Pokemon has announced its Diamond and Pearl remakes will be here by November and Legends: Arceus will follow two months later.
State of Plays and Nintendo Directs can often be built up so much that they end up disappointing. That was not the case for a Pokemon Presents earlier this year. Expectations were high since 2021 marks the 25th anniversary of the Pokemon franchise and its creators delivered. It revealed Diamond and Pearl will be getting remakes, and also that an open-world Pokemon game is coming in 2022.
We now know exactly when all of those games will be arriving on Nintendo Switch. Pokemon revealed today that Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will be released on November 19, 2021. As expected, just in time for the holiday season and right around the time Game Freak usually releases its main series Pokemon games.
Pokemon Legends Arceus was initially given a tentative release date of early 2022. Considering the delays to release dates caused by the pandemic over the course of the past year or more, most fans would have understood if that target wasn't met. Pokemon has stuck to its guns though and has announced Legends Arceus will be released on January 28, 2022. Perhaps even earlier in the year than most might have expected.
The cover art for all three games has also been revealed and can be seen above. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl's covers are typical main series Pokemon game covers featuring the monsters the two games will revolve around. Since Legends Arceus marks the beginning of a new frontier for the Pokemon franchise, its Switch cover hits a little differently.
It shows two trainers, who players will presumably be tasked to choose between at the start of their adventure, looking out onto the Sinnoh region in which the game is set. A Sinnoh region players will be unfamiliar with since Legends Arceus is set long before the events of the main series. All three games are available to preorder right now. We also have the arrival of mobile game Pokemon Unite to look forward to. News on that front may well arrive in June if rumors of an upcoming Pokemon Presents turn out to be true.