Revisiting 11 February 2022, 14:35

author: Matt Buckley

How Accurate Were These Pokemon Legends Arceus Theories?

Not too long ago, we posted some theories about the highly anticipated Pokemon Legends Arceus. Now that the game has arrived it’s time to see if we were correct.

The review is based on the Switch version.

A few months ago, I wrote an article with ten varying theories about what would be included in the, at the time, highly anticipated upcoming Pokemon Legends Arceus. Check out that article here. Five of those theories were reasonable, and five were a little out there, to say the least.

These theories ranged from predicting new regional variants of Pokemon to players battling online as alpha Pokemon against their friends. Yeah, some of them were really out there.

Now that the game is here, it’s time to revisit those old theories and see how many of them turned out to be accurate. Pokemon Legends Arceus has a lot of great surprises in store for its players, so fair warning to anyone that hasn’t played the game yet: there will be spoilers ahead.

Reasonable Theory #1: Noble Pokemon Will Function As The Game’s HMs

This theory was not entirely wrong. But it’s worth noting that not all of the classic HMs are represented in Legends Arceus. Basculegion and Braviary do very much represent the surf and fly HMs respectively, but plenty of classics like Cut, Rock Smash, and Strength are not represented.

There are also a few references to other games regarding these Pokemon. The Professor compares them to the “rideable Pokemon from Alola,” which references the way HMs were handled in the Sun & Moon games, where players would ride on Pokemon to navigate the tropical islands of Alola. Another character who has some mysterious origins seems to have vague memories of something called Hidden Moves but isn’t sure what that memory means.

The loss of many classic HMs is not a bad thing. Being able to fly with Hisuian Braviary and Surf with Basculegion, among the other rideable Pokemon feel much more natural than rideable Pokemon have been in the past, and give the player much more freedom than HMs ever did.

Out There Theory #1: Rock Types Will Be Stronger

This was the first of the long shot theories, and with good reason. There doesn’t appear to be any major change to rock types in this game. The move Stealth Rock had a very interesting change, but that is about as far as it goes. Notable new Rock types do include the first Noble Pokemon Kleavor, as well as Hisuian Growlithe and its evolution Hisuian Arcanine.

With how Fossils have been handled throughout the Pokemon games, it made sense to think there was some significance to Rock types in the past since nearly all revived fossil Pokemon are at least partially Rock type, but there are plenty of other theories.

It’s quite likely that Legends Arceus doesn’t go back far enough in time for the fossil Pokemon to not still be fossils. Plus, the Rock typing might have a large pool of weaknesses, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still strong. This was just a fun theory to consider about Pokemon history.

Reasonable Theory #2: Legends Arceus Will Not Be As Open-World As Fans Hope

This was fairly spot-on, unfortunately. Much like Monster Hunter Rise, Legends Arceus has the player return to a village hub and goes out on expeditions to various areas, rather than what fans hoped for, essentially a Pokemon version of Breath of the Wild.

Realizing this was a likelihood prior to the game's release certainly dampened the excitement somewhat, but those lowered expectations were exceeded when the game actually arrived. While yes the entire Hisui region is not connected and explorable, the five explorable areas are somewhat larger than expected with plenty to find and return to later on once the player has unlocked flying, climbing, and swimming.

Ultimately this is a huge stride in the right direction for the Pokemon series, changing so much about how things worked before. Pokemon Legends Arceus is a great game in its own right, but with the warm reception it’s receiving it could open the possibility of the long-dreamt-of open-world Pokemon game arriving sometime in the future.

Out There Theory #2: Strange Rock Formation Signifies a New Pinsir Form

This really was a long shot. There is no Hisuian Pinsir. It would have been cool, but it did not happen and that’s ok. In fact, the strange rock formation that has been on fans’ minds since the earliest trailers for the game, doesn’t seem to have much significance at all.

It does seem like a minor missed opportunity not to have at least a strong water type Alpha Pokemon lurking in the waves between these tall rock formations. No doubt it adds to the Hisuian horizon, but that just means more players will think it is significant and be disappointed when they reach it and find nothing.

For now, Hisuian Pinsir seems out of consideration, and the rock formation seems destined to simply look cool. The plans for the future of Legends Arceus isn’t exactly clear either, since Pokemon Sword & Shield had two rounds of DLC, it’s not impossible that there are some plans for DLC for Legends Arceus as well. But that’s even more of a long shot than this originally was.

Reasonable Theory #3: Wardens Will Function As Legends Arceus’ Gym Leaders

To call the Wardens gym leaders is fairly inaccurate. Some of the Wardens do battle the player, but many don’t. Legends Arceus manages to make them fairly distinct from the gym leaders of previous games.

On the surface level, interacting with the wardens allows the player to progress, and the player must do it in a certain order as different regions of Hisui are unlocked, but that’s about where the similarities end. Each of the Wardens watches over a Noble Pokemon, but only half of them are in a frenzy that must be quelled. The others are practically gifted as rideable Pokemon to the player.

Interestingly, the Wardens also each belong to either the Pearl or Diamond clan, who are often at odds with each other. This is a very interesting dynamic change from the typical gym leaders who rarely even interact with each other.

