Pokemon Legends: Arceusis a valuable new entry in the franchise because of how much it contributes to the franchise’s overarching lore. MostPokemongames share a time period, which means fans only get glimpses of thePokemonworld’s history through ancient ruins and stories told by certain NPCs.Pokemon Legends: Arceusputs players right in the middle ofPokemonhistory instead, detailing how Sinnoh became a united region and where Sinnoh’s very first Pokedex started. Interestingly, Game Freak has takenPokemon Legends: Arceusas an opportunity to not only contribute new things toPokemonhistory but to retcon a few parts of the franchise’s lore as well.
At the beginning of the game, players meet a Pokemon professor as usual. Professor Laventon provides players with an explanation of how Poke Balls work and introduces the player to the Pokemon world. In the process, longtimePokemonplayers might notice that he says every Pokemon has the ability to shrink to a tiny size, which certainly hasn’t come up in previous installments. The change helps explainhow old-fashioned wooden Poke Balls can capture monsters, but it doesn’t make a ton of sense on the whole. Game Freak may have written itself into a corner by giving all Pokemon this strange ability.
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The Poke Ball Retcon
Historically,Pokemonhas maintained that Poke Balls convert Pokemon into energy when they capture a monster. That explanation stands to reason: Poke Balls are high-tech sci-fi devices that could pull off a feat like that, and converting Pokemon into energy also explains how trainers can store spare Pokemon in a PC. However,Pokemon Legends: Arceustakes a very different angle.Pokemon physically shrink down to minuscule sizewhen they’re hit with a Poke Ball. The change helps explainPokemon Legends: Arceus' Poke Balls since they’re much simpler devices made from Apricorns, but it raises a lot of questions.
For one thing, if Pokemon simply shrink down to fit inside a Poke Ball, that would suggest that they’re always rattling around the inside since there’s no evidence that old-fashioned Poke Balls hold Pokemon in place in any way. That soundspretty unpleasant for a tamed Pokemon, especially when the trainer constantly throws the Poke Ball at things. If Pokemon can shrink down to microscopic size at will, that also begs the question of why many Pokemon bother physically running away when they could just shrink down immediately to get out of danger.
The Impact on Future Pokemon Games
The Poke Ball lore change is particularly strange because it’s hard to say if it’ll actually have any effect on futurePokemoncontent. Technically, there’s nothing stoppingthe Generation 9Pokemongamefrom making Poke Balls turn Pokemon into energy again, since players will be using high-tech Poke Balls again. In that case, the lore change would essentially be forgotten. On the other hand, it could also take the concept and run with it, emphasizing that Poke Balls still work this way, but have technological improvements that accommodate the shrunken Pokemon better, preventing them from bouncing around inside the ball and simulating a comfortable environment.
Poke Ball mechanics probably won’t change too drastically from the lore change, nor does it seem likely that futurePokemongames will feature battles where monsters learn to tactically shrink and grow to avoid attacks. That simultaneously makes the change less significant and more bizarre. It’s a major rework ofa fundamental aspect of thePokemonworld, and yet there’s not really any reason to think that Game Freak will make major changes to other parts ofPokemonto justify this new power that all Pokemon share.Pokemon Legends: Arceusisn’t necessarily made worse by its new approach to Poke Balls, but it’s certainly made stranger.
