Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is the next mainline game to release in the pocket monster series and will be making its way to Nintendo Switch later this year.

Announced during February’s Pokémon Presents, Scarlet and Violet will introduce the ninth Generation of Pokémon, three new starters, and a new region to explore across an open-world map. It’s under development at Game Freak, the same studio that released Pokémon Legends: Arceus in late January earlier this year.

Nintendo is framing Pokémon Scarlet and Violet as a big advancement in the Pokémon series, describing it as “a new evolutionary step” that will allow you to “explore freely in a richly expressed open world.”

Towns will “blend seamlessly into the wilderness with no borders”, and you’ll get to “see the Pokémon of this region in the skies, in the seas, in the forests, on the streets.”

The game’s three starter Pokémon include the Grass Cat Sprigatito, who has the Overgrow ability and is described as capricious and attention-seeking; the Duckling Quaxly, which Nintendo says is earnest and has the Torrent ability; and the Fire Croc Fuecoco who’s laid back and has the Blaze ability.

You can watch them in all of their incredibly cute glory in the announcement trailer below.

As is tradition with the Pokémon video games, Scarlet and Violet will be largely identical, although the outfit of your Trainer will change depending on which game you’re playing.

Analysis: building on the foundations of Pokémon Legends: Arceus

There are a couple of big takeaways from Nintendo’s reveal of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. The first is just how adorable the three new starters are. Quaxly might well take the mantle for the cutest cartoon duck to ever exist, and that’s really saying something given the numerous Disney competitors it’s having to contend with.

But the bigger news is that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will be the first fully open-world mainline Pokémon game. No more loading towns or wilderness each time you reach a new area; the wilds of this new region will be seamless and fully explorable, better implementing the feeling of wide-eyed discovery that the Pokémon video games have always tried to capture.

Game Freak already showed just how well Pokémon games can translate to an open-world formula with Pokémon Legends: Arceus. That spin-off title has been repeatedly praised for its level of freedom, which encourages you to explore the world at your pace, and rewards you for curiosity.

But Arceus wasn’t fully open-world. Although its areas were vast and open, they weren't interconnected, and its town served more as a central hub out of which you could explore the segmented areas.

From what Nintendo has said so far, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will go further, giving you an entirely connected world that you can run across from one end to the other. That will open the door to potentially a whole new host of gameplay mechanics, as well as radically changing the pacing of the game. Being able to explore any direction of the map that you choose, rather than being funneled through a linear progression of areas, might introduce a whole new feeling to catching those pocket monsters.

If you can't wait for Scarlet and Violet to hit shelves, get your Pokémon fill with Arceus now.

• Best Pokémon games: Check out our list of the best games featuring the beloved pocket monsters out there. 

Deciding which starter Pokémon should accompany you on your adventure is always a challenge whenever a new game in the series lands. Pokémon Legends Arceus is certainly no different. 

The latest installment maintains its age-old formula by offering you a choice between a Fire-, Water- and Grass-type starter Pokémon. However, instead of introducing entirely new species to choose from in the new Hisui region, Pokémon Legends Arceus gives you a choice between three starters from previous games: Johto’s Cyndaquil, Unova’s Oshawott, and Alola’s Rowlet. 

To help you make an informed choice, TechRadar has put together a full guide below on everything you need to know about each starter Pokémon. That includes their movesets and new Hisuian final evolutions. If you’re a completionist, don’t worry - no matter which starter Pokémon you choose, you’ll have the chance to get your hands on the remaining two later in the game. 

Pokémon Legends Arceus starters - Cyndaquil

• Type: Fire-Type
• Effective against: Bug, Grass, Ice, Steel
• Weak against: Ground, Rock, Water
• Resistant to: N/A
• Best stat: Special Attack and Speed

As has been historically true of Fire-type starters, Cyndaquil doesn’t have many type advantages at the beginning of the game. That said, it rewards you in the latter stages due to its final evolution’s massive attacking potential. 

