The much anticipated new Pokémon entry, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, has had many great new features leak out ahead of its Jan. 28 release, proving it might be the way of the future for the franchise.
There is one apparent new feature the game includes that is so good and equally obscure, it could become a meme for years to come. Pokémon Legends: Arceus will allow the player to drown in bodies of water, as revealed by Twitter account CentroLeaks who cover leaks around the game.
Meanwhile, throwing a Pokémon into the water will result in them floating (or swimming!) on a small visual platform.
It’s a very Grand Theft Auto move from Nintendo, and you might be wondering about water in video games and how developers use it.
The ability to drown in games is an interesting age-old dilemma. Understanding how to approach water in general is tough, as open-world games tend to allow swimming but with invisible walls so the player doesn’t travel out of the map. In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the player can swim very far north from the map but will eventually hit a wall.
In other open world games, environmental hazards will cause the player to die after venturing too far out into the water – such as the slaughterfish in Elder Scrolls Online or the massive piranhas from Ratchet and Clank. The Sly Cooper trilogy would have the player automatically jump back to solid ground after attempting to jump into water, but lose a section of their health.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus is set to release on Jan 28 on the Nintendo Switch
