In commemoration of Pokémon Red and Blue’s 25th anniversary, Game Freak has already announced a number of major releases in the Pokémon franchise, including the New Pokémon Snap trailer, and Pokémon Diamond and Pearl’s remake.
Release Date of Pokémon Legends: Arceus
The Pokémon Company will make a huge leap in 2022 since the company announced that the Pokémon Legends: Arceus will become available for the Nintendo Switch in 2022. The public announcement was made during the Pokémon Presents last February 2021. As described, Pokémon Legends is an open-world RPG with a setting in ancient Sinnoh. If you’ve ever played The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, you’ll notice that Pokémon Legends: Arceus will offer a similar experience. The sole difference is that Pokémon Legends utilizes battles from the mainline Pokémon games, where you pit Pokémon in your brood against wild Pokémon. In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, the Mythical Pokémon, will also play a significant role. The objective is to create the first and all-new Pokédex in the Sinnoh region.
Who Is Arceus?
Arceus is a Mythical Pokemon that’s introduced in Generation IV of the series. It first made an appearance on Diamond and Pearl. Ever since then, though, it’s no longer possible to get the Pokémon. Why? Because he’s an event Pokemon, and the last event that people can obtain him from was in 2010. There hasn’t been another event like it since, and probably never will. That doesn’t mean you can’t get him; you can trade with another person who has the Pokemon Arceus to get one. But that’s probably not possible as he’s pretty strong and rare. Thus, the only way for newer players to get Arceus is through the use of cheats, which is pretty sad. But if you want to complete that Pokédex, you have to do what have to do. In addition to this, Arceus has a cool ability that allows him to change his type based on the item he’s holding. Specifically, Elemental Plates or Z-Crystals of specific types. This allows him to be a pretty awesome addition to his playstyle. Sadly, you can’t change elements mid-battle, but we’ll take what we can get. Surprisingly, Arceus wasn’t recognized in an official capacity by Nintendo until Valentine’s Day, February of 2009. This was the year when he’s officially introduced in his debut Pokemon movie entitled Arceus and the Jewel of Life. This was similar to the way Nintendo did with Shaymin, Darkrai, and a few other Legendary Pokémon. The international audience was officially shown the Arceus Pokemon movie later on in the year, on August 3, 2009. After that, however, he’s not seen that much. But he’s featured prominently on Pokémon Legends: Arceus, so we can hope to see more of this Pokémon soon.
Potential Characters in Pokémon Legends: Arceus
Aside from the Pokémon Professor, the primary character of Pokémon Legends: Arceus can be visible in one of the few villages in the region of Sinnoh. In Pokémon Legends, you will have the option to select between three Pokémon starters from a variety of generations, namely Rowlett from Pokémon Sun and Moon, Oshawatt from Pokémon Black and White, and Cyndaquil from Pokémon Gold and Silver. Aside from that, it’s also possible to match up with a wild Pokémon. However, players may attempt to sneak up on them and eventually catch them as an alternative.
What to Expect from Pokémon Legends: Arceus
Gameplay
Pokémon Legends: Arceus takes a few things from open-world action RPGs while still keeping parts of the series’ core gameplay. The game has an open-world setting, something that was introduced on Sword and Shield with the Wild Area, and the story is intertwined with the open world. Players can immediately sneak around and explore the world and go wherever they wish. When they start, they’ll get to pick between three starter Pokémon. These are Rowlet, Cyndaquil, and Oshawott from Sun and Moon, Gold and Silver, and Black and White respectively. This marks the first time that players can pick starter Pokémon from different regions in the series, making it a first in the franchise. During their explorations, they can discover many things about the region. These include Pokémon, their habitats, various secrets, and other towns. Compared to most of the series, the towns in the game have a medieval Japanese feel to them. This makes sense as it takes place before the other games. In addition, there are several base camps that players can encounter that allow them to rest themselves and their Pokémon. This is also where they can communicate with the Professor that sent them on their journey, allowing players to give him valuable data to help in his research. Crafting is also part of the game, as the players themselves need to craft items they’ll need for their adventure. They can craft Pokéballs, something unseen in the series. Usually, you just buy them in bulk in the store. But now, players need to craft them using items in the world. Specifically Tumblestones and Apricorns. A departure, yes, but a welcome one, and something we hope to see more of when the game releases.
