After a tweet showing off the game’s segmented map drew speculation from fans over the last week that Pokémon Legends: Arceus won’t feature a completely open world, but instead a structure similar to Monster Hunter or Xenoblade Chronicles 2, The Pokémon Company has confirmed to Kotaku that this is indeed the case.
It is coming increasingly clear that Pokémon Legends Arceus may not be full open world but rather segmented open areas like Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Monster Hunter etc. separated into different areas like the Wild Area/Crown Tundra did
I'm fine with this really. pic.twitter.com/llpCUUvQGx
— Joe Merrick (@JoeMerrick) September 30, 2021
In the statement, the publisher describes the game’s progression structure, and it definitely sounds an awful lot like a Monster Hunter game:
“In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Jubilife Village will serve as the base for surveying missions. After receiving an assignment or a request and preparing for their next excursion, players will set out from the village to study one of the various open areas of the Hisui region. After they finish the survey work, players will need to return once more to prepare for their next task. We look forward to sharing more information about exploring the Hisui region soon.”
At any rate, it seems we’ll continue to learn more and more about this very different entry into the franchise when Pokémon Legends: Arceus launches exclusively on Nintendo Switch on January 28, 2022.