Unlike previous games, the echidna-like Cyndaquil takes slightly longer to evolve into Quilava - at level 17 as opposed to level 14. However, once Quilava reaches level 36, it can evolve into the never-before-seen Hisuian form of Typhlosion. This gives it a slightly-changed appearance and a powerful Fire/Ghost dual-typing that makes it immune to Normal- and Fighting-type attacks. 

Hisuian Typhlosion has a high Special Attack and Speed stat as well as a comparatively low HP. If your attitude is ‘attack first, ask questions later’ with moves like Overheat and Shadow Ball, then this is the one for you.

Pokémon Legends Arceus starters - Rowlet

• Type: Grass/Flying-Type
• Effective against: Ground, Rock, Water, Bug, Fighting, Grass
• Weak against: Fire, Flying, Ice, Poison, Rock
• Resistant to: Ground
• Best stat: Attack

Rowlet is a Grass/Flying starter Pokémon that hails from the Alola region featured in Pokémon Sun and Moon. Rowlet evolves into Dartrix at level 17 and into Hisuian Decidueye at level 36. 

What makes Decidueye’s regional form special is that it replaces its typical Grass/Ghost dual-typing with Grass/Fighting, giving you a good opportunity to capitalize on the Pokémon’s high Attack stat with a flurry of physical moves.

Similar to Cyndaquil, Rowlet trainers may struggle a bit in the beginning as it won’t prove to be very effective against many Pokémon encounters found in the early stages of the game. However, it’s another good choice in the long run, particularly if you’re a fan of powerful attacks such as Leaf Blade and Brave Bird. 

Pokémon Legends Arceus starters - Oshawott

• Type: Water
• Effective against: Ground, Rock, Fire
• Weak against: Grass, Electric
• Resistant to: N/A
• Best stat: Attack and Special Attack

Don’t be fooled by Oshawott - despite its adorable appearance, it’s arguably the most balanced attacker of the three starter Pokémon. Both Hisuian Typhlosion and Decidueye have stronger Special Attack and Attack stats respectively, but Oshawott’s final evolution Samurott is a jack of all trades with impressively high figures for both. 

Oshawott evolves into Dewott at level 17, before reaching its final form at level 36. Once fully evolved, Hisuian Samurott becomes a Water/Dark dual-type, gaining powerful moves such as Dark Pulse and Hydro Pump along the way.

Overall, Oshawott is a solid choice throughout the duration of the game, particularly given that its higher HP stat will allow you to endure attacks from Alpha and Noble Pokémon slightly better than the other two starters.

• Pokémon Legends Arceus is great - but where do the games go from here?

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Pokémon Legends Arceus when it was first announced. Sure, the fundamentals of it were easy to grasp - a semi-open world Pokémon adventure that placed an emphasis on exploration and Pokédex completion instead of  the tried and tested formula of battling to become the region’s Pokémon Master. But the real question was: could developer Game Freak create a Pokémon game this ambitious?

Now that Pokémon Legends Arceus is out, I’m still not quite sure we have an answer. Don’t get me wrong, Legends is an extremely enjoyable game, and the changes to the long-established Pokémon formula feel fresh enough to set the game apart from its mainline counterparts. But therein lies a problem unique to the Pokémon games - where does the mainline series go from here?

It’s very easy to get immersed in the ancient world of Hisui and the satisfying gameplay loop of consistently filling out your Pokédex, so much so that I hope the Legends brand will continue to be its own thing. The question is, then, should Legends become the new standard for Pokémon games going forward, and is that really what the series needs?

Poké Wrap

For the last few years, it’s been evident that the Pokémon games have flailed around more than a stranded Magikarp in terms of what they wanted to be. For better or worse, the games have been hugely experimental, arguably since the release of Pokémon Sun and Moon way back on the 3DS, which changed up progression by eschewing gym battles for encounters with singularly powerful Pokémon.

Since then, we’ve had Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee, which returned players to Red and Blue’s Kanto region and placed an emphasis on catching Pokémon using the unique motion controls of the Joy-Con. Those games were followed by the next mainline entries, Pokémon Sword and Shield, which reintroduced familiar elements such as gym battles, but were infamously divisive for being intensely linear and dropping the National Dex in favor of a smaller, curated roster of Pokémon.

