Pokémon Legends: Arceus

[ShiraNoMai]

Seeing that box art so close, I suddenly noticed the building on the top of Mt. Coronet. I wonder if that's an early Spear Pillar?

[Moonface]

There's going to be a presentation on August 18 that will feature this game alongside Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl:

Anyone excited to see anything in particular?

[Karo]

I'm interested, but not interested enough to want to buy it quite yet.

[Moonface]

I hope that if they show gameplay that it is significantly improved over what was shown already. I don't care what features they talk about if the game is going to run as poorly as it did for that trailer.

[Moonface]

Learn More About the Hisui Region!
Learn more about the Hisui region in a new look at Pokémon Legends: Arceus, showcasing new Pokémon, regional forms, and a completely new battle system!



Jubilife Village and the Galaxy Expedition Team
Jubilife Village will serve as the central hub for your adventures and your quest to complete the regions first Pokédex. It's also home to the Galaxy Expedition Team, made up of people from various other regions. The G.E.T. has multiple divisions, such as the Survey Corps, Medical Corps, and Security Corps. Here are a few of the notable members within these divisions:

• Professor Laventon is one member, and his goal is to study the ecology of Pokémon. He will be who you see to get your starter Pokémon as you set out on your adventures.
  
• Captain Cyllene is the leader of the Survey Corps.
  
• Commander Kamado oversees the entire Galaxy Team, and has you join the team as a member of the Survey Corps when he takes notice of your knack for Pokémon research.
  

Excursions and Catching Pokémon
Your excursions outside the village will begin by preparing a base camp, where you can prepare for your survey work by buying items or crafting new ones from basic materials you gather in the wild. Your base also serves as a makeshift Pokémon Center, allowing you to rest up and recover your Pokémon. Be careful out there though, because if you take too much damage from wild Pokémon and you'll black out, so use caution!

Taking a stealthy approach will also benefit you when it comes to catching Pokémon; get close and use a well aimed throw to try and catch them with a Pokéball. Failing to capture them off guard may result in the Pokémon fleeing or becoming aggressive, but there are also species of Pokémon that won't flee when they spot you, and instead might actually be curious about you.

Get Ready for a New Way to Battle!
Throw a Pokéball containing one of your own Pokémon near a wild Pokémon to initiate a battle, and discover the brand new system for Pokémon battles! In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Pokémon no longer take singular turns in a battle; instead, a Pokémon can now take multiple turns in a row depending on its speed stat and the move being used.

All moves are usable in two forms: Strong Style and Agile Style. Using Strong Style will increase the moves power, but its action speed will be lowered, meaning it could take place later in the current action order. If you wish to have that same move initiate sooner in the action order, then you'll want to choose Agile Style instead. Pick your style wisely to bring a battle to an end with a powerful strike, or move in quickly with multiple moves in a row.

The Pokédex
Information will be added to your Pokédex whenever you report the results of your survey work to Professor Laventon. Additional information will be filled in as you advance your research by completing tasks such as catching a Pokémon multiple times or witnessing it use a move multiple times.

Pokémon of the Hisui Region
The Hisui Region is home to a number of Pokémon that have adapted to the region, as well as brand new Pokémon that only thrived here during this time period. Here are all of them so far:

• Wyrdeer (Normal/Psychic) - Evolution of a Stantler that has adapted to the environment of the Hisui region. You can also ride this Pokémon to traverse across land faster.
  
  
• Basculegion (Water/Ghost) - Basculin that live in the Hisui Region can evolve into this Pokémon if they become possessed by the restless souls of other Basculin in their school who have perished in their journey upstream, and Basculegion gains power through the souls possessing it, allowing it to swim tirelessly. A little messed up, but it's a trait that will be very useful for players who ride on its back to navigate the waters of the Hisui Region.
  
  
• Hisuian Braviary (Psychic/Flying) - A regional form of Braviary that has adapted to the Hisui Region. You can hang onto the underside of this Pokémon to navigate Hisui from the skies.
  
  
• Hisuian Growlithe (Fire/Rock) - A very wary Pokémon that will be protective of its territory. Unlike the other newly announced Pokémon, there does not appear to be any way for a player to ride this Pokémon.
  

Pokémon Legends: Arceus releases on January 28, 2022.

[ShiraNoMai]

The biggest thing I took away from this is that they finally updated and modernized the battle system, something they haven't fundamentally done in 20 years. It's insanely long overdue, and I'm afraid it may be a little too late for some folk, so burnt by GameFreak and their shenanigans.

I'm cool with it. The game looks legit, and I'm excited to explore what they got to offer. I wanna feel what it feels like to be chased by mangey Ursaring that WILL murder you if you're not careful.

That might be my favorite aspect of this game. The Pokemon actually feel wild and will attack you, the person, instead of just "encountering" in RPG combat.

[Moonface]

I'll give Game Freak credit, this latest look is vastly improved over the first trailer the game had. I'm still not sold on it though; I need to see more on offer than just catching Pokemon as the purpose of the game.

[Mr EliteL]

I also like the new way to battle, having to properly sneak in to start a battle with your Pokémon, or fail and trigger the wild to attack the player. Well or flee or be curious about you, like the notes mentioned. Hoping that thunder/magic blast in the trailer before they showed the Pokémon attacking the character isn't of some ulterior source that causes the Pokémon to act aggressive, unless it's Arceus doing that telling them to not be afraid of humans and fight back if they can. What I mean is I hope the Pokémon can act more wild without that, but at the moment it seems that way.

