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

But as counterpoint, Galarian Weezing evolves from regular Weezing (same as how A-marowak and A-raichu evolve from regular Kanto forms), so I think both options are possible
A late response, but I wanted to mention that those pokemon are already NFE. In the case of pokemon that are a single stage/fully evolved and received a regional evolution (like Farfetch'd or Corsola) they got a regional variant that could evolve, instead of making the OG's NFE.
 
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while I'm currently leaning more into the side of there not being a "Hisuian Stantler" or "Hisuian Basculin", I definitely wouldn't rule it out, and even if Sirfetch'd was clearly a completely different type there's that little part of me that makes me wary of Cubone in Alola going from Ground to Fire/Ghost
 

CTNC

Doesn't know how to attack
I could see Wyrdeer evolving from Original Stantler, but I really don't think that's going to happen. What they say about Wyrdeer and Basculegion is pretty much what they said about Sirfetch'd and they didn't reveal Galaran Farfetch'd until the games came out. The only reason I'm considering the possibility is because I don't want what would just be a white Stantler with a Psychic Typing slapped on. What makes me even more sure is I see no chance of Basculegion not evolving from Hisuian Basculin. It's somewhere between Red Stripe and Blue Stripe in design and stripe color and, from a lore standpoint, there's no way they'd stop fighting long enough to possess/fuse into one Pokemon. I hope Hisuian Basculin is a Mono Water Type just for a regional variant that has the same typing as the original version, but I don't think that's happening either because it wouldn't be different enough, even if they had different Abilities.

If I believed they'd let Fully Evolved Original Form Pokemon evolve into Regional Variants/Evolutions, I'd think there'd be no Hisuian Stantler but there would be a Hisuian Basculin.
 


Something I kind of already internalized but didn't really realize is that, all the Pokeballs in this game are going to look different to incorporate the aesthetic. Even the menu sprites (which are now Pokemon Global Link artwork) reflect this.

Which is all a long wind up to say that moving forward, in new games, there's a very likely aspect that Pokemon trasnferred from Legends Arceus will display as the "old" pokeballs and not their "modern" counterparts. IE Legends Arceus pokemon will show up in the ball shown here, not the Heavy Ball we've known for years. So Pokeball collectors, potentially meet your new nightmare.




And to head this off at the pass: I suspect that LA pokemon placed into SWSH will display as either just a Pokeball or as their "modern" counterpart. This is more or less what the apricorn balls in HGSS did for pokemon traded to DPPt: they displayed as pokeballs.
 
And to head this off at the pass: I suspect that LA pokemon placed into SWSH will display as either just a Pokeball or as their "modern" counterpart. This is more or less what the apricorn balls in HGSS did for pokemon traded to DPPt: they displayed as pokeballs.
The big difference though is that back on the original DS software patches didn't exist. They could easily patch in the designs nowadays.
 
I wonder if the trainers will have a melee attack, even if it's weak. You have a dodge roll and you can take damage so it makes sense if you had some kind of way to defend yourself. Makes me wonder if you'll be able to do a no-Pokemon run. Just treat the whole ass game like Dark Souls. Beat Arceus to death with your fists.

Show God why it is humankind, not Pokémon, who is destined to rule this world.
 
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I could see Wyrdeer evolving from Original Stantler, but I really don't think that's going to happen. What they say about Wyrdeer and Basculegion is pretty much what they said about Sirfetch'd and they didn't reveal Galaran Farfetch'd until the games came out. The only reason I'm considering the possibility is because I don't want what would just be a white Stantler with a Psychic Typing slapped on. What makes me even more sure is I see no chance of Basculegion not evolving from Hisuian Basculin. It's somewhere between Red Stripe and Blue Stripe in design and stripe color and, from a lore standpoint, there's no way they'd stop fighting long enough to possess/fuse into one Pokemon. I hope Hisuian Basculin is a Mono Water Type just for a regional variant that has the same typing as the original version, but I don't think that's happening either because it wouldn't be different enough, even if they had different Abilities.