In the years between then and now, we also saw the release of New Pokémon Snap, which arguably failed to capture the magic of the N64 original, and the Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Gen 4 remakes which again proved to be divisive due to an odd aesthetic choice and overall lack of graphical fidelity compared to even pixelated entries like the superlative Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver remakes from 2010.

It’s no shock, then, that Pokémon Legends Arceus has received near-universal acclaim from fans and critics alike. The game offers a meaningful shakeup to the Pokémon formula, and it does so by further honing gameplay features from this very experimental phase.

There’s a ton to love about Pokémon Legends Arceus, and a lot of that is down to the foundations laid by other Pokémon titles released across the last decade. The emphasis on catching from the Let’s Go games, for example, as well as Sun and Moon’s boss Pokémon encounters. Not to mention Sword and Shield’s free-roaming Wild Area taken to its logical conclusion. These games walked so that Legends could run.

The Next Generation

But if Legends is the culmination of this experimentation, then, where do the Pokémon games go from here? It’s likely that The Pokémon Company, Game Freak and other associated teams already know the answer, as there’s bound to be more Pokémon projects in pre-production and active development.

A new Pokémon game is as certain as death and taxes, but in a post-Legends world, it’s become a little harder to predict how the next big Pokémon game will take shape. Okay, catching and battling are a dead cert, but now that Pokémon Legends Arceus has disrupted the formula to such a degree, what the next Pokémon game will look like is, to an extent, up in the air. That’s both exciting and slightly nerve-wracking.

For my two cents, the days of traipsing through cities and towns connected by routes and caves in order to shore up an octet of gym badges should be over and done with. That gameplay loop worked admirably for a time, but Pokémon and its various development teams deserve to work on a more ambitious project than that. And if Pokémon Legends Arceus is the first step on that path of ambition, then I say fantastic. More of that, please.

That being said, if that ambition takes the shape of a game with a much larger world and a much greater variety of Pokémon, it’s going to need better hardware, because Legends is buckling under the pressure of the Nintendo Switch’s relatively limited specs. As lovely as Legends’ art direction can be, it’s not quite been able to shake the reputation that recent Pokémon titles are ugly, and while I don’t strictly agree with that assessment, some visual elements are too intrusive to ignore.

Object pop-in is extremely noticeable, especially when you’re blasting through the wilderness on a Ride Pokémon like Wyrdeer. Trees, grass and NPCs phase into existence mere meters from your character. Individual texture maps are large, making the seams between them occasionally noticeable. What’s more, there’s no anti-aliasing whatsoever. That’s a norm for Switch titles in general, but it makes object shimmering and the low-quality shadows supremely evident.

Greater expectations?

Pokémon Legends Arceus, I feel, absolutely does move the series in a positive direction. It’s managed to lift the games out of a near-decade of stagnancy, but I also think that there’s still plenty of room for improvement, and a lot of that comes down to management of the franchise and Nintendo’s ability to release more powerful hardware.

To that point, it’s likely that the next big Pokémon game will launch on the Switch, for better or worse. What’s also likely is that it will maintain a typically tight development cycle, given that the games do - unfortunately - have to stay on track with the Pokémon franchise as a whole. That includes merchandising and the ever-popular anime, neither of which wait for any man.

Pair this with the fact that Game Freak is still a relatively small, independent studio, and I imagine the developer continues to find itself in a difficult position - tasked with creating ever-more ambitious Pokémon games on a constant cycle. However, Pokémon Legends Arceus, in my mind, demonstrates that Game Freak is well up to the task of creating a truly excellent Pokémon game, but it’ll need some help from its benefactors before that happens.

As such, I expect the next big Pokémon game won’t leave quite as much of an impact as Legends has in the short term. I’d love to be wrong, but I do feel as if the series will once again go through the motions, at least for the next half-decade or so. I will of course still look forward to any future Pokémon titles - especially a Legends follow-up - but I’d love for a new Pokémon game to genuinely blow me away.

