Pokemon Legends: Arceus General Discussion

[Oriden]

I think the riding system in the game, is likely based on a version of Pokérides. I’d like to be wrong, but given how LA’s own concept works perfectly to develop a more open world-like game (or at least a game with much bigger areas then before), while not being as complex to work as a modern Gen map with much more (and sometimes bigger) cities and towns. I’d like if I’m wrong or if in the future they’d go for allowing you to ride your own Pokémon, if you have compatible ones in your team, but I’m not sure now feasible it is. Expecially considering that in a Gen 9 game there are going to be, most likely, much more Pokémon available then in LA.

It should be pretty feasible, considering the task shouldn't even be creating new models, it should just be rigging it so the trainer model can sit properly on the already-made-and-animated pokemon ones. Like the brunt of the animation is already done, just slap a trainer on there and adjust the movement accordingly. Package that with the model assets and you've got rideable pokemon ready for all future games.

And since the pokemon models are Creatures' thing, I don't think it would even take time out of GameFreak's development to work on it? Just task Creatures with that job. They can handle it.

But I kinda wonder if this maybe isn't just something that's slated for later in the pipeline- might be easier to work on improving pokemon movement (making them all able to turn around naturally, mainly) before they go through and slap a trainer on a whole bunch of them. Would save them from having to go through a second round of making sure trainers stay seated if they just finish all of the major movement animations first.

 

[TheElderKing]

I am very surprised that Game Freak managed to improve the animations

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Eh, Ursaring’s animation when attacking the player is still quite rough, but there are overall improvements.

A thing to keep in mind, even if it doesn’t justify the level of animations in SwSh, is that the one game per year approach they followed from SM to SwSh hurt a lot in this area, alongside overall all technical/graphical issues the games had. They basically went for more complex 3D games, while having less time to work on them then before, even less then in Gen 5 and 6 games (which in turn were developed in less time then previous games).

It’s the reason why I really wish they’d take the year off in 2023, as it’d give them almost 3 year to work fully on the next game. If the next game will be released in their common Fall/November timeframe, then they’ll get back to have almost two years of development between games, which they didn’t have since Gen 4 games, but I wouldn’t expect as much improvements in that case. It’d more likely the game will fall in 2023, expecially considering the anime

People thinking they’d reboot SwSh as FFXIV did are a bit naive, as there’s no way they’ll do that instead of developing a new game. Even with a 2023 release, there’d be one what more between Gen 8-9 then Gen 7-8.

I REALLY hope they won’t go for a new release in Fall 2022, because in that case my expectations will be much, much lower.

 

[Bolt Strike]

I do think that the reason behind his is most likely plot progression, as going in certain areas might lead to reaching later stages of the story, and possibly levelling. Either makes me unsure that even in a traditional Pokémon game we’d the get the map fully explorable from the start, without some blocking on higher leveled areas and gym.

I’d personally love if the gyms would be challengeable up to us, but it’d require to work on different teams and levelling depending on how many badges you have when you fight them, and they don’t seem keen to add additional features like that (or toggle to limit the number of Pokémon allowed in a gym tight to the same of the gym leader…or as in SwSh, toggles to not use the exp all system or the catching exp system).

And having areas with higher leveled Pokémon, too much for you to deal with, while not an effective block, would have the same result, at you wouldn’t be able to proceed until you level up your team. Which isn’t bad, per sec but I think they won’t open themselves up to the criticism of making the game ‘too hard for kids’.

I mean, in games that had the Vs. Seeker, they literally had to program in multiple teams for every trainer in the game based on how far you are in the game, and SwSh had a level scaling system that set the wild Pokemon and trainer levels at appropriate levels based on your progress. I don't think leveling is a barrier for them in the slightest. At this point there's nothing stopping them from making a true open world game.

 

[TheElderKing]

It should be pretty feasible, considering the task shouldn't even be creating new models, it should just be rigging it so the trainer model can sit properly on the already-made-and-animated pokemon ones. Like the brunt of the animation is already done, just slap a trainer on there and adjust the movement accordingly. Package that with the model assets and you've got rideable pokemon ready for all future games.

And since the pokemon models are Creatures' thing, I don't think it would even take time out of GameFreak's development to work on it? Just task Creatures with that job. They can handle it.

