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Discussion The Pokemon Company confirms to Kotaku that Pokemon Legends Arceus is not a full open world game

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Glad there's confirmation out there.

It's to be expected really, and not everything needs to be open world. The areas seem pretty big anyway, each one bigger than SWSH's Wild Area, Crown Tundra and Isle of Armor, so it's not like there's going to be a dearth of places to explore

Let's take Obsidian Fields. There's 34 sub areas in there.
FAhhTOdXEAQWzYZ


In the Wild Area there's 18
In the Isle of Armor there's 17
In The Crown Tundra there's 15

There are 5 of these areas in Pokémon Legends Arceus as you can see by the Pokédex
44.jpg


It's not like they're holding out. These areas seem bigger than the Wild Area subareas.
 
No surprise there but it's good to have confirmation. I liked the idea of "BotW Pokémon" but an open world by itself isn't really a selling point to me. If they think that this world structure best supports their gameplay loop, that's fine by me.
 
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I’m not a huge Pokemon game fan (I fell off after Silver, but love the concept/world and enjoy the anime) so I wasn’t pouring over trailers, but yeah I thought it was open world based off how they had been showing it off. The first trailer literally ended with the Breath of the Wild shot. From the Pokemon Presents I still had that impression.

Monster Hunter comparisons worry me way more since I don’t like Monster Hunter at all. Looking at the map posted above though, I’d rather have five good zones that look/run better, than Game Freak overextending themselves and make a blah open world.
 
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I always wanted Pokemon to go in a Dragon Quest XI route rather than a Breath of the Wild route so I'm cool with this. The big thing for me at the moment is whether the actual missions and gameplay is going to be compelling.
 
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Helix said:
yeah, this is a nope from me. Game Freak, why? :(
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Because open world doesn't automatically mean better. And having such high expectations of Game Freak shows some folks haven't learned a thing. I get cautious optimism with these guys, but thinking a company whom has taken baby steps all their history to just jump into a full open world was questionable
 
ILikeFeet said:
Because open world doesn't automatically mean better. And having such high expectations of Game Freak shows some folks haven't learned a thing. I get cautious optimism with these guys, but thinking a company whom has taken baby steps all their history to just jump into a full open world was questionable
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fair enough, I mean I wasn't expecting wonders anyway but I just thought having Nintendo put BOTW out there would have pushed GF to do something more drastic. obviously, I was wrong.
 
The structure can absolutely work. Monster Hunter Stories 2 works the same way and it’s amazing. Each area is unique and expansive, albeit with a lot of copy paste dungeons. In the future I would like to see an even more open Pokémon game, but this is a good step.
 
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I don't mind aslong as the areas to explore are big or well designed it's cool to me. If they pull it off well the monster hunter like design can work in it's favour. And ofcourse some good exploration still would be sweet.
 
There was never anything wrong with the structure of Pokémon games: not in the old games, not in SwSh and not in the DLCs.

The problem is the execution, for almost a decade now they all vary from "rushed" to "poorly executed". The only really solid thing they released after B2W2 is the 2nd SwSh DLC, but even that didn't fix any of the many issues of the base game, just offered "more" and "better", which isn't bad per se, but this gen we are stuck with a base game that is incredibly and utterly unfinished.

I'm more hyped about the 1:1 gen 4 remake than I am about Arceus honestly.

But GF won't lose because I'm a moron and I've already preordered both anyway. I've fully accepted the fact that I stopped expecting anything from Pokémon and I'm perfectly fine with just throwing balls at stuff for the rest of my life.
 
If you ask most people what kind of structure Xenoblade has, they'll tell you it's an open world despite that technically it isn't one.

Pokémon doing the same is not an issue at all.
 
xsquiddox said:
I don't mind aslong as the areas to explore are big or well designed it's cool to me. If they pull it off well the monster hunter like design can work in it's favour. And ofcourse some good exploration still would be sweet.
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That's what i'm hoping for, and it's easier for Game Freak to accomplish that with contained areas than with a normal open-world.
Besides, aren't we all tired of open world games?
 
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Robert said:
Era can’t help but be fucking miserable about Pokémon. Like, there’s someone comparing Game Freak to friggin Somic Team, the devs who thought giving Shadow a gun and giving him the objective of “kill the president” was a good idea.
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Always remember most people in that place talking about Nintendo games don't actually play Nintendo games, just get mad and talk shit about them online.
 
