Pokemon fans have always been a dedicated bunch, but YouTuber Avatar Nick has shown his incredible level of dedication by creating a version of Pokemon Legends Arceus in the Unity engine. It's not just a small snippet of gameplay, but a fully playable game with every Pokemon across all generations included, with working captures, battles, and map exploration.
Pokemon Legends Arceus is a highly-anticipated open-world RPG set to release in January 2022 that has fans hope it will give the Pokemon franchise the shakeup it needs to the mainline Game Freak titles. Similar to how Breath of the Wild was a complete departure from traditional Zelda games, which seems fitting as Arceus looks to be taking a lot of inspiration from BOTW.
Avatar Nick has replicated these ambitious elements showcased in Pokemon Legends Arceus trailers with the help from his brother, other members of the modder community, and a lot of hard work. Models and animations for over 800 Pokemon were posted by a fellow fan who wrote a program to obtain the raw files of every character from the 3DS games. Trailer-accurate trainer animations, and features like gliding, mounts, and wild Pokemon attacking were also added.
Traditional mechanics like Shiny encounters, Legendary battles, and a team of six characters to battle with are also included in Avatar Nick's build. There's even a day/night cycle that aggros wild Pokemon, who attack the player if they get too close. This incredible attention to detail extends to the variety of terrains found in the actual Pokemon Legends Arceus. However, one thing that is missing from the trailers is the recently revealed Basculegion. As a new model, Nick was not able to include the unique Pokemon in his version. He did substitute it with a Red Gyarados that players can use to surf with.
This incredible replication is entirely playable but is not being released for obvious legal reasons. This story might sound familiar to Zelda fans, as Avatar Nick released a video in July entitled 'I Made Breath of the Wild 2 So Nintendo Doesn't Have To'. He followed a similarly detailed approach with this recreation, taking what information was available from trailers, and the wealth of assets available online to satisfy eager BOTW fans.
None of this would be possible without the Unity and Blender programmes, and the commitment and time put into the projects by Nick and his brother. However, it's thanks to the dedication and hard work of Zelda and Pokemon fans that really make these builds look as impressive as they are. Ripping assets and formulas from existing titles and sharing them amongst the community has made fan recreations like this a lot more accessible.
Pokemon Legends Arceus will launch on the Nintendo Switch on January 28, 2022.