Combat
There are many ways for players to tackle combat in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. In addition to the original way, which is to fight a Pokémon in a Pokémon battle, you can also sneak near them to capture them. This allows a sense of strategy to the game as players might want to avoid fighting some Pokémon altogether, and just proceed to chuck a Pokéball to do the capture. Do note that this tactic won’t work on some Pokémon in the game. And this is where the original battle system comes in. Here, the standard “you pick a move and your Pokémon attacks” gameplay is placed, albeit with a twist. Now, Pokémon have a choice of either Strong or Agile styles to do their attacks. These styles have different effects on the battle. Strong Style deals more damage but slows down your next attack. Meanwhile, Agile Style makes you deal less damage but ensures that your next attack has a chance of striking first. Ample usage of the two styles is probably going to be key to victory in this game and adds a lot of variety to the battles. One thing to take note of is the fact that Pokémon can and will attack the player if they go near. There’s an indicator on which Pokémon are more liable to attack the player, characterized by glowing red eyes. When you go near these Pokémon, they’ll immediately attack the player with various offensive moves. When hit, the player stumbles before losing consciousness and awakening back to the place where they stayed before. Of course, you can battle these Pokémon, no question, but they’re pretty tough and will be a hard-won fight.
Setting and Story
The game takes place years before any of the main Pokémon games, in a bygone era. You’re a kid on the Hisui Region, which will be called the Sinnoh Region in the future. Your job is to help Professor Laventon of the Galaxy Expedition’s Survey Corps as he creates Hisui’s first-ever Pokédex. Along the way, you’ll come across other people, Pokémon, and areas. For now, though, we don’t know that much of the story. But it’s safe to say that Arceus will play a role in it. He is in the name of the game after all, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
Graphics
Graphics-wise, it has some similarities to Breath of the Wild, which is a good thing. However, it still looks a bit unpolished and requires a bit of tweaking. By that, we mean that they don’t look as great as they should be. We know that the Nintendo Switch isn’t built for graphics-heavy games. But if Breath of the Wild, which has similar open-world gameplay can look as good as it is on the Switch—then Pokémon Legends: Arceus doesn’t have any leg to stand on. Specific points of the lack of quality graphics include details on the grass or footprints in the snow, a muted color palette in some areas, and some flat-looking environments. Moreover, some Pokémon moves look like they’re taken from previous assets. With all that said, the game still has a few months to give the graphics some spit and shine. In previous trailers, the game didn’t seem to run smoothly as well. But on their latest trailer, the game looks smoother, running on a crisp 60 fps. Time will tell if this performance will be retained when the game is released next year.
Pokémon Remake of the Diamond and Pearl Series
Although it’s not 100% related to Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl are interconnected with the game. Before Pokémon Legends become live, the remakes of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl will become available on the Nintendo Switch.
Concerns Regarding Pokémon Legends: Arceus
Rushed Timeline
Although there is no fixed and accurate date yet as to when Pokémon Legends: Arceus will be released, Game Freak already made an announcement that it will be available in 2022. Looking at the trailer, many Pokémon fans describe that it requires a lot of improvement. If it’s going to be released officially in 2022, they are skeptical that it may be rushed and poorly developed on release. It’s a downside for all types of games; however, considering it’s an open-world game, it has made things more concerning. However, several Pokémon fans consider a delayed release to be better than having a buggy gaming experience.
Not the Exact Replica of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the World
Despite Pokémon Legends: Arceus’ similarities with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the World, Pokémon fans shouldn’t disappoint themselves with high expectations. This is because Pokémon Legends has the possibility of not having the exact replica of the Breath of the World as many fans expected it to be. As such, it has a closer resemblance to the traditional Pokémon games. Although it may disappoint, it’s still a reasonable concept of having a unique identity in the world of open-world RPG.
No Unique Pokémon
As described, Pokémon Legends: Arceus already has three starters from the existing Pokémon series. That said, it gave an assumption that there are no signs of new Pokémon characters. While this may come off as another disappointment to some fans, other Pokémon lovers are delighted to see familiar Pokémon characters playing in the wilderness. The possibility of having new variants of old Pokémon may be definite; however, no new and unique Pokémon characters were announced.