This seemed obvious from the second trailer onwards. People made a lot of assumptions from the debut trailer, and some of that was understandable, given the parallels with Zelda, but you don't count your Pokemon (game structure) before your eggs hatch.
Serebii said:
Glad there's confirmation out there.

It's to be expected really, and not everything needs to be open world. The areas seem pretty big anyway, each one bigger than SWSH's Wild Area, Crown Tundra and Isle of Armor, so it's not like there's going to be a dearth of places to explore

Let's take Obsidian Fields. There's 34 sub areas in there.
FAhhTOdXEAQWzYZ


In the Wild Area there's 18
In the Isle of Armor there's 17
In The Crown Tundra there's 15

There are 5 of these areas in Pokémon Legends Arceus as you can see by the Pokédex
44.jpg


It's not like they're holding out. These areas seem bigger than the Wild Area subareas.
Click to expand...
Ah, but your facts are unimportant in the face of emotions, bad faith, and assumptions!
 
Helix said:
fair enough, I mean I wasn't expecting wonders anyway but I just thought having Nintendo put BOTW out there would have pushed GF to do something more drastic. obviously, I was wrong.
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It would have been nice but that's a pretty big leap for GF to take. BotW took like 5 years to make, Pokemon games aren't awarded that kind of time. Making up that technical gap along is gonna take several years.


Tangerine_Cookie said:
Always remember most people in that place talking about Nintendo games don't actually play Nintendo games, just get mad and talk shit about them online.
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I was just on /vp/, and I shit you not, they're handling it better than the era thread
 
Joseki said:
There was never anything wrong with the structure of Pokémon games: not in the old games, not in SwSh and not in the DLCs.

The problem is the execution, for almost a decade now they all vary from "rushed" to "poorly executed". The only really solid thing they released after B2W2 is the 2nd SwSh DLC, but even that didn't fix any of the many issues of the base game, just offered "more" and "better", which isn't bad per se, but this gen we are stuck with a base game that is incredibly and utterly unfinished.

I'm more hyped about the 1:1 gen 4 remake than I am about Arceus honestly.

But GF won't lose because I'm a moron and I've already preordered both anyway. I've fully accepted the fact that I stopped expecting anything from Pokémon and I'm perfectly fine with just throwing balls at stuff for the rest of my life.
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Yeah, I agree entirely. Gens 1-4 and arguably 5 had really interesting and well designed worlds. Gen 6 and onward’s problem was the execution, not the paradigm. While it would be interesting to see a fully open world Pokémon, there seems to still be a notion out there that making everything open world is somehow desirable without looking at the many problems open world introduces into game designs. You know we'd have to regularly climb Alolan Exeggutors to unlock bits of map.
 
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Helix said:
fair enough, I mean I wasn't expecting wonders anyway but I just thought having Nintendo put BOTW out there would have pushed GF to do something more drastic. obviously, I was wrong.
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I think a Monster Hunter open world zones type game is still quite ambitious for a company whose usual level design is super linear.
 
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I much prefer Xenoblade 1 and 2’s structure over actual open worlds. I like a degree of linearity in otherwise freely explorable big worlds. And it allows for better stories in general.
Also ask random people and they’ll tell you any game with big areas with controllable camera are open worlds anyways lol
 
Expected this after the second trailer. Oh well. As long as the core gameplay is fun, I'm okay with that structure.

I do feel like they should have been a bit more clear about this from the beginning, though.
 
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I hope the world is still interconnected and you can trasverse from one area to another. I don't like that in MH you're magically transported to each area individually, makes the world feel very artificial.
 
I mean... I feel like this was obvious? At least since the most recent Pokemon Presents. It seems like multiple Wild Area-sized regions pieced together, which I'm totally cool with.
 
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Even if the Hisui is not fully open, I still hope that it is at least connected maps like Xenoblade series. Being unable to visit different areas unless when taking on quests like MH series would be a big missed potential imo.
 
I am worried about stuff like invisible walls, especially if the climbing mechanic is still in. I feel the wild areas only had to deal with that once with stuff like the rougher waters in the isle.
 
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Mercury_Sagit said:
Even if the Hisui is not fully open, I still hope that it is at least connected maps like Xenoblade series. Being unable to visit different areas unless when taking on quests like MH series would be a big missed potential imo.
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The map shows the point where the area connects to, I think, the village, it’s the white arc looking icon in the top left next to the first base camp, so it’s like Xenoblade 1
 
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This is exactly what I wanted and figured they would go after SWSH. I was telling a friend of mine Xenoblade like biomes makes a ton more sense for Pokemon than full open world.
 
