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The significant changes made to the battle system in Pokemon Legends: Arceus led the developers to decide to limit the number of available moves. Since the game's emphasis is much less on battling than previous installments in the franchise, this is ok, but many remaining moves had to be altered to fit the new style.
With players able to choose between Strong Style or Agile Style moves, the effects of several moves needed some way to be enhanced or diminished depending on the circumstances. From slight alterations to the outright removal of some mechanics, battling in Pokemon has never looked quite like this.
9 Calm Mind
The buffing/debuffing of a Pokemon's stat is still a core part of battling in Pokemon Legends, but how they affect a Pokemon is different. Previously, every stat could be affected individually. That meant that a stat-changing move could change Attack, Defence, Special Attack, Special Defence, Speed, and even hidden stats like Evasiveness or Accuracy.
This has been altered in Legends, and now each of those stats is categorized as either an "offensive" or "defensive" stat. Calm Mind, for example, previously raised the user's Special Attack & Special Defence by one stage. However, now it boosts all offensive and defensive stats by one stage.
8 Double Hit
One of the most exciting additions to the system is the new Status Conditions. Several of these new conditions don't have an icon on the user's health bar but have a significant effect on the state of battle. Double Hit used to be a straight-up attacking move.
The user would hit their opponent twice with 35 Base-Power. However, now the move deals no damage, instead causing the Pokemon to adopt a "hard-hitting stance", as the game describes it. What this means is that all damage-dealing moves from the user will be 50% more powerful until it wears off.
7 Hypnosis
A traditionally unreliable move, with just 70% accuracy, many Pokemon have gained the ability to learn the move Hypnosis in Pokemon Legends. It was a move kept under control before because Sleep was a very annoying Status Condition for players to deal with.
However, the Sleep condition no longer exists. Now, Hypnosis induces a Drowsy state in the target. Its effects are twofold. First, a Drowsy Pokemon may be unable to move whenever it attacks, much like with Paralysis. Secondly, the damage the Droswy Pokemon takes is increased until it wears off.
6 Stealth Rock
Entry Hazards have long been a thorn in the side of competitive Pokemon battlers. Whilst there is no online battling in Legends, those players will be pleased to hear that Entry Hazards are a thing of the past, as Stealth Rock and moves like it has changed significantly.
The first major change is that Stealth Rock now does damage immediately when it's used. It only has a base power of 40, but it has a secondary effect. For 4 turns after this move is used, the targeted Pokemon will take splinter damage from the rocks pointing into them. This is a great new interpretation of an old mechanic.
5 Rollout
A move any trainer who has ever challenged Gym Leader Whitney will remember all too well, Rollout can be very useful in the early game. The move started at Base Power 30, but if a Pokemon hit it successively, it would grow more powerful with each use. The catch was that, for 5 turns, the Pokemon was locked into using it, no matter what.
In Pokemon Legends, Pokemon can no longer be locked into using a move. To balance this, when a move like Rollout or Outrage is used, that Pokemon becomes "fixated" on using it. While the fixation lasts, that move will deal increased damage. However, the fixated Pokemon will also do more damage.
4 Mud Bomb
One of the most frustrating but effective tactics players could employ in previous Pokemon games was lowering an opponent's accuracy. This tactic would make it almost impossible for the opponent to land a hit, causing rage across the community.
With the changes to how stats are affected, Mud Bomb could no longer lower the opponent's accuracy as it once did. Instead, Mud Bomb now causes the user to become "obscured", making them harder to hit. On the surface, this seems similar to lowering accuracy, but the effect cannot be stacked, so players will never be locked in a situation where moves rarely land.
3 Quick Attack
The most visible change to the battling system was the overhaul of the turn-based system. While Pokemon still act in turns, a single "turn" no longer encapsulated one action from each Pokemon. Now the turns for each side of the battle are calculated separately.
The moves that were previously called "priority" moves - that always went first, regardless of Speed - can no longer exist. Turn order is now calculated through a mixture of each Pokemon's Speed and any modifiers a move may apply. In Quick Attack's case, it adds a positive modifier, making the user's next turn come around sooner.
2 Hyper Beam
Hyper Beam is the other side of the coin to Quick Attack. Where Quick Attack had its priority status removed, Hyper Beam lost its biggest downside. A base power of 150 was incredible, but the fact that the user had to take a turn to recharge made it unviable.
Since it's no longer possible for a Pokemon to "miss" a turn, Hyper Beam instead places a negative modifier on the turn order. In theory, this will make the user's next turn come around later, however, if the user's Speed compares well to the opponent's, the turn order may not be affected in the short term.
1 Self-Destruct
One of the most memed moves in Pokemon history is the combination of Self-Destruct and Explosion. There is virtually no situation in which it is truly useful. Base 200 power is a tempting prospect, but there is a pretty significant sacrifice in that it is guaranteed to drain the user's HP to zero.
Incredibly, Pokemon Legends decided to do away with this major downside. Now, a user of Self-Destruct will take damage equal to 80% of their maximum HP, meaning if they use it at high HP, the user can survive. Admittedly, they won't last too much longer on 20% HP, but if combined with a Pokemon like Snorlax that can heal itself with Rest, and gets Same-Type-Attack-Bonus, it could be insanely powerful.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is currently available on Switch.