Pokemon Legends Arceus: A New Path for Pokemon?

During the Pokemon Company’s 25th Anniversary presentation, where they also announced Pokemon Diamond & Pearl remakes, they showed fans a quick look at an interesting new style of game.

The game is called Pokemon Legends Arceus, and while it isn’t scheduled to come out for the Nintendo Switch until early 2022, there is a lot of interesting footage to review.

Taking inspiration from Pokemon Sword & Shield’s wild area and expansion passes, as well as perhaps some other open world Nintendo titles, Pokemon Legends Arceus seems to take the Pokemon game series in a whole new direction.

The game is set in the Sinnoh region, the same as the Diamond & Pearl games, but in a time when the region was still wild and hadn’t been settled by humans yet. The game’s protagonist is seen roaming through an open natural environment. Sneaking up on Pokemon using tall grass as the Pokemon roam the open world.

There is a small village, called Sinnoh, that serves as the home base for the adventure. This could mean that, rather than the usual linear progression of most previous Pokemon games, the player might be allowed to traverse the world in a more free-form style.

To make a change like this to the Pokemon video games is huge. For 25 years, to the day, the Pokemon games have felt very formulaic. Start in your hometown, choose from three different Pokemon, fight the region’s top trainers in order, until you become the very best like no one ever was.

Could Pokemon Legends Arceus be the dynamic shift the Pokemon series has needed? We won’t know for sure until the game releases in early 2022, but it is likely that the Pokemon Company will reveal more information about the game leading up to that release date.

What are your thoughts? Is this a good sign of things to come for Pokemon? Leave a comment letting us know!