Pokemon Legends: Arceus General Discussion

[Silktree]

The Japanese site for Legends states that it's for one player, while the BSDP site clarifies that there's a multiplayer and trades for 2-4 players. So Legends isn't even going to feature trading, which is interesting to think about in terms of some evolutions.

As for the Pokemon roster, the announcement video mentioned access to all the Pokemon from Diamond and Pearl. After LGPE and SwSh, I would think they'd be specific if they wanted to advertise access to more recent Pokemon. Plus, they also said that Legends will have some Pokemon not in BSDP, so...

usum and s/m were developed at the same time and so did x/y and oras.

Ohmori started planning ORAS in late 2012, but the actual development started when XY were pretty much done. USUM are trickier since you could argue they removed content from SM (there is no real evidence of this), but I somehow doubt they admitted that. Regardless, USUM were a minor project.

Legends' director and some of the staff probably started planning Legends in early 2019 or so. So that would mean one more year compared to ORAS (or 1.5) and LGPE, maybe. The game doesn't seem to have been in development for longer than two years, and that's being generous.

 

[Greninjaman]

You know, this game lends itself nicely to the Nuzlocke challenge. Deaths will be not from batting other trainers for a badge or sport, but rather, survival against wild Pokemon.

 

[Joker901]

Ohmori started planning ORAS in late 2012, but the actual development started when XY were pretty much done. USUM are trickier since you could argue they removed content from SM (there is no real evidence of this), but I somehow doubt they admitted that. Regardless, USUM were a minor project.

Legends' director and some of the staff probably started planning Legends in early 2019 or so. So that would mean one more year compared to ORAS (or 1.5) and LGPE, maybe. The game doesn't seem to have been in development for longer than two years, and that's being generous.

GF has officially stated how they work: first they have a planning period (that is what Ohmori was doing since mid-late 2012) and then a developing period (2013-2014) with the last part of the last year being spent in localization and actual production of the copies. But you have to consider the planning time in the process of making a game. This is why ORAS (and remakes in general) had a cycle of two years (late 2012-late 2014) while S/M and SW/SH had a developing cycle of three years (late 2013 - late 2016 / late 2016 - late 2019).
Then you have to consider that those 2 years of development for remakes are mostly spent in a graphical update of the titles, because the main game (region, gyms, league), the main plot and all the pokemon are mostly copy pasted from past games.
Now, the question is: do we really believe that GF, while working on gen 9 and partially on DLCs and during COVID, will actually be able in 2.5 years to create an open world game with a full 3D redisign of Sinnoh, with an entire new plot, completely different catching (and probably partially new battle) mechanic, not counting new animations, climbing, flying and who knows what else? This is why I'm convinced part of their team has been working on this since 2018 when they finished working on Let's Go.
Also, what we have seen in the first trailer of Legends may not be indicative of the actual state of works. As I said before, remember what the first trailer from sw/sh told us about those games: a totally empty region full of bad textures and missing shadows with no overworld encounters. They do this on purpose, guys. They just want to show the region in the first trailer and trust me, it will have people and pokemon roaming around but it won't look that better (tecnically of course) in the final product. My only hope is that they fix the frame rate. Legends was announced 3-4 months before any other game and assuming what we saw was not recorded the day before, there's more than a year between that trailer and the actual release. They could do it.

 

[techitisJ]

They could have the Day-night cycle be independent of the switch clock, much like in Breath of the Wild.

I think it would be really smart if they used BOTW's Day/night cycle for these games, and have Pokemon change in certain areas as the day goes on.

A BOTW weather cycle might also be a smart idea. As the day goes on, the weather changes, also changing what Pokemon can spawn. The transitions would be a lot smoother than they are in the Wild ARea and DLCs of SwSh, and the change in Pokemon can also be a bit more subtle. For example, maybe there are some Chimchar hanging out by the path, and it starts raining. As the rain starts, the Chimchar take notice and actually run away, then despawn in the distance. I think this would be a great way of pushing people to keep exploring the vast region.

