Like many games in the last five years, Pokémon Legends: Arceus has been repeatedly compared to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and those analyses won’t stop any time soon. Even before launch it was clear that Legends: Arceus isn’t like BOTW, but Monster Hunter instead, with a world that isn’t truly open and a hub that is returned to between excursions. Breath of the Wild has grown beyond its own genre, and for Nintendo games especially, will continue to be a benchmark used when discussing other titles.

By nearly every metric, BOTW is a resounding success. The developers miraculously managed to shed nearly every pillar of traditional Zelda gameplay and still create a game that is generally regarded as one of the best in the series. Some would allege that BOTW is a phenomenal open world game, but not a great Zelda game, which is a more than fair perspective, but it’s this transcendence of BOTW‘s own series that makes it so ripe for comparison. Not only does it show that a legacy series can be successfully reinvented, but also demonstrates how a game can provide nearly unadulterated gameplay, both of which are important to the Legends: Arceus comparisons.

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In the same way that BOTW feels like a BOTW 2 tech demo, Legends: Arceus is a first step in reinvigorating the Pokémon games series. The two games really don’t have much in common, but their larger contexts in two of Nintendo’s biggest franchises makes them almost inextricable, especially since Breath of the Wild is used as frequently in comparisons as Dark Souls. With Legends: Arceus, the Pokémon formula was stripped of its encumbering elements, giving players a new level of freedom. The game still doesn’t come close to the player agency present in BOTW, though, and the comparisons will likely continue even after Legends: Arceus‘ gameplay is further iterated on.

BOTW Is A Benchmark Comparison For All Switch Games

In a way, Breath of the Wild is the archetypal Switch game, and it’s not even exclusive to the platform. As a launch title, it released cross-generationally on the Wii U as well. Pokémon Legends: Arceus‘ art design trumps its graphics shortcomings, but BOTW‘s visuals are still much more impressive from a technical standpoint, despite launching five years earlier and being held back by the hardware of the Wii U. It doesn’t run perfectly considering the notorious frame drops in Korok Forest, but it set a very high bar on day one for the kind of open world possible on the Switch.

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Every game that has open areas that are explorable to some degree on the Switch will probably be compared to BOTW, at least until its sequel comes out. Players have been hoping for an open world Pokémon for a very long time, and the most recent Zelda just happens to be open world as well. Legends: Arceus doesn’t have the same scale, but even from the very first trailer it was clear that the game was at least partially inspired by BOTW. With similar aesthetics and the same sort of hands-off approach to gameplay, Pokémon Legends: Arceus will continue to be compared to Breath of the Wild, but at least it can be a fairly apt comparison.

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About The Author


Kyle Gratton
(881 Articles Published)

A passion for video games was instilled at a young age when Kyle Gratton and his older brother were gifted a Nintendo 64 with Ocarina of Time and Mario Kart. Graduating from the University of Kansas as an English and History major, with a minor in Film, Kyle enjoys discussing literature, movies, television, and especially video games. He currently writes features and reviews for Screen Rant’s games section, and dabbles in short fiction occasionally. He can be found on Twitter @KyleGratton.

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