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Reviews for Pokémon Legends: Arceus are out in the wild, giving us an idea of whether Game Freak’s latest entry in the pocket monster series lives up to the hype – and from what we’ve read so far, it certainly sounds like it does.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is currently sitting at a respectable Metacritic score of 86, with a few critics giving the game full marks. The next mainline title in the Pokémon series, Arceus marks a major change in direction for the franchise.

There are no Badges to collect, Gym Leaders to battle, or random encounters to work through. Instead, you’ll explore an open world in search of wild critters to add to your Pokedex.

Here’s a roundup of what the gaming press are making of the latest Pokémon release. 

In Polygon's review, Ryan Gilliam recommends the game, and says it finally gives Pokémon fans something new, even if it “stumbles often on its way to innovation… and brings equal parts brilliance and frustration in its updated systems”. 

Chris Scullion at VGC says the new game is “the series’ best game in years”, and refines nearly every element of the Pokémon formula for ”a smoother and more satisfying experience”. 

Eurogamer's Chris Tapsell also recommends Pokémon Legends: Arceus and describes it as “exhilaratingly new”, even if it clumsily cribs ideas from Pokémon Go and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. 

Jordan Middler says Pokémon Legends: Arceus “feels like the result of Game Freak learning lessons for 25 years, refining the formula, and finally taking the franchise in a new, incredible, exciting direction” in Nintendo Life's review. 

Sam Loveridge at GamesRadar awarded the game 4.5 stars out of 5 and said: “problems with the performance are the one thing holding Pokémon Legends: Arceus back from perfection. But when you're having such a great time with the actual gameplay, it's not enough to hold back this otherwise impressive swing into a new Pokémon generation”. 

VG247’s Alex Donaldson gave the game 4 out of 5 stars, summarizing: “minor issues with the technical presentation and pacing be damned, Pokémon Legends: Arceus is the best Pokémon adventure in 20 years”.

Change for the better

Pokémon Legends: Arceus has launched to glowing reviews, then, with critics in agreement that Game Freak’s attempt to upturn the staple Pokémon formula has landed smoothly. It’s not only a game of discovery and adventure, it offers fans of the series something that’s genuinely new.

While the game isn’t as visually impressive as Breath of the Wild, from which it draws much of its inspiration, and apparently suffers from the very occasional performance dip, it’s a bold step forward and charts a new path for the series.

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A brand new trailer for Pokémon Legends: Arceus has been released and it offers what might be our best look yet at the game’s historical Hisui region. 

Posted to YouTube by the official Japanese Pokémon account, the 360 degree video allows you to take control of the camera angle and enjoy a first-person view of the game world. For just over two minutes you are transported across land, water and sky with the help of three Hisuian evolutionary forms: Wyrdeer, Braviary and Basculegion. 

While it’s not possible to control the actual direction of those Pokémon, looking around is a simple matter of clicking and dragging. You can try it for yourself below.

This feels like one of those trailers that excited fans will be able to spend a while exploring. As you turn the camera, you’ll catch glimpses of some of the wild Pokémon that you can expect to be able to encounter in the Hisui region (shout out to that pretty angry-looking Snorlax). 

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We get the impression the trailer is only showing one section of Hisui, which the Pokémon Company has previously explained isn't a fully open world, but instead split into “various open areas” into which players can venture from the main base of Jubilife village. 

As the game’s website explains, Mount Coronet, which we see in the trailer, “rises from the center of the Hisui region” and it’s “surrounded on all sides by areas with distinct environments. Each area is rich in its own natural features and plays host to different Pokémon ecosystems”. What's shown in the trailer is visually pretty uniform so there's more to see when the game launches.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is set to release on January 28 exclusively for Nintendo Switch. 

Analysis: Best look yet? Well...

With its greater lean into the Wild Area concept introduced in Pokémon Sword and Shield and its seeming focus on expeditions and discovery, Pokémon Legends: Arceus feels like it’s doing something new with the Pokémon series. This interactive trailer strikes us as a pretty effective means of conveying that sense of discovery.

That said, while we wrote this is probably our best look at the Hisui region yet, that’s maybe not strictly true if you’ve caught sight of some of the recent leaks around the game. 

