A bit of a short review for a long-ish game, because what I'm going to be doing here is just talking about the changes to the normal Pokemon formula, which most people are aware of at this point. Any comments I can make about the battle system are mostly going to be retreading past Pokemon Reviews I've done, or things that you can find in any Pokemon review you have ever seen. And in the end, it's just another Pokemon story in terms of the Narrative, and not all that interesting. It's a pretty shallow story with its share of that Pokemon charm, and nothing else to talk about. If you already love or hate Pokemon, you probably already know how you will feel. This is a review for those like me who are kind of hit and miss with Pokemon.
The big thing to take away is the game was really fun for the first 5-10 hours. Being able to catch Pokemon unaware without going into a battle is a fun and interesting addition to the mechanics. Having to do more than just catch a Pokemon to fill out the Pokedex entry does a lot to feel like you are actually researching Pokemon and not just collecting them. The open-world 3D also makes a wide world of Pokemon seem pretty fascinating. Pretty much everything in the game initially comes across like this, and it's all a welcome change to the series... at first.
It's not long before doing tasks to fill out your Pokedex becomes tedious. Is there a need to catch 25 Starlies? Or find another small glowing orb out in the wilderness? Even though systems like crafting are nice additions, it's so bare-bones that it becomes unengaging pretty quickly. This is pretty much the pattern for everything unique about Arceus, it starts well but quickly devolves into tedium. I don't have any real in-depth discussion on this because there isn't enough to go in-depth on, it's a lot of neat additions that end up devolving into the same tedium as other Pokemon games, and despite some changes to how Priority works (As in it's gone), the combat hasn't changed enough to fill different, so the actual battles still just play like the other Pokemon games.
Arceus is an attempt to change up the normal formula but doesn't manage to succeed. The ideas are all good on paper but are executed poorly. If you are really into the Pokemon games, it's probably enough to shake it up for you and keep you playing. If you're a bit tired of them like I have been for some time now, the changes are nowhere near interesting enough to hold your attention.