Well, completed insofar as the story is done. Actually, there are four stories – three “paths” to take, then a final story available once you’ve done all those.

As with other recent Pokémon games, getting to the “end”, beating the Elite Four, then completing the story and defeating the final “boss” was all very, very easy. Yes, you need suitable Pokémon for each part, and yes, they need to be sufficiently levelled, but I was totally overpowered by the time I’d done 5 or 6 gyms and was a laughable 15 levels higher than every opponent for the rest of the game.

With that done, though, I realised that I was closer to completing my Pokédex than I’d ever been in any other mainstream game in the series, so I think, for the first time (Arceus doesn’t count!) I might actually try to catch ’em all. I’ve about 50 left at the moment, with around half (I think) easily obtainable from just evolving other Pokémon I have already, and most of the rest available from my daughter’s copy of Violet.

It’s different, isn’t it? The last few main Pokémon games have all claimed to be “new” in terms of how they play, with Let’s Go! doing away with proper battles with wild Pokémon, Sun and Moon being properly in 3D and Sword and Shield having the Wild Areas. Arceus is like an extrapolation of those Wild Areas, with several large regions you can freely travel around, seeing Pokémon in the wild doing what they do, and catching them by sneaking up and chucking balls at them.

This mechanic flips the original Pokémon premise on its head. Back then, you’d venture into the long grass and be pounced on by hidden ‘mons, but here it’s you furtively stalking them from the grassy hiding places ready to attack (or catch) when they’re close or distracted. It’s this feature which is the bulk of the gameplay, with different species reacting differently to you. Some, like Starly, will run as soon as you’re spotted. Some, like Aipom, will run up to you and jump around your legs harmlessly. Others will attack on sight, and I mean attack you, not your Pokémon: Another difference to the established norm. You can run away, or chuck out one of your party to fight back, but initially it’s you who can take damage and if you’re hurt too much it’s you that faints, losing some of your gathered items in the process.

Yes, gathered items. Not just potions and balls you have, like in previous games, but crafting materials because all games are crafting games these days. Stuff you pick up, smash open, or get from caught or defeated creatures can be used to make Pokéballs, buffs, food, and so on and although you can buy some of these things, you really don’t have the money to spend on that – at least early on, anyway.

So you wander these large open areas, trapping Pokémon and cock fighting whilst collecting Everything You Can and filling your satchel (which happens a lot, so it’s good you can pay a guy to give you more storage space) with junk and crafting balls and lures and progressing the story. But what is the story?

Well, it’s different to the previous games too. Sure, the details varied from game to game but ultimately every Pokémon title has two main stories. The personal one, where you’ve got to Be the Very Best and beat all the gym leaders and then the Elite Four and become King of All The Pokémon Trainers, and the other one where you have Team Rocket or Team Galactic or Team Skull or whoever doing Evil Deeds and you have to stop them, usually by tracking down some uber-powerful ‘mon and defeating the Team Leader. Then there’s usually some post game content, which basically just gives you the chance to complete your Pokédex. But not here! Well, not quite.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is set in the past. A few hundred years in the past, in fact, in what would eventually be called the Sinnoh Region (the setting for Pokémon Diamond and Pearl) for reasons that become clear in the game, but is here still referred to as the Hisui Region. You appear in this world, plucked from parts (and times) unknown by Arceus at the start of the game and dropped out of the sky onto a beach just outside Jubilife Village – the seed of Jubilife City from Diamond/Pearl of course. The village is where a group of explorers, scientists and surveyors calling themselves Galaxy Team (waitaminite…) have set themselves up as an outpost in the region, wedging in between the previously-warring-but-now-more-tolerant two factions of Diamond Clan and Pearl Clan. See, it’s clever, yes?

Both clans worship the great Creator, whom they call Sinnoh, but one clan thinks it’s basically the God of Time and the other thinks it’s the God of Space. Without spoilering, they’re both right and wrong. You make friends with both Galaxy Team members and these clans throughout your adventure, which is part you trying to figure out where you came from, and trying to stop the seemingly impending doom caused by the lightning in the sky over Mount Sinnoh which you may actually be the cause of. Mostly, this involves Pokémon battles, catching Pokémon, and boss fights against massive raging Pokémon where you chuck parcels of food at their face until they calm down because of course you do. Oh, and Arceus, aside from sometimes making your “phone” device bleep occasionally, is never to be seen again. Well, not until after the main story is complete perhaps – that’s how far I’ve got.

