Video Game / Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Due to the sheer volume of spoilers, all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

First came Sinnoh remakes.
Then came a Sinnoh pre-make.

"Seek out all Pokémon."

—Arceus

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is an Action RPG in the mainline Pokémon series released on January 28th, 2022 for the Nintendo Switch.

Serving as a distant prequel to the rest of the Pokémon games, the game takes place in the Hisui Region (later to be renamed the Sinnoh Region) during a time period when humans and Pokémon were not bonded quite the way they are in modern times, and organizations such as the Pokémon League didn't yet exist. As part of the Galaxy Expedition Team, specifically a member of the Survey Corps, the player is tasked to explore the vast wilderness of this largely uninhabited region, fill out its first Pokédex, and uncover the mysteries surrounding the mythical Pokémon Arceus and the space-time rifts that have opened above the region, driving Pokémon to insanity and threatening the safety of Hisui.

The game takes a break from the traditional Pokémon format, as the gameplay cycle involves you on going on expeditions around Hisui in order to meet, capture and battle the local Pokémon in order to fill out the region's first Pokédex while also taking on various missions and requests to help out the people of Jubilife Village and the people who already live in the region. The battle mechanisms have also gotten a notable overhaul; The game uses a Combatant Cooldown System instead of Turn-Based Combat, many of the moves have changed to fit the new format and you can now power your moves with different Styles to help you get an edge in battle.

On February 27, 2022, the free "Daybreak" content update was released, adding an extra post-game storyline with special Pokémon outbreaks and new battles.

Starting from May, 2022, the game received a small series of episodes titled Pokémon: Hisuian Snow, detailing the experiences of young doctor Alec and his encounter with a Hisuian Zorua when he was younger.

In February 2024, a new Legends game was announced, Pokémon Legends Z-A, this time taking place in the Kalos region that Pokémon X and Y were set in, thus making this a start of a subseries.

Trailers

• Announcement Trailer
• "Discover the Hisui Region" trailer
• "Encounter Noble Pokémon" trailer
• "Mysterious Footage" trailer (teaser version)
• "Introducing the Hisuian forms of Zorua and Zoroark" trailer
• "Hisuian Voltorb's shocking debut!" trailer
• "New Faces from the Hisui Region" trailer
• Gameplay preview
• Overview Trailer
• "Hisuian. Final. Starter. Evolutions." trailer

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Tropes associated with Pokémon Legends: Arceus are:

#-F

• 100% Completion: For this game, the Pokédex comes with several tasks for every species, and a research rank for how many are completed. An entry isn't considered completed until the research rank reaches level ten, which can be achieved with typical grinding tasks like capturing or defeating enough of that specific Pokémon. However, if you want a "perfect" ranking, you'll need to do all the research tasks for an entry, which requires seeing rare moves in use dozens of times, rare encounters in certain conditions and times of day, and sometimes even a sidequest or two. Though as a side benefit, perfecting an entry raises the shiny rate for that Pokémon.
• Aborted Arc:
  • After the initial premise of the Time Rift bringing over the protagonist and Ingo, both of whom may wish to go home (it is unclear how much they even remember), the narrative never has them make an effort or express a desire to get back to their time period. This is even after the confrontation with the characters who were responsible for the Time Rift (Volo and Giratina) as well as Arceus, the Pokémon that assigned the protagonist and Ingo the mission to stop them in the first place. The closest they come is Arceus telling the player character that Hisui is where they "now dwell," indicating they are to stay there indefinitely.
  • The "Daybreak Update" storyline ends abruptly without explaining the origins of the Massive Mass Outbreaks or introducing any meaningful conflict.
• Absurdly High Level Cap: You only need Star Rank 5 to be able to access all the areas and complete the game, which comes out to 8,500 research points. The maximum Rank you can actually achieve is Rank 10, requiring a whopping 60,000 research points—as many as all the other ranks combined. Points themselves are capped at 99,999.
• Actionized Sequel: Actionized prequel. The game moves from the traditional Turn-Based Combat of previous entries to a form of Combatant Cooldown System. In addition, for the first time in the series, the human player character is capable of being directly injured during Pokémon battles and can even have their expedition crippled if they take too much damage—and the action before a player's Pokémon is sent out is played in real time rather than in a cutscene.
• Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: An NPC named Bagin in the Galaxy Team's HQ can expand your inventory by one space, with a starting price of 100 Pokédollars. You can keep talking to him to buy more inventory spaces, but every time you do so, Bagin ups the ante—first by another 100 until he asks you for 1,000 on your sixth extra space. Then, the price starts to increase by 500s, then eventually by 1,000s, and by further-rising exponents up until he demands a mind-boggling 1,000,000 Pokédollars for the final slot upgrade.
• All Myths Are True:
  • The Pokémon both the Diamond and Pearl clans worship do exist, but they think their respective Legendary Pokemon is the Almighty Sinnoh.
  • Giratina's Pokédex entry in the original Sinnoh games wasn't an Informed Flaw. It's exactly as violent as the Pokédex entry dictates since it wants its revenge on its own creator for its banishment. Its Blood Knight tendencies in the entry is also in full, as it will let out a victorious roar if it defeats a wild Pokémon in battle.
• Ambiguously Related: Many of the NPCs resemble characters from the Pokémon games set in modern times (through some combination of hairstyles^eg.Kamado has Professor Rowan's facial hair; Sabi has long green hair and a fringe like Cheryl; Pesselle had the same twin tail and orbs as Mira, facial features ^eg.Mai is a dead ringer for Marley, costumes ^eg.Lian has a cowboy-like hat like Clay, postures ^eg.Ginter is posed the same way as Volkner is in official art, occupations^eg. Colza runs the Agriculture Corps, Gardenia (who shares his hairstyle) is a Grass-type gym leader, similarities in names ^eg. Arezu -> Ares -> Mars from Team Galactic; Gaeric is a wrestler like Wulfric, and associated Pokémon ^eg.Sanqua (who resembles Karen) has a quest related to an Umbreon; Rye (who resembles Riley) has a partner Lucario: and Volo, who has all of Cynthia's team minus Milotic) to their modern-day counterparts. Aside from Kamado, who is a confirmed ancestor of Rowan, it has not been fully confirmed if they are meant to be identical ancestors, or if it's all a coincidence.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • The Rei or Akari you play as has a strong resemblance to Lucas or Dawn, and come from the present-day as well, but it's left ambiguous as to whether or not they actually are the Diamond and Pearl protagonists now a few years older, or just nearly identical strangers. Perhaps the biggest notable difference is that Lucas/Dawn are left-handed in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, but the protagonist of Legends is right-handed.
  • Whenever you're asked about your background, your responses allow you to imply anything from being a standard Faller (Pokemon's term for amnesiac dimension hoppers) with only faint memories where you're from, having warped in from the modern day of the Pokemon world with your memories intact, remembering some but not all of your past, or all the way up to being from the real world itself.
  • How far along are Pokémon and human relationships in this world? Hisuians are, by and large, extremely paranoid and fearful of Pokémon when you are warped in, with dialogue stating human weaponry is no match against the fangs and claws of Pokemon and hearing a heavily-injured man being treated after getting mauled by a Pokémon in the intro, and it's heavily implied Kamado's previous hometown was deliberately targeted by Pokemon, but Professor Laventon's presence throws a wrench into things. His dialogue and research can imply Pokémon are better understood in most other regions and treated closer to how they are in the "modern" day of the series, or often treated as mysterious and deadly. Several immigrants to Hisui also bring along their Pokémon, but others are just as fearful as the Hisuians. Alola's Ride Pokémon are brought up at one point, suggesting that Alola, at least, is much more comfortable with Pokémon at this point—though it's ambiguous as to how far along the other regions are beyond it being explicitly stated that trainers do exist in other regions (albeit they are referred to in a manner where they are treated as rare/unusual by average people in the region), and Pokédexes are already a known thing. It is also stated that the Pokémon in Hisui are overall more aggressive towards humans than in other regions, and the people immigrating there are mostly desperate people who don't have anywhere else to go, suggesting their situation is not the norm for the Pokémon world as a whole. The fact that the Diamond and Pearl Clans are comfortable enough with Pokémon for most of the Wardens to have a few of their own (albeit not in Pokéballs, aside from Ingo), though aren't quite as knowledgeable on modern-day Pokémon facts like Laventon and (possibly) the player character, further throws a wrench in things.
• Ambiguous Time Period: The setting and basic plot of researching and surveying the region is a reference to the Japanese explorations of Hokkaido (which Hisui and Sinnoh are based on) during the Meiji Restoration, which would place the game in the late-19th century—supporting this is a mention of a "steamship" in one of the Pokédex entries and the Galaxy Team's usage of hydro power (in the form of a pair of water wheels) and incandescent lighting in Jubilife village, indicating that there is enough understanding of electricity for at least a basic power grid equivalent to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The reason why this is a case of "ambiguous" time period is because the Pokémon universe has always been a case of 20 Minutes in the Future relative to the real world related to technology (along with the series in general being rather vague on just how the existence of Pokémon affected the development of technology itself). This leaves it hard to gauge how far in the "distant past" Hisui truly is relative to the rest of the series. Spiritomb having already been sealed for at least two hundred years implies that the game can't take place more than three hundred years in the past, but nothing more specific is certain. Muddying things further is that other games state Pokémon and humans were first united thousands of years in the past but—depending on who you ask — either the rest of the world has united with their Pokémon to the extent of what we see in the "modern" day or Hisui is simply the last to stop seeing them as violent creatures. Even in the village proper, responses range from "Pokemon are all evil" to immigrants from the rest of the world happily bringing in trained Pokémon. But even the immigrants are, with the exception of the Alolan native, varied in how integrated they are with Pokémon. Some say they're not as fearful as Hisuians are or even talk about using Pokémon more freely where they're from, while others are wary.
• And the Adventure Continues: After defeating Palkia or Dialga's Origin formes, Kamado suggests they celebrate after the player fixes the space-time distortions. Just before they leave, the player looks back, aware that Arceus is waiting for them to finish their quest.
• Antepiece: Poké Ball and item throwing, plus dodging aggressive Pokémon attacks, are core mechanics in catching and fighting Pokémon,. But they also serve as important player training for the increasingly difficult boss fights against the Noble Pokémon, which are built primarily on the throwing and dodging mechanics.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • You do not need to complete all the tasks in a Pokémon's Pokédex entry for it to count is as "complete"; you only need to do enough to raise its research level to 10. Completing every single task instead counts as a "perfect" entry, which makes a Shiny of that species more likely to spawn. Moreover, the game considers the Pokédex finished so long as you have caught one of every Pokémon regardless of research level, cutting down on the time needed to access the fight against Arceus.
  • Since Shaymin and Darkrai are only accessible via Old Save Bonus, they are the only Pokémon that do not need to be caught to access the fight against Arceus.
  • If you accidentally knock out a Legendary Pokémon, they will immediately respawn at full health so you don't have to reset the game to try catching them again.
  • Once you enter battle with a Wild Pokémon, their attacks will stop dealing damage to you. Previously-inflicted damage won't heal during battle, but you can exploit the combatants being essentially stuck in place to get a head start on your escape by simply walking away until you automatically recall your Pokémon.
  • Evolving a Pokémon doubles as catching the resulting evolution, and by extension, counts towards any related research task (e.g., catching a Pokémon at certain times of day can be fulfilled by having its pre-evolution evolve at that time instead).
  • All research tasks that involve seeing specific moves or styles being used in battle will add progress if enemy Pokemon perform them in addition to your own.
  • The Trading Post in Jubilife Village sells an item called a Linking Cord, which you can use to evolve Pokémon that only evolve when you trade them, like Machoke, Haunter, or Kadabra. Furthermore, trade-evolving Pokémon that also require a designated item are now simply evolved by having the item used on them without trading them, said items also being sold at the Trading Post.
  • All of the items at the Trading Post can also be found elsewhere in the game as random drops you can gain from exploring Space-Time Distortions, breaking stones, digging with Ursaluna, or purchasing from Ginter, meaning you don't necessarily have to grind for Merit Points. NPC satchels are also periodically scattered around the overworld, so you can still collect them and obtain Merit Points even when playing offline.
  • You can freely change a Pokémon's name and moveset at any time, without the need of an NPC as in previous games. A Move Tutor in Jubilife Village will also teach it moves for a fee, and this simply adds the moves you select to that Pokémon's possible moveset options. Additionally, using said Move Tutor is far more convenient than its predecessors due to taking money as payment (instead of harvesting items like colored shards or Heart Scales).
  • You can manually trigger when an evolution occurs for every Pokémon. This allows you to work on research tasks that involve it using certain moves before it evolves. If a Pokémon you've just caught already meets the conditions for evolution, you can evolve it immediately instead of having to raise it to the next level (or use a Rare Candy).
  • Unlike previous games with the ability to fight multiple Pokémon at once, you can throw a ball at and attempt to catch a single Pokémon in a horde whenever you want instead of having to wait until you've fainted all but one.
  • You don't have to beat a frenzied Noble Pokémon all in one go if you're having trouble with it. If you black out, there's an option to restart with progress (meaning that the frenzy bar will retain the damage you've done to it in quarters) and you and your Pokémon will be returned to full health. In addition to this, blacking out against a Noble Pokémon does not incur the item loss penalty that blacking out anywhere else in the game does.
  • Heavy and Feather Balls have different behavior when thrown compared to standard Poké Balls, with Heavy Balls only traveling a few feet forward and Feather Balls traveling a great distance in a straight line. This behavior is not preserved for throwing out Pokémon caught in these balls, as using said Pokemon to gather resources or start battles with these mechanics intact would quickly become a pain.
  • Pokémon caught while you are exiled can still be reported to the Professor when you are reinstated in the Galaxy Team, meaning there's no reason to hold off on catching Pokémon because you will still get funds from them at a later point in time.
  • Pokémon which require items or high happiness to evolve and don't appear in the wild can still be caught either in space-time distortions, flying around in specific locations (like Togetic or Crobat) or in the form of respawning Alphas (including the three Sinnoh Starters). The only exception are the Alphas from the lake trials, which will disappear after you catch or defeat them. The only Pokémon that you absolutely need to evolve yourself are most of the ones with Hisuian forms. Even so, you can find their pre-evolved forms with high levels, so you can just catch and evolve them immediately, like Zoroark. Unfortunately, some new Hisuian Pokémon are locked behind particularly convoluted evolution methods.
  • The Daybreak update added Massive Mass Outbreaks, which have the potential to spawn several rare Pokémon in one go, making it much easier and faster to complete various research tasks such as "Number Captured" and "Number Defeated" for those going for 100% Completion.
  • All Alpha Pokémon have a roar that forcibly dismounts the player from their Ride Pokémon. This does not apply to Basculegion and Braviary, as forced demounts from them would more often than not put the player into situations that result in an unavoidable black out.
  • Attempting to release Legendaries, Mythicals, and Shiny Pokémon will bring up a confirmation prompt asking if you really want to do that to prevent accidental releases.
  • The game's day-and-night cycle is determined by an in-game clock instead of what time it is in the real world (1 minute IRL = 1 hour in-game), so it's possible to catch and/or evolve certain Pokemon without losing sleep or messing with the Switch's system settings. Additionally, taking a rest in the tent gives you the option to skip forward to certain time periods, so you can do your business sooner.
  • Shiny Pokémon will have an audio and visual cue pop up when you get close enough or they spawn in, making it easier to identify them from afar.
• Apocalypse How: Potentially universal. While the intention was only to get Arceus' attention, the consequences of the rift in space and time that Giratina tore open on Volo's behest threatens to tear apart pretty much everything. The build-up of a "terrible power" due to the rift causes Dialga and Palkia to go mad (one worse than the other, depending on the player character's choices) and with them the forces they guide/represent also begin destabilizing, signified by the sky distorting and turning red. Cogita warns that if this continues the effects would get gradually worse until the world ended.
• Arc Symbol: The shape of Arceus' ring appears frequently, usually as a golden glow around the Arc Phone or the frenzied Nobles, as well as the Temple of Sinnoh's symbol and the Charm Seller's... well, charms. Volo also appears to have a fascimilie of it on his Sinnoh outfit.
• Arc Words: "Pokémon are terrifying creatures." The phrase is uttered by several characters throughout the game, and serves as an example of how unfamiliar humans are with Pokémon in this setting, often resulting in contention if not outright hostility between the two; over the course of the game, however, the protagonist's actions help to break down this unfamiliarity and begin making positive changes in the relationship between Pokémon and humans.
• The Artifact: While trading Pokémon with other players has been a franchise staple since the start, Legends: Arceus is a stand-alone game set up so that there's no version exclusive Pokémon or Pokémon that need to be traded to evolve. Trading is still an option if the player so wishes.
• Artificial Brilliance:
  • If you catch or battle enough of a placid Pokémon species in quick succession, the remaining Pokémon start getting warier of you and will run away once you get close.
  • Alpha Pokémon tend to be far smarter than garden-variety wild Pokémon. They often come packing coverage moves specifically to deal with the types they're weak against, and will absolutely exploit type advantages and look for opportunities to set up buffs and/or secure multiple turns in a row. They can even use Agile and Strong style moves as the situation demands.
• Ascended Meme:
  • The quest giver for one of the sidequests in the game tells you about a Mr. Mime in the village and how he finds it creepy, much like what a lot of fans feel about the species.
  • Volo's battle theme being a more menacing and sinister remix of Cynthia's encounter theme is likely a nod to how often said theme is used to show Cynthia's status as The Dreaded among Pokémon fans.
  • Kricketune actually has "De-le-le woooooop!" appear in a text box when you approach this. Its cry has been subject to widespread memes, with this widely being the accepted spelling among fans.
• Aspect Ratio Switch: Happens whenever you're in a Pokémon battle. Oddly for this trope, the black rectangles that achieve this effect are translucent, so it's technically a subversion. It's a reference to how battles worked in Generation 4.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Noble Hisuian Avalugg is much larger than any other alpha or noble Pokémon, on a similar scale to a Dynamaxed Pokémon. The battle against him is basically a Bullet Hell fight against a literal rocky mountain. He's noted to be like the "Avalugg of old" that were a hundred feet tall and he may well be the last of his kind, with all other Hisuian Avalugg seen being much smaller.
• Automatic New Game: Starting the game throws you directly within Arceus' realm and creating your character.
• Back Stab: Throwing a Poké Ball at the back of an unsuspecting Pokémon will initiate a back strike, either increasing your catch rate if you're trying to capture it or make the Pokémon unable to move initially if you engage in battle with one.
• Background Boss: Lord Avalugg destroys most of its boss arena when it wakes up, leaving the player stuck on a small jut of rock while the boss stands in the newly-formed crater. Since the player can neither retreat nor climb down to where Avalugg is, the battle is spent dodging his constant barrage of ice-based attacks and waiting for him to become exhausted enough for you to throw your Pokémon down at him, weaken him a bit, and prepare for the next onslaught.
• Bag of Holding: Player characters have always had an improbable amount of storage space in their backpacks throughout the entire franchise, but it's exaggerated in this installment. Here there is only a tiny satchel to carry items around, barely bigger than a clutch purse, that the player can pay to learn how to "pack more efficiently" to drastically increase the item slots available. Even without them, each slot can hold 999 of an item, and even before you get the satchel, your character is given 50 Poké Balls and carries them without issue while catching the starters.
• Bait-and-Switch: This is pulled off with an antagonistic character's portrayal. During the game, Volo's behavior becomes increasingly suspect as he shows up time and time again in unusual places and later, muses about the misuse of the Red Chain, but he turns out to be a major ally to you in helping you reach the end of the story, settling doubts about his character through his aid and support and subverting his suspicious portrayal. But then comes the post-game, and through the ensuing plot to study the Legendaries and finish the Origin Plate collection, Volo is finally revealed to be the villain players may have thought he was before. Indeed, he's actually the game's true Big Bad responsible for the space-time chaos, but only gets unmasked after the game takes pains to both make him suspicious and then "clear his name" first. And then make him suspicious again.
• Balance Buff:
  • Greatly downplayed with Hidden Power. The move now always deals super-effective damage but unfortunately, the only Pokémon who learns it in this game is the very weak Unown.
  • Hyper Beam and its clone, Dialga's Roar of Time, no longer force the user to rest for one turn, instead having their drawback manifest as a slow action speed (meaning that giving the opponent a free turn is still possible, but not guaranteed), although they are somewhat compensated by lowering its base attack and accuracy.
  • Some other moves have added secondary effects, such as Dragon Claw having a high critical hit rate (thus becoming a more desirable physical Dragon-type option than Outrage) and the pulse moves (Water Pulse, Dragon Pulse, and Dark Pulse) never missing the opponent, although Water Pulse and Dark Pulse no longer inflict confusion or flinching due to those mechanics not existing in the game.
• Beef Gate: Alpha Pokémon can serve this purpose at locations in the game, especially at early points where players don't have the riding Pokémon to bypass them easily with. Most of them spawn in the 30-level range while a number of preset, respawning Alphas can run even higher into the 60s. The highest-leveled one in the game, a Garchomp, is Level 85.
• Been There, Shaped History: Throughout the game, the protagonist helps develop the base Hisui Pokédex which would be used by future generations in Sinnoh, and indirectly gives Kamado the idea to name the Hisui region as the Sinnoh region. Their quest to solve the mystery of the space-time rift also results in the wrecked appearance of Spear Pillar in the present. By letting a member of the Diamond Clan thank Shaymin for saving her life in the Old Save Bonus for Pokémon Sword and Shield, the player is also responsible for transforming the hill that would one day become Floaroma Town from a barren eyesore to a lush flower garden.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Volo and Giratina. Giratina wished to challenge Arceus out of anger at being banished, and on Volo's advice and with his assistance, ripped a hole in space-time, knowing the ensuing instability would drive Palkia or Dialga to frenzy, luring them out to the normal world, hoping to attract the attention of Arceus itself. Their alliance led to the Distortion World's master giving Volo the Spooky Plate as part of its plans and allying with him as his partner, both being indirectly responsible for the game's Noble crisis, as well as the protagonist and Ingo being thrown out of their times. That said, you don't learn it until the main story ends.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Kamado turns into the main antagonist of the latter half of the main story, but unbeknownst to him and everyone else, Volo and Giratina were the true driving force of the story and in no way allied with Kamado nor concerned about his own plans, they're only beaten in the post-game which is where they are revealed to be the true main antagonists.
• Big Entrance: All of the Noble Pokémon get one of these.
  • Kleavor charges through the forest at top speed, slices a large tree in half and leaps at the player while brandishing his axes.
  • Lilligant clears away the fog surrounding her arena and dances gracefully before challenging the player.
  • Arcanine approaches the player menacingly while walking on lava.
  • Electrode is preceded by a bunch of little Voltorbs falling out of its tree, which are then scattered by Electrode itself slamming down after them.
  • Avalugg emerges as an absolutely humongous Pokémon from beneath the snow and gives the player a Mighty Roar in their face.
• Big Good: Arceus is a rare Pokémon example as it sends you to the past to Hisui and instructs you to capture every Pokémon in the Hisui region.
• Bilingual Bonus: Alolan Vulpix are also known as "Keokeo" according to the NPC you meet who owns a group of them. This is the Hawaiian word for "white."
• Bleak Level: Once you've calmed the frenzied nobles, you wake up the next day only for the sky to be a deep red hue, the music is replaced with a far more eerie and foreboding tune, and everyone in Jubilife Village is rightfully terrified. Then, to make things even darker, you're exiled from the village and are unable to return for quite a while, and are shunned by the majority of characters that reside in Jubilife. The entire game's world, regardless of where you go or how much time passes, is stuck in a perpetual red-sky nightmare with the threat of The End of the World as We Know It on the horizon until you progress further in the story.
• Blood Knight: Beni is revealed to be this in the finale. He outright admits that Kamado ordering him not to let you interfere with his plans is only half of why he challenges you. The other half is because he wants to face the one who managed to defeat all the Lords.
• Boobs-and-Butt Pose: The "Over the Shoulder" pose at the photography studio is a G-rated version, invoking a stance similar to female Ace Trainers from previous generations who typically struck this pose.
• Bookends:
  • When the player receives the Origin Ball, the shot of them holding it is framed exactly like the shot of them holding their starter's Pokéball for the first time.
  • Your first and last mandatory trainer battles in the story are against Volo.
• Borrowing from the Sister Series: The overworld encounter and player accuracy based capture mechanics were brought over from Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, which itself was inspired by the mobile game Pokémon GO, with some updates to account for the fully 3D, Wide-Open Sandbox game world. This comes after the Diamond and Pearl remakes which kept the series standard mechanics and Sword and Shield which, while toying with the encounter mechanics in the "wild areas", still used the classic battle-and-capture mechanics.
• Boss Bonanza: The final battle against Volo in the post-game has you first fighting his full team of six Pokémon, then challenging his Giratina who immediately gets a rematch in its Origin form. You ultimately fight a Trainer who has eight Pokémon in a single match.
• Boss in Mook Clothing:
  • The Obsidian Fieldlands are the first wild location you visit, and as such are mostly populated by unevolved, easy to catch Pokémon with levels in the single digits. Unless you happen to stumble upon an Alpha Rapidash or an Alpha Luxio making their homes on opposite ends of the starting area, which are massive compared to their species' usual size, are extremely aggressive, and are both level 40. Many unsuspecting newbies have been wiped out by them.
  • All Alpha Pokémon are generally this, due to being higher levelled and larger than the average Pokémon in the region and due to them being aggressive. They also get unique music showing how much more dangerous they are and have better AI than regular wild Pokémon, always using moves that would work best for the situation rather than randomly selected moves, and can also forcibly dismount the player from their Ride Pokémon.
  • The Daybreak update introduces the possibility of an entire Mass Outbreak being nothing but Alphas during the Massive Mass Outbreaks. Even relatively humble Pokémon species can be turned into nightmare scenarios if you end up stuck fighting four Alpha specimens at once.
• Boss Subtitles: Each frenzied Noble Pokémon receives one in its introductory cutscene:
  • Lord of the Woods — Kleavor
  • Lady of the Ridge — Lilligant
  • Lord of the Isles — Arcanine
  • Lord of the Hollow — Electrode
  • Lord of the Tundra — Avalugg
• Boss Vulnerability: By default, the Noble Pokémon's frenzies cannot be diminished — throwing balms at them deals scratch damage at best, and Avalugg in particular spends most of its battle too far away from the player character to be hit. Instead, the player needs to wait for them to exhaust themselves after performing their biggest attack, throw a Pokémon at them to battle, defeat them, and then exploit a brief ensuing window of vulnerability to throw balms and chip away at as much of their frenzy meter as possible before the cycle resets.
• Bottomless Magazines: You can throw as many balms as you want during Noble battles and the like, with the creators noting that they made so many that they're practically endless.
• Bragging Rights Reward:
  • Downplayed with Arceus itself as you can at least transfer it to Pokémon HOME to use it later but played straight with the Legend Plate. When used on Arceus, it gives Judgement the Protean-like ability to change type to deal the most damage possible to the target while changing Arceus' type to have it suffer the least amount of damage possible. But since Arceus is the last possible Pokémon you can get in the game, there aren't a lot of places to actually use Arceus and thus the Legend Plate. The Daybreak update remedies this by adding new post-game battle challenges such as Eternal Battle Reverie, giving you just enough battles to use Arceus and the Legend Plate.
  • Achieving Full Star rank. The last major rewards for ranking up, the crafting recipes for Jet Balls and Full Restores, come at eight stars with 20,000 research points. Nine stars requires 30,000 total points, and ten stars a staggering 60,000, double the amount needed to get the first nine stars. The rewards for the last two ranks are the standard expedition pay raise and plenty of experience candies and high-rank Grit items, which aren't very necessary since the player has likely beaten the entire post-game and received level 10 research on most or all of the Pokédex by then (which grants the Shiny Charm, a non-bragging rights reward). Of course, with a lot of time and patience, it's entirely possible to achieve Full Star rank before even beating the game. So, this is bit of a downplayed case.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: During the "Daybreak" storyline, Adaman is asked if he's studying Beni's cooking or their ninja skills. They answer that he's studying both.
• Breaking Old Trends: This game introduces more changes to the series than any previous entry:
  • Most games in the series tend to be linear, requiring players to advance through the games in a set order. ^note The closest the series had to open-ended games were Pokémon Red and Blue and Pokémon Gold and Silver, and even then, their structures were still largely linear. Legends, while still requiring players to follow the main story in a specific order, is divided in regions that are vast and can be freely explored.
  • Instead of the series' traditional Turn-Based Combat, the battle system in Legends is a bit more action oriented as the combat is now done in real-time and Pokémon can act out in more than one turn. You can also freely move around during the battles, changing the point of view from which take action and moving too far away from the battle will automatically cause it to end.
  • Interactable Pokémon were always part of the series, but these kinds of Pokémon were either Legendaries or specific Mons that can't be found anywhere else (like Snorlax for example). Otherwise, regular Pokémon could only be found through Random Encounters. Pokémon Sword and Shield began to stray away from this, introducing the Wild Area, where you could find Pokémon in a more straightfoward and direct manner. But Legends completely ditches the Random Encounters in favor of making all Pokémon interactable in the overworld, both wild ones and the ones that you captured.
  • Most games were either standalone, sequels, and/or took place in an entirely separate region. Legends is set in the distant past of a familiar region (that being Sinnoh).
  • This is the first mainline game to be released as a single installment rather than a set of two. This subsequently also makes the game the first in the mainline series to avert One Game for the Price of Two (trading with other players is still something you can do, however, but it's completely optional for Dex completion unlike previous games).
  • While Pokémon Sword and Shield had the in-game time of day change based on the plot itself (except for the Wild Areas and when you beat the game), the day/night cycle in Legends is no longer completely based on real-time, with the time of day either being internal or can be changed by the player going for a rest.
  • The Legendary Titans/Regis have always been grouped together in every game that features them. In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, the only member to be found is Regigigas^note Technically speaking, the same circumstances apply to Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs, but in that instance Regigigas was under a villain's control; here, Regigigas appears wild.
  • This is the first game in the series to introduce cross-generational evolutions without a new Eeveelution.
  • This is the first mainline game to feature starter Pokémon from different regions together.
  • In all previous games your Pokémon obtained moves by leveling up, TM/HMs, or move tutors. Once a move was forgotten, it was gone unless you had a way to regain it. This game has a single tutor for all moves/Pokémon (and no TM/HMs). And you can freely (outside of battle) swap a Pokémon's moves for any move it has previously learned.
  • This is the first mainline Pokémon game that features a battle where the player must (technically) fight eight Pokémon, as in addition to Volo's team, they must defeat Giratina in both its Altered and Origin Formes.
• Brutal Bonus Level: The post-game after stopping the space-time distortions by calming Dialga/Palkia ramps up the difficulty considerably and doesn't stop until beating the True Final Boss.
  • First, you're tasked with finding the remaining plates by Cogita and Volo, which requires catching various legendary Pokémon like the Lake guardians, Heatran, and Cresselia. Not terrible, just tedious.
  • Once all but one plate are collected, Volo reveals himself to be allied with Giratina and challenges you with a very difficult team of six powerful Pokémon and then both forms of Giratina.
  • After the above, you're tasked with catching every single Pokémon. That includes the super rare Metal Slimes like Cherrim and Cherubi, the maddeningly cowardly Forces of Nature and their new sister Enamorus, and Pokémon that only appear in space-time distortions, among others.
  • Once all of the above are finished, you get to fight Arceus, who subjects you to a maddening Bullet Hell befitting the power of a god and is substantially more difficult than any of the other Noble bosses from the main story. Fortunately, the reward for beating him is guaranteed catching him for your roster.
  • The Daybreak update adds the Eternal Battle Reverie, pitting you against an endless series of high-level opponents, including legendary Pokémon, starting at around level 80 and scaling up to 100 as you progress. You don't get access to your items and your Pokémon do not heal between battles except by spending the points you earn from winning battles. However, get quite a bit of experience from these battles and racking up a good win streak earns you a very nice haul of items. Reaching 50 wins in a row grants you a battle against Arceus.
• Bubblegloop Swamp: While the Crimson Mirelands contain several tall hills, the flat areas between them are covered in pools of water and fields of muddy bogs. Its native Pokémon include a variety of Ground- and Water-types, alongside carnivorous plants and giant insects.
• Bullet Hell: Battles against the Noble Pokémon as well as Origin Dialga/Palkia and Arceus all have you throwing balms at the Noble to calm them down while dodging their relentless attacks. Kleavor may downplay this trope a bit, since it doesn't have any ranged attacks, but things start ramping up once you have to face Arcanine on Firespit Island.
• Bullfight Boss: Lord Kleavor attacks mainly by charging at you while swinging its axes. Defeating it involves baiting it into charging the walls of its arena, stunning it and giving you the chance to battle it directly.
• But Thou Must!: The game has a fair amount of it, most often in the form of either dialogue choices where only one choice will advance the conversation, with the other causing the NPC to repeat the same line every time you select it, or of dialogue choices where both options are slightly reworded ways of saying the same thing.
• Call-Forward:
  • One sidequest in the Crimson Mirelands is to help a group of pained Psyducks by giving them medicine, a direct reference to the NPC Roadblock of Psyducks near Solaceon Town in Diamond and Pearl. It's even around roughly the same place, as the Solaceon Ruins are within the Mirelands.
  • During the mission to create the Red Chain needed to help resolve the space-time rift incident, Volo briefly wonders why the lake guardians are putting them through these trials, and considers what would happen if the Red Chain falls into the wrong hands, and theorizes that it may be used for purposes besides mending the world - something Cyrus would accomplish during the events of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.
  • The protagonist heads to the Temple of Arceus to confront Kamado to prevent him from being killed by the Legendary Pokémon in the space-time rift, and use the Red Chain to subdue Palkia or Dialga. In Diamond and Pearl, the protagonist heads to Spear Pillar to confront Cyrus to prevent him from using the Red Chain to subdue and capture Palkia or Dialga (or both in Platinum) to create a new universe without spirit.
  • People who fall through the space-time rift are referred to as "Fallers", much the way people from other universes that came through Ultra Wormholes were in Pokémon Sun and Moon.
  • The "Modern" hairstyles Arezu eventually can provide are basically the bowl-cut of the Team Galactic grunts and the spiky hair of Cyrus.
  • The "Brimmed Hat" clothing options are actually the same hat design worn by Riley.
  • A Request for one of the Medical Corps members has her suggest at the end of it that one day, they might have a larger facility to deal with more injuries. This member, incidentally, is a dead ringer for the Pokémon center attendants / Nurse Joy of previous generations.
  • The Ancient Retreat where Cogita lives is in the same location as Celestic Town in the modern day.
  • After hitting a wild Pokémon, Poké Balls will jump off the ground to indicate catch rate, instead of rocking three times with decreasing vigor like they usually do. The Origin Ball on the other hand bounces three times like modern Pokéballs.
  • The Request "The Sea's Legend" is actually tied to the book of the same name in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, which, in that game, provides the answer to the mystery. Not only that, but the book containing the answer is in Canalave Library, which is all but confirmed to be what the Jubilife Village we visit eventually became.
  • Old Verse 9 details the author setting the bones of Pokémon and their (the author's) memories adrift upon the river. It says the bones will flow to the ocean, and perhaps around the world. This is probably a precursor to a tradition found in "Sinnoh Folk Stories," which instructs the reader to, when they eat a fish Pokémon, pick its bones clean and release the bones to the waters whence it came. If done right, the bones will return to the reader inside a new fish and continue the cycle.
  "I set the bones of Pokémon adrift upon the river.
  "I let my memories flow on, adrift upon the river.
  "And to the ocean they will flow, perhaps around the world to go.
  "How many bones in days now gone have I now set adrift from me?
  "How many bones in days to come will I yet set adrift to sea? "While every gift with which I part takes a sliver of my heart.
  —Old Verse 9
  "Pick clean the bones of Pokémon caught in the sea or stream.
  Thank them for the meals they provide, and pick their bones clean.
  When the bones are as clean as can be, set them free in the water from which they came.
  The Pokémon will return, fully fleshed, and it begins anew."
  —Sinnoh Folk Story 1
  • Through the postgame with Volo, it's revealed that he's aligned with Giratina and managed to control it. Years later, his ambiguous descendant Cynthia also manages to align with Giratina, but for much more benevolent reasons. Additionally, both Cynthia's ''Renegade'' theme and Volo's final battle theme are remixes of the former's Encounter theme.
  • Within the Diamond and Pearl Settlements are residents who respectively recite the the text of plates that would later adorn Eterna City's Dialga and Palkia statues in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.
  • The Origin Ball has the appearance of a crystalline Cherish Ball and functions similarly to the Master Ball.
  • In the post-game, Kamado expresses an interest in studying and learning more about Pokémon under Professor Laverton's tutelage on a few occasions. In the future, his descendant is Professor Rowan.
  • Zisu considers creating formal Pokémon battling facilities, while Pesselle mentions the possibility of formal aid centers where people can work alongside Pokémon. These harken to the franchise mainstays of Gyms and Pokémon Centers.
  • A quest added with "Daybreak" has an NPC mention there's plans to set up mining in Oreburrow Tunnel having found some coal there.
• Canon Character All Along: A rare object example. The Celestica Flute becomes the Azure Flute that was found in Generation IV's data.
• Canon Immigrant: Object example. Several Pokémon Spin-offs used an in-game link cable as an evolution item before the concept was added to the main series in this game.
• Canon Name: The male and female protagonists are called Rei and Akari, respectively, in promotional material such as the August 2021 Pokémon Presents segment.
• Cassandra Truth: Unown's Pokédex entry has Professor Laventon note its resemblance to "writing from other lands" (i.e. the Latin alphabet), then add that nobody takes him seriously when he tries to point this out.
• Central Theme: The nature of trust. The player character has to work for the trust of the people of Jubilife Village, Pokemon are only recently developing a trust in humans, the Diamond and Pearl clans have to learn how to trust each other and Volo takes advantage of the player's trust in him to manipulate them.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Right on the heels of two lighthearted, heartwarming stories about inter-clan cooperation to calm the first two Noble Pokémon, you meet Palina in the Cobalt Coastlands, whose corresponding Noble Pokémon was a Hisuian Arcanine who drowned in a wave saving its son, making things take on a moreose tone.
• Character Development: Canonically, Pokémon captured by the player will actually care and love their trainers, and are willing to fight by their side, including the most aggressive ones like Garchomp and Ursaring. This also applies to the Creation Trio themselves. Giratina, despite being out for blood for Arceus since its banishment, became humble enough that it decides to let itself be captured by the player.
• Character Title: The game is called Pokémon Legends: Arceus, with Arceus itself doing the "This is the World of Pokémon" speech at the beginning and pulling the protagonist from their world to Hisui.
• Chekhov's Gag: The scene where Cyllene freaks out at a Wurmple and orders her Abra to teleport it outside. It establishes that said Abra can teleport things other than itself without going with them, justifying Cyllene sending it to you when you're exiled to grant you access to the Pastures from afar.
• Chekhov's Gun: Lian, at one point, talks about various types of ore, including the Black Augurite needed to evolve Scyther into Kleavor and ore said to have been created at the beginning of the world. At the game's climax this ore, Origin Ore, is needed in order to craft the Origin Ball.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The Hisui regional Pokédex takes after Sinnoh's Dex from Platinum with the addition of new regional forms and evolutions plus a few others. However, a dozen species from Sinnoh aren't present in Hisui at all ^ListGoldeen line, Meditite line, Hoothoot line, Wooper line, Wingull line, Girafarig, Azurill line, Feebas line, Swablu line, Houndour line, Tropius, Absol. The most noticeable result of the omissions is that Volo's team, which is otherwise a carbon coby of Cynthia's Platinum team, swaps out Milotic for Hisuian Arcanine. Furthermore, a few Pokémon that have been either catchable in or transferrable to every mainline game beforehand, such as Charizard, aren't even present in the code for the first time in the series.
• Clear My Name: Even after Commander Kamado's paranoia gets the better of him and he expels the protagonist from the village, he says he'll let them return if they can conclusively prove they're not responsible for the Pokémon going mad and for the rifts.
• Collection Sidequest:
  • Request 22 Eerie Apparitions in the Night has a girl named Vessa ask you to go around Hisui and collect the 107 escaped wisps back into the Odd Keystone. Completing the request allows you to fight and capture Spiritomb.
  • After returning from Solaceon Ruins, Unown will start hiding all around Hisui, and completing the Unown Pokédex entry requires you to find all 28 of them.
  • A total of 20 Old Verses is hidden throughout the lands and can be dug up by Ursaluna, providing history and poetry about Hisui when read.
• Collision Damage: Subverted. Coming in contact with an agressive wild Pokémon targeting you in the overworld knocks you back and changes the music to the "damaged" version...but doesn't actually deal any damage.
• Combatant Cooldown System: Instead of the series' traditional Turn-Based Combat, the game has an action order system where it is possible for a Pokémon to act out multiple times in a row.
• Company Cross References: Much like another popular Nintendo open-world with cel-shading, starting a new game has an ethereal being (Arceus in this case instead of Zelda) appear as a shining golden ball of light who talks to you in a black void and you get a phone-shaped device shortly after you wake up in a mysterious location.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard:
  • During the boss battle against Noble Arcanine, you're limited to small pathways surrounded by lava trying to calm him while Arcanine blasts fire all around you. He is not limited to those same pathways, however, and can (and will) walk on the lava making him harder to reach.
  • During the final battle against Volo, he effectively has a team of eight Pokémon (his usual six, Giratina, Giratina's "Origin" form) while you are still limited to the usual six. It's notable as the first time in a mainline game that a trainer uses more than six.
• Console Cameo: Or at least hardware accessories. Since the game takes place in the distant past, there's none of the usual Nintendo system cameos, but you're able to perform trade evolutions by yourself if you find or purchase a mysterious item called the Linking Cord, which look exactly like the Game Link Cables used for the Game Boy.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The Azure Flute has never been officially seen in previous Pokémon games as it was Dummied Out. It was still in the game code though, and the hacked event in Generation Four is identically to it being done legitimately here.
  • Ingo, being a time traveler like yourself rather than an Identical Ancestor, drops a few of them thanks to his amnesia. The few memories he has left include blurry reminders of Emmet and his Chandelure, and he starts comparing Sneasler's ability to climb walls to "some kind of Hidden Move" before remembering that those aren't a thing in Hisui. And, since he's technically still a present day Trainer, he's also the only character affiliated with the Clans to actually use Balls.
  • Glaceon's Pokédex entry refers to the snow it creates around itself as "diamond dust", which is a special variation of snow that first appeared in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.
  • Raichu's Pokédex entry states that it can incapacitate a Copperajah, referencing and retconning the Indian elephant from previous entries.
  • Rapidash's shiny counterpart has lavender colored flames instead of its usual silver color, as a nod to its shiny form in Generation II.
  • Hisuian Typhlosion is colored dark purple with purple flames, similar to Typhlosion's shiny coloration in Generation II. Conversely, its shiny coloration resembles Typhlosion's normal coloration.
  • In Pokémon Gold and Silver, it was established that before the invention of modern, mass-produced Poké Balls, they were hand-crafted from Apricorns. Sure enough, Pokémon Legends: Arceus has the player crafting their own balls (among other things) using Apricorns and Tumblestones instead of buying them for the most part since it takes place before the invention of mass-produced Poké Balls. However, there is only one type of Apricorn available in the region (specifically called "Brown Apricorn" as opposed to the various other types in other games) with the type of Tumblestone used affecting what type of ball is made.
  • Laventon mentions that all Pokémon possess the ability to shrink in size. In an old Japanese-only lorebook it's mentioned that Poké Balls were first invented when a Primeape suffering from a drug overdose curled up into Professor Westwood's glasses case, and in Diamond and Pearl Lucian mentions that Poké Balls were first invented to take advantage of a Pokémon's natural tendency to curl up tightly in a ball when injured.
  • It's mentioned at the Ocean Museum in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire that Sinnoh's water is very hard due to sediments from Mt. Coronet. The fact that it's rich in minerals is why Hisuian Sliggoo and Goodra have shells and are part Steel-type.
  • Bastiodon's Moon Dex entry mentions that fossils of it and Rampardos have been found together following battles to the death. In the Coronet Highlands you can find an ore cavern that has the fossils of a Rampardos and Bastiodon still locked in combat.
  • When you battle Arceus the arena floor displays the sigil that appears when Arceus is creating one of the creation trio eggs in ''HeartGold and SoulSilver'' during the Sinjoh Ruins event.
  • One of the ancient texts found riding Ursaluna name-drops Sinjoh, though it says it's a region, rather than the small ruins of HGSS.
  • Some sub-locations in the areas reference locations that will eventually be built where they stand, such as Veilstone Cape being the location of the future Veilstone City.
  • The Diamond and Pearl Clans being able to call upon Pokémon for aid traversing the landscape is commented on by a Jubilife Village resident to be like Alola's riding Pokémon. Ingo also comments that Sneasler being able to climb rocks must be due to some Hidden Move it knows.
  • Piplup can be found in the wild, and nearby is an Alpha Empoleon. Prior Pokédex entries mention that Empoleon are very protective of their chicks (and as to why you won't necessarily encounter Prinplup, that's covered by their Dex entries noting all Prinplup are loners by nature).
  • Once again, a Snorlax is found blocking a narrow path with no way around barring specific things you get later on, this time barring the path to a section of the Obsidian Fieldlands. However, instead of being an immovable roadblock like in other games, here it's a level 45 Alpha that will utterly crush your team if you try to face it too early.
  • While the Hall of Origin is still accessed via the translucent staircase seen in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, it's no longer a large rectangle made out of glass squares. Instead, the Hall of Origin is a perfect circle, with a floor pattern identical to that of the Sinjoh Ruins from Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, where one could bring Arceus to create an egg that hatches into either Dialga, Palkia, or Giratina.
  • Pikachu and Eevee both use their original cries after receiving new ones in X and Y and the Let's Go! games, respectively. Pikachu's cry is an interesting case as it was updated in the same way most older Pokémon's were in X and Y.
  • Razz, Nanab, and Pinap berries will respectively make Pokémon more likely to be caught, make them move less, and increase the rewards from catching them. These effects are brought over from Let's Go!, which themselves were a Mythology Gag on GO's berry effect mechanics.
• Contrasting Sequel Setting: While most Pokémon games take place in a time period similar to The Present Day where people and Pokémon live in harmony, this game takes place centuries in the past, when most people were afraid of Pokémon and trainers were few and far between.
• Convection, Schmonvection: Firespit Island has flowing lava so close that the player character can touch it (theoretically at least, due to invisible walls being in place to prevent you from actually going into the lava), but neither they or anyone else is bothered by the heat more than they would on a very hot summer day.
• Cooldown Manipulation: A Pokémon's place on the Visual Initiative Queue can be altered by using Strong Style (stronger moves, decreases Action Speed) and Agile Style (weaker moves, increases Action Speed) moves. In addition, moves that traditionally have Action Initiative in previous games instead increase the Pokémon's Action Speed, potentially giving them the opportunity to attack multiple times in a row.
• Coup de Grâce Cutscene: Every boss battle ends with a cutscene where the protagonist throws the final balm at the opponent.
• Cowardly Mooks: A few Pokémon species will attempt to flee should they spot you in the field or if you try to engage them in battle. Some examples are Starly, Basculin, and Clefairy, with the former being used in the tutorial to demonstrate different Pokémon behavior.
• Crazy Enough to Work: To calm down the frenzied Noble Pokémon, their respective Wardens would normally give offerings. The problem though is that their frenzied state makes them too dangerous to approach. Professor Laventon then comes up with rolling the offerings into balms and throwing them at the Noble Pokémon. The native Diamond and Pearl clans are initially dumbfounded, but it works.
• Critical Annoyance: When you take damage in the overworld, black ink surrounds the screen borders, but when you're close to blacking out, the ink turns red and an alarm plays.
• Crutch Character: See the series' page here.
• Cub Cues Protective Parent:
  • Many Pokémon are shown to be very protective of their pre-evolutions. If, for example, one tries to catch a Teddiursa around an Alpha Ursaring, they can be expected to be fleeing from the angry Mama Bear the minute said Alpha takes notice. There's even a behavior observed in some species where an aggravated pre-evolution Pokémon will run to the nearest evolved member of its species and get that Pokémon to chase you.
  • Subverted after you're exiled from Jubilife and Lian and Mai refuse to take you in. A wild Shinx approaches the Player to greet and cheer them up before returning to its Luxio parents. Keep in mind, Shinx and its evolutions are some of the more aggressive Pokémon that will attack you if they spot you in this game, so not only did the Luxio and the Shinx sense the Player's distress over their current situation, the Luxio pair willingly let their Shinx cub approach the Player and greet them before the Shinx returned to its parents. It's even shown that as sad as the situation is, the Player is shown smiling over the gesture of the Luxio pair and Shinx.
• Culture Clash: The fearful inhabitants of Jubilife Village have issues at times understanding the mindset of the Diamond and Pearl Clans that mostly live in harmony with Pokémon, while the Clans think the Survey Corps' tendency to keep Pokémon in Poké Balls is enslavement. The Player Character's influence ends up teaching lessons to both sides; the Jubilife Village residents learn how to coexist with Pokémon without fearing them, and the Diamond and Pearl clans learn how Poké Balls can be used as tools to befriend Pokémon rather than enslaving them.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: You can be on the receiving end of this if unprepared. Even if you are higher levelled or have the type advantage as Wild Pokémon will often carry type coverage in their movesets. An example would be wild Luxray having Fire Fang.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: It's easy to forget that Pokémon Legends: Arceus doesn't exactly have the same battle system or controls as Pokémon Sword and Shield or the other mainline games.
  • The biggest difference comes in the shift from a pure Turn-Based Combat system to a Combatant Cooldown System; you may find yourself shouting "Why did they get two turns in a row!?" until it sinks in. You might also get thrown off by the changes to status conditions (Sleep and Frozen no longer lock the victim out of combat entirely), the lack of abilities (you can effectively hit the Gastly family with Ground-type attacks since they no longer have Levitate) and other subtle changes to the behavior of moves (Stealth Rock is a Damage Over Time attack rather than an entry hazard, for instance).
  • This game shrinks the total move pool due to the change in scope, meaning that most Pokémon have altered and/or truncated learnsets and certain staple moves are missing, which can get confusing when raising an otherwise familiar Pokémon. For example, Earthquake, the signature high physical damage Ground-type move, is absent, while High Horsepower from Generation VII has been added to many learned move sets and the move tutor in place of it (Garchomp notably cannot learn it and is stuck with Bulldoze for physical Ground STAB as a result).
  • While they are coded into the game (as the pokemon can be moved to Pokémon Home and thus gain them), Abilities are not implemented outside of a small number of exceptions. It can be a stark realization when an opponent uses a Ground-type move against your Rotom or Haunter — who normally have the Levitate ability^note Ground-type attacks won't hit. — and they're taken down in a single super-effective hit.
  • In the Wild Area, battles with overworld Pokémon were initiated by running into them. In Legends: Arceus, you do so by throwing one of your own Pokémon at them. At best, running into an overworld Pokémon will do nothing. At worst, it'll damage you and anger the Pokémon.
  • The B button has different functions depending on whether or not you're mounted; while on a Ride Pokémon it can speed them up, but if you're on foot you'll slow down and sneak. This can trip you up if you don't keep in mind the different functionality, as well as if you've played earlier Pokémon games where B was for running and kept holding that button out of habit.
  • In previous games, the menu would be assigned to the Start Button, with later ones assigning it to the X Button. Neither of them bring up the main menu in this game. Instead, D-Pad Up brings up the menu; the Start/+ Button activates one of your mounts (which you switch between with D-Pad Left and Right), while the X button switches between the on-screen menus for throwable items and your Pokémon team. Best case scenario, you will hit the X Button and accidentally switch between these menus, forcing you to tap it again lest you forget and accidentally throw a Poké Ball when you need a Pokémon (or vice versa) a few minutes later. Worst case scenario, you immediately break stealth in front of the Alpha or skittish Pokémon you were sneaking up on because you hit the + Button and summoned a mount. At least Sword and Shield assigned the Rotom Bike to +, so if you played that game, you will already have begun thinking of + as the "ride something" button.
  • If you're a Nintendo fan whose brain defaulted to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild mechanics upon seeing the open world, it probably took several failed attempts to climb or swim away from danger before you accepted that it wasn't possible — because it's a Pokémon game which always emphasizes partnership with Pokémon, so these are done with Ride Pokémon. You later get a series of mounts that allow you to traverse the areas.
• Darker and Edgier: In some ways. While games in the past did allude to Pokémon being a lot more violent than credit is given, Arceus is a lot more open about it, with it cutting no corners in telling you that you will die from wild Pokémon attacks if left undefended in the wild; in some cases straight up saying wild Pokémon have hospitalized members of the Galaxy Team and, in Kamado's village's case, might have killed people. This carries over to the gameplay where Pokémon of all shapes and sizes will directly attack the player until they pass out.
• Darkest Hour: Everything goes to hell the next day after you successfully quell the last Noble Pokémon Lord, Avalugg. The sky turns red, and the space-time rift expands to a much larger size. Kamado immediately pins all the blame on you, fires you, and banishes you from the village—in spite of the protests of Professor Laventon, Rei/Akari, Adaman, and Irida. On top of that, the Diamond and Pearl clans have been forced into not helping you, not even to seek refuge. At this point, you are all alone, betrayed by the village you worked so hard for, and have been left to fend for yourself—until Volo comes to your aid and brings you to see Cogita.
• Dead All Along: Vessa, the girl who tasks you to gather the freed wisps from the Odd Keystone, is revealed to be the last of the Spiritomb's spirits once you have collected the other 107 wisps, and turns back to a spirit so you can complete the Odd Keystone.
• Death Mountain: The Coronet Highlands. Their main gameplay gimmick is that they're the game's most vertical area, steadily sloping up from the base camp to Electrode's arena, and traversal here requires navigating multiple steep ascents. This is where the player gains access to Sneasler, whose sharp claws allow her to scale vertical walls; her aid is needed to ascend the Highlands' many sheer cliffs.
• Death World: Hisui is home to some of the most dangerous Pokémon, discounting the Creation Trio. At the same time, this seems to apply to Hisui only, as there are characters from other regions who are accompanied by the Pokémon from their home region and it's noted the Pokémon of Hisui are more aggressive than in most places. Kamado's case may have been a different situation since wild Pokémon had destroyed his home village of origin.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance:
  • The player character at around 15 is considered old enough to work for a living and be banished to the wilderness if they prove a burden. Coming from the modern day, the protagonist has a look of stunned shock upon hearing the stakes.
  • When Kamado begs for your help in stopping Almighty Sinnoh, he does so on behalf of "the Celestica people" and the Pokémon who live in Hisui. Old Verse 5 clarifies that the Celestica people lived in Hisui long, long ago before disappearing. Then the Diamond and Pearl Clans came from across the sea and appropriated the name "Celestica" for their own purposes. The verse even calls them out on it, asserting that the name lives on, but not its heart. Given all the controversy around cultural appropriation in recent years, this hits especially hard.
    "Long and longer yet ago, Celestica was here. But folk and town alike, both did disappear.
    In time, came new folk sailing, sailing 'cross the sea, called by their love for Sinnoh, great and almighty.
    But diff'rent were the Sinnoh that each folk did hold dear, And bitter strife and angry war were always at the near.
    'Celestica' they called themselves, the name not theirs to take. Yet claim it from the past they did, for tragic quarrel's sake.
    So once again did our name live, though all our people gone. But even if the name endures, its heart does not live on."
• Delicious Distraction: You can use Berries and Cake Lures to draw Pokémon towards a certain spot, such as to sneak by or to set up a Heavy Ball strike. Pokémon that are eating also have a better catch rate.
• Derelict Graveyard:
  • Deadwood Haunt, a location in the Cobalt Coastlands, is filled with shipwrecks and crates the player can loot for items. It's fairly cheerful during the day, but at night it fills with Ghost-Types.
  • Stonetooth Row in the Coronet Highlands is a terraced graveyard filled with old and weathering tombstones. It likewise becomes infested with Ghost-types at night.
• Developer's Foresight: NPCs that give you requests asking to see or give them certain Pokémon will have different responses for Alpha variants. Even NPCs with the earliest requests, which are available to take on and complete hours before Alpha variants of standard Pokémon become available, will react differently.
• Difficult, but Awesome: The aptly named Heavy Ball, and its stronger versions the Leaden and Gigaton Ball, is very awkward to use, with its very poor throwing distance, and failing to hit a Pokémon often alerts them to your presence. However, by pairing it with stealth items and/or lures, alongside knowing how far it travels, it is by far, the best ball for catching Alpha Pokémon without needing to fight them.
• Disc-One Nuke: See the series' page here.
• Distant Prequel: The first trailer describes the plot of Legends as "a tale from when the Sinnoh region was still only a vast wilderness", placing it a long time before the events of Diamond and Pearl, which features a Sinnoh with plenty of cities. The official website further describes the game as being set in Sinnoh's distant past, long before trainers as we know them or the Pokémon League were established. How long ago it takes place in more precise terms is as yet unclear, but many aspects of the setting correspond to a time in Japan's history from well over a century ago, albeit with some more modern applications; for example, hydroelectricity and electric lighting are apparently common utilities, at least for the people of Jubilife Village, and the Pokédex entry for Buizel mentions a steamship, which could place the technological level at roughly around the turn of the 20th century.
• Double Jump: Basculegion can do this when you're surfing on it. Justified in its backstory and the fact that it's a Ghost type.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect: Some NPCs that ask to see or be given Pokémon will not accept Alpha variants if you attempt to show/give them one. Beauregard for example, who asks you to fetch him a Wurmple, will be impressed that you caught an Alpha Wurmple but doesn't feel he can raise one of such a size and asks you to fetch a normal-sized one instead.
• Dramatic Irony: The "Almighty Sinnoh" plotline is essentially about people warring (literally so, though they've calmed down in the present day) over something the player has known for a long time. Both the Pearl and Diamond clans worship the deity that created their land, but the Diamond people are convinced it was a god with powers over time while the Pearl clan are set in their idea that their guardian deity ruled over space; and thus, religious conflicts ensued. There's even a NPC or two entertaining the idea that both might be real and how that would make a lot of their messy history retroactively pointless. Of course, anyone who's played Diamond and Pearl knows they're both right and wrong, as both time and space deities exist, and the true almighty deity is Arceus. At the end of the game, after finding out that Dialga and Palkia both exist, Adaman and Irida themselves acknowledge that their whole rivalry was mostly pointless in the end because neither clan had the whole idea. For extra irony, Cogita reveals to the player character that the founders of the Diamond and Pearl clans traveled to settle in Hisui because they truly wanted to worship Arceus (who they knew as Almighty Sinnoh), only for one clan to encounter Dialga and the other Palkia respectively and to mistake the dragon they saw for Arceus.
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole: A minor example. Even though the Old Gateau is a craftable item in this game, the ominous Old Chateau hasn't been built yet. This connection was added in the English translation of Sinnoh games, and the Gateau is instead called "Forest Yokan" in the Japanese version.
• Duel Boss: The Daybreak update adds the Path of Solitude to Ingo's options at the training grounds. It serves as a continuation of the Master Trainers from Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, with the player picking one high-leveled Pokémon and pitting it against a specific Pokémon or team of 3 for the creation trio and Arceus) with no other assistance (unlike in Let's Go, not all fights are a Mirror Match). Winning adds a mark to the corresponding Pokédex entry, and there are rewards for winning a certain amount of times and sidequests for winning with certain Pokémon.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Electrode, Lord of the Hollow, is mentioned early on during the first arc of the game. Adaman compares the situation with Kleavor being similar to a Pokémon "off in the mountains" that's connected to the Diamond Clan.
• Enemy Mine: The Diamond and Pearl clans have a longstanding enmity due to their philosophical differences. However, they begin to cooperate over the course of the story as the respective clan wardens of each region will both pitch in on your quest. After the protagonist is banished from Jubilife, the respective leaders Adaman and Irida will work together to aid you on the downlow with very little sniping, a huge improvement from where they started out.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Downplayed, as not every Pokémon is aggressive. However, it's known that many of the Survey Corps who clashed with aggressive Pokémon were severely injured, or even killed.
• Evil Counterpart: The protagonist and the Big Bad have many similarities, but one key difference: you are a Pokémon Trainer, willing to battle alongside your Pokémon, while their title is Pokémon Wielder.
• Evolving Music: The background music in Jubilife Village gains additional instruments and motifs as the story progresses. By postgame, the second half of the song is a rearrangement of Jubilife City's theme.
• The Exile: The player themself becomes this when Kamado becomes convinced that they are responsible for the time-space rifts and exile them from the village.
• Exposed to the Elements: When Adaman and Irida visit the player in the Alabaster Icelands when they first arrive, the former wonders how the latter, with a rather exposing outfit, isn't freezing. She brushes it off saying it'll get worse the further in they go. It turns out that Irida lives in the Icelands, and when the player visits a volcano she's notably the only character who shows discomfort from the heat, suggesting that she's just adapted to cold temperatures.
• Failed a Spot Check: Beauregard absolutely fails to recognize that his Wurmple evolved into a Cascoon instead of a Silcoon, even after the local Pokémon expert tells him it's a Cascoon, it says its name in Pokémon Speak, and even after the player finds him a Silcoon to compare. It's only after the player points out the difference in eyes or the color of their bodies that he notices something's not right.
• Fall Damage: Your character can suffer damage if you fall from a high enough height, and you can put your expedition at risk this way. Riding on a Pokémon only protects you so far, as falling too far down has it despawn and make you suffer the full impact.
• Falling into the Plot: The game begins with the player character falling from the sky into the Hisui region on the outskirts of the Obsidian Fieldlands, being brought there from the present day by Arceus itself. Most of the characters in the game comment on how you're a person who fell from the sky, with Commander Kamado in particular seeing it as a bad omen following the recent creation of the space-time rift.
• Fantastic Racism: Since it's set long before the events of any of the other mainline games, both humans and Pokémon are at each others' throats. In particular, humans are terrified of Pokémon due to their powers, while Pokémon tend to distrust the former out of fear of losing their home in the wilderness. Sadly, not even the player themselves are exempt from this, as Kamado ends up exiling them due to their arrival from a time-space rift and out of paranoia that they are causing all the trouble due to it.
• Fantasy Conflict Counterpart: The game more or less tells a truncated version of the Japanese colonization of Hokkaido^note The island which Sinnoh/Hisui is based on. in the late 19th Century, but in the Pokémon universe.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
  • The Diamond and Pearl Clans are mostly based on the Ainu, the indigenous people of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands, down to being there long before the (implied to be) Kantonese colonizers arrived. That said, while the Pearl Clan's mountainous regions and trecharous snowy weather invoke the Ainu, the Diamond Clan, being more laid back and hanging around hot tropical areas, seem to refer to the Ryukyuan People, who inhabitated Okinawa and other warm islands.
  • Once again, Alolans are Hawaiians, with an Alolan immigrant named Keaka (a common Hawaiian name) referring to Alolan Vulpix as Keokeo, meaning "white" or "clear".
• Fatal Flaw: Commander Kamado's is paranoia. After losing his home village and most of his friends to a wild Pokémon attack, he's very averse to trusting people outside his inner circle. So when the protagonist literally falls out of the sky through a spacial rift, he's naturally suspicious of them, and despite the protagonist succeeding in all their assignments, the circumstances of their arrival in Hisui continues to bother Kamado and keeps relations between them tense at best. This tension reaches a boiling point once a massive space rift just like the protagonist fell from appears over Mount Coronet, ultimately resulting in him expelling the player from the village.
• Fell Asleep Standing Up: If a Pokémon hits you with Hypnosis in the overworld, your movement speed will be slowed for a few seconds before this happens. Notably, this forces you on your feet if you were crouching when it kicked in, leaving you vulnerable to attacks until you wake up (which, thankfully, doesn't take long).
• Fighting from the Inside: Unlike the other frenzied Nobles, Lord Avalugg is stated by Laventon and Gaeric to have never harmed anybody. It stays away from humans and life in the Alabaster Icelands continues more or less as normal. This, despite every other noble threatening the humans around them due to the lightning-induced Hate Plague.
• Fireworks of Victory:
  • When a Pokémon is successfully caught in a Poké Ball, it will let off a firework from the hole at its top.
  • Fireworks are shown in the background of the victory celebration art at the end of the credits.
• First-Episode Twist: The game's marketing hides the reveal at the beginning of game that your player character actually hails from the present-day Pokémon world, having been brought back to the past by Arceus itself.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Your player character, be it Rei or Akari, is from the present day before being transported by Arceus to the past. It turns out they're not the only victim of this, with similar people being called "Fallers". One of them has even become a Warden for the Pearl clan.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing:
  • At the beginning of the Coronet Highlands arc, a man who looks suspiciously like Ingo comes to greet you and asks to talk at the training grounds. However, he's explicitly named Ingo rather than the alternative names given to the purported ancestors and looks almost exactly the same from the Unova games aside from his clothes being shredded and wearing a Pearl Clan uniform underneath. Turns out he's also thrown from his time like the protagonist.
  • The day the red sky forms, Captain Cyllene is ordered to tell the protagonist to immediately see Commander Kamado. Based on Cyllene's choice of words and expression, it's safe to say it's something serious related to the protagonist, which it certainly is, as Kamado proceeds to expel the protagonist from Jubilife Village.
  • In the postgame, before heading to the Sinnoh Temple with Volo, he disturbingly starts to talk about "a new world" in a similar vein to Cyrus. After reaching the temple ruins, he outright reveals himself to be the Big Bad.
  • Once Volo challenges you to a battle, you hear the memetically ominous piano from Cynthia's encounter theme, cluing you in that the battle you're in for will be the fight of your life.
• Foil: Irida and Adaman, the respective leaders of the clashing Pearl and Diamond clans.
  • Both are clan leaders that haven't actually seen the Almighty Sinnoh they proclaim about, but take opposite stances. Adaman believes in the value of time while Irida believes in the value of space. Adaman believes in taking action immediately while Irida prefers to think things through and try to come up with a plan before taking action.
  • Design-wise, Adaman is a young man clad in blue while Irida is a young woman clad in red. Their teams are comprised of counterpart Eeveelutions: Adaman uses Leafeon and later Vaporeon and Umbreon, while Irida starts with a Glaceon that is later joined by a Flareon and an Espeon.^note Umbreon/Espeon and Leafeon/Glaceon are counterpart pairs with unique evolutionary mechanics introduced in Generation II and Generation IV: the former pair evolves with high happiness during the night/day; the latter pair evolves around the Mossy and Icy Rocks respectively. Meanwhile, Flareon and Vaporeon form a Fire/Water Juxtaposition pair to hammer it home.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Commander Kamado repeatedly makes it clear that he's leery of the Player Character due to them having fallen out of a space-time rift, ordering them to prove their loyalty to the Galaxy Team. After the final Noble Pokémon is pacified, the giant space-time rift over Mt. Coronet abruptly expands to take up the whole sky. Kamado succumbs to his paranoia and blames the Player Character for everything bad that happened since their arrival, exiles them from Jubilife Village, and forbids the Diamond and Pearl clans from helping them under threat of war.
  • When you have your long-awaited boss fight with him, he only uses 4 Pokémon. Even if this were your first core series Pokémon game, you'd know by now that the maximum party size is 6. This gives away that the true final boss of the story is yet to be revealed. Overlaps with Interface Spoiler.
  • When giving you a Celestica Flute, Adaman calls it a "gift from Almighty Sinnoh itself." While he's a bit off, the Celestica Flute winds up transforming into the Azure Flue needed to face Arceus.
  • After you pacify Kleavor, Akari/Rei will give you the recipe for smoke bombs, commenting that Beni taught them how to make them. As it turns out, Beni is a ninja, and would have plenty reason to know how to make smoke bombs.
  • An NPC tasks players with gathering 107 spirit wisps and putting them in an odd Keystone. Players who already know what Pokémon is tied to the Odd Keystone or have a passing knowledge of Dharmic religions will know that that's one spirit short. The NPC herself turns out to be the final spirit.
  • Just before you leave for the Alabaster Icelands, you get a cutscene where a freaked out Cyllene demands her Abra teleport a wild Wurmple out of her office and back to the wilds. When you are exiled from the village, Cyllene sends her Abra to help you since it can teleport the Pokémon from the Jubilife ranches to your party.
  • Near the beginning of the Lord Avalugg quest, both Laventon and Gaeric express apprehension at quelling Avalugg's frenzy. They both point out that Avalugg has managed to avoid harming anyone and seems better at controlling itself than the previous Lords. Laventon even contemplates leaving it alone. Sure enough, right after you quell its frenzy, the Red Sky, Take Warning threatens to destroy everything and you're exiled.
  • While talking to Mistress Cogita while the Player Character is banished from Jubilife Village, she will comment that Volo speaks of the Ginkgo clan as though he's not a part of them himself. He ignores this, quickly changing the subject. In the postgame, it turns out that he indeed doesn't feel like a part of the clan because of past trauma, and he intends to wipe them all out by destroying and remaking the universe with Giratina's help. Additionally, Volo shows up a lot in places and parts of the story where the game-merchant archetype shouldn't be appearing, and his studies of Hisuian legend really don't seem like an innocent justification as the game goes on, especially when he starts musing about the possibility of the Red Chain being used for purposes other than mending the world.
  • While you commune with the lake guardians, Adaman/Irida wonder what it feels like to talk to a telepathic Pokémon. Guess how Dialga/Palkia ask for your help.
  • When the player is about to construct the Red Chain, everyone wonders how Cogita caught up with them so quickly, and she mentions a Pokémon that can quickly fly around Sinnoh. She also gives the player the Pixie Plate later on. Sure enough, she's friends with Enamorous, a Fairy-Type that can move around very quickly.
• Flunky Boss: Electrode fights in large part by calling down Voltorbs from its tree, which fall down around the arena and explode.
• Forest of Perpetual Autumn: The Crimson Mirelands are covered in trees in full fall colors and fields of yellow grasses, in contrast to the lush green vegetation of other in-game areas.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: For Game Freak's in-house Pokémon titles. It emphasizes more on the Gotta Catch 'Em All aspect, justifying as research goals. It de-emphasizes Trainer vs. Trainer battles, as they are much fewer in number, and lacks the VS. multiplayer of the main titles. The setting isn't also analogous to the Real Life Present Day, and instead invokes a previous era of human history.
• Friendly Fireproof: Your Pokémon can knock you around if you get in middle of their attacks, but the attacks do no damage to you so you cannot black out due to your own Pokémon. This also applies to enemy Pokémon, but only if your Pokémon has engaged it in battle.

G-M

• Game-Breaking Bug:
  • A literal example from the post-game: if you're pursuing the quest to catch Cresselia at the Moonview Arena, for the love of Arceus, talk to Melli first. As many players found out the hard way, catching Cresselia before talking to him will not flag the quest as complete, leaving the quest — which is necessary to unlock the final battle with Volo and Giratina — permanently inaccessible, leaving the player with no recourse other than to delete their save data and start dozens or hundreds of hours of progress over again. Fortunately, this was patched in the Daybreak update.
  • Another, rather creepy one was discovered as well — if you drown right as a battle is ending, you'll return to the overworld becoming a ghost town. No Pokémon, no NPCs, your own Pokémon doing battle are stuck in place, you can't send out any others—and you can't even save. You can still access ride Pokémon, but that's about it.
  • Giratina has a unique animation for using Shadow Force in its Origin Forme, but said animation isn't programed for Giratina's shiny form despite shiny variants of signature move animations being present in past games. Consequently, using Shadow Force with a shiny Origin Forme Giratina will always cause the game to crash mid-attack.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • It has long been a part of the lore of the Pokémon world that most Pokémon vary in size even as adults depending on the individual. In a first for the mainline games, the Pokémon of Hisui (except for Legendary and Mythical ones) are depicted as visually coming in a variety of sizes, ranging from roughly half the official Pokédex size to roughly double said size. Seeking out a certain size is made a goal of an early quest to draw attention to this aspect.
  • Pokémon acceptance among the majority of humans is only just starting out in this game, and Hisui isn't very well-settled, so some common services like Pokémon Centers and breeding daycares aren't available because there isn't demand for them yet. Similarly, Professor Laventon has a cramped one-room office due to his position not being considered as prestigious as it will be in the future.
  • There are relatively few battles with other Trainers compared to other mainline games, as Poké Balls are a relatively recent invention and have not yet become widespread, in addition to the general public still being distrustful towards wild Pokémon. Most Trainers you battle are either Galaxy Expedition Team members or members of the Diamond Clan or Pearl Clan who have been raised alongside their partner Pokémon for much of their lives.
  • Once you defeat Charm on Firespit Island, Clover will announce that she has revived her and Coin's Pokémon and they can now battle until they run out of potions, which is something the player might do. Thankfully, Charm decides to cut her losses and leave.
  • The Diamond and Pearl clans don't use Poké Balls to contain their Pokémon; thus, rather than exhibiting Mook Chivalry like Team Galaxy trainers and Volo, who send in replacement Pokémon when their active one goes down, battles against clan members are Wolfpack Boss fights, with multiple adds on their side, similar to wild encounters with multiple wild Pokémon. The exception is Ingo, who retains his skills and attitude as a modern-day Pokémon Trainer and sends his out one by one.
  • Since Poké Ball technology has just been developed and the balls are made from Apricorns, the Voltorb and Electrode in this region and time period are Grass/Electric types. However, given the recency of the tech, the Pokémon are suggested to be similar to Poké Balls in parallel, not by natural adaptation to mimic them.
  • Fossil Pokémon have no facilities to study and revive them at this point in time, so the the only way the player can obtain the Shieldon and Cranidos families is by finding them in space-time distortions. Said distortions are also used as a justification for the presence of Pokémon beyond this time period's tech level, like Magnemite/Magneton and the Porygon line, who are found exclusively inside the distortions. Interestingly, Magnezone is found naturally in the Coronet Highlands, but seeing how it is UFO-based...
  • Snorlax are unaffected by the stunning effect caused by throwing a Spoiled Apricorn at them. Several of Snorlax's Pokédex entries in other games note that Snorlax can eat moldy, rotten, or even poisoned food with no ill effects.
  • You can toss a Poké Ball even during fights with multiple wild Pokémon, unlike previous games. The justification for not being able to do so before is that the presence of multiple wild Pokémon messes with the targeting system used by modern Poké Balls; since the Poké Balls of this era must be manually aimed, they don't suffer from this issue.
  • There is a sidequest where a wild Blissey is shown to approach wounded humans to heal them. Normally during gameplay, wild Blissey will flee from you upon notice, unless you happen to be wounded from other Pokémon or a fall, in which case Blissey will come close and use its moves to heal you up, then quickly make a run for it.
  • In Pokédex entries, it's mentioned that some people use Nosepass as a compass because they always point north. Sure enough, unless startled and alerted to the player's presence, Nosepass found in the wild will always point north.
  • After you join the Galaxy Team, the save screen changes to incorporate your ID card (also including rank/obedience information in the same manner as i.e. Trainer Cards in Pokémon Sword and Shield). When you get kicked from the Galaxy Team and expelled from Jubilife Village, it reverts to the initial format. Naturally, they took your Survey Corps ID when you were kicked out; once you're reinstated, you presumably get it back (or get a new one) as the save screen returns to normal.
  • Uxie, Azelf, and Mesprit have always been known as the Pokémon of knowledge, willpower, and emotion. Sure enough, when you need to collect their body parts to make a magic chain, they give you tests of that attribute. Uxie asks you for some anatomical Pokémon trivia, Azelf gives you some balms to throw, but teleports away before it can be hit and repeatedly encourages you to give up, and Mesprit asks you how you feel about various plot developments.
  • There is story justification for the gameplay elements of having to return to the Jubilife Village between surveys and to always tell the Security Corps where you're going before you leave. Namely it's to ensure they know the general area to look for you should you get knocked out in the field and need rescuing.
  • Dialga, Palkia, and Arceus all attack by raining explosive meteors on the player during their respective boss fights. It's entirely possible this is the overworld version of Draco Meteor, a powerful attack unique to Dragon-type Pokémon (and Silvally and Arceus, who can be any type). Of course the Dragon-types most responsible for creating the universe would have mastered this powerful attack.
  • When you meet Giratina in Turnback Cave it still initiates a battle with you, seeming at odds with Volo stating the creature has had a change of heart and wants to protect Hisui at your side. Yet two features support that this battle is different from the previous one, namely there is a held stare between the protagonist and Giratina in Turnback Cave that is meant to be a Meaningful Look, and secondly is the fact that Giratina can be caught at all (it having been not catchable in the previous battle, indicating Giratina is open to joining you now).
  • Repeatedly challenging the Path of Tenacity sees each group continually level up and evolve their Pokémon, with one exception: Melli's Golbat never turns into Crobat. Crobat is a friendship evolution; Melli's so self-centered that his Golbat doesn't like him enough to evolve.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • After a certain point in the story, Ingo can call other villagers to fight the player in the training grounds, including move tutor Zisu. Due to an oversight, she can still be called for a battle during the brief time when her services aren't available (when she's with Kamado and his crew at the Temple of Sinnoh).
  • Togetic's Dex entry says that there are no records of one being seen in the wilds. This is in spite of the fact that this is one of few mainline games where Togetic can be found in the wild.
  • Previous Pokédex entries stated that Gible used to live in the tropics and moved underground to avoid the cold. Despite this, it and its evolutions are found in cold places like the Coronet Highlands and Alabaster Icelands.
  • Like all of the other games in the main series, nobody reacts to a specific Legendary Pokémon if you have them in your team before they show up in the main story. For example, The Diamond clan will not react to Dialga and the Pearl Clan likewise won't react to Palkia, even if you use them against the clan leaders and their wardens. And absolutely no one will react to Giratina and Arceus despite their story importance, and a character doesn't even reach to them at all^note You can have them very early in your team if you transferred them through either a long process from the original Generation 4 games to PokéBank to Pokémon Home, or Gen 4's remakes though Home.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: The "roaming legendary" style of encounter has been adapted here as the Forces of Nature - Thunderus, Tornadus, and Landorus and, after you catch those three, Enamorus. These Pokemon take the obnoxious parts of both aggressive and cowardly Pokemon, constantly running away extremely quickly while tossing large, highly-damaging tornadoes at you. And if you do catch up to them? They have a barrier that prevents you from fighting them unless you can break it with a stunning item like a Ball of Mud or a Snowball. And when you do break the barrier, you have about two seconds to initiate a fight before it brings the barrier back up and runs away, forcing you to catch it all over again. Once you do get into the actual battle with one, capturing it is relatively simple - it's actually getting into the fight that's the problem.
• The Ghost: Several Pokémon not available in Hisui are mentioned in Pokédex entries or dialogue, such as Copperajah being retconned as the Indian elephant, a Galarian Weezing is the model for the Galaxy Building's chimney, Ingo vaguely recalling his Chandelure, and the Regi trio are only referenced by the statues in Snowpoint Temple and the requirement of the Stone, Iron and Icicle Plates to meet Regigigas in person.
• Giant Mook: Alpha Pokémon are larger than other members of their species; the values for their height are maxed out. Regular Pokémon can come in different sizes as well. It turns out that some specimens can be absolutely gigantic.
• Girly Bruiser: The Noble Lilligant is part Fighting-type and retains her graceful, elegant demeanor even when frenzied.
• Godzilla Threshold: Of all things, the player character is implied to be this. Almost everyone in the setting is useless when it comes to Pokémon battling, and it's clear even such a skilled trainer as Kamado would be curbstomped by Volo, as the former doesn't even have a sixth Pokémon. Why else would Arceus pluck an average/Child Prodigy teenager from the present day as its chosen champion? Volo fully intended to destroy the universe, so such a drastic measure as creating a Stable Time Loop would be warranted to stop him.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: Your mission, as usual, although in a twist it isn't given to you by the local Pokémon Professor, but rather Arceus itself, who orders you to "seek out all Pokémon". Even better, due to Arceus' status as the True Final Boss, you can actually complete the Pokédex without needing to trade with anyone else, period.
• Green Hill Zone: The Obsidian Fieldlands, the first major area of the game. They are mainly a large green, grassy field with a forest and the presence of Lake Verity, and home to a selection of relatively weak, introductory Pokémon based mainly on meadow- and prairie-dwelling creatures.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • The Request "The Sea's Legend" leaves you with virtually no clues to solve the mystery aside from a book called "The Sea's Legend" which you can't find ingame despite the hint that it exists. The book is found in the Canalave Library in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. So without a guide, you essentially have to jump between games to learn what you need to do. Thankfully, the book in question is rather straightforward with the answer given the context.
  • The Lord Arcanine Fight can be harder than any other Boss Fight in the game, especially when he reaches the stage of spitting fire across the arena that can't be crossed without damage and turning it into a massive fire pit that the balms can't fly far enough across to hit him. But you can charge the balms to fly farther by holding the throw button beforehand.
  • Finding all 107 Wisps for the "Eerie Apparitions in the Dark" sidequest is deceptively difficult. At first you'll probably find a decent chunk of them just going about the story, especially if you play through the night when they're more visible. But it doesn't take long for them to become increasingly tricky to find, as they're tucked away in a lot of obscure nooks and crannies. Finding all of them on your own could potentially take days. The only recourse is that, when you find one, you're told how many are left in the area.
  • The Unown sidequest does a bit better, since the game does give you hints on where to find each one (albeit hints you have to translate from Unown lettering). However, once you decipher the hint, you still have to comb through the area to find the little eyeball peeking out (and said eyeball may not be visible depending on your vantage point) and some hints are more vague than others. For example, the hint for B reads Turn your eyes up at the volcanic island, with no indication as to where on Firespit Island you have to do so. One of the most challenging, Unown, W, is located on the eye of one of the Magikarp statues on the top of the Galaxy Team Headquarters — leading to many people trying to get this Unown by throwing balls from the outside from the ground level, which works but is hard to aim from. Turns out there's a door in Kamado's office that leads to a balcony outside on the top floor, letting you walk outside and hit it directly from close up. The game doesn't mention it at all and there's no other incentive to visit his office causally outside of progressing the story.
  • A minor example. Throughout the game there are large cracked rocks you occasionally come across that block paths, caves, and tunnels. Most longtime players would instantly link these rocks with the old HM Rock Smash and expect that these are road blocks you're intended to get past with the help of a mount you receive later in the game. But any Pokémon can break them with ease for a nice bundle of EXP. At least this feature was shown off in gameplay trailers, and one of the wisps needed for the "Eerie Apparitions in the Dark" quest is hidden in a cave blocked by a rock.
  • Ursaring's new evolution requires using a Peat Block under a full moon. It specifically must be under a full moon; no other time will do. Though the family does have a lunar theme, and the player is alerted to Ursaluna's existence due to the existence of the one you can ride, the evolution method isn't explained in-game and isn't immediately obvious. Furthermore, the moon is only visible in the sky from certain angles, and each night is a phase of the moon.
  • Basculin's new evolution requires it to take a cumulative total of 294 HP of recoil damage. That's easy enough as it does learn a couple self-damaging attacks by level-up, but it has to do this specifically without fainting or the counter resets.
  • The credits roll after catching the Primal Legendary Pokémon, which led some players to mistakenly assume the story was finished. There's a whole nearly second half of the game after that including the game's true climax.
• Hard Truth Aesop:
  • Distrust doesn't go away quickly, even when you have been in a place for a while and done much good for it. When Kamado banishes you from the village and declares you the source of the red sky, the villagers very quickly show that they never fully trusted you even after everything. The only ones who stood up for you or expressed faith in your innocence were ones who worked with you much more directly and personally knew you, like Professor Laventon and Cyllene.
  • Just because someone is good doesn't mean that their lineage won't have flawed or bad people in it. Best case scenario, Professor Rowan and Wally's ancestors were Komado and Beni, who prove to be very paranoid and distrustful towards the protagonist. And Azeru, despite being a kindly salonist, is implied to be Mars' ancestor. In the worst case scenario, Cyllene's descendent is implied to be the corrupt terrorist and Omnicidal Maniac Cyrus, the boss of Team Galactic. Vice versa, Cynthia is implied to be descended from Volo who turns out to be Hisui's equivalent of Cyrus.
• Hate Plague: In the main story, five Noble Pokémon go berserk due to being struck by lightning from the space-time rift. Turning them gold and causing them to rampage. It is the goal of the player to pacify them through hitting them with balms to prevent them from causing any harm.
• Heroic Lineage: The Ride Pokémon and Noble Pokémon are descendants of the 10 Pokémon who assisted the hero of Hisui long ago.
• Hitbox Dissonance: The 28 Unown scattered throughout Hisui have some slightly wonky hitboxes, which can lead to wasting your Poké Balls trying to catch them. Most notably, one in a chasm in Alabaster Icelands is right up against the roof on a pillar; it will not react to a Poké Ball that hits it dead in the eye, and you have to aim your Poké Ball an entire Unown's height down the pillar
• Hope Spot:
  • The midway point of the game sees all the frenzied Nobles tamed, the Diamond and Pearl clans being able to see more eye to eye with each other, the giant space-time rift appearing to get smaller, and the player having gained the trust of the leaders of both clans, the Galaxy Expedition Team, and the residents of Jubilife Village. From then on, things should be smooth sailing. Except it does not. The next morning, the rift has expanded and turned the sky into a hellish red color. Suspecting the player of having a connection to the Nobles becoming frenzied, Kamado banishes them from the village while several villagers note that they've never fully trusted you. The Diamond and Pearl clans have also been ordered by Kamado to not help you whatsoever, 'lest war break out. The player is now all alone in the dangerous wilderness of Hisui, left to fend for themselves. Fortunately, Volo comes to your aid and allows you to see Cogita as a start to sort things out.
  • In a sense, the ending of the game. Dialga and Palkia have been quelled and the space-time rift has been closed. Commander Kamado has even seen the error of his ways and repented. However, the game, despite the main story being finished, has some big unanswered questions and after defeating the antagonist, it turns out the game's Big Bad hasn't even been revealed yet. More intense story beats, including another catastrophic threat, take place in the postgame, after which the climactic plot structure makes its true conclusion.
• Homing Projectile: The Noble Electrode shoots balls of electricity which chase the player at a slow but unrelenting pace. Once its health gets low enough, Electrode will start firing green versions of these balls which move much faster. Arceus also uses some in its boss fight, which are pretty much the opposite of Electrode's- rather than being slow close chasers, they're rapidly-fired series of missiles that need to be dodged with very good timing. Various moves from wild Pokémon, such as Dark Pulse, will also home in on the player if fired at them in the overworld.
• Horse of a Different Color: The player can use various Pokémon to quickly traverse the overworld: a Hisuian Braviary for air travel, a Basculegion for waterways, and Ursaluna, Sneasler, and Wyrdeer for land.
• Hub Level:
  • Jubilife Village. It is home to the pastures where the player can keep Pokémon that aren't a part of your party, Galaxy Hall which is the headquarters of the Galaxy Team and your hub of operations, the trading post, the Craftworks, the general store, the hairdresser, and the clothier.
  • This is also an NPC Boom Village. As the game progresses, more buildings appear in the village, including construction work being visible throughout, and more NPCs will appear. There's even a cutscene that entails you and Kamado welcoming a group of new arrivals.
• Identical Ancestor:
  • There are numerous characters in the game that look similar to modern-day Pokémon characters; though only one has officially had this confirmed to be the case (Kamado being Professor Rowan's ancestor), numerous others can be guessed by their appearance alone (e.g. Cyllene and Volo look like gender-flipped versions of Cyrus and Cynthia, respectively).
  • This could also be applied to the NPC counterpart of Rei/Akari (depending on what gender the player chose for their character) as, due to being native to the time period, they could easily become either Lucas' or Dawn's ancestor.
• Identical Stranger:
  • Rei and Akari strongly resemble Lucas and Dawn (the Diamond and Pearl protagonists) respectively in terms of facial features. Since the player character is brought from the present, the strong possibility exists that they are an older Lucas/Dawn, but it's not stated one way or another.
  • Several NPC's also strongly resemble several others that appeared in the original Sinnoh games and some in other generations such as Anthe, the clothes shopkeeper looking like Castle Valet Darach gender-flipped, Colza resembling Gardenia if she was gender-flipped and older, Sanqua being physically similar to Karen of Johto's Elite Four (Complete with having an Umbreon to boot) and more that you would meet or come across.
• If It Tastes Bad, It Must Be Good for You: This game's equivalent to herbal medicines are the Remedy, Fine Remedy, and Superb Remedy. They're made with a bitter-tasting flower called a Bugwort and heal the same amount as a Potion, Super Potion, and Hyper Potion, respectively, but the bitter taste will make your Pokémon unhappy.
• Impossible Task: Played With. The initiation task Cyllene gives you is to catch three Pokémon back-to-back, Bidoof, Starly, and Shinx. Rei's reaction implies that this would be near impossible for a standard member of the Survey Corps; to which Cyllene replies that, according to Laventon, you did the same thing the previous day (catching the three starters) so this shouldn't be a challenge. She does seem to suspect that Laventon may have been exaggerating, but accepts when you pull it off.
• Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Due to the relatively inopportune time that Arceus summoned them, the player shows up in Hisui dressed in a Poké Ball t-shirt, shorts, and sandals, making them look more like an Alolan tourist than a Pokémon Trainer. Virtually every citizen in Jubilife Village (especially Akari/Rei) comments on how ridiculous and impractical their choice of dress looks, especially when wearing Galaxy Expedition Team equipment. There's nothing stopping you from changing back and playing in the same outfit though, and the Daybreak update includes a funny pair of modern pink slippers Ginter may sell.
• Incredible Shrinking Man: Laventon explains early on that all Pokémon are capable of shrinking down in size, though most don't seem to be able to do so at will. The Poké Balls were invented to use this ability to shrink them down and trap them inside the Poké Ball.
• Insignia Rip-Off Ritual: A subtle example — your trainer card disappears after you're banished from Jubilife Village with the implication being that Commander Kamado took it from you before kicking you out. Naturally, you get it back after proving your innocence.
• Interface Screw: Get hit with the Confusion status in the overworld (which can only happen in a couple of boss fights), and your controls will be inverted until it wears off.
• Interface Spoiler: A subtle one that might be missed at first glance. Togekiss is the only Pokémon that has a single tier of defeat research tasks and cannot be fought normally as it's only seen in the wild as a high flying Pokémon. Sure enough, the final mandatory trainer battle is against Volo who by then has fully evolved his Togepi.
• Internal Deconstruction: The game's premise as a Prequel deconstructs the main games' core premise of exploring a region with nothing but your Pokémon friends at your side. Whereas the mainline installments automatically have the player send out a Pokémon to defend themselves when they are jumped by wild Pokémon, Legends: Arceus instead makes that completely optional, allowing the player to be directly attacked by the wild Pokémon themselves. In doing so, the game's narrative shows the realistic consequences of having powerful creatures roam the wilderness, as the human inhabitants of Hisui largely fear Pokémon as dangerous, remark that many have been killed or severely injured trying to deal with them, and don't readily accept Pokémon training as a source of recreation.
• Invisible Wall: If you try to head past the map boundaries of an area, even if it seems like there are places in that direction, the screen will fog up and you will get a message saying you can't proceed further.
• Irony:
  • One of best ways to capture a Pokémon is to sneak up on them by hiding in tall grass — the place Pokémon usually hide in the modern day.
  • Early in the story, Kamado tells you to interact and act civil with the Diamond and Pearl Clans and not make an enemy out of them so the people of Jubilife city can coexist and live in the region in peace. In the late game, the Diamond and Pearl clan end up serving as your major allies while Kamado ends up becoming the Hero Antagonist that you have to fight against before you could get to fight Dialga and Palkia.
  • Diamond and Pearl started with the player getting attacked by Starly and having to defend themselves with their chosen starter. In this game, Starly is the Pokémon chosen in the tutorial to represent species that run away from the player.
  • In the Sinnoh games, Cynthia and Professor Rowan are your biggest allies on your quest as a Pokémon Trainer while Cyrus is the Big Bad who wants to reset the universe. In this game, Cyllene is your biggest ally while Kamado and later Volo eventually antagonizes you during your quest.
• Item Crafting: You can make Poké Balls using Apricorns and Tumblestones via a crafting system, along with other items such as Smoke Bombs and Revives.
• Kaiju: Noble Avalugg, the Lord of the Tundra, certainly fits the bill in terms of size and presentation, what with him bursting out the ground in a manner evocative of Baragon from Godzilla, dwarfing the player character with his massive size (comparable to Sword/Shield's Dynamax Pokémon), and when he uses Ice Beam during the battle against him, it's as a Breath Weapon in a manner consistent with classic kaiju, most obviously Godzilla's atomic breath. This applies to the lore of the Alabaster Icelands as well, as it's mentioned by an NPC that prehistoric Hisuian Avalugg were said to be truly massive.
• Kaizo Trap: Defied. Once you deplete the Noble Pokémon's/Origin Dialga and Palkia's/Arceus' energy bar completely, they can still land a hit on you. Thankfully, this doesn't count as an actual hit and you can't actually die afterwards. Likewise, fighting them in the rematch doesn't actually deprive you of your extra rewards if you were going for a No-Damage Run.
• Lampshade Hanging: You can acquire the various items needed to transform Rotom in the game and display them in your house, where the player character lampshades the fact that they're more or less useless in the past without a power source.
• Land, Sea, Sky: The three main ride Pokémon in the game are Wyrdeer (Land), Basculegion (Sea) and Braviary (Sky).
• Last Lousy Point: One of every Pokémon (not including Mythicals) needs to be caught to complete the post-game story, and there are a number of troublesome ones:
  • Most baby Pokémon spawn rarely in one or two areas and scare easily if they spot the player, and cannot be bred for since breeding isn't available. Munchlax and Bonsly are the rarest in this regard, as the former doesn't appear where Snorlax usually spawn and the latter's best chance for appearing is hopping out of ore deposits (which usually contain a Geodude or Graveler instead). Togepi is also rare, and its evolutions are only found flying around at specific places.
  • Space-time distortion-exclusive Pokémon. The Porygon line, Johtonian Sneasel, Weavile, the Sinnoh fossils, and Magnemite and Magneton (not Magnezone, which can be found flying around in the Coronet Highlands) all only spawn in space-time distortions, which have a fickle appearance rate affected by RNG. Even once one opens, the Pokémon only have a chance of appearing, can vanish quickly, and are accompanied by very strong evolved Pokémon that will force you into fighting two or three of them at once if they're not spaced out. While the Hisuian starters only appear in distortions after the main story, it's possible to get one of each as gifts, leaving them out of this category.
  • A number of new Pokémon (Wyrdeer, Ursaluna, Basculegion, and Overqwil) will never spawn in the wild and need to be evolved from their pre-evolutions to be registered, which can be hard with their obscure conditions. A wild Alpha Overqwil can be found during the main story, but there's only one chance to catch it.
  • Spiritomb only spawns after completing the longest sidequest in the game, which requires the player to collect 107 wisps hidden throughout the areas (20 in each land and 7 in Jubilife Village). There aren't any hints as to where they are, though they're visible from further away at night. Vessa does tell you how many are left in each specific area... but some of them are in out-of-the-way spots that are easy to miss.
• Last-Second Ending Choice: Kind of. When you set out to complete the Lake Trio's tests, you have to choose whether Adaman or Irida will accompany you. Who you choose determines whether you catch Dialga or Palkia at Mt. Coronet, with the other becoming the Final Boss. Either way, you end up with both and the choice only changes in the long run who gets to stay in the Origin Ball.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: The trailer for the game's Daybreak Update, which released only a month after the game itself, shows off the Origin Formes of Dialga and Palkia; all prerelease marketing for the game went to great lengths to avoid revealing their existence.
• Late Character Syndrome:
  • The Alabaster Icelands feature many rare and useful species such as Lucario, Hisuian Braviary and Zorua/Zoroark, and most Ice-types, but can have a hard time slotting into a team since it's the final area. Most of them at least come at high levels, but still need to be given grit items to get their stats up to par.
  • Spiritomb can only be gotten towards the very end of the game (by collecting all 107 wisps, which requires progressing through Snowpoint Temple at the very least) or in the post-game (by finding them in a Massive Mass Outbreak), which is an especially raw deal for an unevolving Stone Wall that lost its no-weakness advantage with the introduction of Fairy-types.
• Lava Pot Volcano: Firespit Island is a volcanic islet whose central depression is filled with a number of perpetual lava lakes.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Volo rants about how it seems the player character had gotten spat out of the space-time rift just to stand in their way, he looks up to stare at the camera rather than the player character.
• Lethal Lava Land: Firespit Island takes place immediately around an active volcano. Despite your character getting close to the lava, they aren't bothered any more than a hot summer day would bother them. It is mainly home to Fire- and Rock-type Pokémon.
• Like a Duck Takes to Water: The player character quickly rises up the ranks in the Galaxy Expedition Team due to their unprecedented ability to approach and catch Pokémon with relative ease. This is considered a rare skill in Hisui due to many still fearing the wrath of unpredictable and powerful wild Pokémon, but the player character comes from the present, where skills like catching, raising, and battling with Pokémon have become commonplace and easy enough that a child could do them.
• Limited Move Arsenal: Pokémon can still only use four moves at a time in this installment, but any other moves they've learned are not forgotten, so the player is free to change these moves outside of battle instead of needing to locate and use the services of a move re-learner. This even applies to move tutor moves.
• A Lizard Named "Liz": The Security Corps NPC Beauregard asks the player to help name his Wurmple after catching one for him; the names the player can pick are Beauticia, Beautifred, and Beaugene. This gets subverted when his Wurmple ends up evolving into a Dustox instead of a Beautifly.
• Loophole Abuse: Late in the game when you return to Jubilife Village, Kamado has already gone to Mt. Coronet so in his stead Cyllene is running the Galaxy Corps and reinstates you to your former rank as she has command, saying that if Kamado doesn't like the fact that you're in the Expedition Team again, then he shouldn't have put her in charge.
• Lord Country: The name of the region in the future, Sinnoh, is namedropped in the phrase "Almighty Sinnoh", a deity that the Diamond and Pearl clan both revere, though they don't agree on whether it is a deity of time or space. In the postgame, after fighting Kamado on the beach, he comments that perhaps the name of Sinnoh might be better suited to the land for bringing the people together rather than either of the two deities, making this an in-universe example.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Mr. Mime encountered in the wild will conjure a glowing yellow barrier that will block Poké Balls thrown from their front.
• MacGuffin Delivery Service: At the end of the post-game quest "Seeking the Remaining Plates", Volo reveals he had the player collect Plates from across Hisui so that he could steal and try to summon Arceus with them.
• Meaningful Name: Hisui can mean "arcane", in keeping with its future name Sinnoh meaning "mysterious". A number of characters also have names pertaining to their personalities, occupations or actions:
  • Beauregard (a name meaning 'beautiful gaze/view') really wants a partner Beautifly (a butterfly-like Pokémon known for its loveliness). He gets a Dustox instead.
  • Radisa is into picking vegetables, with radishes being a popular one during Hisui's time. She will provide you with a recipe for Twice-Pickled Radishes after completely fulfilling her Request.
  • Dagero, a photographer, is named after either the daguerreotype, an early variety of photograph, or Louis Daguerre, its inventor.
  • Vessa sounds similar to "vessel," fitting considering her association with Spiritomb, a vessel of 108 souls, as well as the fact that she is the 108th soul.
  • A series of Requests from someone named Zeke have you look for someone named Wanda, who has No Sense of Direction and gets lost easily. Their names sound like "seek" and "wander," respectively.
  • Anvin is Jubilife's resident smith, and his name is one letter removed from "anvil."
  • Leif, Duna, and Tarush all disagree on what Burmy looks like. Fittingly, Leif thinks Plant Cloak Burmy is the real one, while Duna believes it's the Sandy Cloak and Tarush the Trash Cloak.
  • Morel's name is a type of mushroom. He is associated with Parasect, a mushroom-themed Pokémon, and Swinub, which looks for truffles underground.
  • Belamy stands outside the pastures and can tell you how friendly your Pokémon are to you. The name Bel(l)amy means 'fine/handsome friend'.
  • Adaman is named after "adamant," a property of diamonds, fitting as the leader of the Diamond Clan. Likewise, Irida, the leader of the Pearl Clan, is named after "iridescent," a property of Pearls.
  • Volo is Latin for "I wish." He is a character who wishes to study the myths and legends about Hisui and summon Giratina into Hisui to tear the region down as a consequence of his mad desire to meet Arceus.
  • Cogita is Latin for "I learn." She is the most knowledgeable character in Hisui's history and legends.
• Meaningful Rename: Implied. During the postgame Kamado muses that, given the mythologies of the Diamond and Pearl Clans, it might be more fitting to call Hisui the Sinnoh Region. It apparently caught on.
• Meta Twist: A few tricks are played regarding the player's knowledge of characters from modern Sinnoh compared to their apparent ancestors in Hisui:
  • Kamado and Cyllene resemble Rowan and Cyrus, who are the regional professor and evil team leader of Diamond and Pearl respectively. Their personalities match up as well: Kamado is a stern and doubtful but well-meaning guiding figure, while Cyllene is very blunt and has no patience for the protagonist. However, it's Kamado who ends up being the antagonist (though not truly a villain) come the end of the game, as his paranoia wins out and leads him to exile the player and risk the safety of Jubilife Village. Meanwhile, Cyllene remains on the protagonist's side the whole way through and quietly assists them, even defying Kamado's orders to do so, and there is no indication of any villainy on her part.
  • Volo's resemblance to Cynthia is made extremely apparent, as the game goes out of its way to show his fascination with ruins and relics and his usage of two Pokémon she's well-known for having. This obscures the reveal that there's another Cynthia lookalike in the game: Mistress Cogita, one of the Celestica people. The game is ambiguous as to which of them is more connected to Cynthia, though ultimately Volo turns out to be Evil All Along while Cogita is mysterious but always helps the player.
• Metal Slime: Baby Pokémon (Pichu, Cleffa, Magby, etc.) are rare spawns in the base game and tend to flee at the first opportunity, making them challenging to catch for filling out the Pokédex. The Daybreak update thankfully adds them as potential spawns in Massive Mass Outbreaks, though these aren't available until the post-game.
• Meteor-Summoning Attack: Dialga, Palkia, and Arceus all attack by raining explosive meteors on the player during their respective boss fights. It's entirely possible this is the overworld version of Draco Meteor, a powerful attack unique to Dragon-type Pokémon (and Silvally and Arceus, who can be any type).j
• Missing Secret: The Request "The Sea's Legend" alludes to a book of the same name which will provide the answer to solve the mystery of what Professor Laventon saw. The main problem however is that it actually cannot be found in this game at all, but rather, the remakes set in the future.
• Mission from God: The game opens with this, literally, as Arceus pulls the Protagonist from their world to Hisui and commands them to capture all Pokémon, so that they might see them again.
• Mon Tech:
  • The Adamant Crystal and Lustrous Globe are required to respectively change Dialga and Palkia from their regular forms to their Origin Formes.
  • The Reveal Glass is used to transform Enamorus (as well as Tornadus, Thundurus, and Landorus) between the Incarnate and Therian Formes.
• Money Sink:
  • Expanding the number of item slots your Bag of Holding can have takes a lot of money. You can learn how to pack your satchel more efficiently from an NPC for a fee, effectively giving you an additional item slot every time you choose to do so. There are 37 additional item slots starting at 100 Pokédollars for your first slot, increasing almost extortionately to 1 million Pokédollars for the last. All told, it costs over 4 million Pokédollars to max out your satchel. For reference, an expedition with over thirty Pokémon caught usually comes in the range of ten to twenty thousand Pokédollars.
  • The Rotom Appliances bought from Ginter start at 20,000 Pokédollars for your first one, which jumps by another 20,000 for the next one after purchase.
  • The clothing shop, in a similar fashion to Pokémon Sword and Shield. Over 80 items of clothing, from individual tops and bottoms to the outfit sets. Items cost from 1,000 to over 4,000 Pokédollars individually and up to ten thousand Pokédollars for a single outfit set. The benefits are purely cosmetic.
• Mook Chivalry: Zigzagged. If you manage to get multiple aggressive wild Pokémon chasing you at the same time (which is very often the case in space-time distortions), trying to battle any of them results in you fighting all of those Pokémon at once; likewise, members of the Diamond and Pearl Clans will make you battle all of their Pokémon at the same time. However, in a battle against multiple opponents, each opposing Pokémon has a chance to waste turns by looking around while you fight the others (although at least one of them will always attack and never skip turns).
• Mucking in the Mud: In the bog areas in the Crimson Mirelands, the mud slows the player or the Pokémon they ride and prevents them from crouching.
• Musical Nod:
  • The tune the Celestica Flute plays when summoning Noble Pokémon is the beginning of the Diamond and Pearl intro theme, much like that of the Azure Flute. Which makes sense, since the Celestica Flute becomes the Azure Flute. Also, near the end of the postgame, the tune that the protagonist plays to summon Arceus is melody of the intro theme that comes after the few notes used by the Azure Flute.
  • The Mt. Moon Square theme from Pokémon Gold and Silver plays during "The Clefairy's Moonlit Dance", while the Clefairy are dancing under the full moon.
  • Volo's battle theme is a Dark Reprise of Cynthia's encounter theme and a part of her battle theme, hinting at his potential relation to her and the difficulty of his battle.
  • The Battle Subway theme from Pokémon Black and White can be heard after defeating Lord Electrode when Ingo remembers more about the modern day Pok&emon World.
• Musical Spoiler:
  • Combined with Five-Second Foreshadowing. The four notes that play when Volo readies for his final battle are a dramatic version of the four piano notes that start Cynthia's encounter theme, making his apparent relation to Cynthia clear and clueing you in for the grueling battle about to start. Indeed, once you start the battle, he starts off with the iconic Spiritomb, and a remix of Cynthia's full encounter theme starts to play.
  • Same with the subsequent battle with Giratina. It curiously plays a remix of the generic Sinnoh Legendary theme, which you've already heard when catching Cresselia, Heatran, and Regigigas. That's because the remix of Giratina's actual battle music is a Theme Music Power-Up for its Origin Form, so this battle is gonna be even longer than you initially thought.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The game itself has many similar plot beats to the Mystery Dungeon games, Explorers especially: waking up on a beach in an unfamiliar world, joining a pre-estabilished group that has a focus on surveying the surrounding areas, the world currently has to deal with time and space anomalies, you are accused of being involved with at best circumstantial evidence pointed towards you, and the story isn't quite over after resolving the main conflict. This also extends to minor things as well. Warden Melli uses two of three members of Team Skull during your fight against him, Koffing being replaced by Skorupi, as the former isn't native to Hisui.
  • Volo's Evil Costume Switch looking vaguely Greek may be a reference to Arceus and the Jewel of Life which had an Ancient Greece-inspired setting.
  • One of Mr. Mime's idle animations has it mime the Park Bench routine and having a drink much like how it did in Pokémon Detective Pikachu, although it pours itself some tea here instead of opening a drink can due to the latter not being invented yet.
  • Darkrai's opponent on the Path of Solitude is Lickilicky, who knows Hyper Beam in its moveset. This is a reference to The Rise of Darkrai, where Darkrai transformed Baron Alberto into a Lickilicky who also knew Hyper Beam.
  • Shaymin's Path of Solitude opponent is Magnezone. This is likely a reference to Giratina and the Sky Warrior, where a Magnezone was the villain Zero's main Pokémon, helping him catch Shaymin.
  • One of the missions involves giving a Wurmple to a Security Corps Member to raise it with the intention of evolving it into a Beautifly. It evolves into a Cascoon instead, meaning it's impossible to become anything but a Dustox. Jessie made the exact same mistake with her Wurmple during the Advanced Generation arc of the anime.
  • Zisu's final Path of Tenacity team uses the same Pokémon as Flint in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (and his initial team in the remakes).
  • The Pokédex entry for Raichu mentions that its voltage "would incapacitate a Copperajah (A Pokémon based off of an Indian Elephant) in [the player's] homeland", a reference to the infamous Pokédex entries in which their Voltage is described as being able to make an Indian Elephant faint.^note Pokémon used to be set in the real world and had an ambiguous relationship with real-world animals before decidedly moving everything to its own world and stating no other animals existed.
  • In "The Sea's Legend", the three Phione are likely a reference to the ''Diamond and Pearl" episode "Hold the Phione!" as there were three Phione.
  • Cyllene gets scared of bug Pokemon the exact same way Misty does in the anime: shrieking, trying to get away as quickly as possible, and disrupting their normally stern demeanor.
  • The Miss Fortune gang are about as effective as the Team Rocket Trio of the anime (i.e.: laughably incompetent) but are just as persistent and obsessed with catching their goal, albeit it's treasure instead of an overpowered Pikachu.

N-S

• Negative Space Wedgie: The rift in space and time, a giant tear in the sky over Mt. Coronet, visible from everywhere in Hisui. It occasionally spits out lightning bolts that drive Pokémon nuts. There are also smaller rifts that spawn randomly around the country, depositing random items and Pokémon for a limited time.
• Nerf:
  • Many special attacks were nerfed even further than in Pokémon X and Y; for example, Flamethrower, Ice Beam and Thunderbolt all had their base power reduced to 80, while their more powerful variants (Fire Blast, Blizzard and Thunder) were reduced to 100. Likewise, Draco Meteor and Overheat were reduced to 110 base power.
  • Outrage has been overhauled completely, going from a 120 power, 100 accuracy attack to a 90 power, 85 accuracy one. Though compensated by its negative secondary effect (confusing the Mon) being removed completely and instead getting more powerful each time it's used in a row (but with the new negative effect of making the user take increased damage), making it easier to use, it has become an overall less appealing and devastating option for a physical Dragon-type attack (especially compared to Dragon Claw, which was buffed by giving it a high critical hit rate).
  • All status conditions now disappear at the end of battle, and will disappear after a few turns of the Pokémon being active (including for "permanent" conditions like burn, poison and paralysis).
  • Amusingly enough, Magikarp became even more useless in this game: all of its attacking moves were removed from its level-up moveset, leaving it with only Splash until it evolves.
  • Garchomp no longer has Earthquake (or a similar powerful physical Ground-type move) or any Status Buff moves, two things that made it so deadly in the traditional mainline games, forcing it to rely on Bulldoze as a physical Ground-type STAB. That said, Bulldoze reduces the opponent's action speed and so it can somewhat compensate for the removal of Earthquake, acting as something of a Ground-type priority move.
• Never Say "Die":
  • Averted; the start of the game makes it abundantly clear that wild Pokémon are extremely dangerous creatures, and without the support of the Galaxy Expedition Team any unexpected encounter with a wild Pokémon will likely result in a gruesome death.
  • Also averted when Bagin claims that simply having an extra item in your bag can be the difference between life and death.
  • Played straight during the final battle, when Volo orders Giratina to "strike him/her down!" instead of outright telling it to kill them.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The second trailer gives the implication that the lightning is responsible for all berserk Pokémon with the ones with red eyes appearing right after it strikes. In the game itself the red-eyed Pokémon are Alpha Pokémon, while the lightning is actually only responsible for driving Noble Pokémon in a frenzy.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In the end, Volo severs all ties with the protagonist out of anger that they'll meet Arceus instead of him through his violent methods. If he hadn't decided to turn on them (since it was apparent beforehand that he was interested in seeing Arceus and this could've been chalked up to general interest) the protagonist would've likely shown him the fragment of Arceus they do end up catching in the end, meaning that he's essentially thrown away his only chance to see Arceus.
• Nice Mean And In Between: The Hisuian variations of the three starters fall into this as opposed to all of them being unambiguously heroic in their debut forms. Typhlosion is the Nice, as a passive spiritual medium that generally dislikes fighting; Samurott is the Mean as a Blood Knight who likes to be unchallenged in battle; and Decidueye is the In-Between, as it will fight ferociously, but only if provoked into it.
• No-Damage Run: A variation. Rematching any of the Nobles in the post game and not getting a single hit will yield an extra reward for your troubles.
• Non-Combat EXP: Using Pokémon to harvest materials will gain them small amounts of experience points that are only given to them.
• Not the Intended Use:
  • Ursaluna only evolve from Ursaring when a Peat Block is used on them, and the Peat Block can only be used on them during a full moon at night. One request requires you to observe Clefairy in the Fabled Spring during a full moon, so you can use the Ursaluna evolution mechanic as a quick full-moon indicator that's faster than searching the sky. If you carry a Peat Block and an Ursaring at the same time and sleep at a camp until nightfall, you can check if the Peat Block will work on the Ursaring. This will instantly tell you if you're at the right lunar phase to complete the request.
  • Chansey and Blissey approach you when you're hurt as a clever bit of Gameplay and Story Integration. You don't regen health when you're being targeted by an aggressive Pokémon. Combine the two, and you can trivialize Chansey outbreaks by getting smacked by an aggressive Pokémon, luring it to where the outbreak is so it keeps targeting you, and let the Chansey come to you to be captured or knocked out for easy EXP. Just don't let the aggressive Pokémon knock you out.
• Obvious Rule Patch:
  • In previous games, only high-level traded Pokémon could be disobedient. In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, obedience affects every Pokémon, preventing the player from getting a lucky catch on an Alpha Pokémon (unlike Pokémon Sword and Shield's Wild Area, there are no level limits for catches) and steamrolling the game without ever needing to increase their rank so that Pokémon of higher levels obey commands. Additionally, Alpha Pokémon higher than your obedience level can't be caught at all outside of battle.
  • When the Generation V games introduced infinite TMs, using one to replace a move would carry over its remaining PP to the new move to prevent it from becoming an easy way to restore PP. While this was dropped in later games, Pokémon Legends: Arceus brings a version of it back, as Pokémon can have their movesets swapped at any time and it would be extremely exploitable if remaining PP didn't transfer over.
  • Numerous Pokémon retain their signature traits despite the lack of abilities and other mechanics that enable them. Cherrim can still transform from Overcast to Sunshine form (now based on the time of day) with an innate stat bonus to compensate the loss of Flower Gift, Regigigas still starts slowly, and Arceus's type is changed by using Plates from the key items menu instead of holding them.
  • Burmy's cloak normally changes depending on the environment it last fought in. Since Pokémon Legends: Arceus fights now happen on the actual map and Trainer fights are much more sparse, Burmy's form is now dependent on the part of the region it's found in or last fought in (Plant Cloak in the Fieldlands, Sandy Cloak in the Mirelands and Highlands, and Trash Cloak in the Coastlands and Icelands) so that every form of Wormadam is easy to obtain.
  • The addition of the Blank Plate to Arceus' loadout. Since items aren't able to be held here and the Plates are changed to unloseable Key Items, using a Blank Plate is the only way to return Arceus to its basic Normal-type form.
• Odd Name Out: Lilligant is the Lady of the Ridge compared to the other Lords, because Lilligant are always female.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The reason you have to tell the Galaxy Team which region you're exploring is the fact that wild Pokémon can directly attack you and knock you unconscious. The Survey Corps includes a search-and-rescue team—which is the reason you respawn at a camp with only some items missing from your satchel rather than dying, which is explicitly stated to be a possibility for those who are left to fend for themselves in the wilds. The implication is that the other members of the Survey Corps somehow find your unconscious body and defend it and themselves from the wild Pokémon that knocked you out (up to and including a Level 85 Alpha Garchomp) long enough to drag you all the way back to a campsite, all without getting knocked out themselves.
• Oh, My Gods!: Members of the Diamond and Pearl clans invoke the name "almighty Sinnoh" in reference to a deity. Said deity is their interpretation of Dialga and Palkia respectively, who they view as one deity whose interpretation they've literally gone to war over in the past, and not Arceus.
• Old Save Bonus: You can get costume bonuses for having save data from other mainline Pokémon Switch titles.
  • Having a save from Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl gets you a Modern Team Galactic clothing set, and a quest that lets you catch a Darkrai.
  • A save from Pokémon Sword and Shield earns you a Shaymin Kimono Set, and a special quest where you can catch your own Shaymin.
  • With a save from Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, you can get a Pikachu Mask and an Eevee Mask as headwear.
• One Curse Limit: While the "one status effect at a time" rule is still present, a Pokémon afflicted with a status condition can have a new condition applied to it, replacing the existing one. This also allows status conditions to have their duration refreshed by further applications.
• One Game for the Price of Two: Pokémon Legends: Arceus is the very first main series Pokémon game to completely avert this, with no accompanying alternate version released.
• Papa Wolf: Despite the protagonist being a complete stranger at first, Laventon is not willing to abandon the protagonist when he finds them stranded on Prelude Beach.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling: See the series' page here.
• Player Data Sharing: If you're playing online, any lost satchels you find will belong to other players and contain the items they dropped when they were knocked out. Giving the satchels to the Lost & Found returns the items to that player and gives you Merit Points that you can exchange for special items.
• Player Nudge: Some of the research tasks provide hints on how to evolve certain Pokémon. For example, evolving Stantler into Wyrdeer involves using Agile-Style Psyshield Bash 20 times with the same Stantler, and its research tasks include using Psyshield Bash and Agile-Style moves up to 40 times each.
• Plot Archaeology: Ingo showing up in Hisui with no memories seems to be a continuation of the "Faller" plotline first introduced in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire and significantly elaborated upon in Sun and Moon, only to become a seemingly Aborted Arc as it was not continued in USUM, LGPE, SwSh, or BDSP (a gap of nearly 6 years). Much like Looker in ORAS and Anabel in SM, Ingo is another relatively minor familiar face from a previous generation who ends up transported through space and time to another region for no apparent reason. However, Anabel and presumably Looker were transported across dimensions via Ultra Wormholes, while Ingo was transported through time by the space-time rift.
• Plot Tunnel: After calming the final Lord and reporting to Kamado as usual, the situation with the rifts escalates tremendously, leading to the player getting expelled from Jubilife Village the next day out of suspicion. The player can't return to Jubilife until they've visited each member of the Lake Trio and created the Red Chain, at which point Cyllene reinstates them into the Galaxy Team due to Kamado having already left for the Temple of Sinnoh. Until then, the Ancient Retreat serves as the hub area, Cyllene's Abra becomes the waypoint for accessing the pastures, and Volo and clan members (depending on which clan the player chose for assistance) sell supplies and manage camps; all other services are unavailable.
• Power Up Mount: The game has five new Pokémon that can be ridden to travel through the untamed wilderness of the Hisui region: Stantler's evolution, Wyrdeer, which is ridden over land; Ursaring's evolution, Ursaluna, which functions as the Dowsing Machine; Basculegion, the evolved form of Basculin which can be ridden on water; Sneasler, the evolved form of Hisuian Sneasel, which can be used to scale cliffs and rock walls; and Hisuian Braviary, which allows the player to fly around each area via gliding.
• Precursors: Before the Diamond and Pearl Clans, Hisui was inhabited by another civilization which built the ruins dotting the region like Solaceon Ruins, Snowpoint Temple, and Spear Pillar. Cogita is their descendant.
• Precursor Heroes: A legendary hero saved the Hisui region some thousand years ago, along with their team of ten Pokémon allies. The Ride Pokémon and the Nobles are the descendants of these Pokémon.
• Priceless Paperweight: Cogita is in possession of the Pixie Plate, which she unknowingly uses as a cutting board. She gives the plate to the player character after the latter fetches lumber for her to make a replacement cutting board. Cogita notes using the plate does give flavor to the food she was making.
• Punny Name: The man who lets you upgrade your satchel is named Bagin.
• Puzzle Boss:
  • Most of the Path of Solitude challenges pit the Pokémon in question against an opponent that has some form of advantage over it, such as Garchomp facing a Togekiss (which is immune to both of Garchomp's types and will two-shot with Moonblast) or Eevee facing a Hisuian Zoroark (which is immune to most of Eevee's moveset, faster, and harder-hitting). Beating the challenge requires you to go in with a plan and a specialized moveset, since they're set up in such a way that brute force won't get you the victory.
  • Magikarp's Path of Solitude requires pitting your Magikarp against a Level 55 Hisuian Electrode. Magikarp cannot learn any other moves outside of Splash, meaning you have no way of actually fighting it normally. Instead you have to coerce the opposing Electrode to Self-Destruct until it faints from recoil damage — and this requires Forced Level-Grinding, since Magikarp must actually survive the onslaught and needs the HP and Defense to do so.
• Rage Against the Heavens: Volo wants to meet Arceus to hold the creator god to account for the indignities of the world and the past trauma they have suffered, ultimately seeking to use Arceus' power to create a better world similarly to Cyrus in Diamond and Pearl. Volo implies Giratina aided him in this because it wanted to get revenge on Arceus for imprisoning it in the Distortion World.
• Random Encounters: Notably averted; this mainstay mechanic has been discarded. There are no Pokémon that can go undetected by the player and no random spots where a battle starts when the player walks over them. While hidden Pokémon do force a battle, the player will always know when there's a Pokémon hiding in the object they're interacting with due to easily visible shaking animations.
• Real-Place Background: The Galaxy Team's main building in Jubilife Village is based on the Former Hokkaido Government Office in Sapporo, the city Jubilife is based on.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Commander Kamado, despite his distrust of the protagonist, is ultimately willing to let them stay and genuinely compliments them as they complete their assignments. Unfortunately, his paranoia eventually gets the better of him, and he expels the protagonist from the village just under the assumption that they're somehow responsible for the space-time rifts.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Wild Alpha Pokémon (except Zubat) sport bright-red, glowing eyes, distinguishing them from regular encounters.
• Red Sky, Take Warning: After you quell the final frenzied Noble Pokémon, everyone expects things to go back to normal...except the next day, the rift has widened so much that the entire sky is red, riling everybody up. This is what convinces Kamado that the protagonist is responsible for all the events prior. He then exiles them from the village.
• Required Party Member:
  • During the Cobalt Coastlands storyline, Iscan asks the player to catch and bring over a Dusclops so it can use Dark Pulse to prepare Basculegion's food. Fortunately, it's a common encounter in the nearby area at night.
  • At the end of the game, the creation legendary the player encounters (either Dialga or Palkia depending on their earlier choice) must be caught and brought back to the Temple of Sinnoh on the second visit to counter its opposite legendary.
  • Getting Manaphy requires having a Buizel, Mantyke, and Overqwil in the party at a certain location. Overqwil can't be encountered in the wild normally, so getting one requires either evolving Qwilfish or catching the sole Alpha Overqwil that appears during the Lake Trio quests.
• Reward for Removal: Some of the Pokémon on your pastures drop grit gravel (an item that increases the stat levels of your mons by one) after you release them out to the wild.
• Roar Before Beating: When you get spotted by an Alpha Pokémon, they will let out a roar that actually knocks you down before pursuing you.
• Schizo Tech: Most of the items you use match the time period that Pokémon Legends: Arceus is meant to reflect (late 19th century Japan). For example, Poké Balls are shown to be vaguely steampunk to match the time period and Potions are topical powder medicines rather than liquid spray bottles. There are some out-of-place items however, such as Professor Laventon having a portable analog camera^note Kind of, depending on just when the heck the game is meant to take place. Cameras of that style were actually available in the 1920's. Portable cameras in general were actually available as early as 1880., the pink building insulation on trash Cloak Burmy and Wormadam, Rotom's machine possessions, and (most notably) the Arc Phone. The last two at least are justified in that they are modern objects that are sent back in time.
• Schmuck Bait: In the Crimson Mirelands, the Holm of Trials has several tempting clusters of hay piles just waiting to be smashed for resources...if you don't get thrashed by the Alpha Torterra, Toxicroak, and Hisuian Sliggoo lurking around, that is.
• Sequence Breaking:
  • Wyrdeer can climb some slopes that are otherwise intended to be climbed with Sneasler, enabling the player to get into certain late-game areas as soon as it's unlocked.
  • Pokémon attacks will knock the player back a certain distance depending on attack strength, and this does not account for terrain slope, so a player can be propelled up a hill or slope they're not supposed to be able to climb yet, which can allow them to get into areas they're not meant to be in at a certain stage, which then opens the door to training against (and catching) higher level Pokémon.
  • A player can use a team of six Bibarel to cross a body of water, placing and withdrawing them in a line akin to a bridge, and walking on their rather flat bodies. This of course can allow players to move through water areas that normally require Basculegion to cross.
• Shockwave Stomp: Noble Lilligant spends most of her battle leaping around her arena, creating circular shockwaves where she lands that will damage the player if they don't dodge in time.
• Shout-Out: The animation for Spacial Rend from Palkia resembles Vergil's Judgement Cut End.
• Shown Their Work:
  • Hokkaido, the area of Japan which would inspire Sinnoh of the Pokémon world, was originally settled by the Ainu. This is reflected in the protagonists' clothing in the first trailer, which bears a stark resemblance to Ainu attire, as opposed to simply being "standard" feudal Japanese garb.
  • The footwear worn by the protagonists in the first trailer seems to be inspired by both fukagutsu and wara-zori; the former is a woven boot meant to keep out snow, fitting for Sinnoh, which is based on Hokkaido, the coldest region in Japan, the latter being standard clothing that would have been worn in this period.
  • The three starters were chosen primarily because they represent important elements of Ainu culture and Hokkaido in general: volcanos, owls (more specifically Blakiston's fish owl, revered in Hokkaido as the Ainu deity Kotan-kor-kamuy) and otters (common in Hokkaido and Ainu myth, to the point where the Japanese word for otters, rakko, is taken directly from the Ainu language).
  • The books and artwork seen in the first trailer are based on the detailed field guides made by Japanese scientists surveying Hokkaido during the mid-to-late 19th Century.
  • Assuming that the game takes place around 100 years ago, the model of camera that Laventon carries would be fairly cutting-edge but would have been recently introduced in the real world.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The fifth and final main region, the Alabaster Icelands, are a frigid tundra filled with dense snowdrifts, masses of ice, and large numbers of Ice-type Pokémon. The region happens to be the past version of Snowpoint City's surrounding areas in Diamond and Pearl.
• The Smurfette Principle:
  • Since Lilligant is a female-exclusive species, it has the Odd Name Out, or title rather, of Lady of the Ridge. All of the other Nobles fought are either male or, in the case of Electrode, genderless (but still identified as "Lord").
  • Sneasler has female pronouns used when talking about her while all the other Ride Pokémon use male pronouns, which informs you that Sneasler is the only female amongst them.
• Soft Water: The player won't take any fall damage from falling into deep enough water. However, the player character can't swim, so if you don't have the Basculegion mount you will drown after a few seconds anyway.
• Some Kind of Force Field: Mr. Mime's ability to create invisible barriers by miming is put in the spotlight for a sidequest, which tasks the player to approach one while navigating an invisible force field maze. The NPC watching you, who doesn't know about this and thus just sees you taking some weird, winding paths, only finds out about this when he walks face-first into one.
• Spin Attack: One of Lord Kleavor's attacks is a stationary spinning slash with its axes.
• Sprint Meter: It isn't shown, but your character can only sprint for about ten seconds before going back down to normal running speed (you can tell this is what happened, as opposed to your thumb slipping off the joystick, if the Player Character starts gasping for breath as they slow down). If you don't wait long enough afterward before sprinting again, that time is even lower.
• Stable Time Loop: There is no talk of the present being affected when the player is sent back in time. This is typical of how time travel in the Pokémon universe works, as far back as the Celebi event in HeartGold and SoulSilver, where travelling back in time simply causes the existing future we know to happen. Notably it is the player character confronting the frenzied Dialga/Palkia that causes the Arceus temple on Spear Pillar to become the ruined state we find it in during the fourth generation games, as Dialga/Palkia destroy it during an attempt to kill them.
• Stance System: There are two Styles applied to an attacking move once a Pokémon has leveled up enough: "Strong Style" increases its power but lowers your Action Initiative, whereas Agile Style does the opposite. They both cost 2 PP to use, but are still available even if the Pokémon using it only has one PP.
• Starter Mon: The player is given a choice between Rowlet, Cyndaquil, and Oshawott, while the original Sinnoh starters are just Wild Pokémon. They were collected by Professor Laventon during his research excursions to various other regions.
• Static Role, Exchangeable Character: If one chooses a male or female Player Character, the other is a native of Hisui and has always been.
• Status Effects: While Poison, Burn, and Paralysis return in the game and work as they did prior, Sleeping and Frozen have been reworked to better fit the new Action RPG combat system.
  • Sleep has been replaced with the Drowsy status, which makes a Pokémon have a chance of being unable to attack each turn for as long as they have the status, while also receiving increased damage from attacks. They also are less likely to land hits under snowy weather.
  • Freeze has been replaced with Frostbite, which works in similar fashion to Burn; the status makes the inflicted lose 1/16th of their max HP per attack, while also lowering their Special Attack.
  • Notably, for the first time since Pokémon Ranger, the human player character is vulnerable to these status effects; Drowsy will slow the player down for a few seconds before immobilizing them as they fall asleep on their feet, Paralysis straight up slows them down, Burn does a bit of damage per second, and Poison does more per second. There's also exactly two scenarios where you can be inflicted with Confusion, which otherwise doesn't exist in this game and will invert your controls; the Cresselia and Enamorus fights in the overworld.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: The fight with Arceus starts this way. The player character enters the Hall of Origin. As the camera slowly pans around the protagonist, Arceus is suddenly behind them. There is no sound effect, no glowing entrance, it's just there where nothing was before. The protagonist notices, turns to face it, and after a short stare down the fight starts.
• Stealth Pun: The southern two thirds of The Cobalt Coastlands area are two peninsulas shaped like a C. Or a sea.
• Steampunk: The Poké Balls of this period appear very archaic; made almost entirely of wood, they have bulky metal attachments, a thick clasp, and a port at the very top that shoots out sparks after a Pokémon is caught. The region itself appears to be rather Meiji Era (1868 to 1912) in influence, justifying this trope, though that doesn't in any way indicate when this game takes place within the Pokémon timeline. Other hints suggest it could be the 1920's, which would have been after the age of steam ended, but it's vague enough to be handwaved.
• Superboss:
  • After beating the main story, Ingo can be challenged at the training grounds. He uses a full team of six Pokémon, putting him slightly below Volo (the only other battler with a full team of six) in terms of power. Following the Daybreak update, there's an option for an even tougher battle with his team in the mid-70s, letting him outrank Volo as the highest-leveled trainer.
  • After catching Arceus, the player can re-battle it, Dialga, or Palkia at the Temple of Sinnoh, all of which have been buffed in a similar manner to the Noble Pokémon rematches. Dialga and Palkia are Level 85, while Arceus is Level 100. The battles don't count towards any completion goals and their rewards (Exp. Candies and Grit items) can be obtained more easily and consistently by other means, so they're mostly there merely for the challenge.
  • The strongest Alpha Pokemon is a level 85 Garchomp, which is notably 10 levels higher then the fight against Arceus. Being one of two pseudo legendaries in the game (alongside Hisuian Goodra), it's very strong and is likely to cause massive damage to your team. You can theoretically catch it prior to the endgame however, but it wouldn't listen to your commands until you're a seven star.
• Super Drowning Skills: The player character can wade in shallow water, but if they tread in deeper water for too long without a Power Up Mount, they'll sink. You can't even really move in water unless it's to send out a mount.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The Ursaluna Ride feature is more or less the same as Stoutland Ride in Pokémon Sun and Moon, with both serving as replacements for the Dowsing Machine that helps players obtain hidden items. However, while Ursaluna's radar is always active, Stoutland can only search for items if you hold down B, making Ursaluna more convenient.
• Swapped Roles:
  • It's applying to Identical Strangers rather than the originals, but Cyllene (based on Cyrus) becomes one of the protagonist's greatest allies, whereas Volo (based on Cynthia) is the one that uses Giratina's power to fulfill an evil ambition.
  • Pokémon hiding in the tall grass and jumping out at the player has been a staple of the series as long as it has existed. In this game, crouching in tall grass makes the player hidden and is a good method for sneaking up on Pokémon, either to engage in battle or catch them.
  • Technically the organization you work for, the Galaxy Expedition Team is an altruistic group focused on learning and studying wild Pokémon as well as educating humans to prevent fear and injury, a far cry from its future counterpart, Team Galactic, whose ambitions threatened to destroy reality.

