Pokemon Legends - Arceus - 28th Jan 2022 *Official Content Only*

CTNC

Doesn't know how to attack
Something I didn't realize at first because it's hard to tell, but is it just me or is Basculegion's stripe kind of puprle-ish? I thought it was red at first, but it's definitely different from Red Stripe Basculin's Red and the hand thing fins (Please don't make fun of me too much for not knowing the term.) are clearly the smooth Blue Stripe Basculin fins. I'm guessing that either Basculegion can evolve from either Stripe form or, in the very likely chance that Basculegion can only evolve from a Hisuian Basculin form, Hisuian Basculin is what Basculin was before Darwinian Evolution turned it from One Fish into Two Fish. (Red Fish and Blue Fish.) In other words, I'm guessing Hisuian Basculin is a "Purple Fin" Basculin. (And the inspiration of Pokemon's version of Dr. Seuss, although we already suspected the later when Basculin was revealed in Gen 5. :P)


as soon as home drops the lc players are going to have the wildest week before they both get banned lmao
As fun as that would be, I have a feeling it's going to be like that time in Gen 7 when Gyarados dropped to UU. It was quickbanned before the ladder could update for the monthly shifts. If I'm wrong, please pass the popcorn. I want to watch the little world burn. >:D
 
To add to this, they specifically used Wyrd over Weird. Wyrd is ancestral to Modern English weird, which retains its original meaning only dialectically. Going for the older variation of the word for an evolution introduced on a game that takes place during ancient times is just very pleasing.
I just started my "Cultural Diffusion in the Pokemon World" doc and the first theory I listed is that "Hisui" became "Sinnoh" because Hisui is its name in the language that was spoken there back then and "Sinnoh" is its name in the modern Pokemon world language. I think the modern Pokemon world language is like a much more successful Esperanto and that's how it became so widespread, or it was a natural language but it was used as a lingua franca so much all the other Pokemon world languages had no native speakers left by the time of the rest of the franchise.
 

AquaticPanic

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Something I didn't realize at first because it's hard to tell, but is it just me or is Basculegion's stripe kind of puprle-ish? I thought it was red at first, but it's definitely different from Red Stripe Basculin's Red and the hand thing fins (Please don't make fun of me too much for not knowing the term.) are clearly the smooth Blue Stripe Basculin fins. I'm guessing that either Basculegion can evolve from either Stripe form or, in the very likely chance that Basculegion can only evolve from a Hisuian Basculin form, Hisuian Basculin is what Basculin was before Darwinian Evolution turned it from One Fish into Two Fish. (Red Fish and Blue Fish.) In other words, I'm guessing Hisuian Basculin is a "Purple Fin" Basculin. (And the inspiration of Pokemon's version of Dr. Seuss, although we already suspected the later when Basculin was revealed in Gen 5. :P)
Me and some chaps were discussing this same thing earlier today as well-

1629335334954.png



I could be completely wrong here, but it does seem plausible for it to have elements from both forms (Specially given it's a mix of various souls - having absorbed both Blue and Red souls isn't too out there)


The body's green is also a different shade though so it might as well be a stylisticdesign pallete choice. I'm pretty satisfied with Basculeigion either way regardless if it gets a Blue form or not though.


If this is intentional for it to be a mix of both, I think it would be pretty nice if its shiny had Purple, as it is the other most commonly known mix of Red and Blue (And goes well with Green too!)

fanmade shiny basculegion.png
 

churine

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dont care much for dp remakes since they wont bother expanding on the current gen so here we are, at least these regional forms and evolutions are pretty cool gj gamefreak. if we assume normal stantler and basculin evolve into these respective mons then this will be the first time since gen 4 (not counting sylveon) that we get a true cross generation evolution. i liked the idea galar went for with its evolutions on regional forms but im a bit miffed they were only restricted to the regional forms and not the original form, regular farfetchd, corsola, and even mrmime absolutely deserve an evolution. while its only wishful thinking to believe those pokemon will get evolutions shown off in legends, its something i do long for.

and going under the assumption that normal stantler and basculin evolve, these pokemon will be pretty bonkers in lc. basculin wont last more than 10 minutes in the tier simply due to hitting 20 speed, 18 attack jolly, and having adaptability. stantler could stay in the tier but it has a solid speed tier of 19, great abilities in intimidate to bolster its physical bulk, and sap sipper to stuff foongus spore and grookey glides, and then it has pretty powerful coverage with the likes of earthquake, megahorn, zenheadbutt coming off base 95 attack. stantler also has a good special attack stat too and learns calm mind alongside good coverage with psychic, thunderbolt, energy ball, though it lacks stab. its obviously too early to even bother speculating but idk its fun lol.

