Pokémon's New legend grows closer

 Such is a Noble, I suppose

I don't think it's too much of an exaggeration to say that many of us old school Pokémon fans are currently looking upon 'Legends Arceus' as the bold new hope for this series many of us have found wanting for quite a while. Even if it was something we'd never readily admit to ourselves, preferring to wear that strained smile and endure low effort repetition time and time again, waiting for the point where Gamefreak would burn themselves out and the series would just stop indefinitely. (Of course these games make far too much money, that would never happen, but I do wonder what would happen to mainline Pokémon if Gamefreak too a step back. I can't imagine it would be good.) Legends Arceus is a branch out in a new direction, challenging the series to see if it can stand on it's own two legs after more than 20 years. (I'd make a 'living in your parent's basement' joke, but given the cost of living these days: that's pretty representative of practically half my generation anyway.) 

Therefore I have a bit of a hop in my step whenever we get a little something new to pour over, anything that fleshes out this game just that tiny bit. And it may seem neurotic, the amount of attention I and others pay these tiny teases for a game that doesn't even seem that revolutionary, but you have to understand that for Pokémon, all of this is revolutionary. Looking at a trailer for an upcoming Pokémon game and not instantly recognising every square inch of the game in an instant is more than just a novelty, it's enough to shake a fan to their very core. Obsession is like the reflex core kicking into action; forcing us to study up so that our fragile pre-fab of reality doesn't come tumbling around us. And I think that the Pokémon Company are well aware of this, which is why they've been steadily spoon feeding new infomation for fear of half their fan base fleeing in shock. (I present that in jest, but after how Max Payne 3 managed to actually do that very thing, this may actually be a shrewd strategy from the marketing department.)

A new trailer dropped not that long ago, probably to make up for the fact we won't be seeing this game for the entirety of 2021 like we really should be, in which we've be introduced to something either very special or just this game's gimmick; Noble Pokémon. Now a new classification of Pokémon is very special, particularly given that most of the time these classifications are created by the players and merely adopted by The Pokémon Company whenever they feel like it. Legendary Pokémon came from them, sure, but Mythical was like the community's way of saying "these guys are stupid rare, likely exist only to promote wider Pokémon projects and thus are limited in capacity, and you should pick them up as soon as!" And then you have the 'pseudo Legendary Pokémon', which is a tag to refer to Pokémon, typically with the full three stage evolution tree, who have such average high base stats that they compare well against the artificially boosted up Legendries from each entry. So how do these Noble's fit into that ecosystem? 

Poorly, I suspect, given that they very much seem to just be big boss fights against Pokémon in the game. As presented, this Noble Pokémon is a completely new Pokémon with axes for hands called 'Kleavor', because scissor-hands weren't metal enough, I guess. It appears to be a large, glowing, Pokémon who charges around the gameworld presenting something of a hazard to the player in the live action playspace and dealing punishing heavy moves on Pokémon in the RPG battle mode. So I'm seeing their narrative weight as being just special boss monsters you have to fight in order to catch them. Maybe they'll even be unique, which would probably allow them to classify as 'Legendary', but the whole 'new classification thing' seems a bit manipulative to perk up the ears of collector fanatics out there who suddenly realise "Wait, my collection is as-of-yet incomplete? THIS CANNOT STAND!" But hey, I love a new Pokémon, so who am I to complain?

Also shown off were glimpses of some of cast of the game, including some Wardens who are presumably going to be taking the place of 'trainers' within this world and whatever connected movie or show comes alongside this game if it becomes a hit. There was also a decent look at customisation showing off that yes, once again they're going to giving a full range of options to the player so that their avatar can look as silly as possible, with even Pokémon themed accessories to stick in your hair like some sort of ghoulish war trophy. And, of course, what modern video game would be complete without a crafting system in order to make those expeditions to the wider world feel just that tiny bit more worthwhile as you scourge about to make an elixir or some such nonsense.

These are all just little things, but together they could equal the next generation of Pokémon and that's something to be excited for if nothing else. I also feel like some shots of this trailer were specifically made in order to put out those self generated fires that fans seem insistent on starting about the contents of this game that none of them have played yet. Such as the glimpse at PC Boxes, now called Pastures, wherein you can still foster a team of six Pokémon and don't have to pick one to lug around for each mission. Where was that rumour even started? Well it's squashed now. Oh, and they teased that there is going to a photo mode, which squashed my worries, because every game needs to have a photo mode always.

Going back to the Noble monsters, although the trailers are trying their best to obfuscate it, I really do like the concept of undergoing some sort of openworld puzzle fight against these monster before you get a chance to properly fight them. Don't get me wrong, I know the target audience of these games probably means that every 'puzzle' is going to be blindingly easy and hardly worth mentioning, but even setting this precedent opens the possibility for some really set piece moments against the cooler monsters. Imagine a Final Fantasy XV style cinematic platforming section around some terrifyingly titanic Pokémon who is thrashing and tearing up chunks of the world as you climb. We won't get anything anywhere close to that, but the Arceus duel, however it turns out, might be a lot better than just 'here's a boss fight, try not to down the legendary.'

Now I can't lie and call this my most anticipated game on the Switch coming out, that would still be reserved for Breath of the Wild 2 (which apparently has open preorders over at GAME despite not having a title, boxart, or release date yet. What do they know that we don't?) but Legends Arceus could feasibly be the prelude to that game. At some point. I know it seems odd and reductive to say that this game could be the first in a series of games that could one day be amazing, but that's just the level of removed we have to work with in a series that moves as slowly as Pokémon does. In the meantime you better bet I'm going to play Arceus, support the games you wanna see more of, always. I love Monster Hunter and Pokémon, they pretty sold my copy of the game to me when they announced it, everything else is just icing on the cake.