But I kinda wonder if this maybe isn't just something that's slated for later in the pipeline- might be easier to work on improving pokemon movement (making them all able to turn around naturally, mainly) before they go through and slap a trainer on a whole bunch of them. Would save them from having to go through a second round of making sure trainers stay seated if they just finish all of the major movement animations first.

You’re sort of right about the riding animations for the ground, but for sea and air Pokémon it’d require more work.

That’s a good point. I think LA could very well be a starting point for several features to be implemented in a much deeper way in future games, while also giving then time to address the issues of better animations.

I do think it’d also depend on when the following game would be released. I’d prefer 2024, but Fall 2023 would still be more time allocated to work on a single game in full (as GF was still working on dlcs between SwSh and LA), sine Gen 4, I believe.

 

[Oriden]

You’re sort of right about the riding animations for the ground, but for sea and air Pokémon it’d require more work.

That’s a good point. I think LA could very well be a starting point for several features to be implemented in a much deeper way in future games, while also giving then time to address the issues of better animations.

I do think it’d also depend on when the following game would be released. I’d prefer 2024, but Fall 2023 would still be more time allocated to work on a single game in full (as GF was still working on dlcs between SwSh and LA), sine Gen 4, I believe.

More time would probably produce a better game in general, but I don't think I'd be surprised at all if we got our Fall 2022 release anyway, if only because I think the competitive scene is going to be getting tired of SwSh. I wouldn't even be mad if they did, personally, but I just get excited about new pokemon designs and I'm pretty tired of the main games' play style anyway. I want to see more games in the direction that LA's now taking us- more exploring and interacting with pokemon, instead of just a battle-after-battle grind.

 

[blitzle stan]

I think it’ll be like PokéRide, but you do own and earn them. We will have to be catching every Pokémon (and multiples of them! For most at least) and will have research missions for likely all of them.

I definitely see a research mission for Wyrdeer, for example, where you have to observe, interact with, and catch it, and the end goal for the mission is to unlock being able to ride them.

I 100% believe they will not force you to have them in your team of 6. I see them having some kind of call system for them. It would be nice if, say Wyrdeer is on your team, you could send it out and mount it instead of calling it because it’s not on your team at that moment.

 

[Fairy Type Arceus]

Oh here's a thought, since they're clearly following this Sinnoh myth:



Maybe we'll see this one?



That could turn out to be our conflict, is some guy's been going around threatening pokemon and that's what made Giratina act so violent in the first place.

The first one with a pokemon asking to appear before humans. Its probably Arceus. What other pokemon could give such a command that all would follow?
The clear answer is bidoof actually, the true pokegod.

I mean, in games that had the Vs. Seeker, they literally had to program in multiple teams for every trainer in the game based on how far you are in the game, and SwSh had a level scaling system that set the wild Pokemon and trainer levels at appropriate levels based on your progress. I don't think leveling is a barrier for them in the slightest. At this point there's nothing stopping them from making a true open world game.

Also in pokemon emerald, they already had done this. The levels in the battle frontier would equal your own (highest leveled pokemon) if you picked open level. They've done this before on the gameboy advance

 

[TheElderKing]

The fact that they’ve done similar things in a distant past doesn’t mean they’re willing to do it now, though.

I’m not saying they won’t, but I’m not going to use the fact that they previously had a system for different teams for trainers based on your progress, or a system to make the levels of the trainer’s Pokémon matching your highest one, as proof that they could do it now. They previously made the exp share being toggable/controllable by the player, and didn’t bother to add the option in SwSh.

 

[Dizzard]

They haven’t said, but I suspect the latter. I could be entirely wrong about this, but the impression I got from the trailer was that these exploratory utility functions are tied specifically to Wyrdeer, Basculegion, and Braviary, which puts me more in the mind of Poké Ride.

If that isn’t the case, and you are instead using your own Pokémon, then it’s going to have the same problem that Let’s Go had, which is that players are required to have these specific Pokémon on their team in order to even access these vital forms of movement, which is frankly more restrictive than traditional HMs ever were. But even if the pool of candidates is wider, having to use your own Pokémon would still not be convenient to all players, because then you’ve just got traditional HMs in spirit (as in, only certain Pokémon can learn this HM move = be used to run, fly, surf, etc., so if you want to do any of that, you need a Pokémon with that capability).

I think it's important that players can use these transport Pokemon regardless of whether or not they have them in their team. That said I'd like if they had a different animation for summoning them if you have them in your team. It would seem a bit weird to me to have a Basculegion come to you to surf when you already have one on your team.