im curious how the evolutions and regional forms will be adapted into the main games, like obviously we will get a glimpse of their movepools and even stats in legends, but what about abilities or more importantly, when will they be incorporated into the main games. if they arent retroactively added to ss which who knows if theyll even add more mons or finish national dex there, they might very well be generation 9 pokemon similar to how bonsly was usable in pokemon xd but is gen 4. as for the mons themselves, braviary is cool idk why its psychic, maybe theres a mandibuzz as well, and growlithe i hope to god has more offensively inclined stats, especially when it presumably evolves into regional arcanine. id like to believe theres more forms and even evolutions in legends, particularly id like to see regional arbok or primeape of some kind, or maybe a magcargo evolution, but thats getting ahead of myself.
 

CTNC

Doesn't know how to attack
Me and some chaps were discussing this same thing earlier today as well-

View attachment 365951


I could be completely wrong here, but it does seem plausible for it to have elements from both forms (Specially given it's a mix of various souls - having absorbed both Blue and Red souls isn't too out there)


The body's green is also a different shade though so it might as well be a stylisticdesign pallete choice. I'm pretty satisfied with Basculeigion either way regardless if it gets a Blue form or not though.


If this is intentional for it to be a mix of both, I think it would be pretty nice if its shiny had Purple, as it is the other most commonly known mix of Red and Blue (And goes well with Green too!)

View attachment 365952
That pic is so much better than comparing sprites on Serebii. The bottom fin looks like somewhere between the forms to me. From a lore standpoint, I don't see this becoming a fusion because Red Stripe and Blue Stripe hate each other and schools will fight each other on sight. One or two may sometimes fit into a school of the other, but it's not very common and one soul can't affect the body that much when there's dozens that are the same as the possessed one. (I just pointed out that possibility as a what if it evolves from original Basculin.) Also, Game Freak made evolutions only able to evolve from Regional Variants so the old ones wouldn't be "replaced" by a "better" Pokemon. If you ask me, it worked with Linoone because the original ones still have the Belly Drum + Extreme Speed niche. Linoone is nowhere near as good as Obstagoon, but it's not strictly outclassed. Still, It'd be neat if I was wrong if it meant there's a Blue Stripe Basculegion. Also, as cool as that shade of purple would be for the Shiny, I'm betting on just a lime body because of that being Basculin's change.


Also this just hit me, if Basculin is a piranha and the only things worse than a piranha are a giant piranha, a school of piranhas, or an undead piranha and Basculegion is a giant piranha possessed by a school of undead piranhas... I want this thing in game about as much as I'd want to run from it in real life.

im curious how the evolutions and regional forms will be adapted into the main games, like obviously we will get a glimpse of their movepools and even stats in legends, but what about abilities or more importantly, when will they be incorporated into the main games. if they arent retroactively added to ss which who knows if theyll even add more mons or finish national dex there, they might very well be generation 9 pokemon similar to how bonsly was usable in pokemon xd but is gen 4. as for the mons themselves, braviary is cool idk why its psychic, maybe theres a mandibuzz as well, and growlithe i hope to god has more offensively inclined stats, especially when it presumably evolves into regional arcanine. id like to believe theres more forms and even evolutions in legends, particularly id like to see regional arbok or primeape of some kind, or maybe a magcargo evolution, but thats getting ahead of myself.
Meltan and Melmetal were in Let's Go and I'm still not sure if they were the last Gen 7 Pokemon or the first of Gen 8. I'm not sure if there's going to be a clear line between generations anymore. I'm guessing they're Gen 8 because they're kind of tied to BDSP and I think those games are Gen 8. Wait... We don't know if BDSP have Gen 8 Pokemon. Are they even Gen 8 if they don't have Gen 8 Pokemon? I think the last Mystery Dungeon games may have been based on Gen 7. (I haven't played it, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I did see it had Gen 7 TMs.) It was nice having clarity while it lasted.
 

ScraftyIsTheBest

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On a side note, I wonder about the riding/flying Pokemon mechanic. I think it's really cool, but my main question as of now is if we'll be able to ride on other Pokemon besides the seen Wyrdeer (land travel), Basculegion (water travel), and Hisuian Braviary (air travel). Will there be other mons in the game that are eligible to be ride Pokemon for traveling purposes? Or will it be strictly limited to these particular individuals?

