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Pokemon Legends: Arceus is by all accounts a bold reinvention of a beloved franchise. Realtime catching! An open-world! Yet if there’s one aspect of the Switch exclusive that was less than celebrated, it’s the game’s visuals – but modders are here to help.
Thanks to poor technical performance and environments that are often downright ugly, many fans came away disappointed by Pokemon’s first take on an open-world. Thankfully, however, fans have taken matters into their own hands – with modders giving Arceus a welcome visual overhaul.
While there are a (Magne)ton of mods already circulating for the game, YouTuber PurpleThunderNE (opens in new tab) highlights some of the most popular ones out today. The results? Well, they speak for themselves. From higher-quality textures to vastly improved water effects and draw distance, these work-in-progress improvements make an (open) world of difference. Interestingly, these are running on a modded Switch – not an emulator. While raising the resolution on a PC’s emulator is often an easy visual fix, these modded changes show how a few clever tweaks could have resulted in a better-looking game on the actual Switch hardware.
Still, it’s not just the visuals that modders have been messing with. Like any open-world game, Arceus has its fair share of flow-ruining design choices, and modders have also been busy tweaking these with a series of quality-of-life changes. Adding in-game map markers for once hidden collectibles, alternative control schemes, increased climbing speed, and the ability to swim for more than a few seconds without drowning, there’s a lot to love here.
That’s before we even get to the absolutely essential additions of equip-able Louis Vuitton bags, sweary sound effects, and adding in the classic Red Pokéball catching animation. Still, by all accounts Legends has succeeded without these additions. Despite fans’ complaints about its visuals, Legends has been a critical and commercial success, topping both US and UK charts since release. In fact, it’s a world that this writer has found himself happily losing hours to over the last few weeks.
Struggling to navigate this sprawling new Pokemon world? Don’t worry, our series of handy guides will help you catch ‘em all.
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