Pokemon Legends: Arceus - Dataminers Find Potential Tie to Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

Dataminers have discovered a potential new tie between Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. Dataminers digging through the code of both games have discovered an unimplemented Poke Ball called the "Strange Ball" that appears in both Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. So far, players have not found a way to obtain the ball legitimately in either game. We'll also note that the Strange Ball uses a modern Poke Ball design as opposed to the antique Poke Ball style used in Pokemon Legends: Arceus. However, a user on Twitter shared a video (likely made using a hacked game file in an emulator) showing the Strange Ball in action. The Strange Ball contains no special animations or abilities and both games would likely need an update in order for the new Poke Ball style to actually be used. 

The most likely possibility for the Strange Ball is that it's somehow tied to Pokemon Home, the cloud storage app used to transfer Pokemon between games. The Strange Ball uses the same color scheme as Pokemon Home, which is made by Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl developer ILCA. Currently, Pokemon Home support is unavailable for either Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl or Pokemon Legends: Arceus. As many styles of Poke Balls don't appear in either game, the Strange Ball could be a stand-in for Pokemon who were caught in one of those balls. The Pokemon Company has promised support for Pokemon Home will be added to both games, but it's unclear if this will be one-way support (i.e., Pokemon can only be transferred out of the game like in Pokemon: Let's Go) or if some form of back-and-forth transfer will be allowed.

It's also possible that the Strange Ball exists to hold Pokemon that are somehow transferred between Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl and Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Both games are set in the same region and Pokemon Legends: Arceus explicitly involves time travel as a central tenet of the game. Of course, the Strange Ball could be used for something else entirely – it's an unused asset, so just about everything is still on the table. It's also possible that the Strange Ball won't be used in the games at all – unused assets can be found in the code of just about every game. 

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