It'll be interesting if there are more Pokemon we can ride on across the region, as the mechanic in and of itself is very much fun.
 
As far as I have seen, the new gameplay loop of this game is to keep catching Pokemon in open world. The control is basically third person shooter, but you shoot (throw) pokeballs. Also battle wild pokemon occasionally.

The open world is vast wilderness, sprinkled with pocket monsters here and there. The content in the world would be the variation of Pokemon live on those habitat. You would encounter strong Pokemon which is basically superboss for challenge.

It seems that the take of this game is Animal Conservations where you tasked to record the Pokemon living in the Hisui region. Which is different from the power-of-friendship sport/competition of the main series.

The question that need to be answered is that if there are trainer battle in this game? So it can be closer to the competition in the main series. And what other contents are in the open world? There might be lores here and there, but is that all?

This would be a different game for fans who are used to the usual formula of Pokemon game. This game is for those who asked dynamic open world action RPG game. Time will tell if everyone can accept this change.
 

Daylight

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Probably ultra-basic but it would be awesome to see new forms for Dialga and Palkia since this game is based on a past version of Sinnoh. Specifically since we've had both Primal forms of Dialga in PMD and Groudon + Kyogre in ORAS I don't see why they wouldn't want to expand on that idea further, unless they're not sure how to reinstate the admittedly basic Primal Dialga design compared to that of the Weather Duo. Same for other legends like maybe Giratina or the Lake Guardians.

I don't have any other preferences besides that there's more than the ones we were shown today, which I imagine there will be.
I just wanna point out: were Dialga & Palkia to get some kind of alternate ancient form, they definitely wouldn’t reuse Primal Dialga from PMD2. That version of Dialga is actually “Dark” Dialga and it’s localized as “primal” because the character has been reduced to little more than his *primal* instincts of survival and self-preservation (he’s animalistic whereas whole/uncorrupted Dialga is sapient and benevolent). In fact, unlike Primal Groudon & Kyogre being the ancient forms of those Pokémon, Primal Dialga is actually not from the past, but from *the future*—an apocalyptic bad-timeline kinda future anyway.

If Dialga & Palkia we’re to get ancient Hisuian forms of some kind I doubt they would be connected to PMD’s dark Dialga. That being said, I think it’s maybe more likely for Arceus to have a special form here? Maybe some kind of plates-united form or something? That could be cool.
I mean their logo are very similar so I expect them to be proto-Galactic.
I’m sure this has been mentioned somewhere here but Cyllene and Kamado look like Cyrus and Rowan’s ancestors respectively. Maybe in the future that will be Team Galactic took inspiration from the early inhabitants of Sinnoh?
 

Pikachu315111

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I got finished adding my reactions to one page only to go to the next to see another new page has been added, so better get my thoughts in before I have a ton of catching up to do:

I'm actually going to skip the trailer and focus on the info dump segment first, but then go back to the trailer incase there's anything I noticed that they didn't mention. I'll also be splicing in information from the main website:
  • 19:38 (Hisui Region): YEAH, WE GOT A MAP! I'll look through it later, tried to deciphered some of it now and already there's a few discrepancies with the Sinnoh map. Anyway, for the region's name being different from Sinnoh, makes sense. EDIT: Now at first I went into how the Japanese people call Japan "Nippon" and link to a Wikipedia page detailing that whole issue. But in the time it took me to write this post Lockstin released a video that did a deep dive into not only a similar historical parallels reason for the name change but also possible meanings behind the name. I highly suggest checking it out.
  • 20:13: Barber shop for haircuts?
  • 20:21: Gee, I wonder if they'll have something from Galar part of the Galaxy Expedition Team.
  • 20:22: BTW, according to the site this games "Lucas" is named Rei and "Dawn" is named Akari. And just like in the original DP, the one you didn't pick plays a support role helping the professor, in this case being a "veteran" member of the Survey Corps (even though they're the same age as you).
  • 20:34 (Prof Laventon): HEY! You're not named after a tree! FAKE PROFESSOR! Okay, jokes aside, don't have much to really say about Laventon. Interesting his area of expertise is ecology, a branch of biology that studies relations between organisms interaction with one another in their physical surroundings. Makes sense for what's going on... even though capturing the creature and completely removing it from its natural environment I would think would work against that kind of research, but what do I know. Still, kind of wish the Professor was named Nishinomori as a throwback to the Pokemon Pre-Release Guidebook (and before you ask, his Japanese name is "Dr. Raven", even stranger as Japan usually names their human characters after plants. Also is one of the exceptions to my thoughts that every important character is going to be an expy; like the closest character he resembles is Charon but only in body shape & posture.
  • 20:49 (Capt Cyllene): Hello Rule 63 Cyrus! I guess they didn't want to be too obvious with their expies so she's not in charge or the Galaxy Expedition Team (also she's actually supportive, if strict, of the player's research efforts).
  • 21:01 (Comm Kamado): And here is Rowan's expy, which makes sense as the website specifically states he's Rowan's ancestor (makes you wonder if Rowan knew this and how he felt about Team Galactic using imagery of his ancestor's organization for evil purposes). Nothing much else to say, though in addition to noting Rowan's relation the site says we'll also see plenty of other character's ancestors in the game. Guessing most will probably be the Gym Leaders so curious what roles they'll play (and what gender bent versions they'll think of).
  • 21:30: Obsidian Fieldlands, looks to be in about the same place of Oreburgh, though coal and obsidian aren't exactly the same thing. Also, Mt. Coronet isn't a volcano as far as I know, so why is there obsidian? Also, note the weather symbols like the ones in the Wild Area.
  • 21:42 (Crafting System): And confirmation different Poke Balls are available, notably the Apricorn Balls! Actually, they ALL look to be Apricorn Balls! There's a new generic "Apricorn" (its brown colored) that is needed to craft Poke Balls. And Kurt made it seem hard, pfft. Also, the description of the Heavy Ball is something to note: "A ball that is too heavy to fly high or far, but it is highly effective if you manage to hit an unsuspecting Pokemon". So looks like some Poke Balls are going to work differently than they do in the normal game due to the gameplay change. Instead of being effective on heavy Pokemon, now the Heavy Ball is pretty much a projectile you through at an unaware Pokemon to knock it unconscious; easy catching! Guessing the Tumblestones either are just a crafting material or they too can be thrown at Pokemon to cause them to react to you, and if the latter does the colors give them different properties. Speaking of that, are we going to stick with the Apricorn colors that exist now (and the new generic one) or are they going to introduce more colors to create other Poke Balls (maybe even some new ones?).
  • 21:52 (Pokemon Attacks Trainer): Oh, huh, they actually went there by having the wild Pokemon not only attacking you but can kill knock you out. Interesting, wonder if there's a penalty for being knocked out especially against a boss. Is there money in this game, would be annoying if you loss crafting materials especially rare ones.
  • 22:27: Poor Bidoof, it's the dodo of the Pokemon world, isn't it?
  • 23:05 (RPG Battle & Styles): Now THIS is especially interesting. While still turn-based, they've incorporated other turn-based RPG mechanics. Now alone it's nice to see that fast Pokemon are now going to get a little bonus for being fast aside from moving first: getting an additional turn. The Strong Style sounds just like the "Brave" mechanic which several Square Enix turn-based RPGs are now using, giving up multiple turns to do a single powerful strike. However the Agile Style I haven't really seen before outside of a "haste" effect but you can just choose to do it. Strong Style you perfectly know what to expect from it, however I'm interested in how Agile Style will be used (quickly buffing up stats/lowering opponent's stats? Using multiple freezing/flinching moves in a row for a better chance to freeze/flinch?). Not sure if such a concept can be brought over to the main games, I guess we'll see how they work here first.
  • 23:47 (Pokedex Research Tasks): Finally having the Pokedex being more than a Pokemon Encyclopedia! Or, rather, a better encyclopedia, one which gives your more info on the Pokemon the more tasks you do with that Pokemon. Already I'm seeing one welcomed bit of information: what items they're holding! Sure, for this game it's likely very necessary to know what crafting material certain Pokemon drop, but would also be something nice in the main games for the few Pokemon which have an hold item sometimes. Now, looking at the Shinx Task page some stuff jumps out at me: One is your expected to catch multiple of the same Pokemon (in Shinx case a max of 15); guessing we may have a GO mechanic where we can give all our extra to the Professor? Second is asking for number of its forms. BEFORE ANYONE GETS EXCITED, Shinx has a gender difference so that's what they're probably counting as a form. Still, could mean they'll be adding in a number of Pokemon which have many different forms so it's not all just gender differences. Though could it also maybe be hinting we'll be able to get other Regional Variants/a Regional Variant's normal form? Also like how Weight and Height is a range.
  • (For now I'll be skipping the new Pokemon & Hisui Forms, I've have a very busy day today and really want to get this general overlook post out. That said, I will ask one thing I'm sure many have said by now: Um, WHERE did these evolutions and forms go if this game takes place in the past and why haven't we heard of them especially if some of them are considered "revered"?)


