Pokémon Legends Arceus: Nintendo Shows Off 13 Minutes of Gameplay

2 years 4 months ago

Nintendo has released a new 13-minute gameplay video showcasing Pokémon Legends Arceus. It offers an in-depth look at Arceus' new spin on the classic monster collecting game, including how Pokémon are battled and caught out in the wild.

The more open world-like nature of Legends Arceus means that Pokémon can be caught in and out of battle - you can try and sneak up on them and catch them unaware, or catch them in the more traditional way during battles. To try and get an advantage over your potential captures, you can throw items to lure or distract Pokémon.

Getting into a battle with a Pokémon brings a certain amount of risk, as they can directly attack you. Should you take enough damage, you'll eventually faint and lose items. As such, you'll want to be careful around particularly aggressive wild Pokémon, because items can be used to craft new creations in the new scavenging and crafting system.

A detailed explainer of Pokémon battles reveals that the turn-based system has been overhauled with a two-style system. Pokémon can attack with either strong style or agile moves. Agile moves are less powerful, but faster, and may allow you to take another attack to turn sooner. Strong style moves are the opposite: more devastating, but you risk delaying your next turn. Using a combination of both will be important for success, it seems.

Mini-boss style Pokémon, known as Alpha Pokémon, can be found in the world, and are larger, stronger versions of classic favourites. Seen in the trailer is an alpha Walrein with glowing red eyes, who's a pretty big boy compared to the trainer's own Raichu.

The biggest battles, however, appear to be Noble Pokémon boss battles. These are a mixture of action-based sections in which you must both avoids attacks and throws "balms" at the boss, then more traditional turn-based Pokémon battles.

Pokémon are not just used for fighting, though. As in the original games they can also be used as mounts, but in Legends Arceus you can switch between traversal Pokémon on the fly, such as switching from a ground-based mount onto a flying Pokemon.

As ever, trading is a big part of the Pokémon games, and so Legends Arceus will also allow you to trade monsters with other players. The system can be seen in action in the trailer. We also get a look at the customisation options for clothes and hairstyles.

For more from Pokémon Legends Arceus, check out the Hisui Clans and Hisuian Voltorb trailers, and more details on the Noble Pokémon.

Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.

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