So a good period of time has elapsed since I first played Legends Arceus. Getting on release date until now I’ve been mesmerised by the gameplay and story which I don’t want to get too much into at the moment as I want to cover Legends as a game and potential sub series separately but in this I wanted to go over how Legends as a game can set up what we can expect for future titles. As ever much like Generation 7’s regional variants I think in some places Pokémon plays it safe when in the next generation is expands if ideas are positively received. Look at how regional variants got evolutions in Galar compared to Alola anyway here’s a few things we can see going forward
Traditional Legendary Trios Are a Thing of The Past:
I have thought on this since The Crown Tundra DLC but legends seems to confirm it. In Legends we got a forth Pokémon for the forces of nature in Enamorus to go alongside Tornadus, Thundurus and Landorus. I’ve really enjoyed the addition as combined with Regieleki and Regidrago it a consideration to improve already existing myths and legends in the world built. If you combine this with the Galarian forms of the original trio I think we may have seen the end of the traditional trio. From Birds, Beats, Golems and lake Trios most generations have had a legendary Trio. It could be argued that Generation 7 broke this with 4 Tapu’s or Generation 6 just not having a trio it feels that the games have moved away from the set of 3 Pokémon with a separate additional trio master. I think this is cool and if there’s scope I think they can add more to what they have a separate related new trio of legendary beats would be cool to see for example. I do feel that while legendary trios (might be more like groups new) will come back with new ideas it will be more likely to see old groups revisited and expanded upon.
Starters are not Immune to Regional Changes:
One of the things I really like about legends Arceus was that all the starters got new variants. New designs and new types is a really good addition to the starters and above all else let’s the mind wonder on all the possibilities. If legends as a sub series continues this as a core pillar of what to expect must as well. The starters I felt were are well designed when it came to their new forms, while I wish Samurott was bipedal it doesn’t take away from its new look to the point where I hate it. Again nothing drastic was done here and maybe in a legends 2 there might be but I will be interesting to see, maybe Blastoise becomes Water/Flying or Emboar becomes Fire/Ice or Sceptile becomes Grass/Electric I do feel this has a lot of possibilities and with that will be something to keep an eye on so that any Pokémon used as starters will be different in these forms of games and as such it creates more fun and speculation.
Previously Forgotten Pokémon Will Continue to Get Attention:
One of the major benefits of Regional Forms especially from Generation 8 onwards is they make a previously not used Pokémon useful through either a new typing or evolution. Pokémon legends Arceus continued the trend with Stantler, Basculin and Qwilfish getting evolutions (Ursaring did as well but was a bit odd of a choice as I felt Ursaring still got love, that being said I liked Ursaluna) as well as new branching evolution for Scyther and Sneasel. Ignoring the branching evolutions the initial 3 mentioned were certainly Pokémon nobody was rushing to use. Overall regional variants will continue but we can see careful consideration comes to Pokémon who people either don't use or want to see long forgotten Pokémon get some use. There's hope for Dunsparce yet.
All in all I think Legends Arceus in points sets up a lot of what we can expect for the future of Pokémon designs but at the same time we have a lot of baseless speculation depending solely on how Legends Arceus sells. While it has sold more than 6.5 million copies in it's first week (being better than Sword and Shield by 500,000 for first week sales it seems positive). If it sells well we get more in this series, we get more historical evolutions to go with the core game regional variants if not we get less insight to how the past of the Pokémon world works. Personally I'd love for Legends to continue as a series as it has a lot of fun concepts that can be expanded upon but above all else it allows for the legends and myths set up already to be given more context and fleshed out, for trios to be expanded upon to make them more unique but more importantly to give undervalued or not considered Pokémon a reason to be used going forward. The steps that Pokémon as a franchise take for Generation 9 off the back of Legends Arceus could be some of the most interesting and perhaps crucial the series has ever taken but we will have to wait and see first of all if Generation 8 is now done for new content and then what Generation 9 will have to offer us.
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