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'Legends: Arceus' Could Finally Explain How Pokémon's Regions Connect

Imogen Donovan

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'Legends: Arceus' Could Finally Explain How Pokémon's Regions Connect

Featured Image Credit: Game Freak, Nintendo

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is everything that the Pokémon community have ever wished for: an open world exploring a feudal Sinnoh and pursuing one of the most intriguing entities in the world of Pokémon. However, this player believes there's much more than meets the eye in Legends: Arceus.

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Of course, details are light on the ground at the moment as the announcement only arrived last week. SternMon on Reddit thinks that they have more than enough hints from the promotional material and from the earlier games to pull together the threads of a possible storyline. Honestly, their theory is pretty persuasive, so let's walk through their workings. SternMon's ideas were sparked by this image, which analyses the yellow symbol spotted on the male and female protagonists' jackets. It looks like it's composed of four letters: "S," "A," "J," and "U." The image also notes the striking similarity of the symbol to Team Galactic's emblem, the baddies of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl.

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This might seem like a strange observation, so stay with us here. The starters of Pokémon Legends: Arceus are Cyndaquil, Rowlet, and Oshawott... which were not the starters found in Sinnoh. Those were Chimchar, Turtwig, and Piplup. Could this be a creative choice to allow players to pick another starter from another game, or could this be a clue to the game's story? SternMon reckons it's the latter. Sinnoh is inspired by Hokkaido, an area of Japan which actually wasn't part of the country until the 19th century. Originally called Aynu Mosir, Hokkaido is home to the Ainu, who were subjugated by Japanese armies in 1457. In spite of this, revolutions against the Japanese continued for hundreds of years after their defeat.

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In the 1870s, prime minister Kuroda Kiyotaka made moves into developing the island on behalf of Japan. He enlisted the assistance of Horace Capron, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant's commissioner of agriculture, and William Clark who taught Christianity to the Japanese people. Again, this sounds like we've gone off on a tangent, but where do Cyndaquil, Rowlet, and Oshawott come from? Johto (representing Japan), Alola (representing Hawai'i), and Unova (representing New York). That's why we see "J", "A", and "U" in the symbol - it's a collaboration between these regions to unlock the power lying dormant in Sinnoh.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus / Credit: Game Freak
Pokémon Legends: Arceus / Credit: Game Freak

"From a game design perspective, the potential location of the starting area, and the location of Celestic Town, works perfectly story wise," continued SternMon. "The first Japanese settlement on Hokkaido was on the Oshima Peninsula, which is roughly where Twinleaf Town, the starting town in Diamond and Pearl is located. Celestic Town, which is where the remainder of the natives of Sinnoh reside, is located on the other side of Mt. Coronet, which divides the Sinnoh region in half. If we're meant to see the natives of Sinnoh as the bad guys in the early game, placing them in a place that we can't reach until the latter half of the game would work perfectly, as that would be the best time to drop the twist that the natives aren't the bad guys, and set things up for the finale."

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Returning to the strange symbol on the heroes' jackets, it's possible that the colonists are after Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, and Arceus to facilitate their aims to take over Sinnoh. "The actions they take during the events of this game, will serve as influence and inspiration for Cyrus and Team Galactic in the modern era," concluded the player. The entire theory is well worth a read, as it's super interesting and it's exciting to consider that the stakes of Legends: Arceus may be much higher than those in Sword & Shield. We'll let you know when we learn more about the upcoming open-world entry to the series.

Topics: Pokemon, News

Imogen Donovan
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