Pokemon Legends: Arceus looks like Breath of the Wild set in Sinnoh history

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It's "a new approach" for Pokemon

Pokemon Legends: Arceus is a new free-roaming Pokemon game coming to Nintendo Switch in 2022.

According to the reveal trailer shared at the Pokemon Presents stream today, Pokemon Legends Arceus is set in the Sinnoh region many years before the events of Pokemon Diamond & Pearl. The trailer showed a trainer on a journey that led them through an old village and out into the vast reaches of Sinnoh - Mt. Coronet still looms large in the distance, but the wild and rugged reaches of Sinnoh's past will surprise even dedicated Diamond & Pearl fans.

Your young trainer has a simple but ambitious goal: complete the first Pokedex in Sinnoh's history. They'll have the help of a professor (some things never change) who starts them off with a Rowlet, Cyndaquil, or Oshawott, and from there they'll be able to catch and battle more Pokemon out in the wild - complete with tall grass to sneak through as you try to lob old-timey wooden Pokeballs at them. While catching Pokemon is quite different, it looks like battling them will still take place in the kinds of familiar turn-based battles you're used to.

The big mystery so far is what any of this has to do with the Pokemon in its title: old Sinnoh legends say that Arceus shaped everything in the world, and we're at least a bit closer to those times as we play through this piece of regional history. As for what role it will play in this game specifically, we'll just have to wait until Pokemon Legends Arceus' simultaneous global release in 2022 to find out.

Speaking of Sinnoh, The Pokemon Company also announced a pair of new Switch remakes: Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Pokemon Shining Pearl. 

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan
Former GamesRadar+ News Writer

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar+.