Pokemon Legends: Arceus Leaves Plenty Of Room For DLC

Republished By Plato

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While most folks are still chewing their way through the hours of adventure available in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, if you’re close to wrapping up the main story, you might be wondering whether DLC will be on the table. Though there’s no official word yet, Legends: Arceus fortunately leaves open quite a few possibilities for where a potential DLC could go.

Warning: Minor spoilers for story and locations in Pokemon Legends: Arceus (or, rather, locations not in Legends: Arceus) follow.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus does a fairly good job of canvassing the breadth of “vast Hisui,” but there are a handful of key locations that appear in Diamond and Pearl that we never actually get to visit in its past-tense Hisui that could be ripe for some kind of DLC area down the line, big or small.

On the main continent itself, two that spring immediately to mind are Eterna Forest and Canalave City. Though it seems like we visit the forest in the Obsidian Fieldlands, Eterna Forest is located to the north of Jubilife in Diamond and Pearl, while the Heartwood is far to the south in an area we don’t really visit in Diamond and Pearl. Canalave is actually in a similar boat, as it’s located to the west of Jubilife in an area that appears covered by ocean on the Hisui map. Both of these are relatively small spots though, so they’re less interesting DLC fodder than other possibilities.

A slightly more interesting possibility is Iron Island, an area you visit in Diamond and Pearl and traverse alongside Riley. This could be fleshed out to be a small new area in Legends: Arceus, and even opens up the possibility of including the Regi trio in an update, as Platinum included the Iron Ruins and Registeel within. That would also mean adding Regice and Regirock to their respective locations in Mt. Coronet and (presumably) a cave in the Cobalt Coastlands, though.

But this is small potatoes. Let’s think big. How about the Underground? In Diamond and Pearl, the Underground is a sprawling cave system used for secret bases and gem mining, but in the more recent remakes there are massive caverns full of different types of Pokemon waiting to be caught, many of which expand the Sinnoh Dex past what it was in the originals. A Hisuian version of this cave system could be an extremely fun place to explore, and could open up interesting possibilities for what Pokemon might appear there…as well as the possibility of proper online play.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus NPCs That Look Like Diamond and Pearl Characters

And finally, what if we went even bigger? The legendary Pokemon Giratina makes an appearance in Legends: Arceus, so what if we traveled to its Distortion World? This seems like a bit more of a stretch. It’s hard to say what kinds of Pokemon might appear there or what we might even been doing there given Giratina is available in the main game already. Plus, Distortion World wasn’t in the recent Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl remakes at all. But it’s nonetheless an interesting possibility to puzzle over.

One last possibility is the appearance of other regions in Legends: Arceus. This seems unlikely, as Game Freak would be more likely to save these for other, future Legends games. But multiple characters do reference other regions, including Alola, Kanto, Johto, and Galar. So we know it’s possible to travel to them from Hisui, and even if it’s just a small appearance, it would be cool to see a glimpse of the historical version of any of these familiar places.

Aside from location, Legends: Arceus certainly has plenty of story threads it could still wrap up with DLC. The end of the game leaves open a lot of possibilities for the future of Jubilife, other towns that might one day be built, various mysteries scattered around the world such as the Old Verses, characters that didn’t really get conclusive endings, and more. Hopefully, Game Freak has more in the works for the world of Hisui that will tie at least some of these ends up.

Fortunately, there’s still plenty to do in Legends: Arceus for the time being. To help you out, we have tons of guides to anything you might want to know about its Pokemon, story, or mechanics, as well as our review of the entire game.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Time Stamp: February 3, 2022