Pokémon Legends: Arceus

[HandsomeDead]

I remember reading that Gyarados was supposed to be a Dragon/Water type but in the OG Pokémon it would be far too powerful of a typing (still would even with Fairy now) so it was changed to Flying just for that reason.

[Maf]

Imagine that in the game there is only one Mew and it roams around randomly and quickly and you’re only chance of finding it is purely by luck. That would be so cool. 

[Maf]

Here is a picture of the map by the way

 

 

It looks like there are other towns. Cool! Also assuming most of what has been shown is the first area in the south west then this game could be really big

 

Usually not really moved by how big a game world is and more what you can do in it. However since I suspect this game is going to be quite limited in how the world can be interacted with hopefully it’s at least huge and has interesting areas in both design/visuals. 
 

Also in that screenshot is a wild Turtwig so starters are catchable in the wild. Imagine what it would be like to come across a herd of Bulbasaur 🥺 I bet they’re friendly when you approach and let you play with them and stuff

 

[HandsomeDead]

Pokémon is a series I do think much more money is thrown at it's merchandise and marketing department more than the devs so I do think it's better to limit expectations but I'm weirdly surprised at how they're running with the experience portrayed in the anime with this.

Of course there are a lot of emergent gameplay possibilities that won't get explored due to how conservative Game Freak are, for whatever reason, but despite all that this is still cool to see.

[Maf]

5 minutes ago, HandsomeDead said:

I'm weirdly surprised at how they're running with the experience portrayed in the anime with this.

What do you mean?

[HandsomeDead]

Just now, Maf said:

What do you mean?

 

I just think this whole project is built from expectations from the anime.  It's a huge factor in how people think about Pokémon.

[HandsomeDead]

Okay, I'll try to be more thorough.  I grew up with younger siblings who loved the Pokémon show.  The only reason I played Red/Blue era Pokémon is because my Gameboy owning siblings had the game's, because they loved the show but weren't great at understanding the game.  They weren't very good at it so I'd play it with them, helping them since I'd played a couple of Final Fantasy games at this point.  Through this process I enjoyed it too.

This is how I got into Pokémon.

 

I do think the anime, for even a lot of early adopters, is the ideal experience and doing something close to that will draw people in who know or are nostalgic for the show.

[Maf]

Hmm. Maybe in a very loose and general sense. In this game there is slightly more focus on a quest and journey, but only a little more than normal. The most key aspects of the game that has been shown so far is the freedom, size and exploration factor. Things I think most of us knew Pokemon could have been doing a long time ago. So those expectations are more set from other games than the anime.

 

Apart from obvious things like not looking, sounding or having the same energy as the anime (which other games Pokemon Yellow and Sun & Moon have approximated more closely in the past) I think the underlying thing that draws kids to the anime is the hero story and sense of adventure with friends. This game is promising bigger, but I don’t think it’s really emphasising these key things. 
 

So maybe I see what you’re saying in a loose sense. But right from RBY these games were, you’re a Professor’s Assistant, go explore Pokemon. Which is what this game still is, just a very long overdue evolution of that.

 

The thing they should take from the anime which I doubt they will because Pokemon never has a lot of writing in it. They should have 100 side quests which all revolve around a different Pokemon species and they should create small stories out of each one. 
 

Like in Gold/Silver when the Ampharos gets sick at the lighthouse. GF should hire some god damn narrative designers and build out things like that. I think that’s how you capture the anime audience (Like they weren’t going to buy this already but you know what I’m saying). 

[HandsomeDead]

I'm just saying the way this game is presented will be more likely to bring in people who like the anime but are so-so about the game's, because it looks like a closer experience.

 

I definitely don't want Pokémon to turn into Assassin's Creed but Game Freak hasn't done a game like this.  I dunno how connected they are to Nintendo, or specifically the BotW team or Monolith.  I've not seen any at all so this is like anyone else on the outside looking in on BotW.  It's hard to share people when they're working on a sequel right away, I imagine.

 

I think I'm just saying Game Freak are a pretty small team, considering, are always trying to keep up with this monster series.

 

That should be considered is all I think.  It's a super popular global series and the game's should be the flagship, but they took a different approach.  The money goes elsewhere in this case.

[Maf]

They dropped a new trailer for the game today. Looks pretty bad?

 

 

This is going to be one of those deals with the devil, isn’t it? You finally get your true, open world, BoTW-esq Pokemon game and it sucks

 

On a positive note, there are interesting things in the trailer. Firstly how active you can be while riding Pokemon. You can use the Stantler thing to jump about. Almost looks like a platforming section. There’s a cool moment where they jump out of the water on the new Basculin and the player threw a Pokeball and caught a Pokemon mid-jump.

 

The player customisation is cool. I’m still not feeling the feudal Japan style setting, though. Would like it better if it were modern. 
 

Saying it’s going to suck earlier is unfair. It does look quite jank though. They’ve still got a few months but the game is looking really unpolished. This game is looking less like BotW and more like Hyrule Warriors in terms of animations, movement, environment detail. Even for a Switch game it’s looking at the lower end of the scale graphically. 
 

Still looking forward to it, though. Even if I’m writing this sounding like I’m doubting or disappointed, if I had the chance to play any unreleased game right now it would be this one. 

[Maryokutai]

What this game needs is a team with some proper knowledge and experience of building an open world on Switch, like Monolith for example, hop in and polish it for a year.

Won't happen though, so we'll get this "it might look as good as than Oblivion from 2006?" type of game instead.

 

I like the new ideas enough to be able to look past that though. I was surprised about how much you can do while riding a Pokémon, too. It's weird how modern the language is in front of that feudal backdrop but, well, it's not like that's going to be the game's biggest problem.

 

The fact that people are a bit cautious about this is also a good thing I think. How many games have failed to live up to expectations that the hype machine blew out of proportion? Will be nice for the entire gaming community to approach a game in a more neutered state for a change and maybe be surprised at how its mechanics come together, even if the presentation doesn't.

[DisturbedSwan]

Still looks great to me? Really can't wait for this.

 

Also, I forgot to mention it sooner but Amazon UK are doing some special pre-order goodies, not sure if sold out now though:

 

 

 

[Maryokutai]

Still there but pretty sure they won't ... yep, no shipping to Luxembourg. Hail Brexit.

 

Oh well, would have been a nice bonus but I'm okay with the base version.

[Pikman]

My parents are forever going from the UK to Germany (to visit us), just incase we can ever help

[one-armed dwarf]

Not sure if new information but this isn't really an open world game, more of a zone based game like Monster Hunter it sounds like

 

https://kotaku.com/pokemon-legends-arceus-is-clearly-not-going-to-be-open-1847817836

[Maf]

Yeah, that makes sense. I think that will still work, though. As long as the zones are fairly large. The ability to walk around where you want, go exploring, find and see Pokemon around should still be really cool, even if it isn’t BotW meets Pokemon. 

[DisturbedSwan]

Makes sense, bring it on.

[Maf]

New trailer 

 

 

Couldn't find an English trailer, but still looks cool. The environments look somewhere between PS2 and X360 but the characters, Pokemon and bits of detail look great. Still seems like it's coming out this month? I'm surprised there's not more hype for this. I'm sure it'll sell well but I'm not seeing the excitement for this I thought there would be. 

[Pikman]

I can't decide. I want to be excited but I think I'm more nervous. 60% nerves, 40% excitement 🤣 

[DisturbedSwan]