Pokémon Legends: Arceus glitch expands villagers to massive proportions

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-02-14 11:33 JST)

An odd glitch has been found in Pokémon Legends: Arceus that causes an NPC to swell to an absolutely massive size. By repeating a specific action within the game, the NPC grows larger and larger. While it doesn’t cause any serious issues or prevent progression, the visual impact alone was enough to catch players’ attention.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is an action RPG and the latest title in the Pokémon series. The game takes place in the Sinnoh region during an age when it was still called Hisui and tasks players with completing the first Pokédex. Everything from the game’s wide vistas to its Pokémon and characters let players experience the Hisui region with entirely 3D graphics.

The previously mentioned glitch has been reported to occur at the Pearl Clan’s settlement. When the player runs in circles around Irida, the leader of the Pearl Clan, a nearby male NPC can be seen growing larger and larger.

Our editorial department was also able to confirm the strange phenomenon in our own testing. As for why it occurs, one theory has to do with the level of detail used to display characters at varying distances.

This is typically referred to as LOD or Level of Detail. In simple terms, far away objects are rendered in less detail than nearby objects. This technique of removing unneeded details reduces the processing power needed to display objects so that it can be allocated other places.

The key to performing the glitch seems to be the distance between the player and the NPC. We were also able to confirm the glitch occurring when moving back and forth from a certain distance away from the character. In other words, it seems likely the change the NPC’s character model undergoes when a certain distance away from the main character is accumulating and causing the character to grow. This technique used to help manage processing power seems to have an unintended side effect.

Supposing this theory is correct, it’s not running around Irida, but moving closer and further from the NPC that’s causing the issue. While it is just a guess, it doesn’t seem farfetched to think it’s related to LOD.

This same phenomenon can actually be seen with the General Store shopkeeper in Jubilife Village as well. If a player runs around the Candy Stand, or runs back and forth at a certain distance, the shopkeeper’s apron will grow larger and larger. I (the author of the original article) was able to confirm this as well.

In the case of both NPCs, if you get close enough or come across a loading screen, the models will revert back to their original forms. This appears to be a temporary issue in both cases, so there doesn’t seem to be a concern that they’ll be stuck at that size. We also didn’t experience any issues with the software forcibly closing while testing.

Compared to the rest of the series, Pokémon Legends: Arceus features much more freedom of movement within its world. It might be fair to say these kinds of glitches are a side effect of the game’s ambition. We may see a fix in a future update like we’ve already seen with some previously reported issues.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is now available for the Nintendo Switch.