  • (Now I'll be jumping back to the original trailer to mention stuff that's in it that wasn't discussed in the info segment)
  • 17:01: Whoops, we were imitating Breath of the Wild so much we had the protag jump off a cliff without their being a glider in the game! Hm, let's see... how about we pull a Galar and say a giant Flying Pokemon grabs them and flies them around. Phew! Dodges a dead child bullet right there. BTW, on the website it mentions that one way for the player to damage themselves if by falling off high places, so that should be fun to watch funny compilations videos of.
  • 17:17 (Ride Pokemon): So, are most of the new evos/forms just so we could have cool looking ride Pokemon? Not complaining, but that makes it even MORE of a mystery where these Pokemon went after Hisui became Sinnoh (not to mention the Pokemon who are seemingly native to Hisui yet vanish from Sinnoh). Note, this isn't a complaint about the Ride Pokemon, glad to see it back and it actually looks really dynamic this time around. Curious if we're just getting only these three basic land, surf, and flying ones or we'll get more specified rides as we progress.
  • 17:44 (Boss Pokemon): Well, they added in Pokemon able to attack the protag now, you didn't think they would pass up boss battles where "super" Pokemon went after the trainer. So do you have to just keep dodging attacks until you can finally get an opportunity to battle it or will it be like you can only battle it for one or two rounds before it goes berserk again and have to dodge its attacks until you have another opening for your Pokemon to do damage?
  • 18:16: Well the Pokemon look to calm down once you capture them. Wonder if the way the game's progression works you're not going to get strong Pokemon by just training alone and will have to battle these boss Pokemon to maybe not only allow you to train your Pokemon to get stronger but also give you some stronger Pokemon to use then and now. Also, that's a SMALL Gyarados!
  • 18:19: So looks like Berry gathering has been made tree-based and you need a Pokemon to attack the tree to get berries.


  • (Some stuff only mentioned on the website)
  • Reduce Motion: First, I'd like to thank the staff member on the Pokemon.com team who realized all the constant animation was annoying and sometimes caused computers to chug so added a button that removes them. Give that person a raise!
  • Trading Posts: So Jubulife Village just in general will have a whole bunch of services, though the only one they mention on the site right now is the Trading Post. What does the Trading Post do? It's the Global Link. So, if there's trading between other players, is there battling too? If there is, will it be the normal turn-based system or somehow use the new battling system & styles. And if there's battling between players, will we have NPC trainer battles?
  • HOME: While mentioned in the Direct rather then the website, I'll add it quickly here after talking about the Trading Post. Both Legends: Arceus and the DP Remakes can send their Pokemon to HOME. Now, they don't go into detail whether it's one-way only or we can deposit & withdraw Pokemon, the former feels like the most likely though the latter would certainly be more interesting.
  • Smoke Bombs: Another crafting item. As you suspect, its used to make you less visible. Now you would think they would be used to escape from aggressive Pokemon, but nope, they're for sneaking. Cause if a Pokemon was scared of a human, surely they wouldn't be scared of a sudden wave of smoke not natural to their environment appearing out of nowhere.

And that's all my thoughts for now. In general, I'm excited for these games! Not that I wasn't before, but now I'm really excited! I guess also the added level of polish also helps. Tomorrow I'll probably post my thoughts for the DP Remakes, then I'll come back and give my thoughts for the new Pokemon, the map differences, and finally start doing the responses.
 
I updated the Hisui checklist with some Pokemon I missed:

1629351432437.png

Abra was seen in the trailer.
Combee, Mantine, and Mismagius were seen in the promotional artwork.
Finneon and Psyduck can be seen on the Hisui map.

Curiously, a chimney shown in the trailer is in the shape of a Galarian Weezing:
Galarian Weezing.png


It's not a smoking gun, but it's possible that other regional Forms are present in the game.
 