If I believed they'd let Fully Evolved Original Form Pokemon evolve into Regional Variants/Evolutions, I'd think there'd be no Hisuian Stantler but there would be a Hisuian Basculin.
I'm sort of expecting it, but just "Purple-Stripe Basculin"*. Basculin already has 2 forms with almost no difference between them, why not make it 3? Stantler, though, has a fine design that could easily lead to Wyrdeer, so why fix it if it ain't broke?

Oh, right, GF.

Also, a no-mon(or 1 mon, never click a move) run sounds hilarious and I support it.

*Reckless or Rock Head as the ability
 
So a lot of new info on this as of late. Been skimming articles but wondering if these have been answered before.

1) Are there strong indications for a traditional multiplayer battling component? So far I don't see the articles mention anything.

2) The game does appear to allow trading. What is the general guess about how this works now? Will we be able to trade into Home and transfer to Sword/Shield/Brilliant Diamond/Pearl? I know it will get a Home updater later in 2022.

Way I'm reading it is this is more on an offshoot game, despite being described as mainline. I'm thinking we'd be able to move Pokemon from Legends to "the real" Pokemon games including those in future generations.

I'm assuming new Pokemon types and regional variants from Legends will never come to Sword/Shield. But I do wonder about the rest of the Pokedex. I am thinking it will be like an X/Y and OR/OS type of situation.
 

shnowshner

You've Gotta Try
is a Pre-Contributor
So a lot of new info on this as of late. Been skimming articles but wondering if these have been answered before.

1) Are there strong indications for a traditional multiplayer battling component? So far I don't see the articles mention anything.

2) The game does appear to allow trading. What is the general guess about how this works now? Will we be able to trade into Home and transfer to Sword/Shield/Brilliant Diamond/Pearl? I know it will get a Home updater later in 2022.

Way I'm reading it is this is more on an offshoot game, despite being described as mainline. I'm thinking we'd be able to move Pokemon from Legends to "the real" Pokemon games including those in future generations.

I'm assuming new Pokemon types and regional variants from Legends will never come to Sword/Shield. But I do wonder about the rest of the Pokedex. I am thinking it will be like an X/Y and OR/OS type of situation.
AFAWK this is a single-played only experience, I think they explicitly mentioned that.

The trade functionality of this game with other titles/home isn't clear either, especially for the new mons/forms.
 

ScraftyIsTheBest

On to new Horizons!
is a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
So a lot of new info on this as of late. Been skimming articles but wondering if these have been answered before.

1) Are there strong indications for a traditional multiplayer battling component? So far I don't see the articles mention anything.

2) The game does appear to allow trading. What is the general guess about how this works now? Will we be able to trade into Home and transfer to Sword/Shield/Brilliant Diamond/Pearl? I know it will get a Home updater later in 2022.

Way I'm reading it is this is more on an offshoot game, despite being described as mainline. I'm thinking we'd be able to move Pokemon from Legends to "the real" Pokemon games including those in future generations.

I'm assuming new Pokemon types and regional variants from Legends will never come to Sword/Shield. But I do wonder about the rest of the Pokedex. I am thinking it will be like an X/Y and OR/OS type of situation.
1. No, there likely won't be any multiplayer battling and the official sites have mentioned them as a single player experience in that regard.

2. I would imagine transferring from Legends to SwSh and BDSP will be possible via HOME. Whether the reverse is possible, or mons can be transferred from SwSh to BDSP or to Legends and vice versa, has yet to be seen.

3. Legends is pretty much like Let's Go in that it's mainline, but it's also doing its own thing at the same time, yeah. It's not replacing SwSh as the primary competitive format either.

