Game Freak caught Pokemon fans by surprise when it announced Pokemon Legends: Arceus, a new title coming next year that will be the first major Pokemon title to be a true open-world game. While not a lot of information is available yet for these games, as the release date is quite a ways off still, fans are hoping that Pokemon Legends: Arceus will be the major turning point that will revolutionize the Pokemon series.
After the mixed reactions for Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield, some fans have really high hopes for this new, open-world take on a Pokemon title.
Redefining the Mainline Pokemon Games
Pokemon Legends: Arceus could be a the start of a bright new future for the Pokemon mainline game franchise. It's no secret that many fans were upset with Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield at launch, despite them selling incredibly well. Many fans were hoping that Sword and Shield would be the turning point for the series, as they were the first mainline games on the Nintendo Switch, but several technical and game design issues held the games back from reaching their full potential. While the general opinion on the games has shifted more positively after the release of the Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra DLCs, many are still hoping that the next main title will really shake up the formula and give the series a breath of fresh air that it so desperately needs.
To do this, Game Freak would need to really reevaluate the approach to game design that has been at the core of the series since the original Pokemon Red and Pokemon Green games. The Pokemon games have become formulaic, and with the exception of the generation's gimmick (Mega Evolution, Z-Moves, Dynamax), there hasn't been a real shake-up to the tried-and-true formula of Pokemon. To really go about revolutionizing the game series, there will have to be some major changes.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a good example, Nintendo stripped away many parts that fans were familiar with when it came to the Legend of Zelda series, and replaced them with entirely new mechanics and gameplay elements. It went on to be a massive success and is regarded as one of the most innovative games in recent years. Pokemon is long overdue for the same treatment. From the first clips shown of Pokemon Legends: Arceus, it seems like Game Freak is shaking up how some parts of the Pokemon formula are handled, but until we see more, fans will be left with more questions than answers.
More Challenging Content
A key thing that could come into play in Pokemon Legends: Arceus that the main series so desperately needs is more challenging content. One of the biggest and most vocal complaints from the community is that the main series of Pokemon games has gotten too easy, and there is a lot of "hand-holding" involved. While the hand-holding could easily be fixed by adding a setting to turn off tutorials, some fans would like the games to just drop them into their adventure and let them figure it all out.
Tying back to the Breath of the Wild analogy, that game drops the player right into the open-world with minimal tutorials and lets them figure out what works and what doesn't without some character chiming in every couple minutes to over-explain things. Pokemon Legends: Arceus could be the Breath of the Wild of Pokemon, and if the main series adapts to this new formula, it will be all the better for it.
Freedom To Explore
One of the most enjoyable parts of Breath of the Wild is the feeling of true freedom. Pokemon games have always had these artificial walls in the form of HM requirements or Pokemon conveniently blocking paths until certain story beats are hit. This has limited the typically large maps in Pokemon games and make them feel incredibly linear in the grand scheme of things. A best-case scenario for Pokemon Legends: Arceus is that there are no major artificial walls put in place, and players can explore as they see fit. A proper way to balance this would be to have more challenging Pokemon in areas that are meant for late-game areas (like the Guardians around Hyrule Castle Fields). Pokemon Sword and Shield's Wild Area attempted this, but put restrictions on catching high level Pokemon.
Presumably, Mt. Coronet will be a feature on Pokemon Legends: Arceus' map, so perhaps Pokemon get more challenging the deeper into the mountain the player goes. Or perhaps they are tougher when going north toward where Snowpoint City would be, whereas in the lowlands and flat parts of Sinnoh the Pokemon are easier to manage. While Pokemon Legends: Arceus is a prequel to Diamond and Pearl, the map will likely look a bit different as it takes place well-before the beloved Generation 4 games, so maybe the spread of Pokemon across the region will be vastly different. There has been no word on trainer battles yet, but fans have seen some clips of Pokemon battles, so perhaps Game Freak will also be making these encounters more interesting and challenging compared to the mainline series.
A New Approach To World-Building
Admittedly, Pokemon games have not always been known for their engaging stories, with perhaps the exception of Generation 5 which really doubled-down on a heavy narrative. However, with an open-world game like Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Game Freak may need to rethink how it tells the story of this new title. Fans have only seen one town in the initial reveal trailer for the game, and the game supposedly takes place before civilization took hold in the Sinnoh region, so there may not be any real footholds for Game Freak to tie story beats to. This will require Game Freak to take a more Dark Souls-like approach to storytelling, where the world tells more of the story than cutscenes do.
Players are tasked with exploring the Sinnoh region and uncovering the Pokemon that live there, so there will be lots of exploring going on. It's the perfect opportunity to really create some unique stories that tell the history of the region, whether through small NPC encounters out in the wilds or by discovering the foundations that will grow into the region players know from Diamond and Pearl. Having story beats scattered throughout the world rewards players that explore the vast region instead of following a linear path. The Pokemon series could use a lot more narrative paths to follow, and this could be Game Freak's best way to test the waters of this new storytelling method.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus could really turn the Pokemon franchise around for the better in the eyes of many long-time fans thanks to its vastly different approach to gameplay when compared to the mainline Pokemon series. Fans are hoping that the new gameplay innovations that might be coming with Pokemon Legends: Arceus will shape the future of the mainline Pokemon games as well and fix many of the long-standing problems that fans have with the game series. Hopefully more details about this highly anticipated game will be made available soon, but fans may still have some time to wait before more information surfaces.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is releases on Switch in early 2022.