It might only be a week until the release of Pokémon Legends: Arceus but it looks like copies of the game have arrived with fans early and, as a result, screenshots, gameplay footage, and other information about it has started cropping up here and there online.

If you want this trailer to be the extent of what you see of Hisui before you get to visit for yourself, we suggest being wary of spoilers for the next few days.

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Copies of Pokémon Legends: Arceus are reportedly already in some peoples' hands ahead of the game's release on January 28.

As a result, screenshots, gameplay footage, and general info about the game has begun to crop up online, meaning fans who wish to avoid being spoiled will need to take pre-emptive measures.

According to Nintendo Life, copies are even being sold on eBay and some retailers have shipped copies early.

We obviously won't be sharing any spoilers, but we advise you mute any words related to the game, and maybe even the series, on social media platforms like Twitter.

Hisui 360°

Earlier today, the official Japanese Pokémon YouTube channel uploaded an interactive 360° YouTube video that shows off Pokémon Legends' Hisui region from a first-person perspective.

It's only a couple of minutes long and sees the player character travel around a small part of the region while cycling through the three different ridable Pokémon available in the game: Wyrdeer, Braviary, and Basculegion.

Set in the distant past, Pokémon Legends shakes up the formula and tasks players with creating the Hisui region's first-ever PokéDex. The game features a vast overworld where Pokémon roam freely, prompting many comparisons to Capcom's Monster Hunter games.

Beyond that, very little of the game's plot has been shared, although there is a mystery surrounding why certain Pokémon are being sent into a vicious frenzy, causing them to attack people.

Arceus' own role has yet to be explained either and it hasn't even appeared in any promotional material aside from the original teaser.

• Pokémon Legends: Arceus: what you need to know

Not long after revealing a new form of Voltorb, Nintendo and Game Freak have shared another trailer for the upcoming Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Instead of Pokémon, this one focuses on some of the new characters you'll meet throughout the game. Namely, two organizations called the Diamond Clan and the Pearl Clan.

According to the official website, the two clans pay respects to the noble Pokémon of the Hisui region and have wardens who serve them. If you've been keeping up to date with Pokemon Legends news, then you're already familiar with a couple of them, such as Arezu and Lian who are respective members of the Diamond and Pearl Clans.

The obvious connection to the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl games is unsurprising considering Pokemon Legends is set in the same region - Sinnoh - as them (albeit in the distant past). The color schemes for their clothes are also clearly inspired by the legendary Pokémon Dialga and Palkia.

The Clans' leaders are called Adaman and Irida, who are described as being regularly at odds with each other due to their conflicting personalities. You'll also encounter a pair of merchants called Ginter and Volo, who will sell you items for your journey.

Have we met before?

Game Freak has already teased that some of the characters in Pokémon Legends are the ancestors of NPCs from the Diamond and Pearl games, but it's not immediately obvious with these four new faces.

Ginter could be related to one of the Gym Leaders, Volkner, since their faces are a tad similar. Ginter's character art of him sitting in a chair is also near-identical to official art for Volkner, who is pictured sitting in the same position.

As for Volo, he could very well be the ancestor of Cynthia, the Sinnoh region's champion. While both characters have blonde hair, Volo and Cynthia's hair also curves so that it covers their left eye, which seems like too much of a coincidence to not be intentional.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus is to be a very different experience compared to the mainline games, embracing more of an open-world structure in a manner similar to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It releases for the Nintendo Switch on January 28, 2022.

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It's an exciting time to be a Pokémon fan, as the latest Pokémon Presents showcase just wrapped up with some juicy details on upcoming titles, including Pokémon Legends: Arceus, the Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl remakes and a smorgasbord of other pocket monster projects.

Thanks to the showcase, we now know the official release date for Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and it's not a million miles away. The game will be among the first Nintendo Switch exclusives of 2022, releasing on January 28 of that year.

A prequel to the main Pokémon timeline, Pokémon Legends: Arceus takes place in the Hisui region (which will eventually become Pokémon Diamond and Pearl's Sinnoh region), where the player will be tasked with collecting Pokémon data to create the world's first Pokédex.

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If you're looking forward to Pokémon Legends: Arceus and the Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl remakes, Nintendo might just have the perfect special edition console to play them on, too.