4. Keep in mind XY and ORAS situation was years ago, and things have changed since then. When the DLC reinstated many mons into Sword and Shield, they were patched in so they could be usable, but wouldn't receive any Dex entries. They are clearly open to patching mons into the data but not giving them any Pokedex entries now in the present times. Now this is not a guarantee that Legends new mons will not be usable in SwSh, but this is still possible given the prospect of patch-ins to make them usable in SwSh by implementing their data in. Furthermore, unlike in Gen 6 where ORAS replaced XY as the main competitive format, and in Gen 7 where USUM took over SM, this time around Sword and Shield will remain the primary competitive game for VGC even with the release of BDSP, as BDSP will not have an official competitive format and Legends is single player, so to allow the new mons into SwSh so they can be used in VGC is still an open possibility. Whether Game Freak will actually do that or not is another story, but at minimum, the BDSP and Legends Pokemon will definitely not receive Pokedex entries in SwSh, and if usable, will likely be treated as "foreign" Pokemon much like the current mythicals and Crown Tundra legendaries/Hoenn starters.
 
So, it could totally just be pareidolia, but in this scene from the trailer, that rock formation up near the top looks suspiciously like a sphinx (not shinx) or lion dog statue. I wonder if it could be a sculpture of Hisuian Arcanine.

pla_scene.png


In other thoughts, this could probably go in the Unpopular opinions thread too, but I hope there are enough new Pokemon/forms in PLA that we get monthly trailers that reveal a couple in each, or at least every other month. I'm not saying I want them to reveal them all before release (although there is a high chance I will look at the inevitable datamine before I get my hands on the game), but I find monthly reveals of new mons make the wait for the game a bit more bearable for me. From the original leaks we know there are at least a couple more, plus Growlithe evo and maybe prevos of the others... hopefully there will be a lot more!
 
1. No, there likely won't be any multiplayer battling and the official sites have mentioned them as a single player experience in that regard.

2. I would imagine transferring from Legends to SwSh and BDSP will be possible via HOME. Whether the reverse is possible, or mons can be transferred from SwSh to BDSP or to Legends and vice versa, has yet to be seen.

3. Legends is pretty much like Let's Go in that it's mainline, but it's also doing its own thing at the same time, yeah. It's not replacing SwSh as the primary competitive format either.

4. Keep in mind XY and ORAS situation was years ago, and things have changed since then. When the DLC reinstated many mons into Sword and Shield, they were patched in so they could be usable, but wouldn't receive any Dex entries. They are clearly open to patching mons into the data but not giving them any Pokedex entries now in the present times. Now this is not a guarantee that Legends new mons will not be usable in SwSh, but this is still possible given the prospect of patch-ins to make them usable in SwSh by implementing their data in. Furthermore, unlike in Gen 6 where ORAS replaced XY as the main competitive format, and in Gen 7 where USUM took over SM, this time around Sword and Shield will remain the primary competitive game for VGC even with the release of BDSP, as BDSP will not have an official competitive format and Legends is single player, so to allow the new mons into SwSh so they can be used in VGC is still an open possibility. Whether Game Freak will actually do that or not is another story, but at minimum, the BDSP and Legends Pokemon will definitely not receive Pokedex entries in SwSh, and if usable, will likely be treated as "foreign" Pokemon much like the current mythicals and Crown Tundra legendaries/Hoenn starters.
With all those in mind, I wouldn't expect much from a competitive standpoint aside from the new mons. My sinking feeling is that it will be intended to be played as more as an action-adventure game and actually getting into a Pokemon battle will be more of an easy mode. Between how Dynamax went and then reading the tea leaves where they're saying Sword/Shield are still supposed to be the main competitive games and this game will have no PvP, I have very little faith that they would be able to make the strong/agile style stuff balanced for a PvP format on their first try, and they probably don't even intend to make it so. Don't get me wrong, it could still be a good game and an interesting new direction for the franchise, but with what's come out so far it seems extremely unlikely there will be some balanced natdex Legends Arceus metagame that supercedes playing on SwSh rules with the addition of the previously missing Pokemon.
 

