The Open World of Gen 9

[Greninjaman]

I am well aware that I made a similar thread for Legends Arceus, but here is the question: Will these games be open world like Breath of the Wild, or will it be more like Legends: Arceus, where it will be separate areas?

 

[Dizzard]

Did they ever say for Legends Arceus that it was open world? (like officially?) If I recall correctly I think they were kind of vague about that topic when they first announced Legends Arceus.

It seems like this games might actually be properly open world since they've mentioned it on their website and social media.

 

[Esiouqrut]

The website stated that the town will be connected to the routes seamlessly. I think it'll be more like BotW except when you enter a building.

 

[blitzle stan]

Did they ever say for Legends Arceus that it was open world? (like officially?) If I recall correctly I think they were kind of vague about that topic when they first announced Legends Arceus.

It seems like this games might actually be properly open world since they've mentioned it on their website and social media.

No, they never made any promise or claim that PLA was open world, I believe. The announcement wording in the SV website (at least the Japanese, haven’t seen the English yet) is VERY MUCH “Pokémon goes open world”.

Get. Excited. !!!

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Yeah the website does confirm this is open world. They do specifically say towns blend seamlessly into the wilderness and they do explicitly state open world on the site.

My biggest question is how will they handled this? Can we truly go anywhere we want at any time? Will we be able to challenge gyms in any order if there's gyms?

 

[Alola]

Various towns blend seamlessly into the wilderness with no borders. You’ll be able to see the Pokémon of this region in the skies, in the seas, in the forests, on the streets—all over! You’ll be able to experience the true joy of the Pokémon series—battling against wild Pokémon in order to catch them—now in an open-world game that players of any age can enjoy.

This is from the website. The fact that they are making a traditional mainline series entry in the format of Legends of Arceus is simply astounding (which seemed to be the beta for this entry). It's what I, and I'm sure many others, have wanted for quite some time.

 

[Aulos]

I am super excited for it being fully open-world. Open-world games make for such great immersive adventures and I love it!

If I do have a concern, it's with how Sword/Shield handled Wild Area. It was problematic combined with the forced Exp Share feature. The game pretty much punished you for spending too much time in the Wild Area because if you did, you would become super overleveled and run over everyone. That's what happened to me. It totally watered down the final battles of that game.

I know that in Sword/Shield you could switch out Pokemon from anywhere. However, that is not a solution. I tried switching out Pokemon but I did keep at least one strong one with me just in case the battle goes south. This was inevitably Galarian Rapidash, who is my favorite Pokemon ever. After my Galarian Rapidash becoming majorly overleveled by me taking my time enjoying the Wild Area, she defeated Leon pretty much all by herself. One-shotted the gigantimax Charizard IIRC.

This has the potential of becoming a far bigger issue in a fully open world game. Just let us turn off Exp Share. It's just bad game design to force that on us. Yet I'm 90% sure they will anyway and that's ridiculous. It could mess up the balance of this game and there's no reason for it to even be forced. Just use common sense, GF.

 

[blitzle stan]

I’m hoping for some kind of path choice. It was such a missed opportunity to not let you choose what order to challenge the Grass, Water, and Fire gums of Galar (and then again choose for the next three). The region seemed set up perfectly for that kind of choice, with Motostoke being the roadblock until you beat all three, but nope… completely linear story and order.

I’m hoping this game finally breaks that tradition. Give us level scaled gyms! It’s honestly not hard!

 

[Alola]

I am super excited for it being fully open-world. Open-world games make for such great immersive adventures and I love it!

If I do have a concern, it's with how Sword/Shield handled Wild Area. It was problematic combined with the forced Exp Share feature. The game pretty much punished you for spending too much time in the Wild Area because if you did, you would become super overleveled and run over everyone. That's what happened to me. It totally watered down the final battles of that game.

I know that in Sword/Shield you could switch out Pokemon from anywhere. However, that is not a solution. I tried switching out Pokemon but I did keep at least one strong one with me just in case the battle goes south. This was inevitably Galarian Rapidash, who is my favorite Pokemon ever. After my Galarian Rapidash becoming majorly overleveled by me taking my time enjoying the Wild Area, she defeated Leon pretty much all by herself. One-shotted the gigantimax Charizard IIRC.

This has the potential of becoming a far bigger issue in a fully open world game. Just let us turn off Exp Share. It's just bad game design to force that on us. Yet I'm 90% sure they will anyway and that's ridiculous. It could mess up the balance of this game and there's no reason for it to even be forced. Just use common sense, GF.

Completely agree.

And as you speculated, the Exp. Share all will probably still exist...due to it being in LoA, the apparent basis for the Gen 9 game. I really hope that as some consolation, Masuda or Ohmori are not behind this game as the director; if either is, you can guarantee we will be overleveled with a horrible leveling curve and EXP boosts everywhere.

 

[StandbyForBattle]

Completely agree.

And as you speculated, the Exp. Share all will probably still exist...due to it being in LoA, the apparent basis for the Gen 9 game. I really hope that as some consolation, Masuda or Ohmori are not behind this game as the director; if either is, you can guarantee we will be overleveled with a horrible leveling curve and EXP boosts everywhere.

I hope not it too easy, remember XY, I remember I got to low to mid 70s to take on Diantha, because of EXP share

 

[Norzan]

If I do have a concern, it's with how Sword/Shield handled Wild Area. It was problematic combined with the forced Exp Share feature. The game pretty much punished you for spending too much time in the Wild Area because if you did, you would become super overleveled and run over everyone. That's what happened to me. It totally watered down the final battles of that game.

