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An open-World Pokemon Game (Talking like Breath of the Wild)

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Could an open-World Pokemon game work? The Wild Area seems like a halfway point between the past Pokemon games and Breath of the Wild. What do you guys think? Personally, it could because the games are about exploring (though Gen 7 kinda lacked that in my opinion). What better way to do that than with an Open World like Breath of the Wild. Plus Open-World Games tend to let players go wherever and do whatever they want.
 
Go-anywhere do-anything open-world is a fundamentally different design than a story-driven RPG.

One of the fundamental challenges of doing such a system is how do you balance the difficulty level with the player? On the one hand you can have wild Pokemon species (and their levels) pre-determined per area, giving a clear indication of what is a "low" versus "high" level area. On the other end of the spectrum you have full dynamic difficulty that is scaled to the player's level at all times, but this runs counterproductive to the largest hallmark in RPGs: dat progression grind from low- to high- level.
 
Go-anywhere do-anything open-world is a fundamentally different design than a story-driven RPG.

One of the fundamental challenges of doing such a system is how do you balance the difficulty level with the player? On the one hand you can have wild Pokemon species (and their levels) pre-determined per area, giving a clear indication of what is a "low" versus "high" level area. On the other end of the spectrum you have full dynamic difficulty that is scaled to the player's level at all times, but this runs counterproductive to the largest hallmark in RPGs: dat progression grind from low- to high- level.
So what would be a middle ground?
 
For a game like that to work and just not be disappointing, GF would reaaaaally need to improve and establish a set of features that would need to be present and not again removed, like seasons, the option to have a partner Pkmn following the player, different side options like Contents, Musicals, Berries, Poffins and/or Pkblocks, Pkball seals, difficulty options etc. which I think that GF can't simply handle. People have a lot of expectations for a game like that for a long of time, so either GF grows bold or keep making the same type of games and perhaps wither due to lack of actual improvment.
 
For a game like that to work and just not be disappointing, GF would reaaaaally need to improve and establish a set of features that would need to be present and not again removed, like seasons, the option to have a partner Pkmn following the player, different side options like Contents, Musicals, Berries, Poffins and/or Pkblocks, Pkball seals, difficulty options etc. which I think that GF can't simply handle. People have a lot of expectations for a game like that for a long of time, so either GF grows bold or keep making the same type of games and perhaps wither due to lack of actual improvment.
You might be right. They always are dropping features.
 
so imo, here's the thing:

i don't feel pokemon should go open world for the sake of going open world. i feel like there has to be a purpose to all of that big area, otherwise there's going to be a sense of emptiness and that kind of thing can backfire. while i understand that people like to bring up Breath of the Wild all of the time as a model of comparison, im not really certain pokemon really needs to follow that example super closely. for one thing, i believe there's like...four cities/towns in BotW period while pokemon games traditionally have had many more cities/towns to explore alongside the routes.

the bigger point im making is that the majority of BotW is land, and im not sure that kind of thing would work well for pokemon games. like if pokemon games were like Breath of the Wild, you'd have like maybe four or five cities/towns and the rest of the region would be routes. it'd feel disproportionate for sure, i think.
 
i believe there's like...four cities/towns in BotW period while pokemon games traditionally have had many more cities/towns to explore alongside the routes.
There's one major city for each Divine Beast (Gorons, Zora, Gerudo, Rito) plus Kakariko, Hateno, and (optionally) Tarrey Town. Other settlements are mostly just horse stables.
But yeah, open-world style map design is a daunting task because you have to be concerned with how to populate it in a way that doesn't feel functionally empty (or, inversely, artificially populated).
 
After playing both Breath of the Wild and Assassin's Creed Odyssey, I am completely enamored with open-world games. Playing them, I just feel so immersed. Past/other adventure games with their disconnected small narrow pathways everywhere just don't feel like adventures, they feel like, well, just video games limited by technology.