 

[dawn dusk]

I might be completely wrong with this, because I haven't even played a single Pokémon game and I don't know how Pokéride works and about the limit of six Pokémon in the games (whether the player has to stick with the six for entire game, or the player can switch in between with substitutes (I don't know the exact term too xD)). What I feel is that there will be three additional slots for riding (one for land, one to dive in waters and one for gliding in air) in which player should keep only the ridable Pokémon. Player can even use these Pokémon for Battle.

 

[Oriden]

I might be completely wrong with this, because I haven't even played a single Pokémon game and I don't know how Pokéride works and about the limit of six Pokémon in the games (whether the player has to stick with the six for entire game, or the player can switch in between with substitutes (I don't know the exact term too xD)). What I feel is that there will be three additional slots for riding (one for land, one to dive in waters and one for gliding in air) in which player should keep only the ridable Pokémon. Player can even use these Pokémon for Battle.

Oh PokeRide just gives you specific pokemon you can summon that aren't yours that will appear to give you a ride. There are a few different ones with different functions, like Stoutland could sniff up hidden items in Sun and Moon.

Ideally we should be able to replace the default with one of our own that we could summon just as freely, but that hasn't become a thing yet and doesn't look like it'll be in this game.

In regards to the six, that's how many you have on hand that you can take into battle and then there's a PC that holds the rest of your pokemon that you can swap your team out for while outside of battle. Before Let's Go you had to go to a pokemon center to swap out your pokemon but I think they've now been making the PC accessible from anywhere? I can't remember if that's also the case in SwSh.

 

[TheElderKing]

Speaking of PCs...how are we going to 'store' Pokèmon, exactly? There should be computers in this era.

 

[bulbasaur99]

Speaking of PCs...how are we going to 'store' Pokèmon, exactly? There should be computers in this era.

Like in the anime, we can store our pokemon on a farm or a ranch of the professor. Or a better idea we could have a ride pokemon delibird who brings our pokemon from the storage in the headquarters. I think this is used in the anime too with team rocket grunts.

 

[Esserise]

but I think they've now been making the PC accessible from anywhere? I can't remember if that's also the case in SwSh.

‘Tis.

Anyway I think there’ll just be a place at the Galaxy HQ where we keep our Pokémon, and then you probably just talk to one of the Corpsmen standing by a base camp if you want to swap something out. So I suspect there will be no more anywhere-PC, at least for this game.

 

[Emmy]

In regards to the "open world" nature of the game. I think that's a major reason for bringing back the PokéRides as they can act as ways to bypass the roadblocks that might segment off the map to keep you from wandering too far off from the main camp until you're ready.

 

[blitzle stan]

There has to be some kind of transport system or PC-like system... we are expected to catch a lot of Pokémon, so what generally happens when we already have 6? If they can still magically go to a farm due to already having 6, then anything is still possible.

 

[TheElderKing]

Like in the anime, we can store our pokemon on a farm or a ranch of the professor. Or a better idea we could have a ride pokemon delibird who brings our pokemon from the storage in the headquarters. I think this is used in the anime too with team rocket grunts.

Yeah, I was mostly wondering how exactly would the pokèmon be brough to said location. I do hope they won't just go for the pokèballs being stored in a box or something like that.

 

[Oriden]

I wonder if the six pokemon limit would even apply here... there is no league to set this rule, and probably a lack of trainer battles. We could just have a bag of pokeballs with a more generous holding limit and be able to carry a bunch of pokemon around with us with possibly a more permanent storage at the base? And just choose a pokemon on-hand to battle with?

 

[blitzle stan]

I wonder if the six pokemon limit would even apply here... there is no league to set this rule, and probably a lack of trainer battles. We could just have a bag of pokeballs with a more generous holding limit and be able to carry a bunch of pokemon around with us with possibly a more permanent storage at the base? And just choose a pokemon on-hand to battle with?

The UI during a Pokémon battle showed six balls on the bottom left. While I suppose that doesn't mean the max is six, it would be a strange decision to display it like that for this trailer, right?

 

[Oriden]

The UI during a Pokémon battle showed six balls on the bottom left. While I suppose that doesn't mean the max is six, it would be a strange decision to display it like that for this trailer, right?

Damn, I didn't notice that- nevermind my theory, then! XD Back to wondering how they're gonna swing that one.