T-Z

• Tactical Suicide Boss: All of the Noble Pokémon have attacks in their patterns that leave themselves open to the player sending Pokémon against them, giving the player a chance to stun them for an extended period of time and greatly whittle down their frenzy meter.
  • Kleavor can be baited into charging headfirst into the arena walls.
  • Lilligant occasionally stuns herself after her stomp attacks.
  • Arcanine's unavoidable explosion attack can be interrupted by throwing balms at him, stunning him in the process. Dialga, Palkia, and Arceus use the same attack, and can be stunned the same way.
  • Electrode stuns itself after using Self-Destruct.
  • Avalugg exhausts himself after his Ice Beam attack.
• Tempting Fate: The guardsman you give a Wurmple hypes up its potential evolution into Silcoon and then Beautifly so much it would've been a twist if it hadn't evolved into Cascoon.
• Terrible Trio: The Bandit Sisters Charm, Clover, and Coin, who are a Goldfish Poop Gang that show up irregularly to harass the player.
• That's No Moon: When you go to battle Lord Avalugg, you're directed to his boss arena and start searching for him. As you're looking around, the ground begins to rumble, drifts of snow are thrown into the air, and the arena's floor splits open to reveal itself to be the recumbent form of the colossal Noble itself, leaving you stranded on a small jag of rock as he roars furiously at you and begins the battle.
• Throwing the Distraction: Players can distract Pokémon with thrown food. If they send out their Pokémon to pick up items, this can also create a shorter-lived distraction, though actually throwing their Pokémon in the vicinity of the wild Pokémon itself rather than a nearby item starts a battle instead.
• Trapped in the Past:
  • The player character is sent to the Hisui region beyond time and space by Arceus, falling down from a space-time rift that is seen in the sky. This also happened to Ingo.
  • The space-time distortion events have a chance of spawning Pokémon that either don't live in Hisui already (Johtonian Sneasel and Weavile), Pokémon that wouldn't exist until later on in the future (Porygon line) or are Pokémon that have already gone extinct (the Sinnoh fossil Pokémon).
• True Final Boss: Catching Arceus and completing the final Mission of the game ("The Deified Pokémon") requires you to complete the entire Hisui Pokédex.
• Try Not to Die: After she escorts the player out of the village after their banishment, Cyllene tells them "Don't die alone out there, that's an order." Once you return, she congratulates you for not dying, just as she ordered.
• Two Girls to a Team: If the Noble Pokémon are a team to begin with, two of them are identified as female: Lilligant (which is from an One-Gender Race species) and Sneasler. Each of these is primarily worshipped by a different clan — Lilligant is the Diamond Clan's Noble Pokémon, while Sneasler is with the Pearl Clan — which may give this trope some overlap with The Smurfette Principle.
• Underground Monkey: Once again, new variants of previous Pokémon as well as new evolutions for several were released.
  • Hisuian Growlithe and Hisuian Arcanine, who go from Fire-type to Fire/Rock-type.
  • Hisuian Zorua and Hisuian Zoroark, who go from Dark-type to Normal/Ghost-type.
  • Hisuian Voltorb and Hisuian Electrode, who go from Electric-type to Electric/Grass-type.
  • Hisuian Qwilfish, who goes from Water/Poison-type to Dark/Poison-type.
  • Hisuian Sneasel, who goes from Dark/Ice-type to Fighting/Poison-type.
  • Hisuian Braviary, who goes from Normal/Flying-type to Psychic/Flying-type. Rufflet stays the same.
  • Hisuian Sliggoo and Hisuian Goodra, who go from Dragon-type to Steel/Dragon-type. Goomy stays the same.
  • Hisuian Lilligant, who goes from Grass-type to Grass/Fighting-type. Petilil stays the same.
  • Hisuian Avalugg, who goes from Ice-type to Ice/Rock-type. Bergmite stays the same.
  • Hisuian Decidueye, who goes from Grass/Ghost-type to Grass/Fighting-type. Rowlet and Dartrix stay the same.
  • Hisuian Typhlosion, who goes from Fire-Type to Fire/Ghost-type. Cyndaquil and Quilava stay the same.
  • Hisuian Samurott, who goes from Water-Type to Water/Dark-type. Oshawott and Dewott stay the same.
  • White-Stripe Basculin is considered by Professor Laventon to be a regional variant, since its mellowed-out behavior is contrary to regular Basculin's violent behavior.
  • Wyrdeer, a Normal/Psychic-type evolution of Stantler.
  • Basculegion, a Water/Ghost-type evolution of White-Stripe Basculin.
  • Kleavor, a Bug/Rock-type evolution of Scyther.
  • Ursaluna, a Ground/Normal-type evolution of Ursaring.
  • Sneasler, a Fighting/Poison-type evolution of Hisuian Sneasel.
  • Overqwil, a Dark/Poison-type evolution of Hisuian Qwilfish.
• Unique Enemy: A single Alolan Vulpix can be obtained by completing a request in Alabaster Icelands. While this means the player can eventually evolve it into an Alolan Ninetales, the only way to battle one of them is by picking certain options in the Eternal Battle Reverie.
• Uniqueness Decay: Before, the only Pokémon that were Water/Ghost-type, Electric/Grass-type, Poison/Fighting-type, Normal/Ground-type, Rock/Ice-type, and Fairy/Flying-type were the Frillish line, Mow Rotom, the Croagunk line, Diggersby, the Amaura line, and Togetic/Togekiss respectively. Now, there's Basculegion, the Hisuian Voltorb line, the Hisuian Sneasel line, Ursaluna, Hisuian Avalugg, and Enamorus.
• Untrusting Community: When the Player Character first arrives in Jubilife Village, the natives are suspicious of the stranger in odd clothing, with the local restaurant owner outright refusing to serve you before slamming the door in your face. However, after the player demonstrates their skill as a Trainer and joins the Survey Corps the townspeople begin to warm up to them. Yet some reveal they never trusted the player when they're banished under suspicion of causing the space-time rift. Depending on how many requests you do it can also become a case of Ungrateful Townsfolk, as they could only get Partner Pokémon and expand their businesses because of the player and yet still don't protest your exile.
• Utility Weapon: Your partner Pokémon can be directed to collect berries and minerals while exploring.
• Victory Fakeout: A cruel one occurs in the battle with Volo and Giratina. Once Giratina's HP is knocked down to zero, it'll stumble for a moment and cry out in pain... then its eyes flash, it stands back up and turns into its Origin Form, complete with remixed iconic battle theme, regaining all its health in the process and becoming even more powerful.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential:
  • There are a number of Pokémon species, typically first forms at lower levels like Starly and Kricketot, who will attempt to flee once they spot you and, if you engage in them in battle, are likely to flee at their first opportunity. By sprinting up behind them as they flee and hitting them in the back with your Pokéball, you'll catch them "unawares" and can force them into a Curb-Stomp Battle in which you're guaranteed to get off at least one move which makes them great targets for Pokédex Research Tasks that require to see a certain move used a certain number of times. They are also quite useful in leveling up your own weaker Pokémon.
  • Magikarp, even Alpha Magikarp, can only use Splash, making them an easy target for those seeking to complete Pokédex Research Tasks that require seeing the same move over and over, while they're powerless to defend themselves, fight back, or even run away.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Beating up weak, low-level, or even baby Pokémon can be a quick way to level up weaker Pokémon of your own as well as fill in Pokédex Research Tasks like "number defeated", "number defeated with [X-type] move", "number of times seen using [X move]", etc., without much risk. However, they are known to run toward their nearby evolved forms and alert them to you, potentially pulling you into a battle with a stronger (sometimes even Alpha) Pokémon. The post-game Massive Mass Outbreaks go even further, where their evolved forms can randomly spawn (potentially as Alphas), meaning a much stronger Pokémon two or three times the level of their unevolved forms may spawn in right on top of you if near enough to the spawn point.
• Visual Initiative Queue: As part of the switch to a Combatant Cooldown System, the top-right corner of the battle interface shows the order of the next few turns, and how it will be affected if you switch Styles.
• Voice Grunting: For the first time in the main series, the protagonists (Akari and Rei) are heard grunting and yelping when they get attacked or throw Poké Balls, not unlike Link. They can also be heard panting after sprinting for too long.
• Wake-Up Call Boss:
  • On the Trainer side of things, there's the Miss Fortune Sisters. You might have been able to deal with Coin and her Toxicroak fairly easily, especially if you brought a Psychic-type, but then you have to battle Clover and her Abomasnow as well as Charm and her Gengar and Rhydon alongside Coin on Firespit Island with no breaks in between, meaning you need to have mastered not only the usual type matchups but also the new combat system if you want to get far.
  • On the Noble side of things, there's Arcanine, who comes right on the heels of said Miss Fortune Sister encounter. Not only does the awkward shape of the arena give you little room to work with, but Arcanine will also come at you with an unblockable attack that can only be stopped if you throw enough balms at it before it fires off the attack. There's also the fact that Arcanine can move in areas that you otherwise wouldn't.
• Walk of Shame: After healing the final frenzied Noble, the sky turns red for no clear reason, and in a fit of paranoia, the leader of the Galaxy Team has the player exiled on suspicion of causing the red sky. He forces the player's commander, Cyllene, to walk you to the gate in front of the entire town. Just like when you entered Jubilife, you can't even run, elongating the humiliation.
• Wham Line:
  • The day after you defeat Lord Avalugg, the space-time rift above Hisui inexplicably becomes worse. You go to talk to Kamado about it...and what he says indicates that things are about to get much worse for you in particular.
    Kamado: The first strike of that strange lightning, the one that drove Kleavor into a frenzy... It struck the night that [player's name] fell from the sky, did it not?
  • Sandwiched between the double Wham Shot of Beni being Kamado's right hand and being a ninja, we get this line:
    Beni: While handling that, I suppose I'll handle you as well. Time we got rid of you, once and for all.
  • A speech variant of this reveals the one behind the spacetime rift, therefore the one behind the events of the game, Volo, the affable and laidback Intrepid Merchant.
    Volo: Ever since I became convinced that Arceus really does exist, there has been one question that consumed my thoughts... How can I meet such a being myself? It was in an attempt to answer this question that I originally sought out Giratina and had it tear open that rift in space and time...
  • When battling with Giratina and Volo, this line after you finally beat them and Giratina transforms into its Origin Forme for Round 2, proving that you're not out of the woods yet...
    Giratina unleashed its true strength!
  • Before entering the Coronet Highlands, you briefly encounter a character who resembles Ingo; this isn't an odd sight in this game considering how most characters are Ambiguously Related to a character from the previous games. When he introduces himself, however, it's revealed he doesn't look like Ingo - he IS Ingo.
• Wham Shot:
  • Seeing Beni, the potato mochi chef standing in the cave before you face Commander Kamado, which is then followed by the reveal that he's both a ninja and possibly Wally's ancestor.
  • Due in large part of how suddenly it happens and the difficulty of the battles immediately preceding it (combined with the fact that nothing quite like it has appeared in the main series yet), Giratina's Villainous Second Wind and transformation into its Origin Forme caught many players off-guard.^note  Eternatus from Sword and Shield would count if it wasn't for the interim between its base form and its Eternamax form. Plus, the second half of that battle plays out like a Max Raid, giving you more of a numbers advantage.
• The Wild West: The whole game is basically a classic cowboy story in a Japanese wrapper, based on the contemporaneous Meiji Restoration period. Jubilife Village is a quintessential frontier Boom Town full of Determined Homesteaders, the Diamond and Pearl Clans are stand-ins for indigenous people (they even live in houses that look like tipis and are based on their Japanese equivalent, the Ainu people), there's a gang of outlaw bandits (the Miss Fortune Sisters) as minor villains, and the main conflict comes from the encroaching settlers (humans) clashing with the native inhabitants (Pokémon).
• Worldbuilding: Unsurprisingly, there's quite a lot of it here.
  • The Sinnoh region was once called the Hisui region; Sinnoh was originally the name of their deity.
  • Jubilife City was once Jubilife Village.
  • Team Galactic started life as the Galaxy Expedition Team, a benevolent organization dedicated to making life better for the people of Hisui.
  • Hisui was also home to an indigenous culture that was split into two separate factions due to differing views on who the aforementioned Sinnoh is, the Diamond Clan worshiping it as a god of time and the Pearl Clan worshiping it as a god of space. An older sect from the long since vanished Celestica people were worshipers of Arceus and nobody worshiped Giratina.
  • We get some insight on how various ubiquitous items in the Pokémon world are made;for example, Potions are made with Oran Berries and Medicinal Leeks while Pokeballs require both Apricorns and an ore known as a Tumblestone to be created.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: When Beni challenges you during the finale, one of your possible responses is an exasperated "Are you serious?"
• You Wake Up on a Beach: After Arceus gives them their mission, the player falls from the rift onto Prelude Beach, where Laventon finds them.

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