Despite taking place in the Hisui region — which most Pokémon fans will more commonly recognise as ancient Sinnoh — Pokémon Legends: Arceus has introduced a variety of new Pokémon to Nintendo’s iconic series. Whether these ‘mons died out, went into hiding, or adapted to modern life in the years since is anyone’s guess. All we know is that some of the Pokémon here have never been seen before.
Technically speaking, there are two different kinds of new Pokémon in Legends: Arceus. There are actual new Pokémon — as in ‘mons we have quite literally never seen or even heard about before — and there are regional variants, which have appeared in every new region since Sun & Moon’s Alola.
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For the purpose of this article, we’re not going to bother with the regional variants. There are 16 of them and they’re mostly just different takes on Pokémon we already know from previous games. Because of that, we’ll likely do a separate ranking for them in the near future.
Instead, we’re going to focus on the seven all-new Pokémon that recently made their debut in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Here’s every new Pokémon in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, ranked from worst to best.
Enamorus
Funnily enough, Enamorus — the all-new Legendary Pokémon that is now a fourth member of the former trio composed of Landorus, Thundurus, and Tornadus — is the only Pokémon on this list we haven’t got a screenshot for yet. Why, you ask? Because it somehow looks even more ridiculous than Tornadus Therian, an oversized green chicken with a knock-off Dr. Eggman mustache, and we haven’t had any desire to catch it yet.
While some of the new Hisuian regional variants aren’t all that nice — we’re looking at you, Decidueye — others are excellent. Hisuian Avalugg even manages to make a previously rubbish Pokémon brilliant! But for every victory in Pokémon there must always be an equal or greater loss. For Legends: Arceus, this is undoubtedly Enamorus.
Overqwil
While we originally loved the idea of an underappreciated Pokémon like Qwilfish getting another shot at longevity with a regional variant, it definitely didn’t need this evolution. Don’t get us wrong — it needed an evolution. Just not this one.
Overqwil looks like one of those long-defunct bombs you’d find in the center of a gag in a kids’ maritime movie like Finding Nemo or Shark Tale — we can’t remember which one, if either, had a bomb. That’s just what it looks like, okay? Also Dark/Poison is a typing from Hell. That’s not to mention how stupid “Overqwil” sounds. If we saw that in a leaked document, we’d have been charitable enough to think it was fake.
Ursaluna
Ursaring is another Pokémon who just… didn’t need an evolution. It’s one of the best Normal-types ever designed, despite the fact that it too didn’t need to exist given that Teddiursa is loads better.
The only reasons Ursaluna is higher on the list than Overqwil are a) it doesn’t look quite as bad, and b) as a Ride Pokémon it at least serves some purpose and therefore partially earns a reason to not come dead last.
Kleavor
When we first saw this guy, we thought, ‘Wow, why are they showing us all the worst new Pokémon first?’ As it turns out, they weren’t even the worst of the bunch! Kleavor looked ridiculous when it was originally revealed. Next to Enoramus, however, it looks like a particularly impressive da Vinci painting.
We still think Scizor is way better, mind, and that Scyther is the best of the three. Still, Kleavor isn’t quite as terrible as we were led to believe — relatively speaking, at least.
Basculegion
This guy’s actually pretty cool. It can double jump out of the water and there’s definitely some kind of torpedo-esque torque to its movement.
It’s also supposedly the result of a Basculin absorbing the souls of all the other fish from its school who died, which is obviously extremely scary. If we didn’t give it a reasonably high position on this list, who knows what vengeance might have been wrought upon us? We are not willing to find out.
Wyrdeer
Wyrdeer was one of the first new Pokémon we saw out of the seven introduced in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Frankly, there are a lot of reasons to love this ‘mon.
It’s a great evolution for an often forgotten Pokémon from years ago, serves as a reliable ally in traversing the Obsidian Fieldlands, and — unlike most of the other Pokémon on this list — actually looks pretty great. For a while, Wyrdeer was at the top of this list. Then we reached the Coronet Highlands.
Sneasler
The trophy for ‘Best New Pokémon’ obviously goes to Sneasler, Pokémon Legends: Arceus’ all-new evolution for Sneasel.
A lot went into deciding this, but here are some key points: it has by far the best design out of all the new Pokémon in Legends: Arceus; Poison/Fighting is an extremely cool typing; having a Pokémon who is basically Norman Reedus in Death Stranding rules, actually; and in terms of lore, Sinnoh is where we first encountered Weavile, making the fact a different evolution for Sneasel used to exist in the same region pretty fascinating.
There you have it, folks. Sneasler is officially the Beedrill’s kneedrills.
If you’re playing Pokémon Legends: Arceus and are after some handy tips and tricks, check out our guide at the link.
Written by Cian Maher on behalf of GLHF.
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