Poke Balls have been a thing in Pokemon since the very beginning. They're one of the very first items you see in the game, and the most iconic piece of Pokemon paraphernalia. Initially, Poke Balls were very simple. You had the basic Poke Ball, then the slightly better Great Ball, then the slightly better Ultra Ball, then the one of a kind Master Ball designed to catch anything in just a single throw. These days, all manner of Poke Balls exist, some with very specific applications - so specific they often border on the point of uselessness. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon: Legends Arceus though finally makes the Poke Balls mean something, and it's a shame it has taken this long.
Some of the new Poke Balls come in very handy. The Lure Ball, with a four time boost to Pokemon encountered while fishing, has a very clear use. The Premier Ball, which is just a Poke Ball in different colour, is less useful, while the Love Ball, which grants an eight time boost (but only if you're catching the same Pokemon you are currently using but in the opposite gender), feels like it has no purpose at all. No matter what ball you're using though, they all just feel like Poke Balls in different colours. Pokemon Legends: Arceus makes them unique.
You start off, as usual, with just a Poke Ball. Rather than make the sideways move to a Premier Ball next, or the upgrade to a Great Ball, you instead get a Heavy Ball. Usually, these balls are more effective based on how heavy the Pokemon you're trying to catch is, but in Legends: Arceus, the Heavy Balls are actually heavier. Yes, it is around this time that I started to curse not beginning this article with a list of synonyms for balls, in case you were wondering.
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What I mean is they're much weightier and as a result, cannot fly as far when you launch them. Feather Balls, meanwhile, fly much further and can soar higher, grabbing Pokemon nimbly out of the air. You have to actively consider what you're throwing, and that helps capture the feeling that so many other games have lacked.
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:New Pokemon Snap did something similar, with Illumina Orbs being thrown much further and flatter than Fluffruits, which would arc and sink. Orbs were made of pure light, and so could travel easily, while Fluffruits, being actual pieces of fruit, had to deal with pesky gravity. Some players didn't like this, as it meant having to adjust their aim to lure a creature out with fruit and then hit it with an orb, but Snap was not a particularly challenging game, and this added realism (as real as throwing orbs of light can be, at least) gave it an extra layer at made your newest Pokemon snaps all the sweeter.
With balls though (what, you want me to call them spheres?), Pokemon has never been able to recreate that feeling. It doesn't help that the only games where you actively threw Poke Balls (instead of just pushing a button to throw them) are 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon Go and Let's Go, and neither of those include any of the fancier offerings. PoGo, wanting to keep it simple for the masses, sticks to Poke Balls, Great Balls, Ultra Balls, and Premier Balls, relying on various Berries to give certain boosts. Let's Go, thanks to being a blend of PoGo and Pokemon Yellow, also avoids the more complex offerings of later gens, meaning every ball behaves the same while it's in the air. Sure, Ultra Balls are better at catching stuff, but they feel weightless and dull. I hadn't ever noticed this until I played Pokemon Legends: Arceus.
There are a lot of things I have long wanted from Pokemon, and Legends: Arceus makes a valiant attempt at them. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Voice acting is still a no-go, but 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon are telling stories, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:villagers are giving us side quests, and we finally have 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:something like an open world. I hadn't ever thought about Poke Balls before, except that there were probably too many of the unnecessary variants. After 25 years of just pushing a button, it feels so good to finally throw one.