Many Pokemon fans have been patiently awaiting the release dates for two big Pokemon games from The Pokemon Company. Announced just this year, Pokemon Legends: Arceus, and Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Pokemon Shining Pearl will take players through the Sinnoh region once again. While the latter is a faithful remake of the pair of 2006 DS titles, Pokemon Legends: Arceus takes players back in time to a past version of Sinnoh.
Thankfully, fans won't have to wait too long now until these games launch for the Switch, as their release dates have finally been confirmed via a press release from The Pokemon Company.
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Pokemon Shining Pearl will both launch for the Nintendo Switch on November 19, and Pokemon Legends: Arceus will follow behind and will launch on January 28, 2022. Considering that Legends: Arceus is launching just two months after the Diamond and Pearl remakes, it's safe to say that Pokemon enthusiasts will have plenty of content to keep them busy for a while. It's rare to see The Pokemon Company launch two major Pokemon titles back to back, but the development on both titles are being done by separate studios.
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are not being developed by Game Freak, marking the first time that the studio has not been the main developer for a mainline Pokemon title. It's being worked on by a studio called ILCA, with Game Freak supervising it all. ILCA is a Japanese studio that's known to support other projects. It has worked on games like NieR: Automata and Yakuza 0, to name a few.
As for Pokemon Legends: Arceus, this core title will take the series somewhere it's never been before. There will be expansive areas teeming with Pokemon, and players will get to explore the Sinnoh region as it was in the past, way before the time period that Diamond and Pearl take place in. Players will be tasked with completing the first Pokedex ever, filling out the data entries from scratch.
As seen in the trailers for the remakes, not much is being changed. While the art style is being modernized, the aspects of the game, like its narrative and battle system, seem to be mostly untouched. Many fans wonder if the content and features that were added in Pokemon Platinum will make it into the remakes, so people will just have to wait and see until more info is revealed as the release date gets closer.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus will launch on January 28, 2022, and Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Pokemon Shining Pearl launch on November 19, 2021.