Pokemon Legends: Arceus General Discussion

[pitchtheripoff]

I thought that March would still count as early 2022. It might have been pushing it, but March is still relatively early in the year. I think a lot of fans thought that there would be a bigger gap between the release dates for BD/SP and Legends too.

That is understandable, but I don't really know why people are so worried since we actually have no clue how long the game was in development for. I get being cautious, but this is kinda bordering on being paranoid,

 

[Hidden Mew]

That is understandable, but I don't really know why people are so worried since we actually have no clue how long the game was in development for. I get being cautious, but this is kinda bordering on being paranoid,

To be fair, the reveal trailer did give off the impression, at least for me, that they were pretty early in development, which is why I thought that there would be a longer gap between the two sets of games. I'm not really being paranoid here so much as possibly getting the wrong impression from the reveal trailer. I don't think that releasing the game in January is a bad sign. I'm surprised since I thought it would take longer, but if I get to play the game sooner, then I'm all for it. As much as people complain about GameFreak, they know far more about video game development than I do and it's true that we don't know how long they've been working on the game as well.

 

[Esserise]

Rewatching the Legends trailer, I'm actually not given the impression that the game is/was still in "early development." Yes there's framerate issues that need fixing, but I could easily see the finished game looking more-or-less like it does there. We've seen what "early development" Pokémon games look like, and they're a lot less coherent than what we see in Legends's trailer.

Edit: I mean, ultimately we just really don't know. I'm interested to get a clearer sense of how the labor was divided among these projects, which we might get when they start giving out press interviews, and next month is probably the earliest that they would start doing that. If I recall correctly, conceptual work was being done on the Expansion Pass during the development of SwSh, so they might've started putting the DLC together as soon as SwSh launched; maybe a bit before or maybe a bit after. And honestly, it really wasn't long after SwSh were released (November 2019) and the Expansion Pass was announced (January 2020) that the Isle of Armor rolled out (June 2020), seemingly not too different from what was presented in the trailers. Even the Crown Tundra didn't seem to evolve that much from what was presented, but it did have more content than IOA so I guess it makes sense that it would take a little longer. (And I sort of doubt we'll ever find this out, but I'm also curious to know if the pandemic had any significant impact on their process, because at least from a casual perspective, it doesn't seem like it did.)

Given Game Freak's history, the time of SwSh's launch is also when conceptual work on Gen 9 would have likely started. So that's probably a good ways into actual development by now. BDSP is ILCA's problem, which leaves Legends to fit into the puzzle. My guesstimation is they started conceptualizing them during the DLC's core development and then got into the meat and bones after IOA released. Also, for as much as they're being labeled as a "bold new direction" for the series, I highly doubt that they're suddenly going to drop the basic formula and just make Breath of the Wild offshoots from now on. Legends kind of feels to me like a concept test-bed for things they maybe hope to implement in Gen 9. So maybe they wanted something to practice with and experiment on before getting too far into Gen 9's core development. Kind of like how we know LGPE and SwSh were made in parallel and how the latter derived a lot of lessons from the former. Idk. Like I said, this is all just guesswork until they say something more concrete.

Edit 2: Also, something worth keeping in mind is that the footage from the initial trailer was likely not sourced from a concurrent build of the game, but rather an earlier one. Trailers like that aren't something they slap together from what they have that day; it would have been put together and prepared in advance. Hence "game footage not final" being a ubiquitous disclaimer.

Also, while I admit I was expecting/hoping for a March release, realistically I don't think two months would make that big of a difference on the final product. I'm definitely excited to get to try this game out sooner than I thought I would.

 

[Pyrax]

The release dates being so close reminds me a bit of last year with Ubisoft releasing Watch Dogs Legion and Assassins Creed Valhalla 2 weeks apart. Granted those are completely different franchises, but I'm wondering whether Legends will 'supplement' whatever lore BDSP introduces/expands on to entice people to buy it
Sinnoh will still be fresh on everyone's minds in January, so sales figures will be pretty interesting to see either way lol

Personally, I like the cover. The "stick generic stock art of Legendaries on the front" is so outdated. I wish the main series used this format.

Gotta have to agree, at least BDSP has 3D renders of Dialga/Palkia roaring. It's definitely an improvement over SwSh's imo. I prefer Legends' boxart by far; Mt.Coronet looks so majestic in the background, and the protagonists staring at it really adds to the atmosphere.