This special edition Nintendo Switch Lite will release on November 4, 2021, just a couple of weeks ahead of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl on November 19, 2021, though no price or pre-order details have been confirmed as of yet. The Switch Lite is emblazoned with designs of Dialga and Palkia, those games' flagship legendary Pokémon.

The design is reminiscent of a special edition Nintendo DS Lite from 2006, which featured a similar design to promote the release of the original Pokémon Diamond and Pearl games. And while we're sure the base Switch model or the Nintendo Switch OLED will make the games look and run much better, this special edition Switch Lite is a cute curio, nonetheless.

Analysis: Is Pokémon making a comeback?

It's hard to deny that Pokémon as a franchise has some serious momentum behind it right now. A litany of Pokémon games have released in the past few months to warm reception, including New Pokémon Snap and the multiplayer-focused Pokémon Unite on Nintendo Switch.

As we look to the near future, then, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl and Pokémon Legends: Arceus are the next big titles for the series, and both arguably have some work to do to win back many a jaded Pokémon fan.

Pokémon Sword and Shield for the Nintendo Switch, while solid titles in their own right, missed the mark for many longtime series fans who were growing tired of the reused 3DS assets, as well as the lack of a National Dex (the Pokédex that includes every Pokémon ever created) and the game's overall short length and low difficulty.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus, to its credit, looks like it's genuinely taking the series in a new direction, seemingly taking cues from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in its freeform exploration. Meanwhile, the Diamond and Pearl remakes will hopefully give longtime fans a more traditional experience while they wait for Arceus's 2022 release.

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The Pokémon Company has revealed that a brand new Pokémon Presents will air next week, bringing updates on the upcoming games in the series. 

The news was announced on the official Pokémon Twitter page, confirming that the stream will take place on August 18 at 6am PT / 9am ET / 2pm BST and you'll be able to tune in on the official Pokémon YouTube channel. 

The tweet also confirmed that fans should expect to see updates on the upcoming DS remakes Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl as well as the highly-anticipated prequel Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

This comes hot on the heels of the The Pokémon Company’s tease that more on Pokémon Legends: Arceus would be revealed “soon” so it seems they really meant it. All three titles were announced together during a February 2021 Pokémon Presents which celebrated the series’ 25th anniversary so it stands to reason that we’d see updates on them together as well.

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The release dates for all of the games are fast approaching. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are making their way onto Nintendo Switch as soon as November 19, seemingly promising a faithful recreation of the beloved Generation 4 Diamond and Pearl games which originally released on the DS back in 2006. 

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is coming a little later on January 28 2022 and while Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will be treading familiar ground, Legends: Arceus is set to do something a little different, taking players into a historical Sinnoh region where Pokémon roam freely and the world is a little more open.

Analysis: what should we expect to see?

While the tweet confirmed that Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl as well as Pokémon Legends: Arceus will make an appearance during the presentation, it didn’t give away any details on what exactly we can expect to see from any of the titles.

With release dates for all three games already confirmed, we’re not anticipating any big announcements in that area (unless a delay is imminent but that seems unlikely). Given all of the games are scheduled for release within the next six months, we’d imagine The Pokémon Company will want to dive a little deeper than it has done previously – we've only seen reveal trailers released on announcement so far. 

With no running time provided it’s kind of hard to glean just how much detail there might be but it seems likely that there’ll be some new in-game footage and more specific details on what players should expect from their returns to the Sinnoh region both past and present. Fortunately, we don't have long to wait to find out for sure.

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The Pokémon Company isn’t ready to reveal more about Pokémon Legends: Arceus right now but it will be “soon”.

Speaking in an interview with GamesBeat (via GamesRadar) JC Smith, the senior director of consumer marketing at The Pokémon Company, said that when it comes to Arceus, the company has “a robust rollout" planned, adding that there's "not a lot that I can share at this time. But the team has a lot of great things to share, and you’ll be hearing from us soon.”

