How Hisui Became Sinnoh

There were only two months between the releases of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl and Pokémon Legends: Arceus, giving players the opportunity to explore the Hokkaido-inspired region twice within this short time frame. Our original 2006 introduction to Sinnoh hasn't been regarded all that favorably in the years since its release. The common complaints are usually stuff like, “It's tedious to explore”, “It doesn't feel unique”, and “Do I really have to go through Mount Coronet again?”

While I personally love the Sinnoh region and find its tedium to be part of the adventure, it did stand to reason that Pokémon Legends: Arceus would have to reinterpret Sinnoh in a way that didn't frustrate players as much as it did sixteen years ago. At the same time, it was an opportunity to bring more cultural elements into the Pokémon world—namely the indigenous peoples of Hokkaido, the Ainu. It's an element that's not a particular focus of the original Pokémon Diamond and Pearl titles. While there are some loose connections in Celestic Village, there are also plenty of Greek ruins. To be honest, Sinnoh is a bit of a cultural hodgepodge.

Geographically, Hisui is only reminiscent of the region we were introduced to in 2006. The three lakes are in the correct positions, respectively helmed by each of the lake guardians, but their surroundings have been altered to create a world that's more interesting to explore in 3D. I certainly don't remember having to do so much climbing to get into Snowpeak Temple. On the other hand, the Great Swamp's transformation into the Crimson Mirelands has made it a breeze to travel through comparatively.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus has taken what's unique about Sinnoh and transformed it into something that's hard to imagine started out as pixels. Sunyshore City is built from several islands across a bay, but Hisui's Cobalt Coastlands makes it clear that the islands were once a creepy skeleton hand that later became submerged, leaving only a few rocky outcrops for a city to be built on top of. Similarly, the volcanic Firespit Island has become dormant, leaving behind the perfect location to build the Sinnoh Pokémon League.

Upon entering the world of Hisui for the first time, it becomes clear why they chose this region for their first open-world experiment. Players were originally frustrated with the idea that Mount Coronet splits the map in half, but this also meant that it could serve as a landmark in a 3D game. Wherever you are in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, you can see Mount Coronet and the spacetime rift hovering above it. It's similar to the way The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild uses Hyrule Castle and Calamity Ganon; even during your most peaceful moments, it's a constant reminder that something is wrong off in the distance.

Scaling Mount Coronet is far more enjoyable in 2022 than it ever has been before. To reach the peak, you used to have to traverse between several large caves and snowy exteriors with plenty of random encounters, enemy trainers, and misleading pathways. In Legends: Arceus, Ingo guides you through two caves before introducing you to Sneasler, a helpful new companion who'll take you up the mountain in just a few minutes. Despite the game taking place in the past, there's also more to look at during your climb. Greek-inspired ruins litter the trail, briefly introducing you to some of the legendary Pokémon you're yet to meet.

The Greek inspirations within the Sinnoh region are nothing new. While it's only really present in the original games' Spear Pillar, the anime film Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life has Ash and his friends travel back thousands of years to a town resembling ancient Greece. As research, the film's staff, led by director Kunihiko Yuyama, visited several historical Greek locations, such as the Parthenon, Meteora, and Kalambaka.

In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, these are re-imagined as cultural artifacts of the “Celestica people”, who were the first to live in the Sinnoh region. During the events of the post-game story, Volo wears a Greek-inspired outfit and claims that the original peoples of Sinnoh, who lived closer to the gods in the movie, are his ancestors. In the collectible “Old Verse” items, it's revealed that the Celestica people mysteriously disappeared from the region and that the Diamond and Pearl clans are not indigenous to Sinnoh.

Pokémon has never been all that interested in portraying real-world events in their games, but that hasn't exempted them from comparisons. The Galaxy Team expedition into Hisui mirrors many colonialist narratives. For VICE, Ricardo Contreras writes, “This ‘outsider comes in to help the natives’ storyline fits right into popular colonialist narratives used to belittle native practices and then justify the assimilation of indigenous populations.”

However, I don't think it was necessarily GAME FREAK's intention to create a game about the cultural erasure of the Ainu people. Rather, like most Pokémon games, they're more interested in using cultural and historical imagery, rather than portraying the actual traditions and history itself. For instance, there's very little about the annexation of Hawaii's analog, Alola, in Pokémon Sun and Moon.

The Ainu imagery within the Sinnoh/Hisui region is fairly scattered. The most noticeable comparison is the protagonists' default outfits, which resemble several aspects of Ainu traditional dress. As noted by a fan on Twitter, the historical village that the cast of Pokémon: Journeys visits is based on Ainu Kotan, one of Hokkaido's largest Ainu settlements. Similarly, the buildings in Celestic Town have a different design to those in the rest of the games, with Cynthia's family's house, in particular, appearing to be inspired by an Ainu meeting house.

Yet the lore of Pokémon Legends: Arceus is doing its own thing while indiscriminately throwing in Ainu imagery here and there. For example, it's the Galaxy Team, the supposed colonizers, that wear Ainu-inspired attire. And the Diamond and Pearl clans are also settlers in this region. And the real indigenous people were Greek? It's far from a direct parallel.

For fans of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, GAME FREAK's latest title has been a treat. There are countless comparisons and references towards the much-beloved games, and it unleashes the prospects of them creating past versions of other fan-favorite regions. Maybe we could see the legends of Johto play out in real-time. Or we could meet the kings and queens of ancient Galar. Or how about we play as a bunch of settlers traveling to ancient Unova, but the locals don't want us the—

...On second thought, there are some parts of the real world that are best left un-Pokémon-ified.