Speculation Gen 9 Predictions (Development predictions, New Regions, Version names)

[KirbyBulba737]

I think that they are going back to Japan based regions.

They've already done Japan to the death, the closest we'll get is going to be China, and I don't see that coming for a while.

 

[NealIRC]

I didn't scroll that far, but I wanna say, there's no way Gen 9's gonna be Japan. We had 2 cold regions in a row: England and northern Japan, there's no way Gen 9 is gonna be cold. Most likely tropical again, with palm trees.

I'm personally hoping for a warm region again, with pyramids and hanging rock gardens.

Realistically, Gen 9 could be Spain. Someone in this forum said some 1.5 years ago was predicting Spain was a good prediction for Gen 8, because GF visited Spain. I can see as England was chosen over, so Spain can be next.

 

[Sheep40]

The western Balkans are also quite warm, given they're right up against the Mediterranean. Plus, they're also very mountainous, so some parts are quite cold.

 

[Sheep40]

Lots of Japanese people are also Germanophiles.

 

[RileyXY1]

I expect a 2024 release for Gen 9.

 

[Sheep40]

Assuming legends gets more than two DLC packs.

 

[RileyXY1]

Assuming legends gets more than two DLC packs.

And they drop a different game in 2023. After Legends I think that they will release Let's Go Johto next.

 

[Sheep40]

Unironically doesn't sound bad.

 

[nickdt]

Assuming legends gets more than two DLC packs.

I doubt Legends is getting DLC, since its more of a test game format than anything.

 

[RileyXY1]

I doubt Legends is getting DLC, since its more of a test game format than anything.

I expect it to because games of this nature usually do.

 

[techitisJ]

This is not a prediction and is more of a want, but I would love for them to reintroduce diving and underwater routes with generation 9. So far, it's been in Hoenn (edit: and to a lesser extent, Unova), but hasn't been seen outside of those games. I feel that with the upgrades they have made to the series with Gen 8 (overworld Pokemon and free-control camera) could really make underwater exploration cool.

We could see aquatic Pokemon swimming and living in their natural habitat rather than just swimming around on the surface of the water as we see with Sword and Shield. With the DLCs they have also shown that they can make more explorable caves and routes, so I think it would be really cool if we had to swim through some underwater cave systems at some point.

 

[RileyXY1]

This is not a prediction and is more of a want, but I would love for them to reintroduce diving and underwater routes with generation 9. So far, it's been a Hoenn-exclusive mechanic but I don't think it should remain exclusive to that region. I feel that with the upgrades they have made to the series with Gen 8 (overworld Pokemon and free-control camera) could really make underwater exploration cool.

We could see aquatic Pokemon swimming and living in their natural habitat rather than just swimming around on the surface of the water as we see with Sword and Shield. With the DLCs they have also shown that they can make more explorable caves and routes, so I think it would be really cool if we had to swim through some underwater cave systems at some point.

Unova had it too, but to a lesser extent.

 

[techitisJ]

Unova had it too, but to a lesser extent.

Oh cool. I didn't know that. Thx

 

[GhostLucario]

Personally I am hoping for a Southeast Asian region, I feel it would be amazing and it's a tropical region, a nice change of pace after cold-ish Galar and Sinnoh. And as some mentioned above, they should bring back underwater routes and diving. With a tropical region I hope we get an actual jungle and more ruins like the ones we had in Sinnoh, Johto and Unova.

That is what I think is possible, but my dream is to have an Egyptian region some day but I think it's not likely. We'll probably get China and Spain as regions sooner or later.

 

[Sheep40]

Personally I am hoping for a Southeast Asian region, I feel it would be amazing and it's a tropical region, a nice change of pace after cold-ish Galar and Sinnoh. And as some mentioned above, they should bring back underwater routes and diving. With a tropical region I hope we get an actual jungle and more ruins like the ones we had in Sinnoh, Johto and Unova.

That is what I think is possible, but my dream is to have an Egyptian region some day but I think it's not likely. We'll probably get China and Spain as regions sooner or later.

Too close to Alola. I personally think the new hot region isn't going to be the stereotypical desert or tropics most commonly used to signify "hot". Southern Europe springs to mind, namely Spain, Greece, and the former Yugoslavia. The former two are western-European (Greece more culturally than anything else) so I'd preclude them going by this pattern.

 

[GhostLucario]

Too close to Alola. I personally think the new hot region isn't going to be the stereotypical desert or tropics most commonly used to signify "hot". Southern Europe springs to mind, namely Spain, Greece, and the former Yugoslavia. The former two are western-European (Greece more culturally than anything else) so I'd preclude them going by this pattern.

Close to Alola? If the game is out on 2022 it will be a 6 year gap between Alola and gen 9. That's not close.

 

[Sheep40]

More in the sense that the last hot region was tropical. They want to do something different to be fair, so honestly anything's on the table. This is Nintendo we're talking about. They do whatever the heck they want.

 

[swiftgallade46]

[...]the former Yugoslavia.

You’ve mentioned this a lot and while I think it’s perfectly valid as a want, I don’t really think it’s realistic as a prediction, especially when there are so many better-known options out there.

 

[Sheep40]

Yes, it's not the most realistic option, but as I mentioned we're dealing with Nintendo here and they're impossible to predict.

 

[SodiumChloride]

I hope than in gen 9, i hope most of the areas are at least as big as isle of armor or the mario odyssey maps
I don't think polemon needs to be totally open world but I think a semi-open world direction would be great for the series

I'm not totally sure where the region is going to be, but if i had to guess it would be California because gamefreak visited there right before swsh was released.