Pokémon Arceus legends: the new adventure to Hisui promises a lot of news

Pokémon Arceus legends

We are now very close to the review of Pokémon Legends: Arceus and we are sure that you will have a lot of questions about this new episode of the Game Freak series. On the other hand, it was a long time since The Pokémon Company hadn't kept so many secrets about an unreleased chapter.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus forcefully breaks some of the most solid bonds in the Pokémon world, and does so at almost 26 years old since the Japanese release of Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green (in Japan, Pokémon Blue was a special edition exclusive to CoroCoro subscribers). What adventures will we face in the Hisui region? What will be the role of Arceus in our wanderings? Will the new mechanics be well balanced? And how many Pokémon could we collect in what was probably the first Pokèdex ever?

These and many other questions will be answered only at the release date, scheduled for January 28, 2022 exclusively on Nintendo Switch (or maybe first, depending on when you can read our review). Until then we will have to settle for official information to outline the profile of a truly different Pokémon game.

Don't believe it? Then follow us, we will tell you in detail what is new in Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

The lore: in the beginning, Arceus

We relive myths from the past in Pokémon Legends: Arceus Pokémon Legends: Arceus. A resounding title, which immediately caused a shiver down the back of the most seasoned fans (admit it, you're among friends). Two words, in particular, immediately placed the accent on an element sometimes overlooked by a Game Freak too busy inserting new mechanics to take care of narrative coherence: Legends and Arceus, in fact, shout "lore".

The Pokémon Legends genre aims to tackle the stories that gave life to the Pokémon universe and to do so it could not help but start from those who know about creations. Arceus, the Primal Pokémon. According to the Sinnoh legends, Arceus is the god of the region, a deity born of a large cosmic egg before anything else. It was he who created Dialga and Palkia, the Legendaries of Diamond and Pearl who rule time and space respectively; and it was always he who gave rise to Giratina, to whom he entrusted the esoteric matter of the Universe. He then fathered Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf, the other three Sinnoh Legendaries, and eventually began life on earth and Pokémon. At that point, rightly a bit tired, he took a vacation to rest and no one saw him again.

Not much else is known about this creature, which is said to be almost omnipotent, and it seems that neither Damon, captain of Team Diamond, and Perula, leader of Team Pearl, know of its existence, as they worship Dialga and Palkia respectively. Finding out more about Arceus will be one of the most interesting elements of Hisui's adventure which, incidentally, will lead us to undertake specific missions to meet two other mysterious Pokémon: Darkrai and Shaymin. There seems to be a lot of meat in the fire and this episode could change the way we see the world of pocket monsters forever.

Structure: RPG Open Map

One of the areas of the Legends map Pokémon: Arceus "But why should Arceus stay with Hisui if the legends are from Sinnoh?" Simple, my young friend who ended up in this article by accident without having seen anything about the game so far. It will surprise you to know that Hisui is the ancient version of Sinnoh, the region that has characterized the games of the fourth generation (and consequently also the recent remakes Pokémon Shining Diamond and Shining Pearl: here our review of the recent remakes).

In addition to obvious narrative reasons, the presence of an area never explored by coaches from all over the world is also functional for another great novelty of this episode: the map structure. Hisui is a kind of alternative feudal Japan and can count on large areas in 3D, to be explored with free third-person cameras. It's not a real open world, but it's still a giant step forward compared to the Wild Lands (if you don't know what we're talking about, find more information in the Pokémon Sword and Shield review). The areas seen so far are large open sections, which cross the whole region and present the most different biomes.

To access it, you pass through a main hub, the Giubilo village, the nerve center of the operations of the research team of Team Galassia, of which the protagonist, Luce or Luca, is part, depending on our initial choices. This novelty also leads to a new management of progression, no longer determined by challenges in gyms that do not yet exist, but through a series of assignments closer to those of classic role-playing games.

Progression : missions

Pokédex assignments are just one of the types of quests in Pokèmon Legends: Arceus The missions should be some kind of "Pokémon hunt" and are linked to the research team of Team Galaxy: this is busy finding out what is happening to some monsters in the region, who have suddenly become aggressive. However, they are not the only quests that we will be able to face in Hisui: the "requests" of the inhabitants are real secondary, which take up some stereotypes of the chapters of the past to insert them within a more organic structure. For the first time, in fact, we will have a kind of "quest diary" available, which allows us to keep track of progress at any time and to know in advance the rewards we will get in case of success. We find it in the mysterious Arceusphone, a futuristic tool that is part of a general rethinking of the interface, now clearer and faster even in the exploration phases.