There’s no gyms. There aren’t really even many trainers. Most people are still scared of Pokémon (and, given they’re all shown as Actual Size, who wouldn’t be) and Pokéballs are still a new invention so the many varieties like Master Balls and Net Balls and so on don’t exist yet. You can ride a handful of beasts that you obtain through the story which allow you to swim, run, jump and fly and so reach new areas. It all feels very fresh and new and yet – and yet – it’s still somehow Pokémon and feels like a Pokémon game even though it’s very different. It’s polished, although some areas are a little lacking graphically, and a bit repetitive with the Pokédex research tasks that require multiple battles or captures with each type of Pokémon and resource gathering, but then if you’re concerned about repetition you wouldn’t be playing Pokémon.

As I said, I’ve completed the story insofar as I’ve done all the missions up to the credits, but now there’s the small task of catching them all. And a million side quests and some additional story. And maybe, actually, Arceus itself.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a fantastic new entry in the series, albeit a spinoff. It’s new and old at the same time, and if the recently announced main series games Scarlet and Violet can use some of the same features then I’d love to see that too. If not, a sequel to this set in another region’s past would absolutely do me.

Once more it was time to play a digital cock-fighting game! I mean, that’s basically what it is, right? With a plot, of course. A plot which is the same in every single Pokémon game: evil organisation (usually with a non-evil front) want to capture Pokémon for $reason so they can get Ultimate Power or something. All while your 10 year old avatar is rapidly rising from having a single feeble creature to being King Of All Pokémon Trainers and has to save the world at the same time.

This game is the same, in most aspects, as all the others I’ve played. Sure, this retains the 3/4 overhead view of the Nintendo DS original (and looks a lot like the recent Link’s Awakening remake) rather than have a fully 3D environment like Pokémon Sword, but that doesn’t change the gameplay at all. In fact, in battle screenshots you’d be hard pushed to tell which of the Switch Pokémon games I was actually playing.

Importantly, it doesn’t matter about being almost the same. Being almost the same actually works because the formula is sound and so remains fun, and it’s only really the catching and fighting Pokémon that you want from these games, is it not? Change that too much and you might break it.

So I beat all eight gym leaders, defeated Team Whoevertheyareinthisone, took on (and walked over) the Elite Four, and then trounced the supposed “champion”. It was all very easy, but I had a nice time and there’s more that opens up to do after the end credits, so although I’ve completed it, I’m not done with it just yet!

The second, and presumably final, expansion pack for Pokémon Sword/Shield, The Crown Tundra is set in a mostly snowy region and involves hunting for a lot of legendary pokémon in various ways.

Peony, a character you meet at the start, gives you three main legends to look into. The first has you finding the local “new to the series” legendary – Calyrex, then finding his horse by growing a carrot. Yeah, one carrot. Calyrex doesn’t have enough power for more. You can get one of two horses, depending where you grow the carrot – an ice type or a ghost type. I went with the latter. With them reunited, the next mission is to gain entry to four mysterious temples and capture the Regi-series pokémon within. It’s a minor puzzle task to open the temples up, and then a tricky task to actually capture them without killing them and they’re all alarmingly resistant to pokéballs.

Finally, you have to capture three Galarian variants of previous game legendaries – Moltres, Zapdos and Articuno – by chasing them across both the Tundra and both previous areas in the game.

With those done (and it essentially being The End), I completed a side quest for Sonia, who wanted me to find three more legendaries by discovering 50 sets of footprints for each of Cobalion, Virizion, and Terrakion and then catching them. Again, this was difficult, especially for Cobalion as I went through over 60 Ultra Balls even while he was on virtually zero HP and was fast asleep.

And then I went into the Dynamax mine area place where it had been reported a load of Ultra Beasts (from Pokémon Sun and Moon) had appeared, and caught myself a Tapu Fini. Phew, eh?

This was definitely the better of the two DLC packs. It’s bigger, more varied, and more interesting. When are the new Diamond and Pearl remakes out, again?