Pokemon Legends Arceus

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a 2022 action role-playing game developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for the Nintendo Switch. It is part of the eighth generation of the Pokémon video game series and serves as an interquel to Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (2021). The game follows the protagonist, who is sent back in time and travels through the Hisui region, which is based on the island of Hokkaido during early Japanese colonization. The game is centered around exploration of the region’s several open areas populated with Pokémon, with its main objective being to complete the Pokédex by catching all Pokémon. 

Pokémon Legends: Arceus was a commercial success, having sold over 14.83 million copies by 31 March 2023. Pokémon Legends: Arceus is an action role-playing game that maintains the core gameplay of past mainline entries. The player can freely explore the game map, which is divided into five large areas of individual biomes. Each time the player enters an area, they spawn in a camp and can fast travel to other camps in the same area. Outside of traversing the landscape on foot, the player can unlock rideable Pokémon which can travel faster, swim across bodies of water, climb cliffs, or fly. In each area, Pokémon wander the landscape and certain habitats and will interact with both the player and their environments.

Some will actively avoid the player, while others act aggressively, and some exhibit other specific behaviors. “Alpha” Pokémon – larger, more powerful versions of the Pokémon – can also be found in the areas. The game world having multiple areas and a hub system instead of fully open world gameplay resulted in reviewers comparing Legends: Arceus with the Monster Hunter series. Reviewers also drew comparisons between Pokémon Legends: Arceus and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, noting apparent similarities in both gameplay and art style. Unlike in previous titles, the player character can be attacked and harmed by wild Pokémon.

If enough damage is taken, they will fall unconscious and reappear at the base camp. Players can capture wild Pokémon in the overworld without engaging in battle, though some must be battled before being caught. Battles can be initiated by releasing captured Pokémon near a wild Pokémon. While the game retains the turn-based battle system of prior titles, Legends: Arceus allows players to trade attack damage for more turns and vice versa. Outside of standard battles, the game also has special boss battles where the player character must dodge and attack powerful Pokémon, with regular turn-based battles being included during the fights as opportunities to stun them.

The game is set in a bygone era of the Sinnoh region’s history long before the events of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl and their remakes. Most of Hisui is covered in sparse, open wilderness populated with wild Pokémon, with a single significant settlement and several small campsites. Unlike previous Pokémon games, Pokémon are treated as wild animals or forces of nature instead of as companions or partners. Poké Balls are made of “Apricorn” fruit and puff steam when a Pokémon is caught, while the Pokédex is a paper notebook.