Daylight

angels roll their eyes
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I updated the Hisui checklist with some Pokemon I missed:


Abra was seen in the trailer.
Combee, Mantine, and Mismagius were seen in the promotional artwork.
Finneon and Psyduck can be seen on the Hisui map.

Curiously, a chimney shown in the trailer is in the shape of a Galarian Weezing:
View attachment 365979

It's not a smoking gun, but it's possible that other regional Forms are present in the game.
I think maybe the Wheezing is because the Galaxy Expedition Team was stated to be made up of people from many different regions—but I think it’s likely one of them might gift or trade it to you? That would be a pretty cool way of including various regional forms.

Also thank you for that graphic! I see 4 out of my top 6 faves so far and my fingers crossed I can play through this new (or… old?) region with Milotic.
 
Also this just hit me, if Basculin is a piranha and the only things worse than a piranha are a giant piranha, a school of piranhas, or an undead piranha and Basculegion is a giant piranha possessed by a school of undead piranhas... I want this thing in game about as much as I'd want to run from it in real life.
Honestly, I kind of have been wondering what the heck basculegion even is. I remember my Alaskan grandpa always talks about “zombie” salmon, or when a salmon returns to its birthplace and spawns, and then just stops eating and rots away while it’s still alive. Basculegion definitely gives me salmon vibes, with the whole “traveling upstream” thing and it’s weird jaw, and it is a ghost type, so maybe? I wonder if maybe you’d have to catch basculin in the sea, and then evolve it upstream?

Alright, I just looked up some pictures, and the resemblance is pretty uncanny. So apparently, salmon start out as pretty run-of-the-mill fish, and then develop hooked jaws, sharp teeth, and red markings at the end of their lifespan. Basculin is definitely a pretty run-of-the-mill fish, and basculegion is like basculin, but with hooked jaw, sharp teeth, and red markings. One divergence from real-life salmon is definitely that rad mustache, though.

So, that’s cool and terrifying. I guess you learn something everyday
(Also now my search history is full of fish on the verge of death)
 
Last edited:
Screenshot_20210819-025928_YouTube.jpg


So yeah, i wanted to be really sure, but these beserk pokemon are much, much bigger than normal. Rhydon should have a clear 4 inches over ursaring, yet here the bear even bending down still dwarfs the guy. We arent in alola, so its not a totem, and its too small to be a dynamax, but whatever it is thats causing these pokemon to go on a rampage, it sure isnt natural.
 

DHR-107

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Orange Islands
View attachment 365981

So yeah, i wanted to be really sure, but these beserk pokemon are much, much bigger than normal. Rhydon should have a clear 4 inches over ursaring, yet here the bear even bending down still dwarfs the guy. We arent in alola, so its not a totem, and its too small to be a dynamax, but whatever it is thats causing these pokemon to go on a rampage, it sure isnt natural.
I had a conversation with Axelsauro last night (Come join the Discord and chat!) about this as I was trying to figure some stuff out. The image for the Shinx "proto Dex" has a size and weight range as opposed to a fixed size like in later Dex.

The interesting thing here is that Ursaring in the anime is always depicted as huge. Whereas the Luxray the player encounters later on? That's much bigger than we've seen it before. Yet in the "team shot" seen afterwards (with presumably the same Mons as it shows you capturing), only the Luxray appears to retain its size, whereas Ursaring appears to shrink. Now it could just be clever editing, but it seems a bit on the nose to use the same Mons that you've shown being captured and make the jump they aren't the same Pokémon.

Looking at the images more, I do think the Luxray is smaller than the monster that attacks you, so I have a feeling they may shrink when you capture them? Pokémon scaling is always pretty messy (SwSH Wailord I'm looking at you), but I'm surprised they didn't at least try to have a consistent scale in this game (unless it's explained in-game).
 

Theorymon

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Curiously, a chimney shown in the trailer is in the shape of a Galarian Weezing:
View attachment 365979

It's not a smoking gun, but it's possible that other regional Forms are present in the game.
I find it particularly interesting that we see a Galarian Weezing reference. Since I think these games take place around the Meiji era of Japan, that would be around the time period where Japan started having relations with Great Britain, so having a reference to that kind of history in this game gives me some hope for some really cool lore!

Speaking of lore and history, let's take a look at that map...



