At the end of the month, we’ll all get to experience the Pokémon Legends Arceus map size in all its glory, but for now, here’s what we know about the scale of the game and its various locations. The good news is that Nintendo and the Pokémon Company haven’t been too shy about the details for the upcoming game, so there’s actually a lot to go on in terms of the map and what it means for the gameplay.
Arceus is essentially a sort of origin game for the franchise, taking big things back to a time when humans and Pokémon were much less entwined and don’t really interact with each other very much. It’s set in the Hisui region, which might sound new, but in reality it’s going to be a very familiar setting for a lot of players, just with a distant past timeline.
AdvertisementThe Hisui region goes on to be known as Sinnoh in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl and that’s just the beginning of the similarities between the two titles. The gameplay mechanics for Legends Arceus are very different to the rest of the series and here you’ll have a base to work from, similar to the Monster Hunter series, which is Jubilife Village.
Over the intervening years between the games, the village hub goes on to grow and develop into Jubilife City, one of the early locations you come to in Diamond and Pearl. At the center of the region is Mount Coronet and story for both games is Mount Coronet and you’ll be able to explore the towering peak like never before in Pokémon Legends Arceus.
AdvertisementObviously, we’ll update things when the release date arrives, but the sections below should give you more to go on in terms of the size of the map.
Map size and Pokémon Legends Arceus gameplay
You can see from the image above that the map is pretty much the same as it was in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl with Mount Coronet rising up to dominate the heart of the island. It may well only be a graphical representation of the map, but it gives us a lot to go on in terms of the size of the game overall.
Pokémon Legends Arceus is going to be the first new story for the franchise since Sword and Shield in 2019. From the look of the trailer and everything else that we’ve seen on the game, it appears to take the open world concept of the Galar region and take it to the next level.
AdvertisementIf you think about all of the areas in Brillaint Diamond and Shining Pearl and project them into the concept of Sword and Shield with a little Zelda Breath of the Wild styling thrown in for good measure then you probably won’t be too far off the map size. However, we’re expecting it to go even further than that with a lot of attention to detail, which you can see hints of in the trailer.
It looks like it’s going to be bigger overall than the Galar region with more expansive open country to explore, so if we had to call it we’ve expect Hisui to have a bigger map size overall. It also looks like there’s going to be more variation with the areas in the game with the snow-covered landscape of the north, the green forests and rolling hills of the south, marshland to the east, beaches all around the island and the craggy cliffs of Mount Coronet smack dab in the middle of it all.
The big question we have, though, is whether or not Pokémon Legends Arceus will also have an underground section, which was a big part of Diamond and Pearl. If there’s any exploration beneath the surface of the Hisui region then the map size could get an even bigger boost than we’re expecting.
If that isn’t enough, there’s also the possibility of expansion DLCs, whch we saw with Pokémon Sword and Shield with the Isle of Armor and the Crown Tundra. If that happens for Legends Arceus then the map size will grow in the years following its initial release as the DLC drop.
Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter to see more gaming news and reviews. You can also see more on Pokémon Legends Arceus with the official Pokémon Twitter page at https://twitter.com/pokemon/.
More links between Pokémon Legends Arceus and Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl
There are definitely similarities between what we know as Sinnoh and what we will get to explore in Pokémon Legends Arceus. The regions might have different names, but they’re fundamentally the same place seen from different points in time. The Great Marsh may not have the Safari Zone set up, but there’s still the same marshland which you can see in the map above.
The lakes are there too and we’ve already mentioned Mount Coronet a couple of times earlier. Snowpoint City may not have been formed as of yet, but you can definitely see the potential of the wintry climb in the old world precursor to it. It’s hard to tell from the image, but there’s what appears to be a settlement up in the north of the map, so maybe this will be Snowpoint Village or something similar.
There are also huts in other key locations like Canalave City, Hearthome City, Celestic Town and Sunyshore City, so it’s going to be interesting to get to explore these to find out more about their history. Obviously, everything is going to be less developed as Pokémon Legends Arceus is set in the distant past, but there should be hints about what the locations will go on to be.
You can also check out our computer games section to keep tabs on more game releases, or visit the Pokémon Legends Arceus website at legends.pokemon.com/.
