When it was first announced earlier this year, fans didn’t really know what to make of Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Its initial announcement trailer was somewhat brief and despite the fact that its release date was less than a year away from the announcement, there weren’t many details about what kind of game it would be. Based on its title, some thought that it was nothing more than a spinoff game to tide fans over between mainline releases in the same vein as titles like Pokemon Ranger or New Pokemon Snap. After today’s Pokemon Presents, it’s clear that this isn’t the case.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus seems to be a full-fledged new, mainline entry in the Pokemon series following up 2019’s Pokemon Sword and Shield, however, it seems to be taking the franchise in a bold new direction. As the traditional Pokemon formula has starting to grow a little old among fans of the series, Legends: Arceus looks like it’s changing the way Pokemon games might be played from here on out. Fans have been calling for a major changeup for several years now and it looks like Pokemon Legends: Arceus might be doing just that.
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The Old Pokemon Formula
Up until now, mainline entries in the Pokemon series have all pretty much followed the same tried and true formula introduced in Pokemon Red and Blue in 1998. While there have been some innovations to the turn-based RPGs over the years, the core of each new Pokemon title has been pretty much the same ever since. As a result, when Pokemon Sword and Shield released as the first non-remake mainline Pokemon games on the Nintendo Switch, fans were expecting the series to follow The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey’s leads by completely innovating and changing the formulas introduced in earlier games in their respective series.
While Sword and Shield did have some innovations, the games were hardly the shakeup that fans had been hoping for. When the two games were in development, the Nintendo Switch was still a relatively new console, so fans were expecting the games to take advantage of the new hardware in ways that brought the Pokemon franchise to life in a way never seen before. Although it’s taken longer than some Pokemon fans might have hoped, Legends: Arceus seems to be finally meeting the expectations of what the newest generation of Pokemon games can be.
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The Pokemon Legends: Arceus Changeup
In its initial trailer, Pokemon Legends: Arceus bore a strong resemblance to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as it’s taking place in a mostly untouched open wilderness full of exploration led by player choice. Now that today’s Pokemon Presents featured a much deeper dive into the mechanics of the game, however, comparisons to Breath of the Wild are being put to rest as the title seems devoted to innovating on the Pokemon formula instead of borrowing ideas from other popular franchises.
One of the biggest new changes that hopefully sticks around in the Pokemon series for many entries to come is the enhanced interactions that the player can have with wild Pokemon. As narrated during the gameplay preview, different Pokemon will have different reactions to the player approaching them. Smaller, flightier Pokemon are far more likely to flee from an approaching human similar to real-world interactions with small animals such as squirrels and small birds. Conversely, larger, territorial, more aggressive Pokemon are much more likely to approach trainers head-on to kick them out of their area. This new feature not only brings more life and personality to each individual Pokemon but also requires the player to really engage with and understand what sort of Pokemon they’re surrounded by.
The way that players engage in battles with wild Pokemon also seems to be a step up from the old format. Now, instead of instantly entering a battle when touching a wild Pokemon, the player gets to decide when to bring out someone in their party. This means that players are able to decide if they even want to engage wild Pokemon in battle, or if they’re going to try their luck with catching them unharmed. That can be dangerous, however, as wild Pokemon are actually able to hurt trainers if they’re not careful. If a trainer takes too much damage, they’ll blackout, a similar mechanic to blacking out in previous Pokemon entries. It’s currently unclear what the consequences are for blacking out, but it’s likely to have some sort of negative effect.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus' Move to an Open World
The reason that Pokemon Legends: Arceus was compared so heavily to Breath of the Wild when it was revealed was because of how similar the two games’ open worlds look on a superficial level. Now that there’s been more explanation about how Legends: Arceus is going to function, the similarities start and end with such visual comparisons. It looks like Pokemon is going to have a bigger emphasis on crafting, as Pokeballs are an essential item that players will likely be constantly crafting and using. The open-world shift is reminiscent of the Wild Area introduced in Sword and Shield. Instead of simply being another area for players to explore that feels somewhat disconnected from the rest of the region, Pokemon Legends: Arceus seems to have based its entire game on how the open world will work.
From the reworked interactions with wild Pokemon to the heavier emphasis on survival and area awareness, it really seems like Pokemon Legends: Arceus is trying something new. Some things are staying relatively the same like the turn-based battle system, but even that is receiving a certain level of change. Hopefully, the changes are implemented well and result in a strong entry for the franchise that changes how Pokemon games are made from here on out. It all comes down to if the changes truly feel like they’re a fresh take on the Pokemon formula, or if they end up being nothing more than superficial gimmicks.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus will release exclusively on the Nintendo Switch on January 28, 2022.
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