Pokemon’s Open World Trajectory: A look at Game Freak’s transition to open world games

Legends Arceus: The next phase – interacting with one’s environment

Following Sword and Shield, the next step in the process of putting Pokemon in a true open world environment was Legends Arceus. While the game itself was not fully open world, the general elements of what that sort of world would end up looking like and the mechanics surrounding it were already on display.

Diving into the Hisui region, players were able to explore vast and (somewhat) diverse biomes for the first time in a Pokemon game. Hisui, which would eventually become modern day Sinnoh, offered players an opportunity to explore frigid mountains, lush forests, grassy plains and humid marshlands to their hearts content, filling them with over-world Pokemon just as Sword and Shield had, though with a few twists. Not only did Pokemon appear based on biome, players would be able to encounter mass outbreaks of any given species, which allowed for a new level of ease when shiny hunting. Shiny Pokemon would also appear over-world for the first time, making it much easier for shiny hunters to find their desired Pokemon in a unique color variant.

The collecting of resources and crafting of both potions and pokeballs was also something Legends Arceus did very well and made interacting with the open world imperative and immersive.  Both players and their Pokemon could collect resources that would be used in crafting important items for one’s journey, which really made the player explore the world at times to discover what they needed to progress in certain portions of the game.

Some items would also help with survivability, which also leads me to one of my other favorite features of the game – namely the player also taking damage from Pokemon attacks. This is a feature that, in my opinion, is very much welcome and should be explored further as open world Pokemon games continue to be developed. The resources gathered would help create smoke bombs to allow the player to avoid such damage and sneak up on potential catches instead of rushing in and risking attack. As a feature, it made the player feel as if they were actually there and part of the environment, sharing in the risks that their Pokemon partners braved in combat.

Of course, we also have to touch on the modes of travel introduced in this game. Unlike Sword and Shield which only afforded the player character a bike, the player was able to travel using special Pokemon that would help them soar, climb or swim to their next location, based on what the situation required. Having Pokemon help the player travel is a great step towards immersion and a sensible one that was explored once again in Scarlet and Violet, but as we’ll discuss, peaked in Legends Arceus.

In terms of gripes with this step in open-world play, having loading screen to travel from area to area isn’t the most immersive way to present an open world environment, but was a small price to pay for what the game did well. In addition to this however, Pokemon diversity, biome diversity (which while improved still needed refinement), and the static nature of the NPCs were facets of the game that took away from what it could have been, but once again is forgivable as long as it’s used as a stepping stone to create something more immersive in the future.