Pokémon Legends: Arceus is now in the pipeline, and on the web we begin to chat more and more about this new spin off of the Pokémon series and its gameplay: one of the most common arguments encountered online is that the game, according to what we have seen so far, seems to have several traits in common with Monster Hunter, in terms of gameplay; a position to be taken with due precautions.
Pokémon legends Arceus is inspired by Monster Hunter?
Ever since it was first revealed, Arceus Pokémon Legends has been compared to several titles, prior to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and now to Monster Hunter. Although this Pokémon game actually has some characteristics that can actually be traced back to the hunting game of CapcomTaken individually, it’s overall rather premature to say that Game Freak actually looked at Monster Hunter.
Before continuing, what are the cornerstones of Monster Hunter? In the first place there is certainly the gameplay action, which puts the player in front of many different monsters, all with their specific moves and their strengths and weaknesses.
We then have a great centrality of crafting of weapons and armor through the pieces of those aforementioned monsters and of resources found on the field, together with a progression of one’s character based on the abilities that these pieces of equipment confer.
Already from these few lines you can understand that in terms of gameplay these two titles have little to do among them, given that Legends has a turn-based combat system and does not present, at least according to what has been seen so far, a focus on the creation of equipment similar to Monster Hunter. So why are many content creators and even the official press calling this Pokémon game similar to the Capcom series? For two specific reasons.
Crafting and ecosystems
The similarities that are usually taken into consideration to bring Arceus Legends back to Monster Hunter are essentially two: the first concerns the crafting, the second the maps and the game structure. The first is also the simplest to explain, as it would see the system employed for creating Pokéballs other tools as similar to the one for creating items in Monster Hunter.
The fact that both games have a consumable items however, it is hardly indicative, given that many JRPGs implement mechanics of this type, and its presence in both franchises is not enough to identify a direct inspiration.
The other element that seems to have triggered the comparisons is the game structure, based on a central hub from which it is possible to set out on a mission to explore various game maps, realistically the ecosystems of the Hisui region. An open map structure therefore, which according to many would follow the logic of Monster Hunter: you accept a mission in the city of origin and you leave in a biome to complete it.
Even in this case, however, it is a weak meeting point, since games based on this game mechanics exist galore in the panorama of RPG, not to mention that the idea behind the progression in Monster Hunter is difficult to transpose into a title that is not also a hunting game.
To say that Legends Arceus is inspired by Monster Hunter for this reason would be like calling a title soulslike only because it has a dodge mechanic and we all know the definition is much more complex than that. In short, for the moment pigeonholing Pokémon Arceus Legends in a genre is premature to say the least, and we will have to wait for the finished game to find out what kind of product Game Freak has packaged for us.