ScraftyIsTheBest

On to new Horizons!
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Okay a bit of a new topic to discuss here, but upon thinking about it there's something interesting that I hope ends up happening in this game.

Thinking back to when I first played Crown Tundra, one of the most pleasant surprises in that game, and one that made me like Calyrex a lot more than I initially did, was the fact that Calyrex was practically a character in its story, despite being a Pokemon. The coolest thing about Calyrex is that it was the first legendary/mythical to actually speak in the games, and it had dialogue, an established personality, and interacted with you through human language.

I don't know if it will be the case in Legends: Arceus, but I think it would be really nice if Arceus not only gets to be a fully realized character in its own game, but also for it to have a speaking role. Especially considering there seems to be a lot of mystery around it as it stands, it would be very nice if Arceus gets to have dialogue, speak human language, and perhaps converse with the player and have a clear cut, established personality in this game. Arceus is practically a deity and is considered the "Original One", and I imagine it would be capable of at least communicating telepathically like Calyrex can, and in the one movie it starred in long ago it had a major speaking role, so I low key hope Arceus gets to have the ability to talk and become a proper character in this game.
 
Making Arceus a "character" would be pretty nice, though I imagine it would be played pretty straight so far as dieties go. Probably very similar to its movie incarnation. Calyrex was so great partially beacuse for as much as it carried itself regally it was also a dork. Having a more ...uhh...how to put this. "Smaller" design, and one that's kind of goofy, probably helps that too. Arceus just by design alone is very larger than life

Maybe the Lake Guardians could talk or something.
 
I'm actually far more positive that I should be given SwSh track record (I still have a few concerns, but well that's me not giving anyone the benefit of the doubt in this industry these days).

How I would rate the various pieces of news:

Amazing: Mons, region, characters.
Good but under evaluation: game mechanics, graphics.
Concerning: compatibility, futureproofing, trainer fights.

Pokemon is about Pokemon. Plain and simple.
With different time periods, revisiting regions... the possibilities are endless and you can then justify retcons with little effort and some cool in-world tidbits, like climate change, evolution and so on.

The new designs are all awesome.
To sum up how much I like all of them:

Basculegion.

"Carrying on the will of the dead makes me stronger. I already looked as a badass Piranha first. Now I look like a badass Mega-Gyarados with an attitude. Hey, Wishiwashi, guess that schooling thing is cool, huh? Guess who does it better"
In all seriousness, I was waiting for such a mon to appear the moment Wishiwashi was a thing. It is darker, cooler, and probably easier to use. What I worry about is the evolution method, especially if it is as far-flung as some of Swsh's very own (Hello, G-Yamask. No, not you Farfetch'd. You go leek weep in a corner). I guess you could go very dark by having to knock out other Basculin while having your own in the party.

Wyrdeer.

Since I watched the Present on my phone with a shitty connection while on vacation, I honestly thought this mon was an Arceus proxy or something. It looks regal, at home, and, most importantly, once I saw it better, very consistent with what a Stantler evolution would be like.

Growlithe-H

Rock! Looks like statue-inspired! Awesome. Now, that's a typing I would like to explore with a balance/offensive Mon. Not knowing what the evolution will look like is one of the things that in making me consider going in completely blind bar for this Present. It will probably evolve in some Lore-based, stony looking creature, maybe bulkier than regular Arcanine (design wise, not stats).

Also, is it just me or all new mons fall into the "older=bigger"? If so, it is a cool evolutionary callback that I would profoundly enjoy.

The region map also looks far more interesting in its uncharted, or untamed if you will, version. I do wonder, however, if we run the risk of "plain old Wild Area" or if it will be challenging and also stimulating in terms of structure, layers, and weather impact. Moreover, civilizing it and seeing Hisui changing during the game is a possibility to look forward to. Come to think of it, we've experienced environmental calamities, space-time warping, literal WMD almost going off, and in main games little to nothing changes in all the places you visit, no matter the disaster.

