Back when it was released earlier this year, Pokémon Legends: Arceus was both a critical and commercial success, and many stated that it was superior to 2019’s Pokémon Sword and Shield. Part of this may be because it was in development before Sword and Shield. Game Freak spoke during the Computer Entertainment Developers Conference 2022 yesterday, August 25, and the company shared a lot of information about how it developed the assets for each Pokémon game, from Pokémon Red & Blue to the most recent entry in the series, Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
Confirmation that Pokemon Legends Arceus began development in Fall of 2018, with Scarlet and Violet starting around the time Generation 8 was finishing up.
Means both games had three years of development. pic.twitter.com/nt0JCH8zp2
— Lewtwo (@Lewchube) August 25, 2022
The event was hosted by Keiichi Maezawa, Game Freak details how it uses many different effects such as ShaderFX and how its implementation has improved over the years. And during the interview, the company confirmed that the development of Legends: Arceus began in the fall of 2018, which is a full year before the launch of the Generation VIII games, Pokémon Sword & Shield. Some of the details were translated, such as the tidbit confirming that Pokémon Legends: Arceus has been in development for almost four years. The event itself largely remains untranslated, but fans are working on translating the whole event.
It does make sense as to why it took a while to develop, as Pokémon Legends: Arceus has seen several changes to the Pokémon formula, with more open zones and Pokémon on the field, as well as the ability to not even battle wild Pokémon as long as you manage to catch them and not be spotted. Now, we’re almost ready to experience Generation IX as Pokémon Scarlet & Violet launch soon.
One another piece of notable info was shared by Maezawa, who stated that the upcoming games began development in late 2019, around the time Sword & Shield was getting ready to launch. This means that by the time Scarlet & Violet launches, those games will have been in development for three years. This may be good news to some fans, as a while ago, it was revealed that Sword and Shield were made in just under two years, which has been called a reason why a lot of ideas in the game felt rushed or unpolished. Let’s hope the next games live up to the hype, as Pokémon Legends: Arceus did.
