Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a brand new adventure coming in early 2022. Here are things you need to know about the game.
00:00 – For all the Pokemon Arceus info check out the articles in the desc
00:16 – We’re going back to the earliest time in Pokemon history
01:09 – Open world Pokemon time
02:20 – Starts across generations
03:04 – Arceus could be the most important Pokemon ever
The game’s story takes us way back to before any of the main Pokémon games to date. The setting itself is the Sinnoh region from the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl games but at a point in history that Game Freak is calling a long-gone era. In fact, it goes so far as to say that the Pokémon Legends: Arceus story is set before ideas such as being a Pokémon trainer or having a Pokémon league even existed. This could mean that the traditional Pokémon storyline, with the aim of being the very best, is abandoned for Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
Instead, your goal is to create and complete the first-ever Sinnoh Pokédex. This will mean discovering and documenting every single Pokémon in the Sinnoh region to build out that Arceus Pokédex. And this may well include learning their behaviors and more to really build out each entry.
Technically, Game Freak hasn’t officially used the phrase “open world” to describe the game yet. But from what we’ve seen so far, this is going to be much more akin to a Breath of the Wild experience than previous Pokémon entries. Such a big change is reflected in the gameplay. While you’ll still be catching and battling, Pokémon are moving visibly and freely throughout the world. You can basically consider the wild area of Pokémon Sword and Shield as a kind of teaser of what’s to come with Arceus, but this is quite the evolution of that model.
You’ll be able to observe Pokémon in their natural habitats and learning more about them. You’ll also be able to catch them simply by sneaking up and throwing a Pokéball at them. No more blindly running about in the long grass and waiting for the battle to begin.
Battling will also be as simple as reaching for a Pokéball near a wild Pokémon to seamlessly enter battle. From here, Pokémon battles will be much more familiar but it’s this way of interacting that will hopefully feel a lot more natural and realistic. As of yet, we’ve not seen any trainer versus trainer battles in the game, so that will be interesting to learn more about as we get closer to the game’s release.
In another bold choice, Game Freak is also doing something different when it comes to the starter choices for Arceus. They’re all from different generations for the first time ever. We’ve got Cyndaquil from generation 2, Oshawott from generation 5, and Rowlet from generation 7. The official Game Freak line is that each of these arrived with the as of yet unnamed Pokémon professor who encountered them on research excursions to various other regions outside of Sinnoh. Rumors are already flying around that they are connected to the Japanese origins of the Sinnoh region itself.
The titular Arceus itself is a mythical beast that’s hugely important in Pokémon lore. This normal type of Pokémon was first introduced during gen 4 and could be found in Diamond and Pearl by playing the Azure Flute in the Hall of Origin. However, because that wasn’t an item that could be found in the game organically but rather was released as an event exclusive item, players have been on quite a journey to actually get the mythical beast in their games at the time.
In fact, it wasn’t even officially recognized by Nintendo until 2009 when its debut movie arrived. It was then known as the original one. And it’s even thought to be the Pokémon that created the Sinnoh region, if not the Pokémon universe itself. We can’t wait to learn more about this mythical Pokémon in Pokémon Legends: Arceus when it arrives early in 2022.
Credits
| Program | Founding Writers |
| Author | Lee Agustin |
| YouTuber | Games Radar |
| Publisher | MGN |