To these are added the Pokédex assignments, a another new element for the series. To fill the pages of our encyclopedia, clearly printed, it is no longer enough to capture a specimen of each species, but it is necessary to satisfy certain requirements to advance the level of analysis. It ranges from the use of certain moves to the observation of monsters in specific attitudes, just as if we were researchers discovering mysterious creatures.

Fight: not just Techniques

Quick techniques or techniques powerful? It will be important to choose well in Pokémon Legends: Arceus Interactions with wild Pokémon are also different than in the past. Clearly visible in the overworld, creatures can be engaged in three distinct ways: you can sneak up on us, throwing an empty Poké Ball to try to capture the specimen in front of us; you can throw the sphere of an already captured monster, to start a fight; or, again, you can go straight ahead and reveal our presence. It goes without saying, however, that not all Pokémon will appreciate Light / Luke's company. If some species are curious, others, on the contrary, may become frightened and decide to flee or attack us directly.

At that point, new phases of real-time battle begin between the player and Pokémon, where dodging and throwing objects alternate to weaken or distract the monsters. Berries, smoke bombs and other tools can be used to reduce the monster's aggression and prevent it from hitting us until we pass out. In this case, in fact, we would be forced to return to the last base visited, losing some inventory elements.

Even in Pokémon battles, however, there is no shortage of news, since the classic turn-based management is add the so-called techniques. Divided into quick and powerful, they guarantee respectively a higher priority of subsequent moves, at the expense of a little power compared to the basic attack, or a higher attack that sacrifices speed. In addition, they are priced in terms of Power Points, or PP, of the move used, which reduces the number of attacks of that type at our disposal. Not a small novelty, which promises to give variety and dynamism to the more traditional mechanics of the series.

We will not see much fewer clashes with trainers, given that at the time it was not common to use Pokémon to fight. However, we expect that the few present will know how to make us sweat properly.

Pokémon: ancient variants

Hisui's Braviary will help us to sail the skies of the region protagonist of Pokémon Legends: Arceus As we said in opening, we do not know how many and which Pokémon are present in Hisui. We assume that many are in common with the Sinnoh region, but we cannot rule out some surprises. On the other hand, the presence of ancient Pokémon never seen in other chapters of the series has already been confirmed, including regional variants such as Voltorb, Zorua, Zoroark, Braviary and Growlithe by Hisui, and unpublished evolutions such as Wyrdeer, Basculegion and Kleavor. The Rowlet, Cyndaquil and Oshawott starters, on the other hand, have been imported from other regions, so they make a bit of a story in themselves.

Some of these, such as Wyrdeer, Braviary and Basculegion, will even help us in the exploration, speeding up travel by land, air and water. Then there are the alpha Pokémon, or larger and more powerful monsters, recognizable through the characteristic red color of the eyes: against them the developers promise very demanding challenges. Finally, royal Pokémon are infused with an almost divine aura and guard certain areas. For some reason, however, we will often meet them out of control, due to a mysterious phenomenon that will force us to face them using all the fighting mechanics described above.

Inevitably, a technological "step back" for the management of captured Pokèmon must be reported. Since the limit of six monsters in the team does not change, the unselected ones will remain grazing at the Giubilo village. Literally. Don't worry though, because in the various base camps you can change the composition of the team before setting off on a new adventure.

Crafting: Poké Ball faidaté

How nice to graze happily in Pokémon Legends: Arceus Hisui's landscape isn't just characterized by the presence of Pokémon. Although we do not yet know the morphology of the individual areas, what is certain is that during the exploration we will find herbs to collect, rocks from which to obtain rare stones and trees to shake to obtain ripe berries. For these last two operations, among other things, we will be able to get help from our Pokémon companions: just throw one in the direction of a tree or minerals to make them quickly recover these objects.

All the raw materials will not be for their own purposes: another novelty is in fact the presence in the base camps of the do-it-yourself counter, which introduces simple but functional crafting mechanics for the creation of Poké Balls, potions and other useful tools. br>
It is, therefore, a good number of novelties that, hopefully, will make a good step forward in a series that needs to ... evolve, just like many of its protagonists. And you, what news are you waiting for the most? Tell us yours in the comments and don't forget to follow sportsgaming.win on all its channels.

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