By paying respect to an Easter egg that has been in the works for more than a decade, Pokémon Legends: Arceus is blowing people’s minds. This is a reference to Pokémon Red and Blue, which were released on the Game Boy Advance in 2004 as remakes of the 1996 originals. Before the release of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Nintendo and Game Freak were creating Pokémon games only for Game Boy handhelds. When Game Freak would release a new Pokémon game every couple of years, the developer would split the release into two versions, each with tiny modifications such as the beginning screen or, in the case of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, the colour palettes.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are the most recent examples of this method, with only a few Pokémon that may be transferred between the games constituting the most significant distinctions. While Pokémon Legends: Arceus breaks this tradition by being a one-time release, the future of the franchise is still up in the air.
A lovely Easter egg spotted by Dexerto, on the other hand, shows how much regard Arceus has for the long-running history of Pokémon games. “Careless touch with Raichu may cause even an Indian elephant to faint,” reads the Pokédex entry on the legendary Pokémon “Raichu.”
Copperajah, a new elephant-like Pokémon, made its debut in Pokémon Sword and Shield in 2019. Pokémon Legends: Arceus, released in 2022, has a reference to a Raichu “incapacitating one of Copperajah” three years later. A typical complaint about Pokémon games in recent years is that they haven’t changed much in terms of gameplay, plot, or lore. When it comes to all of these things in Pokémon Legends, Arceus undoubtedly turned the script on its head.
This Easter egg, on the other hand, demonstrates the dedication of the game’s creators to the Pokémon brand.
As a whole, Pokémon Legends: Arceus is an improvement over the previous instalments. This brilliant homage is probably just a consequence of the effort and imagination that went into establishing this new gameplay and environment design. Future Pokémon games might benefit from Nintendo and Game Freak’s innovation and improvement.