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Leo said:
I hope the world is still interconnected and you can trasverse from one area to another. I don't like that in MH you're magically transported to each area individually, makes the world feel very artificial.
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The map for the first area doesn't show any other entrance/exit other than the one to Jubilife
 
Against my better judgment I went to take a look at the thread on era and LMAO. I don't know what I expected. This information doesn't even appear to be shocking or particularly angering on any other place on the internet that I can see but era gonna era I guess.

Anyway, any idea when we might get our next trailer for the game? I'm assuming around the end of the month, but not sure
 
snikdasnek said:
Anyway, any idea when we might get our next trailer for the game? I'm assuming around the end of the month, but not sure
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Last month's trailer was later to align with the anniversary of diamond and pearl, this month's could be a bit earlier.
 
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To be honest ? I'm ok with this. It might mean a better, more focused design of each individual area. The problem with most open worlds is that they often feel scattered and empty, with BOTW being one of the very rare exceptions. The Xenoblade approach gives way to actually build areas without needing for everything to fall back into place for the sake of the entire world map.
 
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ILikeFeet said:
This map doesn't show any possible exit on the east or north. Maybe the river going north?

pokemon-legends-arceus-arc-phone-map.jpg
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Oh I meant areas outside of the Obsidian Fields, like east of Mt Coronet. Like:

Jubilife -> Obsidian Fields
Or -> Area north of Jubilife

Area north of Jubilife -> Mt Coronet

Mt Coronet -> Area east of Mt Coronet
Or -> Area north of Mt Coronet

This is how I expect the 5 areas to be connected

Edit: actually looking at the map again I think the area north of Jubilife and Mt Coronet might be one and the same, and the area east of Mt Coronet might be 2 separate areas since it’s so big
 
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Oh thank god. Not everything needs to be open world and I’m usually not keen on them. BoTW was the first game in which open world clicked with me, and to a lesser extent Skyrim (but I didn’t even finish it and just dicked around in towns and with optional side content).
 
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Mercury_Sagit said:
More like Pokéblade actually :p (hopefully ...) Adding a list of MMO-esque quests and we already got Xenoblade 1 in Pokémon format.
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I really hope. My problem with the Monster Hunter format is that exploration is non-existent and the world is just a massive arena.
 
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I think we could tell after they explained the game loop of going out on surveys. For me, it's no problem at all, if this is the game design, this is the game design, I'm happy to judge it for what it is when they release. My biggest issue with the wild area in S&S and Armor Isle was it was a little bit too open without any sensible natural funnelling. Tundra was way better and I think if this is where they feel like their design strengths lie (and I think I agree) , I'm all for it. It still looks very open with an adventurous vibe, so hopefully it fulfills what everyone hoped for from the first trailer in terms of feel!
 
I'm cool and open to whatever though I would like to say open world doesn't automatically mean bad either. It would be nice to have a decent attempt at a open world Pokemon game so we can form an true opinion.
 
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Aleh said:
Oh I meant areas outside of the Obsidian Fields, like east of Mt Coronet. Like:

Jubilife -> Obsidian Fields
Or -> Area north of Jubilife

Area north of Jubilife -> Mt Coronet

Mt Coronet -> Area east of Mt Coronet
Or -> Area north of Mt Coronet

This is how I expect the 5 areas to be connected

Edit: actually looking at the map again I think the area north of Jubilife and Mt Coronet might be one and the same, and the area east of Mt Coronet might be 2 separate areas since it’s so big
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nah, there's gonna be a separate area since that holds Snowpoint and one of the lakes. the marshlands being one area, the bay next to it, snowpoint, obsidian fields, and mt. coronet making up the 5 areas

pokemon-arceus-open-world-map.jpg
 
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Aleh said:
Oh I meant areas outside of the Obsidian Fields, like east of Mt Coronet. Like:

Jubilife -> Obsidian Fields
Or -> Area north of Jubilife

Area north of Jubilife -> Mt Coronet

Mt Coronet -> Area east of Mt Coronet
Or -> Area north of Mt Coronet

This is how I expect the 5 areas to be connected

Edit: actually looking at the map again I think the area north of Jubilife and Mt Coronet might be one and the same, and the area east of Mt Coronet might be 2 separate areas since it’s so big
Click to expand...
Visualization of this theory

image0.png
 
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Ah, that's disappointing... Although not entirely unexpected.

I hope it's more Xenoblade than Monster Hunter, there's not much purpose to explore in MH as the maps are arenas first and foremost. If exploring is still fun and filled with hidden things then I'm more okay with it
 
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