Pokemon Legends: Arceus was received with praise from critics and fans alike upon its release earlier this year. While the game maintains many series staples, it reinvented the Pokemon formula enough to make the game interesting, even for long-time fans.
While some changes to the combat system are in place in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, players can usually expect a trainer fight to work like they normally would. Two humans choose Pokemon and they fight each other, but in this particular fight, one player found that the opposing Pokemon didn't want to be involved.
Reddit user meibara34 shared their funny experience with other Pokemon fans. In the clip, the player's Garchomp is already on the field when the opponent sends out a Gastrodon. Upon Gastrodon's arrival, it immediately uses Hydro Pump, hitting the player's Garchomp square in the face. The Hydro Pump doesn't quite get Garchomp down to half health, and Gastrodon stares up at the towering Garchomp for a moment, as though it's calculating this, before it suddenly veers to the left and starts walking away from the fight.
Perhaps the funniest part of the clip is seeing the Garchomp swivel in place, watching the Gastrodon walk off. Several users responding to the clip were surprised to see Gastrodon move around in the fight at all. Unlike most mainline Pokemon games, the Pokemon here don't necessarily stand in one place through the whole fight. However, it's extremely unusual to see a Pokemon turn its back on a fight and walk out of the ring like this.
While this isn't quite a glitch, it's likely the game's mechanics aren't working quite as intended. Pokemon may reposition and shift themselves based on their proximity to other Pokemon. Usually, this only involves moving a few inches or so. It's a particularly funny sight to see, given that one wouldn't expect a sea slug Pokemon to move this quickly.
Pokemon players have come to expect fights to follow a set formula for a long time now, even going back to the first 3D games players could battle in, like Pokemon Stadium. This fight might invoke memories of the anime, though, where Pokemon show a bit more personality and don't necessarily obey their trainers. While Gastrodon couldn't actually leave, since it's a trainer battle, the fight surely continued afterwards. As silly as it is, though, it will likely stand out in the player's memory much more than the hundreds of formulaic trainer battles every Pokemon player has experienced.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is available for Nintendo Switch.