Pokemon Legends: Arceus map might not be a truly open world

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One Twitter user has spotted a small detail within the game's map

Pokemon Legends Arceus
(Image credit: The Pokemon Company)

The Pokemon Legends: Arceus map might not feature as open a world as we once thought. 

Following the release of the new Pokemon Legends: Arceus trailer just a few days ago, Pokemon expert @JoeMerrick has pointed out the fact that the game might not feature a truly open world. 

According to Merrick, "it is becoming increasingly clear that Pokemon Legends: Arecus may not be full open world but rather segmented open areas like in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Monster Hunter etc."

In their tweet, Merrick shared two screenshots of what appears to be Legends: Arceus’ map. As they point out, the map is divided up into smaller sections which presumably will be big enough for players to freely explore but may require the game to load into the different sections on the map. This is yet to be confirmed by Nintendo or Game Freak though.  

This is likely to come as a surprise to many as Nintendo has confirmed previously that Pokemon Legends: Arceus is an open-world game. It was suspected by many that the highly anticipated Pokemon game would play like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but as Merrick’s tweet shows, this may not asctually be the case. 

It does still appear that Pokemon Legends: Arceus will still shake up the usual Pokemon game formula though, as it’s already been confirmed that Pokemon Legends Arceus is changing up the battle system and that it won’t have ranked battles. If the game’s rating is anything to believe, it’s possible that the game may feature a slightly more intense journey too. 

Pokemon Legends: Arceus is due to release on January 28, 2022 on Nintendo Switch. 

Find out what Pokemon will be making an appearance in the upcoming game with our Pokemon Legends: Arceus Pokedex guide. 

Hope Bellingham
Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.