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Pokemon Legends: Arceus General Discussion

How successful do you guys think this game will be? I’m sure just being an “open-world Pokémon game” automatically slots it into the above-20m sales mark, but can it beat the likes of Sword and Shield at 20.35 million, BotW at 21.45 million, or possibly become not just a Switch best-seller by beating Mario Kart 8 at 33.41 million, but the best-selling Pokémon game ever by beating Red and Blue’s 31.38 million?

The reason I bring up sales is because I so desperately want this game to absolutely smash sales expectations so as to tell Game Freak that this is the direction the Pokémon fanbase wants the games to go in.

I think if Animal Crossing of all things can sell north of 30 million games, that such a ground-breaking game from the world’s highest-grossing media franchise probably can too, right?
 
It probably won't get up to the likes of Animal Crossing. New Horizons just hit at the right time where everyone was feeling the increasing loneliness of Endless March and it helped with it. If it came out any other time, I doubt it would have sold as much.

I say legends will probably sell around 15 mil - 20.5 mil. The only thing for certain, it's more than likely going to beat out BDSP no matter how you look at it.
 
There’s so much they can do with the lore of the Pokémon world and Sinnoh in this game, that I certainly hope it doesn’t go to waste, if this game is set in the Meiji period like many suspect, that puts it about 100-150 years before the modern Sinnoh games, which means things like Heatran being born at Stark Mountain, Regigigas being sealed away by people from Hoenn, and Spiritomb being sealed at the Hallowed Tower are all things that have already happened, and I hope these are all events that are referenced. I’ve been reading through and refreshing myself on the history of the Pokémon world here, just to get a feel for what kind of events could be referenced in LA.
 
There’s so much they can do with the lore of the Pokémon world and Sinnoh in this game, that I certainly hope it doesn’t go to waste, if this game is set in the Meiji period like many suspect, that puts it about 100-150 years before the modern Sinnoh games, which means things like Heatran being born at Stark Mountain, Regigigas being sealed away by people from Hoenn, and Spiritomb being sealed at the Hallowed Tower are all things that have already happened, and I hope these are all events that are referenced. I’ve been reading through and refreshing myself on the history of the Pokémon world here, just to get a feel for what kind of events could be referenced in LA.
Not for nothing but uh, doesn't the existence of the Hallowed Tower housing Spiritomb kinda imply the opposite - that there's been human activity in Sinnoh for at least 500 years?

Whilst I would certainly agree that the game is taking inspiration from the Japanese expansion into Ezo (Hokkaido) during the late 19th Century, I would be hesitant to take a 1:1 comparison as gospel since the narration kinda lays it on thick that this is not the Sinnoh we know as the geography is apparently different which takes many hundreds if not thousands of years to happen. :unsure:
 
I think it will sale very way, it's a pokemon game after all, but will it out sale the remake who knows
 
How successful do you guys think this game will be? I’m sure just being an “open-world Pokémon game” automatically slots it into the above-20m sales mark, but can it beat the likes of Sword and Shield at 20.35 million, BotW at 21.45 million, or possibly become not just a Switch best-seller by beating Mario Kart 8 at 33.41 million, but the best-selling Pokémon game ever by beating Red and Blue’s 31.38 million?

The reason I bring up sales is because I so desperately want this game to absolutely smash sales expectations so as to tell Game Freak that this is the direction the Pokémon fanbase wants the games to go in.

I think if Animal Crossing of all things can sell north of 30 million games, that such a ground-breaking game from the world’s highest-grossing media franchise probably can too, right?
While I want this game to smash sales too, there are some problems that it may face on its way on the market:

- This is the first recent main serie game with no second title --> It will not benefit of all those sales related to people who usually buy both versions.
- Pokemon Legends: Arceus --> Don't expect those 22 milions people who bought sw/sh to be core fans. Most of them probably don't even know who the hell Arceus is.
- It will lunch early 2022. No holiday season release, and while it's always Pokemon we are talking about, holiday releases are usually the best release dates for Pokemon (look at past titles).
- It's not a new gen, no new pokemon. While in the past GF could even make terrible games because people would have bought them anyway if new pokemon or forms/megas etc. were in them, now you don't buy new pokemon, you buy a new idea.
(- No Charizard? XD)

This said, It is clearly possible the game will sell incredibly well and smash sw/sh sales, I honestly hope that with all my heart, because this GF risking for the first time in 25 years, this is GF saying "we are making a game for core fans because we are finally admitting that there are people that have played pokemon for decades", people who want to go back to Sinnoh and discover more about Arceus and the creation of the pokemon world. They could have done the usual tiny little step forward but they decided to go all in. If this is the direction you want Pokemon to follow, it's important you buy this game despite the flaws it may have in the end.
 
- Pokemon Legends: Arceus --> Don't expect those 22 milions people who bought sw/sh to be core fans. Most of them probably don't even know who the hell Arceus is.

- It's not a new gen, no new pokemon. While in the past GF could even make terrible games because people would have bought them anyway if new pokemon or forms/megas etc. were in them, now you don't buy new pokemon, you buy a new idea.
Agreed with most of your points, but hesitant about these two. I’m not confident in saying this game would only appeal to “core fans”. Seems like it has a lot to offer newcomers.