[Dragon Lord]

This game is looking absolutely amazing. We may actually get a good Pokemon for the first time in many, many years, and it's the first time I can say I've actually been excited for a Pokemon game since Soul Silver and Heart Gold were announced.

It looks like there's going to be a lot to explore in this game, and I love that. I just hope they actually fill this world up with stuff to do. Don't let this be yet another big open game with hardly anything to do (coughBotWSkyrimNoMan'sSkydayone). I like that the Pokemon can actually attack the trainer. Not sure what that'll lead to (having a Pokemon attack you and lead to a game over, implying that the wild Pokemon killed the player, would be awesome), but still, has potential to be an interesting change.

Not sure how I feel about the combat system. Being able to have multiple turns in a row due to speed just makes it sound like this game is going to fail at bringing any sort of difficulty to the series. Was really hoping they might up the ante on this one, but it sounds like it could be more broken then any previous Pokemon game. Speed is going to become the one and only important stat in the game, and will be the be-all end-all of the game. Granted speed is usually always an important stat in turn-based RPGs, because of course you want your characters to act first, but this just sounds like they are letting speed absolutely break the game. Worried about that.

Aside from that one major worry though, everything else about this game is looking fantastic. Compared to how the Diamond/Pearl remakes are looking, you have to wonder what went wrong between this and that. Maybe just a matter of all the important/good employees are working on this, and they left Gen 4 remakes to the scrubs/interns.

Definitely gonna be pre-ordering this one though. Glad we're getting a good design for the female protagonist as well. She's a cutie.

[Karo]

I'm not sure how I feel about the new battle system with Pokemon the battle system has been the same for a long time, but who knows maybe it'll actually be fun and I could see people having a bit more of a challenge with slower Pokemon.

Do we know if this game has online battles or not?

[ShiraNoMai]

I believe there is Online battling, it just won't have Ranked Battles. I suppose that has to do with the new balancing between the games and it having incompatibility issues with the existing Sword/Shield Ranked Battles.

[Moonface]

I like that the Pokemon can actually attack the trainer. Not sure what that'll lead to (having a Pokemon attack you and lead to a game over, implying that the wild Pokemon killed the player, would be awesome), but still, has potential to be an interesting change.

Not sure how I feel about the  combat system. Being able to have multiple turns in a row due to speed just makes it sound like this game is going to fail at bringing any sort of difficulty to the series. Was really hoping they might up the ante on this one, but it sounds like it could be more broken then any previous Pokemon game. Speed is going to become the one and only important stat in the game, and will be the be-all end-all of the game. Granted speed is usually always an important stat in turn-based RPGs, because of course you want your characters to act first, but this just sounds like they are letting speed absolutely break the game. Worried about that.

From what I can tell, it just makes the player faint/black out in a similar fashion to if you lose in an actual Pokemon battle. I think in Sw/Sh when a Pokemon chased you and made contact, it just initiated a battle, so I prefer this approach of punishing the player directly as would be the case in reality.

I expect speed moves will be notably weaker, since the footage states that if you need to finish the battle to use a power move, when I'd expect that just slapping a few speed moves in a row down would get the job done but without the opponent getting an attack in beforehand.

[ShiraNoMai]

I like that the Pokemon can actually attack the trainer. Not sure what that'll lead to (having a Pokemon attack you and lead to a game over, implying that the wild Pokemon killed the player, would be awesome), but still, has potential to be an interesting change.

From what I can tell, it just makes the player faint/black out in a similar fashion to if you lose in an actual Pokemon battle. I think in Sw/Sh when a Pokemon chased you and made contact, it just initiated a battle, so I prefer this approach of punishing the player directly as would be the case in reality.

It harkens back to the idea that was originally probably a limitation of hardware when conceived: when you enter the tall grass before you have your first Pokemon (or even later down the line when you try to deposit all your Pokemon into a box), the game claims "It's too dangerous to enter without a Pokemon!," implying to me that wild Pokemon are as they are here: wild and dangerous.

[Dragon Lord]

I like that the Pokemon can actually attack the trainer. Not sure what that'll lead to (having a Pokemon attack you and lead to a game over, implying that the wild Pokemon killed the player, would be awesome), but still, has potential to be an interesting change.

Not sure how I feel about the  combat system. Being able to have multiple turns in a row due to speed just makes it sound like this game is going to fail at bringing any sort of difficulty to the series. Was really hoping they might up the ante on this one, but it sounds like it could be more broken then any previous Pokemon game. Speed is going to become the one and only important stat in the game, and will be the be-all end-all of the game. Granted speed is usually always an important stat in turn-based RPGs, because of course you want your characters to act first, but this just sounds like they are letting speed absolutely break the game. Worried about that.

From what I can tell, it just makes the player faint/black out in a similar fashion to if you lose in an actual Pokemon battle. I think in Sw/Sh when a Pokemon chased you and made contact, it just initiated a battle, so I prefer this approach of punishing the player directly as would be the case in reality.

Probably, but it'd be pretty cool if the game had a darker undertone. Give me the Dark Souls of Pokemon, GameFreak! 

Just wandering along and suddenly you get ambushed by a pack of wild Houndooms and they eat you.

[Moonface]

Just wandering along and suddenly you get ambushed by a pack of wild Houndooms and they eat you.

In that case let's just go for a full ecosystem of death and savagery. Have Pokemon hunting others and eating them, and low level Pokemon just die if you take them out with a high level Pokemon.