The Galaxy-Galactic reverse plot hints at some kind of subversion, bad interpretation, or inspirational material used straight out out of context later done by Cyrus, which is my favorite villain in Pokemon as much as Sinnoh is my favorite region.

Final note, if the snowy route is even harsher terrain, the better. That's my top #1 route in all of the series

The graphic department has certainly done some improvements but, even though I can't fathom why, something still looks off to me. Maybe it's the color palette or how unnatural Basculegion seemed to traverse water. On the bright side, I really enjoyed seeing the player traverse the map and interacting with Mons. I look forward to how mons attacking you is implemented even though I remain skeptical.

The most intriguing and at the same time controversial point is the new-ish battle system though. Jury is still out to see that work, especially its interaction with level differences, and possibly multi-character battle. All I'm going to say is that they should take a look at Final Tactics Advance 2 (good what a Godly game that was), which has the simplest turn based structure with speed and turn tampering mid-battle that I recall, and see if the model is scalable to Pokemon.

What I am saying (and dreaming) is, with the proper stat tampering and speed controlling, you could effectively have 6vs6, all-out brawls. That would be sick and something this franchise should have gone for ages ago: leave the competitive scene as it is, bar for new Mons/Items/Abilities, and experiment outside of that.

I do wonder if there will be an hard cut-off at some point between the roaming and trainer fights. Like, what if trainer battles get instituted during the game? Will they completely adhere to the classic structure or will we use the PL:A's wild world mechanics with fast and slow but powerful attacks? I fear that we could get the worse of both worlds if they're not very thoughtful with it (or use a clear cut differentiation between the two and call it a day).

In usual GF, gen 6 onward fashion (common industry trend though, to give them just a modicum of slack), the compatibility structure will not be ready to serve the games at launch. I especially worry about how much it would take to have all available mons in the best available Switch game, but this is a topic that is in all likelihood going to be addressed no sooner than Gen9.

PL:A is poised to be the best Pokemon game available when it launches, but I highly doubt it has been developed and planned to include all available mons in any decent way. My fear is that we will continue to use "Home" as "Jail" until Gen9.
To me it still feels underwhelming that the best feasible option is that the Hisuian and BDSP rosters will be added to Swsh but as GenIII starters were: no construct, no in-game improvements, no explanation.

Futureproofing is also a concern that I have. Will we always be forced to transfer Mons from previous games (like, you can't phisically evolve Cubone in Alowak in SwSh) or will they start implementing ways to cross-game futureproof divergent forms? Suppose Stantler stays regular Stantler, can we please evolve it (even via a particular method/restricted to an area) in all future games?

Regional forms and evos are one of the coolest concept they nailed in recent years, they should be as accessible as possible.

All in all, I'm more hyped that I should be. I look forward to camping, crafting and roaming around while we literally build up Sinnoh's Pokedex, civilization, and lore. Guess time to go dark about the game to experience it at its best will be soon.
 
Will we always be forced to transfer Mons from previous games (like, you can't phisically evolve Cubone in Alowak in SwSh)
Well, notably this wasn't a problem in Alola (you were able to evolve Pikachu and Cubone in kanto variants in Ultra rifts iirc).

Now, this does kinda strike me as same ""problem"" as location-based evolutions, albeith somewhat easier to solve since ipotetically if they want to "nerf" the regional evo system they could just go the Ice-Stone route and implement a "Alolan candy(tm)" item that when held and evolutionary condition is met lets your poke evolve in that specific region variant, or even pokemon-specific ones (es, you need to give an "Alolan Thick Club" to marowak to evolve into Alolan marowak)

I think futureproofing regional evos isn't a big problem, though I would rather have them stick to fully blow "regional lines" instead of regional evolutions, which simplifies the process.
 
Okay hold on.

So this game takes place a few hundred years prior to D/P. There are regional forms of Growlithe and Braviary, and Stantler gets an evolution. So where are these Pokémon in DPPt? Are they all extinct?
 