 

[SinnohEevee]

The Japanese site for Legends states that it's for one player, while the BSDP site clarifies that there's a multiplayer and trades for 2-4 players. So Legends isn't even going to feature trading, which is interesting to think about in terms of some evolutions.

As for the Pokemon roster, the announcement video mentioned access to all the Pokemon from Diamond and Pearl. After LGPE and SwSh, I would think they'd be specific if they wanted to advertise access to more recent Pokemon. Plus, they also said that Legends will have some Pokemon not in BSDP, so...


Ohmori started planning ORAS in late 2012, but the actual development started when XY were pretty much done. USUM are trickier since you could argue they removed content from SM (there is no real evidence of this), but I somehow doubt they admitted that. Regardless, USUM were a minor project.

Legends' director and some of the staff probably started planning Legends in early 2019 or so. So that would mean one more year compared to ORAS (or 1.5) and LGPE, maybe. The game doesn't seem to have been in development for longer than two years, and that's being generous.

Talking about trade evolution, I doubt the trading machine has been invented yet. Did Trainers back then just exchanged Poké Balls and gave their Pokémon evolve?

 

[SinnohEevee]

I think it would be really smart if they used BOTW's Day/night cycle for these games, and have Pokemon change in certain areas as the day goes on.

A BOTW weather cycle might also be a smart idea. As the day goes on, the weather changes, also changing what Pokemon can spawn. The transitions would be a lot smoother than they are in the Wild ARea and DLCs of SwSh, and the change in Pokemon can also be a bit more subtle. For example, maybe there are some Chimchar hanging out by the path, and it starts raining. As the rain starts, the Chimchar take notice and actually run away, then despawn in the distance. I think this would be a great way of pushing people to keep exploring the vast region.

I wonder if the BotW team is actually helping Game Freak with Legends Arceus.

 

[blitzle stan]

The developers have stated in the past that they always start a new game being open to different battle mechanics. More than four moves, other changes, etc. Historically they always return to the classic set up for battle, but that does not mean they stop working on alternatives.

They started developing raids since before PoGo had them (PoGo got the idea from them, IIRC). It’s extremely likely that they’ve been working on this battle system for years and years, not just since 2018.

 

[EmpoleonProd]

I've figured out some possible reasons as to why we specifically got the three starters we did. All three regions (Johto, Unova, Alola) all have some sort of lore-tie to Sinnoh. In Johto it's the Sinjoh Ruins, in Unova it's the Cave of Being (basically a lake trio cave clone that is said to connect to the Sinnoh region) and Alola has Type: Null, which has ties to Arceus, it's ability, RKS, literally reads out the same. I know there's some character design reasons as to why these starters make good choices for a game taking place in the past, but did anyone consider the connections to the regions themselves?

 

[Joker901]

I wonder if the BotW team is actually helping Game Freak with Legends Arceus.

I highly doubt it. Don't forget that they have another open world Zelda to deal with and that maybe will launch a couple of months before Pokemon. My hope is that someone at GF will pick up the phone and call Monolith Soft, cause they are great at optimizing games (they've worked on BOTW too). I remember someone on youtube stating that Monolith Soft offices are about 11kms/7miles away from GF offices.

 

[RileyXY1]

They tend to develop new generations in 2-3 years, so let's not act surprised and keep expectations in check.

As for the next generation, I think they'll release it in late 2023. Legends can't be counted as "Generation 8.5" when it lacks a multiplayer, and BSDP aren't even going to feature any post-DP critters (except for maybe relatives and a new mythical). This means that VGC will be stuck with SwSh until 2023. By the end of that year, another remake isn't going to cut it. So even if the development is rushed (which isn't necessarily the case), I don't see a good way around it with BSDP and Legends having these deliberate limitations.

Legends could absolutely get DLC for late 2022 unless an actual spin-off game ends up being the focus that year (which is hard to imagine). The Battle Zone would be a crummy option, though. It should be worth the wait (so yes, Sinjoh).

2023 is too early for Gen 9 at this point. I wouldn't be surprised if these games came out for the Switch's successor.