Out There Theory #3: Players Will Be Able To Battle Online As Alpha Pokemon

Did I say the other ones were long shots? Currently, the only online functionality included in Legends Arceus is the ability to trade Pokemon. This is perhaps one of the biggest downsides to the game. The potential for including some kind of online battling feature in the future is certainly there, but nothing is confirmed.

So it goes without saying that this theory was pretty far off from the truth, but it is still too fun an idea to ignore. Battling has always been a staple for the Pokemon series, and while certainly somewhat scaled back in Legends Arceus, it is still a very important mechanic. This is also the first time that Pokemon can actually hurt and even knock out the player.

For a game that is lacking so much in online versatility, this would simply be amazing. The idea is practically good enough to be an entire game in and of itself (see Dead By Daylight). For now, players will have to settle for interacting with their friends through trading and picking up their lost satchels after they fall off a cliff. Not thinking of any friends in particular.

Reasonable Theory #4: Legends Arceus Will Feature Very Few Pokemon Past Gen 4

This theory was fairly accurate. There are certainly a few more than expected prior to launch, but all of them are only included because they have new variants that are native to the Hisui region. Essentially any Pokemon originally introduced after the Diamond & Pearl games is only included if they have a regional variant or new evolution.

This theory was practically common sense since the game takes place in Hisui, which will eventually come to be known as the Sinnoh region. While regions like Alola are mentioned in-game, along with other subtle hints like a smokestack designed after Galarian-Weezing on the Galaxy Headquarters, it makes sense that Pokemon from those later regions didn’t make too many appearances.

Going forward, it will be interesting to learn, if ever, what happened to these Hisuian Pokemon in future Sinnoh-based games like Diamond & Pearl. Did these Pokemon simply go extinct for some reason? Or does this game take place in a different timeline than any other Pokemon game? There are plenty of theories to explain this, but nothing will be confirmed until more information is revealed or more Pokemon games come out.

Out There Theory #4: There Are More Fighting Styles Than Just Strong and Agile

Fighting styles are still a very fun mechanic for sure, but no, this theory was not correct. There is nothing past Strong and Agile. It makes sense that these would be the only two since they are opposites, but perhaps in a future game or a future update, this will be expanded upon.

Prior to the game's release, it was unclear how Pokemon learned these styles. Now that it is known that Pokemon can simply master moves as they level up, the addition of other styles would complicate things. Players can still have an NPC help a Pokemon master moves, so this could have been a solution.

Pokemon Legends Arceus changed a lot about how Pokemon battles work, and styles are a big part of that. Perhaps adding too many styles would make the mechanic confusing and oversaturated. Strong and Agile are simple, understandable, and add just enough variety to make battling feel unique to this game and open up new battling strategies.

Reasonable Theory #5: Legends Arceus Starters Will Have Alternate Evolutions

This theory was spot on. As the game’s release date drew closer and there was still no reveal of the starter’s classic evolutions, it became more and more clear that this would be the case. This was certainly a huge risk considering how popular Pokemon like Typhlosion and Decidueye have become since they were originally introduced, but they did a great job.

While the first two stages of the evolutions remain the same, the final evolution of all three starters now has a brand new variation. Typhlosion becomes a Fire / Ghost type, Decidueye becomes a Grass / Fighting type, and Samurott becomes a Water / Dark type.

What is also very interesting about this change is how NPCs don’t seem to make any particular note of it. It’s very clear that the professor brought these Pokemon from other regions, but he isn’t surprised when they evolve into these new forms. Does this mean that back in their original regions these Pokemon naturally evolve this way? Or does this just mean that the developers didn’t bother adding any extra dialogue into the game?

Out There Theory #5: Alpha Pokemon Will Appear During Timed Events While Exploring

This was a fun idea, but ultimately not accurate. Alpha Pokemon wander around their location just like non-Alpha Pokemon. They are still very special encounters though, not only do they have higher stats and moves not found on other Pokemon of the same species, but they are also much larger than usual, making encounters with them much more terrifying.

Legends Arceus also implemented a wonderful change with these Alpha Pokemon. They are somewhat comparable to the high-level Pokemon found in Sword & Shield’s wild area. But the key difference is that the high-level Pokemon in Sword & Shield literally cannot be caught at certain points in the game. Alpha Pokemon can be caught no matter the player’s strength, it will certainly take some luck and skill to pull off, but it is possible. This makes the Alpha Pokemon into surmountable challenges rather than brick walls.

On the other hand, while not quite where this theory was going, there are the space-time distortion events that appear randomly. Those events can be quite chaotic, fun, and challenging, making what might have been a simple Pokedex or item excursion into a chaotic scramble.

There is a lot to unpack from Pokemon Legends Arceus; more than was even covered in this article. There are plenty of well-executed ideas and a bunch of other things that never could have been guessed. But the question remains, ultimately, how many theories were correct?

Out of ten theories… about three and a half were correct (I’m giving myself half a point on the Noble Pokemon as HMs theory). None of the “Out There” theories ended up being correct, which while disappointing does make a lot of sense. If any of those had come true that would have been pretty wild.

Have you been playing Pokemon Legends Arceus? Which of your reasonable and “out there” theories made it into the game? Leave a comment to let us know your thoughts!