First Impressions On Pokemon Legends: Arceus Gameplay

Pokemon Legends: Arceus is coming out very soon and Nintendo have finally released some extended gameplay. What does the game actually play like?

Pokemon legends arceus open world
Pokemon Legends: Arceus doesn't look too bad! What else did we think of the first extended gameplay video? | © Nintendo

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is coming out very soon and fans are still confused about it. Is it a classic Pokémon game? What do I actually do in this game? Is it open world game? Well, we already answered the last question with a resounding no. But what about the rest of the game? We finally know more, as Nintendo released a extended gameplay video, showing off the gameplay of Pokémon Legends: Arceus. You can see the full video at the end of the article.

What Is The Gameplay Like In Pokémon Legends: Arceus?

In Pokemon Legends: Arceus, you play as a trainer and try to build the very first Pokédex. In order to do this, you explore big hub-areas and search for Pokémon in the wild. In the actual gameplay video, this all looks a looot like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Like... a lot. From the animations, to the menu design and the overall aesthetic. Look, we won't debate again, whether it's graphically good-looking or not, but it reminds us so much of Nintendo's masterpiece from 2017.

The action in Pokémon Legends: Arceus might look a lot like Zelda, but you seem to be doing typical Pokémon things: Once you encounter a wild Pokémon, you try to catch it and eventually fight it with your own collection of adorable pocket monsters. You are now just doing it in a game, that looks a lot more like a third-person action game and that is pretty neat, to be honest. There also seems to be a hint of Monster Hunter in this game as well, with selectable missions, research tasks, a levelling system and customization.

A big focus of the game are going to be legendary Pokemon. You will battle and tame these in special missions and they are supposed to be among the toughest challenges in any Pokemon game. Between missions, you will have camps and towns to go to, where you can craft, recieve and deliver missions and talk to NPCs. Again, the Monster Hunter is strong in this one.

Overall, the gameplay in Pokémon Legends: Arceus looks pretty cool! We will have to wait until the final release, to see how much fun it is to actually explore the areas in the game and if the hunt for Pokemon is as fun and motivating as in classic titles. The graphics look a bit flat in this video, but it doesn't have to wow us to be a fun game, right? We still don't really know, how many Pokemon are going to be in the game, but the developers have revealed some new ones recently. And I'm sure they will have some fun surprises for us in store.

What Is The Pokemon Legends: Arceus Release Date?

Pokemon Legends: Arceus is going to be released exclusively for Nintendo Switch on January 28. That's only two weeks off from the time of writing, so not much longer until we can find out for ourselves, if the game can live up to the legendary franchise. Check out the full gameplay presentation below.

Faris Delalic

Faris has been obsessed with gaming since his childhood and is now the Gaming lead at EarlyGame. He is a self-described FromSoftware shill, but also loves games like Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur's Gate 3 and Resident Evil 4....