As I'm sure it's been pointed out already, you can see people dressed up in some very Palkia-like robes in the Northwest of the map, while East, you see people dressed up as Dialga. Combine this with the presentation mentioning that ancient people respected Wyrdeer, and my guess is... these might be the native people of Hisui! DPP already had lore in the game that talked about ancient people living in Sinnoh. The Japanese island Sinnoh / Hisui is based off of, Hokkaido, did have a native population of people called The Ainu.

This is a stretch, but the Palkia and Dialga robes look more like Ainu robes to me than traditional, 1800s Japanese clothing to me.



There's some pretty big differences though, such as the lack of tattoes on the women's mouths. With DPP lore implying some very ancient remants of people on Sinnoh (as in, waaaaay before the Meiji restoration), I can't help but wonder if these Palkia and Dialga garbed folks are going to be related to the ancient legends DPP touches upon.

I do think if there's some inspiration from the Ainu in this game, that could have some interesting plot potential. The Ainu people had an animalisitc kind of religion that focused on the idea of animals (particularly bears) having the spirits of gods in them. That's a huge contrast to the characters we saw in the trailer, who seem to focus on the idea of Pokemon being terrifying creatures you don't want to interact much with. Maybe the Palkia and Dialga folks will offer a totally different viewpoint, and be sorta the "origin" of humanity and Pokemon co-existing rather than fighting! And in a sense... prove the professor wrong: there's already people living with Pokemon peacefully, so maybe the Galaxy research team isn't quite on the right track here...

I do need to note that historically, the Ainu people suffered some very serious discrimination from the Japanese government, very akin to how the US and Canada treated their native citizens, stuff like forced cultural assimilation that has almost destroyed their language, forced labor camps for the purpose of commercial fishing, etc. While Pokemon games aren't totally unafraid to broach dark subject matter, this discrimination of the Ainu specifically started in the Meji restoration, aka the time period of this game, so I wonder how they'll treat that, or if they'll just ignore it.

Regardless, I'm really curious to see how Pokemon Legends deals with its historical setting. The Meiji Restoration period is a really interesting time period in Japanese history (and can be a pretty entertaining setting if The Great Ace Attorney is any indication!), and the robes and Galarian Weezing together, gives me hope that Gamefreak is going to do more with that setting than just using it as an excuse to have a naturalistic environment!
 
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The ainu representation in japanese media already sucks, if that's true I can't wait to see some nasty stereotypes that only 3 people will recognize because no one cares about the Ainu people. Pokémon has a less than stellar track record with dealing with other cultures and I do not believe they'd take the time to research about Ainu discrimination lol
 
The ainu representation in japanese media already sucks, if that's true I can't wait to see some nasty stereotypes that only 3 people will recognize because no one cares about the Ainu people. Pokémon has a less than stellar track record with dealing with other cultures and I do not believe they'd take the time to research about Ainu discrimination lol
I'm going the other direction: if they're meant to be Ainu they're barely going to touch anything about them beyond one or two things that are like "hey! this is kind of ainu-ish" and just be a mix of being like the rest of the Hisuians with a dash of "they live right next to a regigigas temple and seem to have Palkia robes we need some late game characters to revere and explain the plots"
 

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On a side note, I wonder about the riding/flying Pokemon mechanic. I think it's really cool, but my main question as of now is if we'll be able to ride on other Pokemon besides the seen Wyrdeer (land travel), Basculegion (water travel), and Hisuian Braviary (air travel). Will there be other mons in the game that are eligible to be ride Pokemon for traveling purposes? Or will it be strictly limited to these particular individuals?

It'll be interesting if there are more Pokemon we can ride on across the region, as the mechanic in and of itself is very much fun.
We can take a look at earlier generations for some inspiration here, I think. Alola's Poké Ride had fast water travel/removal of water obstacles (Sharpedo), item searching while travelling on land (Stoutland), fast land travel/removal of land obstacles (Tauros), crossing of rough terrain (Mudsdale), and large obstacle removal (Machamp). You may also count "travel minigame" (Mantine/ORAS Lati@s).

Earlier generation HMs also give some inspiration for potential ride Pokémon: Lighting up darkness/fog (Flash/Defog), underwater travel (Dive), land climbing (Rock Climb), and water climbing (Waterfall), in addition to all the various forms of obstacle removal (Cut, Strength, Rock Smash, Whirlpool). XY also had a different Ride Pokémon for use in deep snow (Mamoswine) and crossing rocky terrain (Rhyhorn)

Of course, they probably won't use all of those niches, or possibly even a significant number of them, but there should still be potential for a few more.

