Pokémon Legends: Arceus, a new twist on Game Freak games?

Il Pokémon Presents today was undoubtedly very interesting. Despite its short duration, it has in fact shown several intriguing titles: after the classic video recap of all the latest ones 25 years of the brand, in fact, not only a trailer, with relative release date, of the new one was shown Pokémon Snap, but also the long-awaited remake of the fourth generation games, Pokémon Shining Diamond e Shining Pearl. These last two have brought quite big changes to what is the graphics sector of the latest games, making not only the pocket monsters more "chibi“, But bringing a heavy aesthetic change to the protagonists and npc in the overworld. Today, however, we want to talk to you about something else, the latest trailer shown at the event, the more particular one, of course we refer to Pokémon Legends: Arceus, the new intriguing open world chapter of the series, set in a world decidedly different from the classic one to which Pokémon has always accustomed us. In fact this time we will find ourselves impersonating the protagonists of the fourth generation games, but in a world where the Feudal Japan.

Same world, other times

The trailer for Pokémon Legends: Arceus opens with a desk where, along with other books, are shown Pokeball archaic, at least compared to the original timeline of the main games, and a notebook on which the region of Sinnoh, that of the fourth generation and that we will visit in the adventure, all while a narrator creates an incipit to the context, explaining how the story of the games we are going to face is located at a temporal level in a previous period compared to what we know, albeit the Mount Corona still stand out in the center of the map. We can therefore easily understand that the game map, although changed in terms of aesthetics, structures and landscape, is substantially the same that we have faced in Pokémon Diamond e Perla. The notebook then opens showing some drawings of some Piplup, Speal e Sealeo, while the narrator explains how at the time of the story the Pokémon lived freer in nature, since there were not yet all the cities we know, but there were only one village where people came and went.

Here we could already make some reflections. First of all, the evolutionary line of Spheal will be present in the title, which was not present in the original fourth generation games; this means that almost certainly the Pokédex it will not be exclusively that of Diamond and Pearl. Indeed, it will be expanded, if not with all Pokémon, at least with the National Pokédex always of the aforementioned games. Then we could add that the starters will also be found in nature, but we would like to return to this point later. Finally we come to the village question; honestly we think it is unlikely that it will be the only one in the whole game map, maybe it will be the most important or the central one regarding checkpoints and movement in the region, but we are convinced that there are others around, perhaps smaller. If not, Game Freak would risk making the protagonist's journey too monotonous and difficult, bringing everything back to a simple and unique wild expanse of mountains, vegetation, streams and lakes that do not suit the Pokémon style. But it is not said, we could easily be wrong.

A dip in the past, a step into the future

It has always been known how the gameplay of Pokémon, as much as it may be appreciated and has always worked even at the expense of 25 years from the release of the first games, can be a bit monotonous due to the absence of two fundamental points: free roaming for the map, without the obligation to fixed cameras, and a Pokémon capture system more free. Both of these aspects have been evaluated over time and tried to modify them a little. In Sword and Shield Pokémon, for example, the Wildland, a gigantic game area where the user had the possibility to move the view as he saw fit, moving the camera closer or further away as he pleased to have a wider view of the area. While in Pokémon Go, and later in the two Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu ed Eevee, the capture system has been made more interactive and animated.

Both appear to have been implemented in this new Pokémon Legends: Arceus. We have on one side the mobile camera this time not limited by the area, since we can in fact move it freely in all directions whenever we want. On the other hand, we can also catch Pokémon without being in combat with them. In fact, it will be enough to hide in the tall grass, or in general move silently so as not to let our targets escape, and then launch the Poké balls (which, small note in the margin, seems to be no other type than those classical). This will greatly revolutionize the style of play, since it will make the exploration of the world much more immersive and fluid, without particular detachments due to the various causal encounters with wild Pokémon.

Latest considerations and details on Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Maybe it means that in this Pokémon Arceus Legends there will be no fights just like in Pokémon Go? No, the struggles remain, and with the usual classic style that we all love: 4 moves for Pokémon, turn-based combat and different types and weaknesses. In addition we would like to resume the discussion on the starters that we interrupted earlier; in fact, although we were explaining how the Sinnoh starters find themselves quietly in the tall grass, as the photo above also shows, it will not be among them that we will have to choose to decide which Pokémon to start the adventure with. The trailer clearly shows how our choice will be somewhat particular this time: we will in fact have to take one between Cyndaquil, Rowlet e Oshawott. A decidedly unusual detail compared to the classic style of the brand's traditional games; this perhaps means that within the region we will find all existing Pokémon? We do not believe sadly, we think they are more likely to be just plot-justified exceptions.

Maybe some Pokémon of other generations besides the fourth will be there, but we strongly doubt that we will see many. Finally, let's talk about the legendary of this game, famous creator of Pokémon, from which the chapter is also named, Arceus. Unfortunately we don't know much about its implications in the title and we can only say that, as the narrator announced during the Pokémon Presents, it will be important to the plot and the path of our protagonist. But this is how our speculations about this new and interesting chapter of the videogame epic by Game Freak that will be released on Nintendo Switch At the beginning of 2022. Of course, as soon as new information comes out, we will be prompt in communicating it to you. However, if you would like to take a look for yourself at the trailer for the new title of The Pokémon Company, you can view it just above.