Also I think we can expect some new Pokémon. Maybe not on the same caliber as a new generation, but every game since BW2 (including both expansion passes) has introduced new Pokémon except ORAS which at least gave us new Megas. I’m thinking a few Regional Evolutions are likely.
 
Agreed with most of your points, but hesitant about these two. I’m not confident in saying this game would only appeal to “core fans”. Seems like it has a lot to offer newcomers.

Also I think we can expect some new Pokémon. Maybe not on the same caliber as a new generation, but every game since BW2 (including both expansion passes) has introduced new Pokémon except ORAS which at least gave us new Megas. I’m thinking a few Regional Evolutions are likely.
Wait, I think my words were not clear. I'm not saying it won't appeal to newcomers (for sure it will). I meant that this game does not have the nostalgic feeling that most pokemon games have. The casual pokemon player (that bought sw/sh) probably does not know who Arceus is and may not be that interested in the past of the Sinnoh region. Basically, this is not "another pokemon game with charizard" so while it's true that new people will like this new idea, some others may see this game the way I see Mystery Dungeon, something that is Pokemon but in a spin-off way.
About the new pokemon, I wouldn't be that optimistic, but I 'll be glad if I'm wrong.
 
Also I think we can expect some new Pokémon. Maybe not on the same caliber as a new generation, but every game since BW2 (including both expansion passes) has introduced new Pokémon except ORAS which at least gave us new Megas. I’m thinking a few Regional Evolutions are likely.

I'm not sure about new Pokemon but at the same time USUM did release new Pokemon, even if they were ultra beasts and not really regular Pokemon. So who knows really...

I think we could see a new mythical Pokemon, that seems the most likely if we do get new Pokemon.
 
I think we could see a new mythical Pokemon, that seems the most likely if we do get new Pokemon.
A new mythical might share (or even take away) the spotlight from Arceus, though. Existing mythicals like Darkrai or Shaymin are fine, but new mythicals could take attention away from Arceus. I think it would be best to keep Arceus as the mascot mythical for this game and not have other new mythicals that could potentially take away the spotlight from it.

As for adding new non-mythical, non-legendary pokemon in the game, I'm all for it.
 
Here's a list of things I would like to see in this game to make a perfect game.
  • Like in breath of the wild and the majority of open world game, a lot of possibilities of customization.
  • A riding system. Being able to ride pokemon, and a way to hunt a ridable pokemon. Like in red dead redemption 2 when you want to get a horse. When you see a wild horse you have to follow him and hunt him until you can sneak on his back and try to calm him. It would be cool to be able to do somethin like this with a Rapidash or an Arcanine.
  • Side quest, it's an open world game so it's almost certain their will be some. I imagine quest like catching a certain pokemon for someone, or exploring to get a rare item for a png. Or things like this.
  • Making exploration feeling rewarding. It was not in the DLC of SWSH and their was not many mystery to discover, now I would love to have a lot of mystery, maybe for some legendaries or rare pokemon you have to explore a lot to discover secret locations.
 
Tbf, SwSh didn’t jump to 20 million immediately. It took it two years and an Expansion Pass to get there. Legends: Arceus could certainly have long legs too. Personally, I don’t expect it to do as well as SwSh, just by virtue of it not being a new gen, but I don’t think it’ll have any trouble.
 
A new mythical might share (or even take away) the spotlight from Arceus, though. Existing mythicals like Darkrai or Shaymin are fine, but new mythicals could take attention away from Arceus. I think it would be best to keep Arceus as the mascot mythical for this game and not have other new mythicals that could potentially take away the spotlight from it.

As for adding new non-mythical, non-legendary pokemon in the game, I'm all for it.

Would it really?

We've always gotten new mythical Pokemon each gen along with the box legendaries (which Arceus effectively is for this game, even if it's more like a box mythical it's ultimately the same role) and it has never been an issue.

Are you assuming that this new mythical would be catchable in-game? I was thinking it would be more like a typical downloadable mythical and not be related to the story. It may not even be revealed straight away, which would mean there would be no chance of it outshining Arceus.
 
Tbf, SwSh didn’t jump to 20 million immediately. It took it two years and an Expansion Pass to get there. Legends: Arceus could certainly have long legs too. Personally, I don’t expect it to do as well as SwSh, just by virtue of it not being a new gen, but I don’t think it’ll have any trouble.
I think we can say that it's Pokemon so it will sell. It's an open world pokemon with graphics that are not taken from game cube so it's safe to assume it will sell well. In the end, however, this is a game like many others and it will smash sales if it will deserve that. If this is Pokemon trying open world just because open world sounds cool than it will sell like any other Pokemon game that it's not a new gen (let's say 15 milions), if they actually did a good job because they wanted to finally release an actual good and polished product after 10 years, than it will sell like a new gen (let's say 20 milions). If they truly wanted this game to be the beginning of a new era where "it's GF" doesn't sound like an insult and they'll be able to deliver a great game, then this game has all the potential to be the best selling switch title, because it's great and because it's pokemon.
(After sw/sh, I'm totally ok with the second option)
 
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