Last week, Pokémon celebrated its 25th birthday. The expectations for this holiday – popularly called Pokémon Day – were, as always, sky-high. But where a big disappointment seemed imminent, even a massive leak couldn’t stop Game Freak from making a deep impression.
The Pokémon community regularly gets in trouble with itself. If it’s not discussions about developer Game Freak’s controversial choices, it’s the rabbit hole of rumors and speculation. Daily messages appear on forums like 4Chan from anonymous users who claim to know what The Pokémon Company is up to. Thus, there are countless large and small contentmakers who make it their business to treat them all. Not only because it scores extremely well – even the undersigned often cannot resist the temptation – but also because one in a thousand cases turns out to be true.
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Almost all major recent Pokémon games leaked sooner or later before the announcement: Sun and Moon via one webdomain, Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee via one screenshot and Sword and Shield, including all major features, on 4Chan. Also the upcoming games, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl and Pokémon Legends: Arceus, leaked in different stages on the internet. Three hours before the Pokémon Presents presentation, almost everything was out on the street, including a trailer. Not the best way to start a presentation, especially with the always-high expectations of passionate fans. More than once a Pokémon presentation disappointed, and this information was too good to be true.
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The next step
Still, The Pokémon Company and developer Game Freak managed to create real buzz around new games for the first time in years. New Pokémon Snap is looking good and finally the fantastic Sinnoh games are getting a remake. Apart from the pink glasses that Snap fans have – and the curious looks of the characters in Brilliant Diamond and Pearl – those are two solid titles. However, both are dwarfed by a much more daring project that represents a surprisingly big step for the franchise: Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
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The open world dream has been around almost as long as the Pokémon franchise has existed. Exploring a Pokémon region without borders, or online with friends, has been at the top of many enthusiasts’ wish lists for years. Unfortunately, Pokémon is a franchise of marginal improvements and since the fourth generation of games, the franchise has only made small steps. Sword and Shield made a valiant effort to give players more freedom by unleashing them in the Wild Area. These fairly empty areas of pokémon and possibly other online players are nice for what they are, but are just a harbinger of a long-awaited next step for the series. Considering how well the Pokémon games are selling, Game Freak didn’t have to do much more to be financially successful.
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Breath of the Wilde pokémon
Therefore, the announcement that the franchise is heading in a new direction was quite unexpected. Legends: Arceus is a side project set in a feudal Sinnoh, the region of Diamond, Pearl and Platinum. Players are given the task of assembling the first Pokédex and are therefore free to explore the natural areas and chase monsters on their heels. Catching Pokémon is now done in real-time by actively aiming and throwing the wooden Pokéball, and battles take place seamlessly. All in a vast world with Mount Coronet as the central point.
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Sounds familiar? That’s right, the Zelda: Breath of the Wild parables are almost shameless. But that is also the point of this title: everything radiates that Game Freak – despite its financial success – finally gives in to criticism of the entrenched formula. Mediocre graphics, lack of voice acting and linear routes with loading screens show the age of Pokémon, where RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles, Dragon Quest 11S and Breath of the Wild do much more with the Switch hardware. We’ve finally gotten to a point where even the creators recognize that the franchise is in need of revamp, despite Sword and Shield being the second best-selling installments.
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New audience
Of course, Legends: Arceus is not guaranteed to solve all problems. On the contrary, there are plenty of pitfalls that the game should avoid, some of which already surfaced during the trailer. For example, the world seems quite empty even for Breath of the Wild concepts and the frame rate was certainly not optimal everywhere – while we of course keep in mind that the game is far from finished. Plus, it looks like Legends is actually a side project, and not a brand new region with cities, gyms, and new Pokémon.
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Will the game be the next stopover for full-fledged ninth generation, open world Pokémon games? Supposedly, but it is by far the most interesting test balloon in years. Should it succeed, the ninth generation could well open doors to audiences that once lost sight of Pokémon.
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