The Developer’s Small Team
Despite the massive success and popularity of the Pokémon franchise, the developer Game Freak is a small-sized team. The company doesn’t want to have a bigger development team similar to the team behind the Call of Duty online game, despite generating almost the same amount of revenue. The circumstance has worried a few Pokémon fans since smaller teams tend to bite more than they can chew when it comes to developing open-world RPGs. Similar to Cyberpunk 2077, technical glitches and bugs may become rampant and tend to overpower the development of an open-world game.
Technical Performance
Although trailers are not the exact representation of the final outcome, the Pokémon Legends: Arceus trailer doesn’t look all too impressive. If the game has a similar visual outcome, many Pokémon fans will be disheartened. The animations are utterly low in quality. Aside from that, the trailer has a mediocre frame rate. Despite that, many fans are hopeful that the company will improve its performance and quality. Some people have also assumed that Pokémon Legends: Arceus will be released after a new Nintendo Switch model is available for a better gaming experience. If the information is accurate, the game will still run on the earlier version of Nintendo Switch.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus vs Similar Games
Now that we’ve talked about Pokémon Legends: Arceus, let’s talk about how it might compare to other games like it.
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Given the fact that Nintendo also released Breath of the Wild, it’s pretty obvious that it’s going on this list. The game has a lot of accolades and praises when it comes to the art style and its open-world for good reason. The game is well made, it’s great to play, and it shows Link’s struggle to defeat Calamity Ganon flawlessly through story beats and flashbacks. We all know the story by now, Link wakes up on the Chamber of Resurrection and awakens to a new world. 100 years have passed since the calamity swept through the land. Hyrule as a kingdom is gone, its people scattered, the king is dead, and its princess fights Ganon in Hyrule Castle, surrounded by corrupted guardians and fearsome monsters. As Link, you have to recover your memories and find a way to defeat Ganon once and for all. All in all, Breath of the Wild is the pinnacle of open-world games on the Nintendo Switch. Its great art style, awesome world design, dynamic difficulty, and great gameplay make it an absolute must-have. Also Read: All You Need to Know about Breath of the Wild 2
Genshin Impact
Next on the list is Genshin Impact, one of the most wildly successful open-world games created. The best part about this is that you can play it for free on PC, PS4, PS5, and mobile. The game is set in the world of Teyvat, ruled by seven Archons that control seven elements and nations. You and your sister are Travelers, siblings who travel the stars and worlds in search of something. Years ago, both of you were leaving Teyvat when you were separated by the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles. She locked your ability to escape the world and sent you back separately. Now, you travel Teyvat in search of your sister alongside your friendly neighborhood guide, Paimon. All in all, Genshin has a lot of things going for it. It’s free, yes. But it also has great graphics, awesome combat, and an engaging storyline. The only thing that might turn off people to it is that it’s a gacha game and a bit grindy. But other than that, the game is well worth it if you want to give it a try.
Immortals: Fenyx Rising
Last but not least is Immortals: Fenyx Rising. Some may call this game a complete copy of Breath of the Wild with Greek gods. This game looks great in terms of its unique art style, mechanics, and combat. Yes, it’s Breath of the Wild, but at least it looks good and plays well as well. You play as Fenyx, someone who’s looking for their brother, only to get yourself in a spot of bother. Olympus currently has new management with Typhon now in charge. It’s Fenyx’s job to oust him out to restore order. Easier said than done though, as the world is teeming with undead soldiers, Cyclops, and other monsters in Greek Myths. The game also has several puzzle segments and other cool additions to keep players hooked as well.
Final Word
The Sinnoh region will definitely have a lot of interesting changes in which many Pokémon lovers look forward to in the coming years. Aside from the Pokémon Legends: Arceus’ release, Pokémon aficionados are also expecting the remake of the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. Although many fans have anticipated the individual releases of Pokémon games, few people are waiting for the open-world prequel to the events of the series as a whole. That said, many Pokémon fans have dreamed of a game like Pokémon Legends: Arceus for several years. With Pokémon Legends, gamers will have what it takes to be a Pokémon trainer similar to what they’ve experienced with the Galar region’s Wild Areas.
