Even after a more in-depth look at Capcom's upcoming Exoprimal, it seems the prehistoric third-person shooter can't catch a break from its dino identity crisis, as its story appears to be taking beats from the latest Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Back when Capcom first revealed Exoprimal, it had unintentionally riled hopes among fans that Dino Crisis was returning, while others pointed out the flaws of another Anthem-like game being released. But while that particular rumor mill has since died down, a new trailer from the Xbox Games Showcase has shed more light on Exoprimal, which sees it being compared to yet another gaming series.
While neither Exoprimal nor Pokemon Scarlet and Violet were the first games to dabble in manipulating time, they have taken an uncannily similar approach where creatures pulled from time and transformed in ways that seem paradoxical. But even with the huge scope that Exoprimal has given itself with both its story and the world at large, there are far more odd parallels between the two games that go beyond just mere prehistoric paradoxes and time travel. As a result, while Exoprimal and Pokemon aim for different kinds of players, they could find themselves getting contrasted against one another more than they'd prefer.
Pokemon's Paradox Pokemon Versus Exoprimal's Neosaurs
One of the immediate comparisons Exoprimal and Scarlet and Violet are going to receive will be down to their use of time manipulation and the creatures that come with it. For Pokemon, this can be split into two camps, with the first encompassing the series' various fossil Pokemon and the second is Scarlet and Violet's introduction of Paradox Pokemon. Though fossil Pokemon play a small role in these three games' comparison, it is the Paradox Pokemon that are being directly compared to Exoprimal's "neosaurs." As creatures from a distant past and future, Scarlet and Violet's Paradox Pokemon consist of Pokemon that theoretically can't exist.
But when actually compared to Exoprimal, there is a certain degree of separation between the games and their "dinosaurs." While Exoprimal has both ordinary dinosaurs, much like Pokemon's fossils, its neosaurs are less like aberrations of time and are instead more like corruptions of time travel. As Exoprimal's recent story trailer vaguely explains, an energy, chemical, or substance categorized as Hi-Xol and Lo-Xol has mutated dinosaurs into the various neosaur types seen in-game. Though interestingly, the blending of dinosaurs with futuristic sci-fi mutations does reflect both Scarlet and Violet as past and future respectively.
Pokemon's AI Sada/Turo Versus Exoprimal's Leviathan
However, beyond just the presence of dinosaurs and neosaurs, there are still more parallels between Exoprimal and Scarlet and Violet. As it has already been revealed, Exoprimal's antagonistic AI Leviathan appears to be in control of summoning dinosaurs and neosaurs to the present-day for humans and exosuits to fight against, though Leviathan's motivations and reasoning behind this remain unclear. Developed by the game's Aibius Corporation who also created the exosuits, the original intention behind Leviathan was to help humanity and guide those piloting exosuits, but Exoprimal has succumbed to the same rogue AI trope as everyone else.
After all, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet fell victim to this tried-and-tested storyline too, as players can eventually journey down to Area Zero and discover that Professors Sada and Turo are long dead with their imposter AIs running the show. While AI Sada and AI Turo are much more upfront about any master plan they might have, they do still reflect Exoprimal's Leviathan in that they too are responsible for drawing more prehistoric paradoxes to the present-day. Hopefully, Exoprimal could offer a more interesting motivation behind Leviathan, if not to subvert the rogue AI trope then at least to distance itself from Scarlet and Violet.
Exoprimal will be released on July 14, 2023, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
