Pokemon Legends: Arceus rating suggests a slightly more intense journey

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Ye olde Sinnoh region is far from lawless

Pokemon Legends Arceus
(Image credit: The Pokemon Company)

Pokemon Legends: Arceus has been rated by the Australian classification board, confirming that the upcoming open-world Pokemon adventure is about as tame as the other games in the franchise.

The rating rules out all language, drug use, nudity, and sex as you'd expect (we're not going to dwell on the implications of performance-enhancing potions). At its most extreme, Pokemon Legends: Arceus reaches the dizzying heights of PG for themes and violence of mild impact. I mean, we at least had to acknowledge smacking wild Pokemon until they're so woozy that we can pack them into a tiny ball. 

Interestingly, the four Pokemon games immediately preceding Arceus – the newly rated remakes of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, as well as the Sword and Shield duo – were also rated PG but with themes of very mild impact. The Australian classification board is pretty stringent so this is probably just splitting hairs, but if the land down under reckons Arceus is somehow more intense than other modern Pokemon games, who am I to argue? You can bet it'll wind up with an E for everyone rating worldwide, though. 

Unfortunately, this rating doesn't tell us much else about Arceus, and at this point we're ready to just play the darn thing. Earlier this month, we got our first proper look at its updated battle system and some delightful new Pokemon evolutions, so we're more eager than ever to explore ye olde Sinnoh. 

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.