Pokémon Legends: Arceus Receives New Trailers

Over the last week, we’ve seen two new trailers for Pokémon Legends: Arceus. These have been proper overview/hype trailers, unlike the lost-footage style trailer I covered a couple of months ago which would end up being the reveal for the Hisuian forms of Zorua and Zoroark.

The latest of these trailers was released on January 10th and clocks in for a brisk minute-long. Since this particular trailer is more of a promo trailer and not a deep breakdown, there isn’t much to glean from it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruORJogFcOY

Some of it has been seen already from previous trailers, but the quick-pacing of the trailer does a great job at making the game look super exciting. I did mention in my previous article that I, like many others, am not the biggest fan of the visuals that have been shown so far. The large sweeping shots that have been used in previous trailers and media (this trailer shows one) just don’t look great with sparse trees and grass placed here and there. I’m hoping that this is something escalated by Youtube’s famously horrible video compression or maybe won’t feel as noticeable in-game.

A few of my worries were after all tempered after the six-minute breakdown that was released on January 6th. It is entirely in Japanese with no subtitles available, so there is a bit of a barrier if you don’t understand Japanese. Thankfully, what’s presented does a great job of speaking for itself.

What stuck out the most to me from this trailer is the various environments and much of the animations. I love the mix of environments and some shots look pretty nice. Some larger areas looking empty still seem to contrast heavily no matter which environment it is. At the same time, smaller areas and paths seem more than fine to me. Of course, it could still look better in a lot of ways and I think it’s fair to expect better, but we don’t even know how big playable areas will be. Some of these sweeping shots might be backgrounds we can’t reach.

Obviously, I’m coping because we truly don’t know a lot about the game. What I do know is that I love the animations. From the Luxray using lighting attacks to the simply forward-thrusting Snorlax, it honestly looks decent. I’ve always felt like a lot of Pokémon attacks in the main series have looked unsatisfying at times in their simplicity once they went to 3D. Even more so when compared to certain side games. What little we see here isn’t too bad though. I also have to mention how adorable it is to see Pokémon like Chimchar and Shinx sleeping on the ground or to see Pikachu running around.

Something else I also enjoy from this breakdown and other trailers has been the idea of meeting the ancestors of particular characters from the fourth generation games. Even though I’m currently playing through Pokémon Brilliant Diamond, and experiencing some nostalgia there, it is exciting to see characters that look like Cynthia and Cyrus. Some even look like characters from other regions! It’s a very small touch but just like seeing Red and Blue in the Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon games, for example, it kindles its own kind of warm nostalgia.

There’s still a lot we want to know about Pokémon Legends: Arceus and I honestly don’t think we’re going to find out much more until the game comes out in a couple of weeks, which means I’m still stuck on the fence about whether or not I want to try the game out as I look at older trailers on the Pokémon youtube channel. It’s impossible for me to not think the game looks rough, even though I know the content of the game will always be more important to me. I suppose we’ll all find out the consensus on the game soon enough.