As part of the Pokemon 25th Anniversary Celebrations, Game Freak unveiled two new games coming to the Pokemon franchise: remakes of Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl, as well as a surprise reveal of Pokemon Legends: Arceus.
This open-world prequel to Pokemon Diamond and Pearl launches early next year, and ever since the initial Pokemon Legends: Arceus reveal trailer launched, many fans are clamoring for more information. Here are six of the biggest questions we still have about the upcoming open-world Pokemon game.
According to the short presentation on Pokemon Legends: Arceus, the primary focus of the game will be exploring the feudal Sinnoh region in an attempt to complete the region’s first Pokedex. If catching Pokemon is the primary focus of the game, it begs the question: just how many Pokemon will there be to catch?
Of course we have the Sinnoh Pokedex as a general basis to make a couple assumptions. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl featured 151 Pokemon in the regional Pokedex, expanded to 210 with Pokemon Platinum. But this version of Sinnoh takes place farther in the past, and different Pokemon may wander the region. A handful of Pokemon were shown in the Pokemon Legends: Arceus trailer, and while most are Pokemon players would expect to see in a Sinnoh game, there are a few that caught fans off-guard.
While most fans who played Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl in the past were expecting the Sinnoh starters to be the starters for Pokemon Legends: Arceus, players will actually be starting their journey with either Rowlet, Cyndaquil, or Oshawott. While these may seem like off-the-wall picks for starter Pokemon, fans have uncovered a very interesting tie-in with these three Pokemon that makes them perfect for the setting of Pokemon Legends: Arceus.
While the reveal announcement stated that the Professor of the region brought these non-native Pokemon to Sinnoh, it raises the question of if there will be other non-Sinnoh Pokemon present in the region, or just these three. The map will supposedly be different than how players remember it, including climate and other features, so it may not be too hard to imagine that other Pokemon call Sinnoh home during this time period.
The Sinnoh region features quite a unique layout. The region is bisected by a mountain range, and Mt. Coronet serves as the peak of that range. Mt. Coronet is likely what is featured prominently in the Pokemon Legends: Arceus trailer. This game supposedly takes place well-before pretty much any established civilization in the Sinnoh region, perhaps with the exception of Celestic Town, which has a shrine in the town center that dates back to ancient times – perhaps in this game we could see the founding and growth of this town.
One town outpost is shown in the reveal trailer for Pokemon Legends: Arceus, and perhaps that town could be the early foundations for Celestic Town – or some other early Sinnoh civilization. If Game Freak gives a lot of attention to details, then just like in Breath of the Wild, players will discover clues and references to locations that true fans will recognize – like the swamps that will one day be Pastoria City, or the beginnings of the Eterna Forest.
One thing fans have been dying to know about is map size. No doubt the biggest point of comparison will be titles like Breath of the Wild and Skyrim, which both feature unique takes on an open world map. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl fans have a decent idea as to how large the Sinnoh region is, but navigating it on a 2D grid is a much different experience than navigating it as an open-world map. Another key factor will be what activities, if any, there will be throughout Sinnoh. Breath of the Wild featured the shrines and Korok Seeds to track down, making the map feel dense with things to discover. A large, beautiful open-world map is worth little if there is nothing to do in the world itself.
While there isn’t a whole lot of footage to go off of, Game Freak did show off a few small clips of battles in Pokemon Legends: Arceus. There seems to be a way to battle Pokemon out in the fields of Sinnoh, but it remains to be seen if these are scripted or if there will be full-fledged wild Pokemon battles like in the main game series. The Let’s Go games did not feature wild Pokemon battles, but instead only a catching mini-game, so some fans are worried that Pokemon Legends: Arceus may not have a way to train and battle against wild Pokemon.
From the short clips available, it seems like wild Pokemon battles may be in the game, but with the game still so far off from release it’s hard to say for sure. There was a notable absence of other trainers in the world, though whether that is deliberate or a side-effect of early development footage also remains to be seen. Having a Pokemon game on the scale of Pokemon Legends: Arceus without trainer battles would certainly be unusual, but perhaps Game Freak is taking a slightly different approach to moment-to-moment gameplay this time around.
Game Freak obviously revealed very little about the overarching narrative of Pokemon Legends: Arceus in the initial reveal, which has led to lots of questions regarding the story of the game. Clearly the powerful mythical Pokemon Arceus players a major role in some form, but Game Freak explicitly stated that those details would have to be found in-game. So far we know that the game takes place in a feudal Sinnoh region, and players are tasked with exploring the land to find and catch the Pokemon residing there. That’s pretty much it.
Sinnoh has deep ties to the Pokemon creation myth in the form if Arceus, Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina, and considering how many “ancient” statues of these Pokemon were present in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, it would be surprising if these Pokemon did not make an appearance, at least in passing, in Pokemon Legends: Arceus.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is slated to launch a short time after the recently announced Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Pokemon Shining Pearl games, so the original take on the Sinnoh region will be fresh in players’ minds. Outside of the obvious fact that they are in the same region, many fans are curious how Pokemon Legends: Arceus will tie into Pokemon Diamond and Pearl on both a narrative and lore level. This game takes place during what is essentially the founding of the Sinnoh region’s civilizations, so there is a lot of potential for the game to focus on locations that players are familiar with from Diamond and Pearl, giving more context to the history of those towns and cities.
As stated before, Sinnoh has a rich history and strong ties to the Pokemon creation myth, so it would be no surprise if that was a major tie-in point as well. A large part of the Diamond and Pearl narrative revolves around ancient history, both of the Sinnoh region and of the Pokemon world as a whole, so a game set so far back in Sinnoh’s history is a perfect way to link the games together.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus has the potential to be the truly open-world game that Pokemon fans have been clamoring for, if done correctly. With only one quick glimpse at the game so far, there isn’t a whole lot of information to go off of, so fans have a lot of questions about what this new, open-world installment in the franchise will entail. With a release date that is quite a ways off still, there is plenty of time for Game Freak to drop some more information about Pokemon Legends, but until then fans will just have to patiently wait and speculate as to what this exciting new title will feature.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus will release on Nintendo Switch sometime in early 2022.
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