Set in Unova during 50s and 60s. People and pokemon are living together, but haven’t quite gotten things JUST right and it’s noticeable.
Concerns 2 friends, who are joined by a third, on a road trip.
First time you play as both the boy and girl together
All 3 are childhood friends who have a really strong bond. You could seriously buy them as childhood friends or even siblings.
First fully voiced pokemon game: You cannot name your trainer, and nicknamed pokemon will appear in text only, but still have full customization and each of your 3 playable trainers can have one of 5 names chosen.
Gameplay is largely based on Arceus, but you can now freely move areas, all of which are connected to “Skyarrow Overworld”
Skyarrow bridge is “The great bridge”
You start with a Riolu and Smeargle, and the option of Sprigatito (Gen 9 Cat), torchic, and Froakie later. None of them enjoy their ball tho so they will always be present for story purposes.
Limited degree of wild pokemon available - most of your mons are about 120-ish scripted bosses with shadow pokemon. While there are roughly 300 pokemon coded to appear in game, not all of them can be caught natively- some pokemon only appear as bosses and you get the entry after the fight.
Shadow Gauge and friedship are tied together. It takes longer to have max friendship in shadow pokemon.
How to Purify is unknown - Elygem/Beeheyem??
Protagonists are all in their early 20s.
Male is relatively new to pokemon, having had a sheltered childhood. While he works as a graphic designer with his smeargle, he prefers to assess a situation, approaching carefully. He is excited to learn more about pokemon, and as such he leads the “Catch them all” quest.
No official “Pokedex” but all three provide their own observations and notes - the boy speaks as if a real world scientist were meeting the pokemon for the first time, curious about biology, evolution, etc, the girl speaks like a veteran pokemon player, commenting on the pokemon in battle, and their friend writes about interactions between people and that pokemon, I.E. Zebistrika possibly being used to power generators, Munda and mushana “being good” for helping psychiatrists treat patients, etc
Female is a Perky pokemon veteran, having hatched the riolu when she was a little girl. She is taking some time before going to school to become a teacher. She firmly believes what you pour your time into is what you will excel at. She is also an avid outdoors woman, and helps set up your “secret base” to camp at.
Third friend is the eldest, a line cook at a restaurant that was recently destroyed by recent phenomena in the area. Very wise, soft-yet eloquently spoken, and can often spot the bigger picture. An absolute force to be reckoned with in battle, but is a total easygoing hippie by nature. An experienced chef and craftsman, helps the others craft items and will help cook every night.
You can send in 1, 2, or 3 trainers to have a single, double, or triple/raid battle and cover more ground at once as long as you do not stray too far form each other. As a result, a single trainer can carry 6 pokemon, 2 trainers can have four (later 5) between them, and all 3 can have 3 pokemon between them, (later 4).
Raid battles have you sending in both, or all 3 trainers, to work together to bring down a super powered opponent, usually pokemon in a berserk state or a legendary. These battles will have opponents with health commonly as high as 10,000 HP.
Battles are now much faster. Turn order system is tweaked - actions decided will affect turn order as usual but will account for all parties, and you can opt to not have a trainer move. You then press a button to start the turn, and all will have their actions go back to back.
Plot concerns a road trip through unova as two, then 3 friends are on vacation, but it’s really a journey of self discovery. Driven by character interactions. A recent pandemic that has caused pokemon to turn unusually aggressive has significantly driven away a large percentage of wild pokemon. The Riolu can identify which pokemon have it.
At night, the condition is exacerbated causing afflicted pokemon to become even more aggressive and occasionally increase in size. In gameplay, this is expressed by increased spawn rates of the afflicted and berserk pokemon, thus adding a new importance to time management and camping at night until you can face the threats. Plus, if you don’t rest, you don’t get buffs from food and black out more easily. Berserkers cannot be caught until late in the game, as they will break out of any ball.
Revealed to be a altered strain of pokerus that causes pokemon to respond more to fear and anger, connected to a “Cipher” organization.
A major plot point is when the riolu evolves into lucario, and eventually learns to speak through Telepathy/Aura. Lucario reveals that these “Shadow pokemon” have had their hearts “closed” and obscured by hatred, anger, and fear, worsened by pokerus. When questioned on how this happened, the lucario suddenly becomes very timid looking andjsut shakes its head.
Some Stealth Segments where you have to avoid a slew of wild pokemon, or face them all at once.
Mysterious business man named… Armond? Syl? Appears to aid the player. Later revealed to be an alias - “My proper name is GHETSIS HARMONIA.”
Later see a letter from Cipher head thanking him for his help with the research.
Game’s finale has a reveal - Orre is on the same content and not too, too far tfrom Unova. Orre even used to have a las vegas-type town. You Can visit Phenac, Pyrite, Agate, Gateon and Vegas.
Pokemon Legends Kyurem: