After something of a drought between mainline Pokemon titles, fans finally received news on the franchise's 25th anniversary about the upcoming Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl games, as well as an entirely new take on the series in Pokemon Legends: Arceus. While not much is known about the game's story, it was revealed that Pokemon Legends: Arceus takes place in the "Sinnoh of old."
Pokemon fans have determined that the new game's setting seems to take inspiration from the real-life Meiji era from Japan's history. This period of time from 1868 to 1912 has gone down as Japan's industrial revolution, and taking inspiration from such, the Sinnoh region in Pokemon Legends: Arceus appears to be a lot less developed that the Sinnoh presented in 2007's Pokemon Diamond and Pearl games. This being the case, fans also got to see how Poke Balls looked during this time period.
Now, although fans of the franchise have always created their own unique Poke Ball art, many seem to have especially taken a liking to these more industrial Poke Balls, with one fan even creating photorealistic art of the device. In addition to the classic red Poke Ball, Reddit user arnaudcroonen also created photorealistic versions of both the staple Safari Ball and Premier Ball, imagining how they might look if they were to appear in Pokemon Legends: Arceus.
On the game's official website, it is noted that the Poke Balls of old were mostly made out of wood, and let out a puff of steam when a Pokemon was caught, as can be seen in Pokemon Legends Arceus' reveal trailer. In the comments on the Reddit post, arnaudcroonen mentioned that they took some liberties with the device's design to make it look more realistic, such as making the wooden panels converge at the center of the Poke Ball, as opposed to having more parallel wooden panels as shown in official artwork. On Reddit, fellow users commended the artist for their skill and creativity, expressing their own desire for physical models of the olden Poke Balls to put display themselves.
It will certainly be interesting to see if different types of Poke Balls make their way into Pokemon Legends: Arceus, especially the Safari Ball, which begs the question as to whether Diamond and Pearl's Great Marsh area will make an appearance as well. For now, fans can order their own official Poke Ball replicas in celebration of Pokemon's 25th anniversary.
Regardless, with pre-orders for Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl going live just earlier today, fans are likely excited to be one step closer to what may be the open-world Pokemon game of their dreams. And although the game isn't slated to release until early 2022, it will certainly be interesting to see how it shapes up by then.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus launches early 2022 exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.