 

[Esserise]

Congrats to Rhyhorn, Rowlet, Cyndaquil, Oshawott, Pikachu, Lucario, and Bidoof on becoming box mascots lol

(Even though poor Bidoof got the Mike Wazowski treatment, though)

 

[Puddle]

If you look closely at the boxart, it appears there's a shrine of some sort at the summit of Mt. Coronet. It doesn't much resemble the Spear Pillar - it looks like it has a slanting roof.

Edit: Maybe it is the Spear Pillar, but in its original form. The Spear Pillar that we saw in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum does seem like it could be the ruin of what was once a much larger structure.

 

[Emmy]

Is it just me or is Pikachu sat on top of some kind of ruins.

 

[Esserise]

Is it just me or is Pikachu sat on top of some kind of ruins.

Looks more like a tree stump to me to be honest

 

[techitisJ]

Was quite surprised when I saw that the release date for Legends Arceus was announced today. I'm also pretty surprised to see we're getting a late January release date. At least as far as I know for the Switch, this is the first time we are getting a bigger title released this early in the year. When they stated that Arceus was going to be released in early 2022, I thought it would be late February at the earliest, with the more reasonable release date being late March/early April. But nope, we have a January release date.

I am so glad that they decided to go with that beautiful artwork for the box art. The legendary Pokemon on a basic background box art is definitely starting to feel outdated. I had started to notice how stale this box art method was getting with the release of Let's Go and SwSh, but it was New Pokemon Snap's box art that made me realize how much better they can do with Pokemon games. They did a really good job with the artwork for Legends. It really seems to encompass what the game is going to be about.

 

[pitchtheripoff]

I am seriously hoping future generations will have art similar to Legends, or at least art of the legendaries in key locations in the game rather than an endless void.

 

[Cute Charm]

There has been art like that for key locations like that forever at this point. It's just that they have never really been used for anything other than extra material.

Personally I think it's just because it's not a main mainline game. I mean, LGPE also had original art for the covers featuring the protagonists too.

 

[Phosphene]

Since I don't think anyone has posted the box art yet...

Spoiler: Box Cover

Spoiler: Full Cover Art

The artwork reminds me a lot of Explorer's of Sky's boxart. I really like it--I think this may be my favorite cover out of the core series.

 

[Esserise]

Looks more like a tree stump to me to be honest

Since I don't think anyone has posted the box art yet...

Spoiler: Box Cover

Spoiler: Full Cover Art

The artwork reminds me a lot of Explorer's of Sky's boxart. I really like it--I think this may be my favorite cover out of the core series.

Definitely not a tree stump in the full artwork.

 

[Cute Charm]

People seem to think we're going to see the Sinnoh in full glory.

But they are also forgetting that the pokemon equivalent to the 100 year war happened thousands of years ago. Meaning those ruins have probably been there for longer than that. If it's truly supposed to be Meji era and all of the Japanese eras line up with the real world, then those ruins would also be thousands of years old by that point.

 

[EmpoleonProd]

I'm disappointed that Arceus didn't get to be on the box art of its own game. The artwork they chose, as beautiful as it is, breaks the core series tradition of including the mascot - and only the mascot - on the cover, making it look like a spin-off.

The boxart reveal just solidifies the rumor that there could be a Gold/Deluxe of sorts... a "Platinum" edition if you will, that will feature Arceus himself on the cover. Whatever the highest edition is, I'm buying it lol

Bonus points if it's bundled with the upcoming "Switch Pro".

 

[Cute Charm]

Isn't this just the third Diamond and pearl remake? And aren't they moving more towards DLC instead of separate versions?

 

[EmpoleonProd]

Isn't this just the third Diamond and pearl remake? And aren't they moving more towards DLC instead of separate versions?

I'm confused, you think Legends: Arceus is a remake? If so you're mistaken. Entirely new story vs. the traditional Sinnoh games, DPPl and BDSP.

 

[Isaac Gravity]

So... outside of announce of release date (which is an odd one indeed) has there been any new information dropped at all about this game?

 

[EmpoleonProd]

So... outside of announce of release date (which is an odd one indeed) has there been any new information dropped at all about this game?

Nope, for now it's just wild and endless speculation, most leaks point to us getting something around E3, either just before or after E3, maybe a teaser during. So give it a week or two.

 

[Cute Charm]

I'm confused, you think Legends: Arceus is a remake? If so you're mistaken. Entirely new story vs. the traditional Sinnoh games, DPPl and BDSP.

I'm just saying it is filling the role of a remake by being set in Sinnoh. Like it's the game they wanted to do instead of having a standard remake. Plus coupled with BDSP it's like there is 3 remakes/re-imaginings in the span of 2 months.