The worst part for me was that the Wild Areas were empty voids of nothing except catch pokemon and do raid battles (and i guess finding some items). They were glorified Safari Zone areas.

That's my main dread with any open world game, if it's going to be empty. Because an empty world to me can be much worse than an overly linear game.

 

[Daren]

There are a lot of questions about how they'll handle this, because open world has a lot of different forms of implementation. One of the most important for an open RPG is level scaling--will it be present, and if so to what extent, and what will cause the scaling?
Options off the top of my head:
*No scaling at all, like in a lot of old school RPGs. Based off Legends they might go this way but Legends let them gate off higher level content by unlocking regions one at a time.
*Full "everything in the world is roughly your level" like Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.
*Lighter scaling, perhaps based off badges or some other plot coupon.
Maybe only certain things scale (trainers, maybe only bosses) and others are static.

Although I wonder if they'll make trainers on routes "respawn", so to speak,and challenge you more than once so the game doesn't run out of them? I read a few times that the original R/B/Y was planned to do something like that early on.

Certainly it will be interesting to see where this goes.

 

[Aulos]

The worst part for me was that the Wild Areas were empty voids of nothing except catch pokemon and do raid battles (and i guess finding some items). They were glorified Safari Zone areas.

That's my main dread with any open world game, if it's going to be empty. Because an empty world to me can be much worse than an overly linear game.

I think in order to appreciate open world games, you have to understand that it's an experience. It's supposed to make you feel like you're on a big adventure. If you went on a big adventure in the real world, you'd likely go through a lot of empty wilderness. It's not about every inch having something unique to do, it's about ambience, it's about immersion.

I guess some people don't find appeal in that. To each their own. But I definitely see this as the base line where an adventure game should be now. There's still stuff to do, it's just not in every inch of the open world and that's fine.

For me I'm so glad to have Pokemon games where I'm not running around for 30 minutes in a small square patch of grass trying for that Pokemon that has a 2% chance of appearing or whatever. In an open world game, that search is now in a much wider, much more visually diverse area that feels much more connected to everything around it. So much better.

 

[Norzan]

I think in order to appreciate open world games, you have to understand that it's an experience. It's supposed to make you feel like you're on a big adventure. If you went on a big adventure in the real world, you'd likely go through a lot of empty wilderness. It's not about every inch having something unique to do, it's about ambience, it's about immersion.

And i understand all that given that i played and enjoyed plenty of open world games, but empty worlds can get tiring and honestly visually repetitive.

My point is that open world design isn't better than any other design by default, same for linearity not being inherently bad by default. It's how you go about it. Which is why i hope this game isn't just empty spaces with hardly anything to do or find in them.

 

[CuboneKing]

I’m excited about the prospect of an open world, but I hope it’s more immersive than PLA’s graphics problems allowed it to be. Really hope there’s lots of things to do.

 

[Bolt Strike]

This is from the website. The fact that they are making a traditional mainline series entry in the format of Legends of Arceus is simply astounding (which seemed to be the beta for this entry). It's what I, and I'm sure many others, have wanted for quite some time.

Oh this is not just a mainline game in the format of LA, it's going even further. LA just had a series of segmented areas. This, from what the website specifies, appears to be just one seamless world. No linear routes. No warping back and forth from a hub like Jubilife. Just a vast expanse that spans the entire region.

Now I am slightly less excited about open world since LA was already 90% there, but even the other 10% can be very exciting. For example, that does imply that perhaps we can challenge gyms (or whatever equivalent they might have in this game, if they want to do something more like Trials or Nobles) in any order? It also seems like, if we want a rare Pokemon that's hiding in some remote corner of the region that we can just go there right from the start instead of waiting until late game when the game decides we're allowed to go there because we've advanced the story enough. If it's implemented the way I expect, this can open up an unprecedented level of player choice and freedom. As skeptical as I am about this game coming straight off the heels of LA, the open world is the one thing that gives me hope this game can still be good.

 

[SUP3RN0VA]

Seeing people confirm here that the Japanese website specifies it is an open word game and the towns blend with the routes, makes me even more excited for the games. I really enjoyed Legends Arceus and how they made it akin to how Monster Hunter works, so if they have stepped up their game yet again to an actual open world game, I'm happy with that.

 

[PinkIceFox]

I hope there aren't too many invisible walls outside the obvious 'you can go no further' things at the edges of the map.

Nothing boils my blood faster than having to walk all the way around a winding path down a hill when I could just slide down the like 2 feet to get to the bottom instead. But since that wasn't a problem in Legends Arceus I'm sure it'll be a non-issue here. Now all they have to do is give me a jump button so I'm not stuck Elder Scrolls wiggling my way up a bunch of rocks.

Though, since I AM an Elder Scrolls player, I'll manage to get up that bunch of rocks no matter how much they don't want me to. YOU CAN'T STOP ME, GAME FREAK. IF I WANNA WALK UP THAT MOUNTAIN I AM WALKING UP THAT MOUNTAIN.

 

[R1ke]

Glad to hear it's open world, I bet they've been using SS and PLA to get comfortable with it first

I just hope we can get following pokemon again, as well as not having the world separated into zones

 

[FelipePR]

Yeah the website does confirm this is open world. They do specifically say towns blend seamlessly into the wilderness and they do explicitly state open world on the site.

My biggest question is how will they handled this? Can we truly go anywhere we want at any time? Will we be able to challenge gyms in any order if there's gyms?

- Open world doesn't mean you can go anywhere at any time, especially at the beginning of games. It is very likely that you will need to progress through the story to get gear, such as the bike, among other things, that allow you to fully explore the map.