Everything you need to know about Pokemon Legends Arceus

Pokemon Legends Arceus is the next big game in the franchise, taking players back to a feudal-era Sinnoh known as Hisui and introducing them to new regional forms and evolutions such as Basculegion and Wyrdeer.

Excitement is growing for Legends Arceus, the newest Pokemon game developed by none other than Game Freak. The title looks to break the mold of past games, bringing the series into the modern age – while also traveling back in time – completely revamping the way players battle, interact with, and traverse the world.

From features like Pokemon mounts to seamless battle transitions, dodge rolls, and unique catching mechanics, Pokemon Legends Arceus looks incredibly exciting. Here’s everything we know about the game so far.

Additional reporting by Ava Thompson-Powell.

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Contents

• Release date
• Screenshots
• Trailers
• Features
• New Pokemon and starters
• Is Legends Arceus open-world?

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Pokemon Legends Arceus release date

Fans of the franchise don’t have much longer to wait, as Pokemon Legends Arceus will release on Nintendo Switch on January 28, 2022.

As you may expect, it’ll be exclusive to Nintendo’s console.

Pokemon Legends Arceus screenshots

Set in the gorgeous Hisui region, an ancient land that is now known as the Sinnoh region, there’s a vast landscape of terrain to travel through and explore.

• Read More: How to preorder Pokemon Legends Arceus

August’s Pokemon Presents provided fans with an even deeper look into the game, and we’ve collected some of our favorite screenshots for you to enjoy:

Pokemon Legends Arceus trailers

Reveal trailer

Game Freak’s latest game is set in a “feudal” Sinnoh era, which takes place way before any of the current mainline titles. The reveal trailer depicts footage of a vast world and an action-based battling system with the series’ iconic monsters, moving forward from the combat style of the franchise.

• Read More: Which Pokemon are in Max Raid Battles now?

The game tasks players with putting together the first Sinnoh region Pokedex as surveyors, helping Professor Laventon and a variety of other NPCs to document all the Sinnoh-based Pokemon for the first time.

Hisui region trailer

‘New Faces’ trailer

A ‘New Faces’ preview trailer released on December 15 introduced fans to the leader of the Diamond Clan, Adaman, and the leader of the Pearl Clan, Irida. It also reveals a few members of each clan.

They’ll no doubt play a big part in the main storyline of Pokemon Legends Arceus.

Pokemon Legends Arceus features

Below are a few major details from the upcoming Pokemon Legends Arceus game that we spotted in the trailers so far:

• Able to utilize some of the new Pokemon as mounts to travel across land, air, and sea
• Aiming when catching a Pokemon
• A colorful cast of NPC characters to meet and interact with.
• A large map to explore
• An ‘Action Order‘ UI element, that indicates how often, and when a Pokemon can act in battle depending upon its stats.
• An open-world
• Attack styles: Strong Style, and Agile Style – both affecting the speed and strength of how your ‘mon attacks their opponent
• Basculegion, a new evolution of Basculin
• Camping features and crafting
• Crouching to hide from Pokemon, stopping them from running away or attacking you first
• Different biomes to explore and uncover
• Hisuian forms for Braviary, Growlithe, and Voltorb (among others).
• Seamless battles
• Set in a Feudal era Sinnoh, named the Hisui region
• Wyrdeer, a Stantler evolution specific to the region of Hisui

From a vast and varied world to some truly unique Pokemon evolutions and Attack Styles, Arceus goes above and beyond the current offerings in previous Pokemon titles.

• Read More: All new Pokemon and Hisuian forms

One of the most exciting features in Arceus is that, in order to catch Pokémon in the wild, you have to observe them and learn their behavior. If done correctly, you’ll then get the opportunity to sneak up and aim a Pokeball at it.

The official site states that “you can also have your ally Pokémon battle wild Pokémon that you hope to catch. Just throw the Poké Ball holding your ally Pokémon near a wild Pokémon, and you’ll seamlessly enter battle and command your Pokémon by choosing from moves it knows.”

• Read More: All returning Pokemon in Legends Arceus

It seems like a pretty radical change and will make for interesting gameplay alongside all of the other features above.

Pokemon Legends Arceus starters

The three starters Trainers will be able to choose in Arceus are:

• Cyndaquil, a fire-type.
• Oshawott, a water-type.
• Rowlet, a grass/flying-type.

Of course, more could be announced at a later date, but for now, that’s all the info we have. Leakers have also suggested that the three starters will get new evolutions, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

Is Pokemon Legends Arceus open-world?

Despite early footage suggesting that Legends Arceus would be an open-world game, it’s since been confirmed that it won’t be open-world. Instead, players will have separate zones to visit, with each one containing different Pokemon.

“Jubilife Village will serve as the base for surveying missions,” explained The Pokemon Company. “After receiving an assignment or a request and preparing for their next excursion, players will set out from the village to study one of the various open areas of the Hisui region.

“After they finish the survey work, players will need to return once more to prepare for their next task.”

Based on this statement, it sounds as though Legends Arceus will be very similar to the Monster Hunter franchise, rather than being the Zelda: Breath of the Wild-style open-world game fans were hoping for.

We’ll likely see even more footage for Pokemon Legends Arceus in the coming months, so make sure you check back here on Dexerto for all the latest Pokemon news. In the meantime, check out all we know about these upcoming releases:

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