When it was first revealed,Pokemon Legends: Arceuslooked to be a more ancient approach to thePokemonformula. While that’s still generally true, The Pokemon Company recently revealed that the player character will have a smartphone,the Arc Phone, that’s connected to the legendary Pokemon Arceus. The reaction to this news was mixed at best, as the details surrounding the addition to the game seem farfetched and a little laughable based on its more naturalistic approach to thePokemonfranchise.
As more and more details aboutPokemon Legends: Arceusget revealed, a much clearer picture is being painted as to what exactly fans will be doing once the game launches in January 2022. The Arc Phone is just one of the many new features coming to the game, and hopefully, it serves a meaningful purpose and isn’t just an in-game reason for the player to be looking through the different menus.
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What is the Arc Phone in Pokemon Legends: Arceus?
Currently, there isn’t a whole lot of specific information about the Arc Phone. It’s described on the officialPokemon Legends: Arceuswebsite as containing some sort of strange power that’s meant to “help guide” the player throughout the Hisui region. Along with the brief explanation is an image of an in-game map that has the usual slew of open-world game icons on it, seemingly suggesting that the Arc Phone will function as a map. Every other mainlinePokemongame features some sort of map, but it’s usually a key item that the player keeps in their backpack. IfLegends: Arceusis trying to embrace its open-world designmore, then it would make sense for there to be an easily accessible map, like in countless other open-world titles.
The only other piece of information that the website gives about the item is that its design might lead players to believe that it’s connected in some way to Arceus, but doesn’t explain how or why that might be. There’s a lot oflore surrounding Arceus since it’s essentially Pokemon God, so it’s a little curious why it would need the player character to have a phone if it wanted to connect with them. Other than that, there isn’t any information about the functionality of the phone. Many fans have speculated that it will serve a very similar purpose as the Rotom Phone from other titles, but that hasn’t been officially confirmed.
Why Fans Are Worried About the Arc Phone
There isn’t anything outright worrying about the Arc Phone at face value. It’s just a phone that the player will use for various purposes in the game, but its existence implies some broader things aboutthe world ofPokemon Legends: Arceus. ThePokemonfranchise has gotten pretty gadget-heavy over the past several entries, which makes sense given how technology has advanced in the real world, but many fans were looking forward to playing a much more stripped back version of the franchise that wasn’t going to include the sometimes intrusive devices from our daily lives.
What’s more, the comparisons betweenPokemon Legends: ArceusandThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildhave already been made over and over again due to the look and general gameplay mechanics included in the trailers. Now thatPokemonis adding a Sheikah slate-style device, it seems like the game might be going too far into “copying” elements fromZelda.Obviously, it isn’t out yet, so there’s no way of knowing how accurate all of this is, but there are plenty of fans who are concerned that the Arc Phone might be a little too much for what the new version ofPokemonis going for.