 

[Silktree]

2023 is too early for Gen 9 at this point. I wouldn't be surprised if these games came out for the Switch's successor.

But if the past decade is any indication, the next generation will be released for the Switch. They could make the development work by relying on Nintendo or another company. As of a few months ago, they share the same office building as Nintendo, HAL Laboratory and 1-Up Studio.

If 2024 is their plan, then it's really weird how both BSDP (probably) and certainly Legends aren't designed for VGC. I also think that 5 years would be excessive for the anime considering the pacing. Likewise, why release Legends just months after BSDP?

 

[RileyXY1]

But if the past decade is any indication, the next generation will be released for the Switch. They could make the development work by relying on Nintendo or another company. As of a few months ago, they share the same office building as Nintendo, HAL Laboratory and 1-Up Studio.

If 2024 is their plan, then it's really weird how both BSDP (probably) and certainly Legends aren't designed for VGC. I also think that 5 years would be excessive for the anime considering the pacing. Likewise, why release Legends just months after BSDP?

I think that they might release DLC for Legends later in 2022, followed up by a new Let's Go title in 2023.

 

[Silktree]

But that doesn't address my points. Let's Go wouldn't sustain VGC or add more than a handful of new Pokemon.

2022: Legends+DLC
2023: Generation IX
2024-2025: DLC and remakes in some order
2026: Legends 2 for successor+DLC

Which region will get remakes and which one will be featured in Legends 2 is less important right now, but since Go will be quite old by 2024-2025 (the entire Pokemon roster will have been completed), it would make sense to remake BW followed by Legends 2 in Johto and Kanto for the 30th anniversary.

 

[RileyXY1]

But that doesn't address my points. Let's Go wouldn't sustain VGC or add more than a handful of new Pokemon.

2022: Legends+DLC
2023: Generation IX
2024-2025: DLC and remakes in some order
2026: Legends 2 for successor+DLC

However, with COVID there probably won't be a VGC for quite some time.

 

[Silktree]

That's a valid point, but:

1. Game Freak's plans had been laid out before they knew about Covid-19. I also doubt that BSDP and Legends were delayed by more than a few months (2020 was always meant for the DLC).

2. There will be a VGC this year, so by 2023 there will have been three of them. That's quite enough for SwSh, especially since the metagame existed in the past year regardless of VGC (there was even an unofficial VGC for past winners).

 

[RileyXY1]

That's a valid point, but:

1. Game Freak's plans had been laid out before they knew about Covid-19. I also doubt that BSDP and Legends were delayed by more than a few months (2020 was always meant for the DLC).

2. There will be a VGC this year, so by 2023 there will have been three of them. That's quite enough for SwSh, especially since the metagame existed in the past year regardless of VGC (there was even an unofficial VGC for past winners).

Also, I don't expect them to be working on two massive main series game simultaneously. I expect a smaller main series game to come out between Legends and Gen 9.

 

[Silktree]

Again, they now work in the same building as Nintendo and HAL. There's a smarter way of tackling two projects than just taking more time.

 

[RileyXY1]

Again, they now work in the same building as Nintendo and HAL. There's a smarter way of tackling two projects than just taking more time.

If Gen 9 comes out in 2023 I expect it to look like BDSP.

 

[Silktree]

It will most likely look like Legends pretty much, except less open. If Game Freak have any sense, they will do more outsourcing than usual (why else move to a Nintendo building?). The alternative of a 5-year generation (when kids are used to 3 years) just doesn't hold up as I see it. Remakes should have a longer gap between them than 2 years, even if the catching style is different.

 

[RileyXY1]

It will most likely look like Legends pretty much, except less open. If Game Freak have any sense, they will do more outsourcing than usual. The alternative of a 5-year generation (when kids are used to 3 years) just doesn't hold up as I see it. Remakes should have a longer gap between than 2 years, too.

Well, game development will be much harder on a home console environment than a handheld environment. I expect longer gaps between new gens, and more remakes to fill in the added space. I believe that in 2023 if GF is releasing anything it will be Let's Go-related.