The Pokemon series is now over 25 years old, and while the main games’ formula has proven to be a success, it does not make the presence of the same format any less repetitive. The average mainline Pokemon games has the player control a young trainer leaving their small hometown with a member of a starter Pokemon trio, always consisting of a Grass, Fire, and a Water type of their choosing. The player character inevitably takes on the Pokemon League challenge, defeats all eight Gym Leaders, and eventually becomes the region’s Champion. Rivals are challenged in multiple battles, and a villainous team has plans ranging from petty theft to existential terror.
This formula is deeply intertwined with the franchise’s identity. New members of staples like Gym Leaders and villainous teams are routinely judged and compared to their predecessors. When the series does do something slightly different, like Sun and Moon’s trials, fans treat these changes like an innovation. This creates a new sense of linearity, in both expectations and design philosophy. If the Pokemon series really wants to do something new without relying on spin-offs, it should finally enter the realm of open-world games. Pokemon: Legends Arceus started a potential trend, and the mainline games should follow suit.
The Case For An Open-World Pokemon Game
A variety of gaming genres have gained more popularity depending on the era. The 90s, especially with the second half and the 3D variants, were arguably the golden era of the platformer, and the success of Sonic the Hedgehog inspired countless developers to make their own mascot platformer. Nowadays, determining the most popular genre is tricky due to the different environment. The way games are marketed, distributed, and even developed has changed. However, some genres have stood the test of time, likely due to pioneers normalizing said genres. First-person shooters as we know them would not be a thing without Halo and Call of Duty modernizing what their “ancestors” in Doom, Half-Life, and Goldeneye 007 established. Likewise with battle royale games becoming more popular when Fortnite became successful.
The popularity of open-world games has been increasing ever since Grand Theft Auto 3 was first released. Despite Rockstar’s dominance in the realm of sandbox games, an increasingly higher number of developers have tackled the open world genre with their premises and ideas. Nowadays, open-world games are so common that being open world feels like a mere aspect of the philosophy of a game’s design at this point, and not a genre in its own right. Even series, such as The Legend of Zelda, that traditionally belonged to other genres (barring certain spin-offs), experimented with the open world concept with recent titles.
In Zelda’s case, Breath of the Wild took the action-adventure aspects of the other games and made them as non-linear as possible, creating a fresh experience and one of the most unique Zelda games at the time. Sonic the Hedgehog, a platformer classic that arguably pioneered the mascot platformer subgenre of the 90s, will put its own spin on the open-world idea with Sonic Frontiers.
Pokemon is another iconic series, and being an RPG, it belongs to a different genre. Open world ideas have integrated themselves into several different branches of gaming. Pokemon following the same path as Sonic and Zelda is not necessarily a case of following the leader, but an opportunity to cater to long-time fan demands while capitalizing on an industry trend.
Pokemon’s Dire Need for Change
Pokemon has a formula that seldom allows itself to absorb new ideas beyond gimmicks and retooling battle mechanics. Pokemon Sun and Moon were the closest the mainline games got to giving players a different goal, but they still had a Pokemon League with a proper Elite Four, and Alola had its own villains in Team Skull. Making an open-world mainline Pokemon game does not guarantee any radical changes to the formula. It is perfectly reasonable to expect a Pokemon game to be open world while keeping the usual Pokemon League and villainous team. However, removing the environmental linearity could also provide opportunities to spice up the formula.
An open-world Pokemon game could have the regional landmarks, routes, towns, and cities be far more developed from both a visual and writing standpoint. The typical Pokemon town has a dozen residents, making these vast worlds feel underpopulated. Due to the power of modern technology and the ideas that come with open world games, a Pokemon game of such caliber could have far more NPCs to interact with.
Towns and cities could have more houses, businesses, and miscellaneous buildings. Outside of civilization, the Wild Area from Sword and Shield could serve as inspiration for the treatment of Wild Pokemon. Casually encountering them and making the decision to confront them would not only make Pokemon closer to the typical modern RPG, but would make this hypothetical game more immersive.
The world map would not be treated as a series of levels, but as an individual world in itself. Pointless obstacles that require the use of HMs could be mostly rendered obsolete. Without the linearity, players could explore the open world region at their free will, at the risk of certain consequences, such as Gym Leaders and wild Pokemon encounters being too overwhelming due to their strength. Pokemon has never been strictly linear. In fact, both Red and Blue, as well as Gold and Silver, which were the first two generations, allowed players to deviate from the usual journey for a while by not having a strict battle order for the midgame Gym Leaders.
An open-world game would embrace the series’ goal of giving players an opportunity to go out on an adventure. It could use Pokemon’s popularity to its advantage and make some childhood fantasies a reality. Customizing the pacing and being encouraged to interact with otherwise irrelevant characters are perks of an open world experience that could possibly change the face of Pokemon forever.