With Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Game Freak gives in to criticism for the franchise | vertical

Pokemon celebrated their 25th birthday last week. Expectations for this holiday – known as Pokémon Day – were, as always, very high. But when a major disappointment seemed imminent, even a massive leak couldn’t stop Game Freak from making a deep impression.

The Pokémon community regularly gets into trouble with itself. If discussions aren’t about Game Freak’s controversial options, it’s a bunny-pit of rumors and speculation. Daily messages appear on forums like 4Chan from anonymous users claiming to know what Pokémon is up to. Hence, there are countless adults and children Content makers Who make it their mission to deal with them all. Not only does it score very well – even the undersigned often can’t resist the temptation – but also because one in a thousand cases was correct.

Almost all of the modern Pokemon games were leaked sooner or later before the announcement: Sun and Moon via One Web domainLet’s go Pikachu and Evie one over A screen shot Sword and Shield, including all major features, is on 4 chan. Also upcoming games, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl, and Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Leaked out In various stages on the Internet. Three hours before the Pokémon Presents Show, almost everything was on the street, including the trailer. Not the best way to start a presentation, especially with the always high expectations from passionate fans. More than once the Pokemon show disappointed, and this information was too good to be true.

next step

However, Pokémon Company and developer Game Freak managed to create a real buzz about new games for the first time in years. The new Pokémon Snap looks good, and the cool Sinnoh games are finally remakes. Aside from the pink glasses Snap fans have – and the curious looks of the characters in Brilliant Diamond and Pearl – these are two solid titles. However, both shrink before a more daring project that is a surprisingly big step for the franchise: Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

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Pokemon Legends

An open world dream has been around almost since the Pokémon franchise even existed. Exploring the Pokemon without limits, or online with friends, has been at the top of many enthusiast’s wish lists for years. Unfortunately, Pokémon is a franchise of marginal improvements and since its fourth generation of games, the franchise has taken only small steps. Sword and Shield made a brave effort to give players more freedom by unleashing them in the wilderness. These somewhat empty areas of Pokemon and possibly other online players are good for what they are, but they are just a harbinger of a long-awaited next step in the series. Given how well Pokémon games sell, Game Freak didn’t have to make more effort to be financially successful.

Same from Wild Pokemon

Therefore, the announcement that the franchise was going in a new direction was completely unexpected. Mythology: Arceus is a side project located in the feudal territory of Snuh, diamond, pearl and platinum district. Players are given the task to collect the first Pokédex and thus have the freedom to explore natural areas and hunt monsters in their wake. Pokémon are now hunted in real time with active pokéball aim and throw, and battles rotate seamlessly. All in a vast world with Mount Coron as the focal point.

Sounds familiar? That’s right, the likes of Zelda: Breath of the Wild are almost slut. But that’s also the point of this title: It all radiates that Game Freak – despite its financial success – finally succumbs to criticism of the established formula. The humble graphics, lack of voice acting, and linear tracks with loading screens bring out the Pokémon era, with RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles, Dragon Quest 11S and Breath of the Wild do a lot with the Switch hardware. We’ve finally reached a point where even the creators realize that the franchise needs a revamp, even though Sword and Shield are their second best-selling installments.

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New audience

Of course, Legends: Arceus isn’t guaranteed to solve all problems. On the contrary, there are a lot of pitfalls to be avoided by the game, some of which actually surfaced during the promotion. For example, the world seems completely empty even for Breath of the Wild concepts and the frame rate certainly wasn’t optimal everywhere – while, of course, we bear in mind that the game isn’t over yet. Plus, it looks like Legends is actually a side project, not an entirely new region with cities, gyms, and new Pokemon.

Will the game be the next stop for the ninth generation of the Pokemon Open World Games? Presumably, it’s by far the most interesting test balloon in years. If successful, the ninth generation could open the doors to fans that once lost a vision of Pokemon.

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