but the story had already been told. This retelling is a poor rendition of what went down, but that’s because I’m a person telling it. Like the other stories that people tell or explain to you during Pokemon Legends: Arceus, it’s quite boring. But when it’s told by the Pokemon, by their actions, the stories and the world of Hisui come alive.

If they make another Legends game, I’d want to see it peppered with these kinds of stories - not just in main quests, but I’d like to complete side quests for Pokemon rather than for people. There are other missions where you help a Bronzor find its friend, but nothing hits the same as Growlithe, and Game Freak needs to bottle that beautiful energy for a potential sequel. Like Zarude befriending Koko in the jungle, we could befriend Pokemon by helping them with things they need doing - food finding, nest cleansing, children saving, whatever it may be - to further personify them and create better stories that we actually care about.

We all form attachments during our Pokemon playthroughs, usually to our starters or party members who clinched important battles. But this right here was the most I’d felt for a Pokemon since the Mystery Dungeon games - and in Arceus they can’t even talk. Watching this one little Growlithe overcome adversity and step in to save its friend is the single most affecting story in Legends: Arceus and potentially Pokemon as a series. I don’t care about saving everyone from these portal things, I certainly don’t care about yeeting balms at Noble Pokemon, and I definitely don’t care about joining the Galaxy Team on its mission to colonise Hisui. But I care about the little Growlithe who could.

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