Oh, and since this is my first post in this thread since the trailer went live, I gotta add my thoughts too: The first trailer had me curious, but wary. This one got me hyped.
 

Plague von Karma

Banned deucer.
To summarise the original Kanto lore from the book, the initial 30 Pokemon discovered were in 18th century France (not Kalos, France!) by "Baron Tajirin", which later became foundations for stuff in England, Germany, etc, and eventually Kanto in Japan. "Professor Nishinomori" - whose descendent, Professor Westood V, would have an anime appearance - would do further studies, putting Japan at the forefront and bringing the discovered number of Pokemon up to 80. Finally Professor Oak would bring it up to 150 and develop the Pokedex, which Professor Westwood V is stated to have contributed to, making up some data according to the anime (although this is stated to be a separate canon). At the time of the book, Mew was unreleased and thus "undiscovered", to my knowledge. A lot of the content in the book mirrors the development history of Pokemon Red and Green, which is really cool in my opinion. I also find it pretty surprising that the Westwoods line up so well in terms of lineage, as "5th" lines up pretty well with the years between ~1850 and 1996.

Merc. helped me out a bit here in my personal server, helping to "date" Hisui, as our only description for this is "hundreds". It sort of fits into the Little Ice Age, placing it around the 17th century if we're talking late. This is partially supported by the region being more covered in ice than before and having less landmass underwater (compare the maps, flip 45 degrees counterclockwise, s/o Fig). Because of this, it is shockingly well-placed in the time continuum. The art style is also sort of reminiscent of this era as well, specifically the Tokugawa Shogunate. Naturally this is all educated "guessing" based on real-life areas, but it seems that we're sticking to the time frame nicely, and thus I'd wager that this story could possibly reflect Japan's side when studying Pokemon in that lore. Perhaps Professor Oak "localised" much of the information?

Some more stuff from Merc;

There is one area of concern though, which is that the "Pokedex" in Legends is seemingly intended to be the first one. This somewhat contradicts the events of RBY, wherein Professor Oak is stated to have created the first model, "HANDY505". Then again, Professor Oak is never stated to have written the entries - only inventing it - with Professor Westwood V among a few others being shown to have written their own.
Quoting this for additional context...

So I was chatting with Theorymon and couldn't help but notice this post;
Curiously, a chimney shown in the trailer is in the shape of a Galarian Weezing:
Galarian Weezing.png


It's not a smoking gun, but it's possible that other regional Forms are present in the game.
This actually lines up very well with my previous dating attempts. I'm of the opinion that Weezing is meant to represent the Industrial Revolution, which - get this - started in the 18th century, 1760 into 1860. I believe some may think it being there is odd, but if I'm correct, it actually makes perfect sense. During the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese sent people over to Europe and the United States to find those who were willing to go there and teach science, foreign language, etc. This happened roughly in 1870 - the 19th century - and considering Japan's disconnect to the world's progression prior, actually seems to reflect in this game, further fitting it into the franchise's old lore. In fact, it may just line up perfectly, although I am skeptical about how the featured Pokemon lines up with it...bleh, lore would be a silly excuse to keep the contained Pokemon around 80 anyway, eh?

Also on the note of the Ainu people and whether they're getting represented, there is a glimmer of hope. In recent times Japan has been improving its representation of the people in a similar manner to how England has been attempting to improve ties with Wales. The language has gone from two fluent speakers to (apparently) thousands in recent years, and in 2019 the government recognised it. There is still a ton of discrimination and historical revisionism, but perhaps this may just work.
 
I wonder if we'll have a pokemon version of samurai being faded out and trying to rebel agaisnt the changes. Doesn't have to be as detailed (or bloody) as what happened irl, but maybe stuff like high class jobs being available for common folk and pokemon taking over the prestige
 
Very excited to see new evolutions and new regional forms! But, as competitive player, I am very curious of how these new pokemon will relate to the metagame, will they be available for use? Will they have abilities?
 
Very excited to see new evolutions and new regional forms! But, as competitive player, I am very curious of how these new pokemon will relate to the metagame, will they be available for use? Will they have abilities?
No one can answer the first, we can only theorize. But the second question is unnecesary. In the hypothetical scenario that they are available in other games (ShSw, for example) how is it even conceivable that they could lack abilities. Just using logic, do you imagine yourself pressing the data option in the Pokémon just to witness a giant, empty blank space in the section where it should read "Ability"?
 

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