Pokemon Legends Arceus, the franchise's first step into a quasi-open-world, is quickly approaching its late January 2022 launch date. With just over a month before arrival, The Pokemon Company is growing more comfortable sharing gameplay details about Pokemon Legends Arceus. The latest example comes in the form of a short trailer shared on Twitter. The trailer provides Pokemon fans a brief look at what seasons will look like in Pokemon Legends Arceus, as well as different weather conditions.
The trailer in question is only about 18 seconds long, but it covers a lot of ground in those 18 seconds. Second-long clips of gameplay are shown teasing different seasons, weather conditions, and day/night cycles. Each different clip shows how Pokemon Legends Arceus' environments change with the seasons, with green foliage through spring and summer, golden leaves and grass for the fall, and snow covering everything for winter. Further, the time of day lends each environment different lighting, giving spring mornings brightness and fall evenings a golden glow.
The weather effects of Pokemon Legends Arceus are also quite visually appealing, though it's unclear if they directly influence the game's environments. Snow and rain weather are the only two conditions that are clearly shown, outside of sunny weather with light cloud cover. Even with rain and snow, the skybox of Pokemon Legends Arceus doesn't change, so weather mechanics in the game may be very basic, at least in terms of visual presentation.
One very important question left unanswered is how seasons, weather, and day/night cycles will influence the Pokemon found in the open-world and subsequent Pokemon battles. Pokemon Sword and Shield didn't officially support seasonal changes, but The Pokemon Company would make the weather change based on the time of year. These shifting weather effects could lead to different Pokemon being available in Wild Areas, and could change battle conditions, too. These mechanics seem like a good starting point for expectations of Pokemon Legends Arceus.
What Pokemon players would very likely love to see is a combination of all of the above. Roaming Pokemon changing not only with seasons, but with weather changes and the day/night cycle, too. There's a hint at that in the trailer, but details still need to be confirmed. It's an exciting opportunity for The Pokemon Company, at the very least.
A 3D open world is an exciting new frontier for Pokemon. Pokemon Legends Arceus will let Pokemon fans interact with a world in a way they haven't before. The Pokemon Company could add any number of new features to Pokemon Legends Arceus and fans would likely be open to the changes. But, knowing The Pokemon Company, it's likely to be more risk-averse than fans may want. All Pokemon players can do is wait and see what the team has put together.
Pokemon Legends Arceus releases January 28 on Switch.