Pokemon is an adventure series, so naturally I feel like this is the progression the series should take. Plus, I think it fits the idea of Pokemon well. Sword/Shield have already shown that overworld Pokemon fit better in the larger Wild Area than they do in narrow patches of grasses in narrow pathways. A lot of playing Pokemon is grinding in the wild. Now imagine that wild is large and open. No running around hundreds of thousands of times in a single patch of grass anymore. Instead the grinding can be an adventure in of itself. For me that'd be pure bliss, and I do strongly feel like that's where the series should go if it wants to progress.
 
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The Problems with Pokemon going Open World
  1. The level scaling for wild Pokemon, random NPCs and Gyms
  2. Placement of Items/TM's is also an issue, as well as the ones you receive for winning a Gym Badge (Imagine doing the first gym which has a 80 base power TM for the player). Then the game is basically already pointless from their on out, since the 80 base power move is gonna one shot low-mid lvl mons.
 
I really don't see why the worlds need to be all that densely populated to begin with. As long as the games themselves have enough content on the whole, it doesn't really matter if the worlds are all that empty. Doubly so with Pokemon, as long as there's tall grass or some other encounter method around there's always going to be something to do.

I think what they're doing with the Wild Area is a good start, but I'd like to see them expand on it in future games. The Wild Area is what the overworld as a whole should be like. Vast expanses of wilderness teeming with Pokemon. A veritable playground for just about anything you want to do on your adventure. I do have some concerns about content, but that has more to do with the competency and development style of Game Freak than the feasibility of the idea. In general, I don't think this is something to really be worried about.
 
I'd be happy with a game like Ni no Kuni that has an open world map but expects the player to do things in a linear fashion. I haven't even tried deviating from the intended order, but I suspect that while the story events are flagged, you can do sidequests whenever.

I don't like the Wild Area. The main attraction is clearly Max Raids, but what I'm looking for is at least a peek into Pokemon habits outside of battles. Snap offered that.
 
i do like the idea of an open world pokémon game, personally. especially if you put down regular paths and kind of treated it as a more realisic version of the routes we have now. i wouldn't want it as wide as the area in botw though. breath of the wild's main focus is the open area, while pokémon has other themes in focus.

one big issue i do have though with potential open areas is that they don't look "finished". like the area doesn't have enough details or textures. botw has very beautiful scenery, so much that even the grass can be pretty to look at. making it big isn't everything, cuz without the right amount of care and attention for detail it's gonna look like some half-finished second thought. i don't think a fully fledged open world area with items, nice views, as well as people and pokémon roaming it like the creatures in breath of the wild is possible with the time they spend making these games.
 
I'm not opposed to it... as long as the open world isn't too big that it takes hours just travelling in the middle of nowhere with no particular quests or any storyline attached.
 
The way I can see an open world Pokémon game working is setting it up like Xenoblade: Big open areas where you can explore how you'd like and still follow a set story path with the areas being set to the expected difficulty levels for where they are in the game, maybe with some extremely powerful opponent hiding in the area as soon as you get there (I'm looking at you, level 90+ unique monsters in Bionis' Leg).
 
The way I can see an open world Pokémon game working is setting it up like Xenoblade: Big open areas where you can explore how you'd like and still follow a set story path with the areas being set to the expected difficulty levels for where they are in the game, maybe with some extremely powerful opponent hiding in the area as soon as you get there (I'm looking at you, level 90+ unique monsters in Bionis' Leg).

That's not a proper open world game. It's close, but a true, BotW open world doesn't have a set story path.
 
I was just thinking that an open world Pokémon game would probably be better as a side game than a main series game, then I read this...

I don't like the Wild Area. The main attraction is clearly Max Raids, but what I'm looking for is at least a peek into Pokemon habits outside of battles. Snap offered that.

Open Wolrd Pokémon Snap! I would love this so much! Pokémon Snap was so good and the fact it hasn't had a sequel despite the Wii U game pad/Switch (maybe Labo) have added really interesting potential ways to play such a game is such a waste.

I remember reading somewhere that they didn't want to do a new Snap unless there was some really innovative reason to do it, and I think that might just be it! Open world, plus optional Labo VR compatibility could make for an absolutely amazing Pokémon Snap game!
 
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