Where thePokemon DiamondandPokemon Pearlremakes are offering fans all thePokemonnostalgia they’ll need,Pokemon Legends: Arceusis exploring new frontiers. Up until now, The Pokemon Company has teasedPokemon Legends: Arceusas a world where they’d be able to explore and encounterPokemonin a much more grounded environment. Many were even expectingPokemon Legends: Arceusto be an open world. However, new images ofPokemon Legends: Arceus' map paint an entirely different picture.
The basic idea behind an open-world game is that players are able to explore the full world without it being segmented. That was the hope forPokemon Legends: Arceus, but the game’s newly released in-game map shows that’s unlikely. The map shows the environment ofPokemon Legends: Arceussplit into different regions, each with its own borders meant to distinguish it from its neighbors.
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Pokemonplayers will likely immediately understand the implication of the segmented borders fromPokemon Legends: Arceus' map.Pokemon SwordandPokemon Shieldboth featured anopen area dubbed the Wild Area. The Wild Area wasn’t open in either game, but rather had loading screens separating different sections of it. The Crown Tundra expansion was similarly structured. Both featured maps with similar segmented lines separating the different explorable areas within them.
In other words,Pokemon Legends: Arceusplayersmay find that they’ll be able to explore individual areas openly, like certain islands or sections of forest, but there will be loading screens between these areas. Some of these areas may be small while others may be significantly larger, but invisible loading walls will still separate them.
It’s entirely possible that the map that’s been shown is misleading, of course. It’s possible thatPokemon Legends: Arceusoffers much larger open areas to explore thanPokemon SwordandPokemon Shield’s Wild Area did. The Pokemon Company has not officially commented on the matter, nor has it sharedofficial gameplay forPokemon Legends: Arceusthat would clarify the issue. However, the lack of communication regarding just how openPokemon Legends: Arceus' world truly is may be telling.
The decision to segmentPokemon Legends: Arceus' map, if it’s true, is certain to be a controversial one within thePokemoncommunity. But whatPokemonfans want and what The Pokemon Company is capable of don’t necessarily align.Pokemonfans very much want aPokemongame ofsimilar openness toThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The Pokemon Company, however, is making annual iterations of a franchise that’s never provided a 3D open-world before, and on the very limited Nintendo Switch hardware, at that. At the very least, feedback will prompt The Pokemon Company to continue exploring these ideas in the future.
Pokemon Legends: Arceusreleases June 23, 2025 on Nintendo Switch.
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