Hello Games
No Man’s Sky is adding collectable creatures that you can breed, train, and even battle, in a system that looks a lot like Pokemon.
After a notoriously rough launch, No Man’s Sky has won players back with years of free updates. The next of these updates, Xeno Arena, adds what is essentially an entire Pokemon game that takes place within NMS’s already huge universe.
When it goes live, players will be able to adopt the creatures they find roaming each planet, assemble them into teams, and place them into turn-based battles against other players.
No Man’s Sky Xeno Arena adds Pokemon-style creature collecting
The announcement blog reveals each pet has its own combination of attacks and abilities based on its “species and native climate,” with hundreds of unique abilities that could appear. So, if you’re on a particularly hot planet, you’ll likely find lifeforms with heat-based abilities.
Your team can also be trained over time by battling and unlocking genetic mutations that make them more powerful. There are even “alien trainers” to find and beat, as well as medals up for grabs.
The Pokemon comparisons are hard to ignore, with many fans replying to the announcement tweet and pointing out the similarities with Nintendo’s iconic franchise. Some even found the humor in Hello Games’ decision to announce the update on April 8, the same day that Pokemon Champions dropped.
Among the responses is the official Palworld X account, which simply wrote, “Hear me out a sec…” sparking hopes of a crossover. Palworld is another game that has drawn comparisons to Pokemon, and its developer, Pocket Pair, is currently in a patent infringement lawsuit with Nintendo.
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There is currently no official release date for the Xeno Arena update, but it’s once again set to be released free of charge.
