Why Pokémon Legends: Arceus Should Be the Standard of Pokémon Video Games
Ever since I watched my first episode of Pokémon anime, I imagined myself inhabiting a 3D world filled with pokémon. When I discovered my first Pokémon video game, I was in awe with the depth of world and the immersion I felt playing it. Since then, I had always wondered: "why is not there a 3D open world Pokémon video game?"
It seems at some point other people wondered it too, and eventually Pokémon Legends: Arceus was released. Pokémon Legends: Arceus is very different from other Pokémon video games in the sense that it features a complete 3D open world gameplay, along with the option to rotate the camera, such as in open world video games such as Grand Theft Auto III (2001), Assassin's Creed (2007), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011), Minecraft (2011), The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017) and Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018).
What Is Pokémon Legends: Arceus Like?
Like other Pokémon video games, Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a role-playing game (RPG), belonging to the creature collector sub-genre. In Pokémon video games, the game character traverses the land, meeting non-player characters (NPCs) and catching Pokémon. Pokémon become the game character's allies and companions, and can evolve throughout the game.
Such as in other RPGs, in Pokémon video games, the game character evolves by completing tasks and by fighting opponents. The game character is able to adventure in different environments in order to be presented with varying degrees of challenge. Unlike most RPGs, however, creature collector games, such as Pokémon video games, focus on collecting and evolving these allies throughout the game, incentivizing the player to make sure to adventure in as many locations as possible.
One distinctive characteristic of Pokémon video games is that, unlike classic RPGs in which enemies often spawn randomly, such as in Final Fantasy video games, in Pokémon video games the opponents are hiding, most of the time, in the grass of the game world. For this reason, if the player wishes to avoid combat, they can simply avoid traversing through the glass of the game world. This is a unique characteristic of the Pokémon video games that easily distinguishes them from other RPGs.
Another important feature of Pokémon video games is that the fighting is done between Pokémon, and not between the game character and Pokémon. This is different from other RPGs in which in most cases the game character themselves fight against the opponents. In Pokémon video games, the game character usually has the role of a Pokémon trainer, or Pokémon master, and issues commands during the battles, in a turn-based combat gameplay system.
Pokémon video games are also known for their type system which is very important in game battles. Each Pokémon pertains to a specific type, such normal, fire, water, and so on, and each type has a different effectiveness on other types. For this reason, when deciding which Pokémon to choose for a specific battle, the player must use strategy and knowledge of the relationship between the different types of Pokémon. This adds a strategy layer to the gameplay, and is similar to elemental systems found in some RPGs.
Unlike previous Pokémon video games, Pokémon Legends: Arceus features a complete 3D, third-person camera perspective view, which is very different from the standard 2D top-down graphics the Pokémon video games are known for.
Why Pokémon Legends: Arceus Should Be the Standard of Pokémon Video Games
While 2D graphics are certainly a stylistic choice, many franchises have changed from a 2D graphical style to a 3D graphical style. Some famous examples include Grand Theft Auto, Final Fantasy, Warcraft and The Legend of Heroes. Over time, as technology of the video games industry improves, increasing degrees of immersion are sought for by players. Decades ago, at the dawn of the video games industry, video games were often considered to be simply a pastime, since the 2010s video games are being increasingly seen as an immersive experience. This became especially evident in the cases of particularly immersive video games such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011), Elite Dangerous (2014), The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) and Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018).
As players around the world search for more immersive experiences, video games with 2D graphical styles are often seen as a nostalgic experience, a dive into the experience of the video games of the 1990s. While 2D video games can certainly be immersive, 3D video games offer a different kind of immersion, in the sense they can create in the player some sense of alternate reality, or virtual reality. While games will always be games, during their immersive experience, players can feel as if they were in a different world, and this experience is enhanced by a 3D virtual environment, while the 2D virtual environment is a constant reminder of the limitations of such alternate reality, or virtual reality.
While earlier Pokémon video games were certainly significant to the video games industry and meaningful to generations of players, the video games industry is constantly changing and evolving, and a 3D open world Pokémon video game is a step towards the direction of immersing players in the world of Pokémon. The universe of Pokémon video games is a universe filled with adventures, new friends and surprises, and these features are the ideal match for a 3D open world environment, which encourages adventuring and imagination.
It is important to note that Pokémon Legends: Arceus is the first 3D open world Pokémon video game, in my own terms, it is not the first Pokémon video game to feature an open world. Most of the earlier 2D Pokémon video games featured an open world, and Pokémon Sword and Shield featured an open world in some segments of the gameplay. However, considering that Pokémon Sword and Shield features this open world in only some segments of the gameplay, and that in many moments the camera perspective is fixed, I do not considerd Pokémon Sword and Shield to be a 3D open world Pokémon video game, but rather a 3D Pokémon video game which some open world segments. For this reason, I do not consider Pokémon Sword and Shield to be the first 3D open world Pokémon video game, although it presents the 3D open world gameplay which will subsequently appear in Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus is the first 3D open world Pokémon video game. For this reason, as all pioneer video games, it has possibilities for improvement. However, it successfully unveiled the potential of open world Pokémon video games, paving the road for future projects.
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