In a roundabout way, Pokemon Legends: Arceus provides players with the option for a tougher challenge on its Pokemon boss battles. One of the many new additions to the Pokemon game formula in Pokemon Legends: Arceus are the battles against several frenzied “noble” Pokemon. While we won’t dig too much into the story reasons behind why this is happening in the game, these battles aren’t straight Pokemon battles. Instead, players have to throw bags of balm at the Pokemon while dodging their attacks and wait for an opening.
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One of the interesting nuances in these boss battles is how Pokemon Legends: Arceus handles the player getting knocked out during that fight. When a player gets knocked out, they have two options – they can choose to restart the fight from the beginning, or they can choose to “continue” the fight, which partially resets the fight but doesn’t make the player restart the fight from the beginning. A player with a lower skill level (or a player who doesn’t want to spend their time on boss fights) can choose to continue the fight if they feel that it’s too hard for them, thus allowing them to keep some of their progress, while a more skilled player can choose to reset the fight from the very beginning.
This is the first time that a main series Pokemon game has given players the option to choose their difficulty level since Pokemon Black 2 and White 2, albeit in a limited form. Players have long wanted the ability to choose their difficulty level in Pokemon games, to the point that things like Nuzlocke runs have become an unofficial replacement.