Okay hold on.

So this game takes place a few hundred years prior to D/P. There are regional forms of Growlithe and Braviary, and Stantler gets an evolution. So where are these Pokémon in DPPt? Are they all extinct?
Considering RSE and ORAS were in separate timelines, if the new Pokemon can be brought to BDSP through Home, maybe they'll explain they went extinct in DPPt but not BDSP. But we're not sure if Megas are coming back and Megas were the reason ORAS was set in a different timeline. However we have no idea where LGPE and SwSh are on the timeline, if they're on the same timeline(s) as the earlier games.
 
Okay hold on.

So this game takes place a few hundred years prior to D/P. There are regional forms of Growlithe and Braviary, and Stantler gets an evolution. So where are these Pokémon in DPPt? Are they all extinct?
Environmental factors would presumably phase them out, yeah.

Changes happen and Braviaries stop having to migrate to Hisui. As such, Hisui Braviary slowly phase out until there's just normal Braviary.
Same applies to Basculin: environmental changes mean that Basculin don't have to migrate to Hisui for breeding season, which means less of them die, which means Basculegion phase out (well ignoring the fact that for gameplay purposes we'll probably never have to ko a bunch of basculin to cause one to evolve, but shhh lore time).
Stantler only evolve to Wyrdeer based on the environmental survival. For one reason or another, the Hisui environment gets less harsh, so evolution fades out. Stantler themselves also start phasing out. If you want to be cute you can look at the pokeradar as less a gameplay contrivance and more "these pokemon are still in the region, just very rare" in which case in-universe Stantlers themselves might be like endangered or something.

Same applies to Growlithe. I'm not sure why environmental factors cause it to hunt in pairs and have a rocky head, but a couple centuries of changes just phase it out.
 
Well, notably this wasn't a problem in Alola (you were able to evolve Pikachu and Cubone in kanto variants in Ultra rifts iirc).

Now, this does kinda strike me as same ""problem"" as location-based evolutions, albeith somewhat easier to solve since ipotetically if they want to "nerf" the regional evo system they could just go the Ice-Stone route and implement a "Alolan candy(tm)" item that when held and evolutionary condition is met lets your poke evolve in that specific region variant, or even pokemon-specific ones (es, you need to give an "Alolan Thick Club" to marowak to evolve into Alolan marowak)

I think futureproofing regional evos isn't a big problem, though I would rather have them stick to fully blow "regional lines" instead of regional evolutions, which simplifies the process.
I agree with your last sentence, but the prove is in the pudding and so far we only have Alola and Galar as evidence.

Alola did it somewhat right, Galar however butchered it completely by not providing the option.

Breeding made it far more confusing, by the way. Who the hell decided that, with the choice between:

a- breeding from regional variants gets you the regional variant of the parent;
b- breeding whatever variant gets you the regional variant of the region you're breeding in;

The latter was both the most logical and the most convenient?

Fun fact is that option a together with two parents from different variants have a 50% chance of make you hatch either would have covered all options (together with Ball inheritance, mind you). It's not hard, but they did it wrong (so far).
 
I agree with your last sentence, but the prove is in the pudding and so far we only have Alola and Galar as evidence.

Alola did it somewhat right, Galar however butchered it completely by not providing the option.

Breeding made it far more confusing, by the way. Who the hell decided that, with the choice between:

a- breeding from regional variants gets you the regional variant of the parent;
b- breeding whatever variant gets you the regional variant of the region you're breeding in;

The latter was both the most logical and the most convenient?

Fun fact is that option a together with two parents from different variants have a 50% chance of make you hatch either would have covered all options (together with Ball inheritance, mind you). It's not hard, but they did it wrong (so far).
Isn't option A partially covered by having the regional form hold an everstone? Obviously it's an issue for Alowak/Weezing, but aren't those the exception?
 

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