Pokémon Legends: Arceus Breaks Tradition and Looks Amazing

This morning brought us a brand new trailer for Pokémon Legends: Arceus, showing off more of the Hisui region and just how different this experience will be.

Once you finish up playing through the Diamond/Pearl remakes, January will bring the next major Pokémon game to the Nintendo Switch. Pokémon Legends: Arceus takes place in a more ancient Sinnoh region (where Diamond and Pearl are based), where it’s still unexplored territory known as the Hisui region.

You’re tasked with surveying the new territory, a vast open-world landscape to study the various pocket monsters unique to this land. It’s a new type of setting for the game, but that’s on the tip of the iceberg in how things are changing. This morning’s Pokemon Presents gave us a new, gameplay filled, trailer showing it all off:

I REALLY love everything I’m seeing here. It feels very much like the open-world Pokémon game fans have been looking forward to; that we saw glimpses of in Sword/Shield. The idea that you can travel the world freely, catch creatures on the fly without having to engage in battle is really neat and feels more “natural” with the type of world they’ve crafted. I also love how combat works now, where it all stems from the main overworld, and you initiate things by tossing out a Pokemon you’ve caught near others.

Add in the item crafting and missions, and it has the makings of a really great action-RPG all around; not just a great Pokemon game. In short, my hype is at an all time high and I can’t wait to see how this new chapter in the franchise plays out.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus hits Nintendo Switch on January 28, 2021.

Previous articlePokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Adds Character Customization and More
Next articleExplore Haven Springs’ Record Store in Life is Strange: True Colors’ Gameplay Trailer
Jordan Maison
Editor-in-Chief: Writer and cartoonist who went to college for post-production, he now applies his love of drawing, movie analysis, filmmaking, video games, and martial arts into writing.