Unfortunately, Smith wasn’t able to give any indication on how soon “soon” is. Pokémon Legends: Arceus was first revealed to the world back in February of this year in a Nintendo Direct celebrating Pokémon’s 25th anniversary. Since then, the biggest news has been a confirmation of its 2022 release date and box art reveal via Twitter.

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Nintendo didn’t offer any more information in its E3 2021 presentation and doesn’t appear to have any plans for Gamescom 2021 as it’s not listed as a partner, so it’s hard to predict when exactly we might learn more. 

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a Nintendo Switch exclusive and it currently has a release date of January 28 2022, which actually isn’t all that long away. That said, it’s not the only upcoming Pokémon game, with Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl (remakes of the beloved Nintendo DS titles) set to release first, in November of this year.

Analysis: why not reveal more right now?

We know: why “soon”? If there are lots of great things to share why not right now, this minute, this second? Well, actually, it’s maybe kind of understandable that The Pokémon Company is reticent about Pokemon: Arceus at the moment. 

For one thing, the Pokémon calendar is actually pretty busy. Pokémon Unite, the strategic team battle game, has only just launched on Nintendo Switch and is likely the company’s most immediate focus. Then, before we get to Pokémon: Arceus’ January 2022 launch date, there’s Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl in November. There's probably still more we have to learn about these remakes, so it's easy to see that being The Pokémon Company’s next hurdle. 

Arceus’ 2022 release date, early in the year though it is, likely means it’s not at the top of the priority list at the moment as far as revealing details is concerned.

Plus, given Pokémon Legends: Arceus looks set to change things quite a bit, with official website saying it “honours past Pokémon games’ core gameplay while infusing new action and RPG elements“, it's possible The Pokémon Company will want take its time over laying out exactly what that means. 

Pokémon: Arceus is a prequel of sorts, taking players into a historical Sinnoh region. The scope of the open world appears to be larger than previous entries in the series (think Sword and Shield’s Wild Areas but more) and notions of what it means to be a Pokémon Trainer or even what a Pokémon League is are totally different.

Arceus certainly gives the impression it'll be an entry that experiments with some of the Pokémon formula but, for a series that’s so long-running and beloved, announcements regarding changes can’t just be flung out into the world—it’s likely The Pokémon Company will want to lay out a cohesive picture of what players can expect and why they should look forward to it, rather than tidbits here and there. 

Still, this doesn’t get us any closer to answering when exactly we might learn more. Nintendo still has a good amount of time left in the year for announcements and, given the strength of the Pokémon franchise, big events like Gamescom or E3 aren’t strictly necessary to prop up a dedicated Arceus Nintendo Direct. With that in mind, we could learn more at any time over the next few months so keep your eyes and ears open.

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Pokémon Legends: Arceus has been announced for the Nintendo Switch as the closer to the Pokémon Presents presentation, which was held to celebrate the franchise’s 25th anniversary with new game announcements.

According to the announcement, Pokémon Legends: Arceus acts as a prequel to the main series. Taking place in a much older version of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl’s Sinnoh region, in a time when Pokémon roamed freely. Players will travel from their village home base to many different areas surrounding it. 

The world premiere trailer showed off a glimpse at Pokémon Legends: Arceus’s gameplay, which looks to be running on the Pokémon Sword and Shield engine. The game will release simultaneously worldwide in early 2022 and is being developed by Game Freak.

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Playing in the past

Players will be tasked with filling out one of the very first Pokedexes, which are your trusty Pokémon data collection devices featured throughout the series. In a twist on the typical formula, the three starter Pokémon are all from different generations, and they are Rowlet, Cyndaquil and Oshawott.

There’s more of an emphasis on Pokémon Legends: Arceus being an RPG adventure, meaning progression might not be quite as linear as we’re used to in older titles. It looks like your trainer can catch Pokémon from the overworld, too, without having to enter a battle first. Of course, Pokémon battles will still be a major part of the experience.

The focus of the game’s story looks like it will heavily involve the titular mythical Pokémon, Arceus, who in the Pokémon lore shaped the world how it is today.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus looks to break new ground for the long-running series. While this may not be a mainline series entry, it’s interesting to see a big Pokémon adventure not be announced alongside a counterpart game, as we saw in 2017 with Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee.

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