Legends: Arceus Fixes A 25-Year Pokémon Problem

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While the Pokémon franchise has remained dominant for the duration of its two-decade-long existence, Pokémon Legends: Arceus has produced an easy solution to the series' biggest problem. The vast majority of the main Pokémon releases have been split into two separate versions featuring arbitrary differences and forcing players to trade between the two if they wanted to gain access to every Pokémon. While this premise was initially a great idea in 1996, it has long overstayed its welcome, and Pokémon Legends: Arceus has proved that it's time for the franchise to transition into single-game releases moving forward.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus represents a potentially massive change in structure for the future of the series. While many comparisons have been made to The Legends of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the game actually follows the formula used by Monster Hunter, featuring a hub world and separated explorable areas that the player can travel to in order to catch wild Pokémon and complete various tasks. Although the series remains as popular as ever, the traditional formula of Pokémon has begun to grow stale for players and drastic changes have been in demand for years. It's still unclear how many of the new ideas introduced in Pokémon Legends: Arceus will be retained in future titles, but there is one element of the game that should permanently change the entire approach of the franchise.

Related: Legends: Arceus — Starter Pokémon Best Final Evolutions

In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, the entire objective is to complete the Pokédex in order to catch Arceus. It's a fairly simple concept that the entire series has been rooted in since it began, but it's never been streamlined for players. In order to complete the Pokédex in past