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The Open World of Gen 9

The world being separated into zones isn't TOO bad in my eyes. Though instead of having a hub I have to go back to every time I'd prefer if there were paths I could take between areas. Like use a cave in a mountain as a sort of stealth loading zone between large areas. Or a thick forest. Basically a way to save on processing power and what has to be loaded in at any given time. Even if the world of Legends Arceus was not connected together, each area still felt MASSIVE.

Plus I hope there will be plenty of fun secrets to find. I don't want to go over to say, a little nook hidden around the side of a mountain by the water only to find literally nothing there but like another generic berry tree or wowzers one of those pain in the neck collect-a-thon items like the spiritomb things.

Also like I am every time a new generation comes out: SECRET BASES PLEASE? PLEASE? YES?
 
- 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.

It usually doesn't take too long for the entire game to open up. If it does, that's not open world. They might restrict you to the first gym at best, but I doubt it'll be long before you can go anywhere on the map.
 
It usually doesn't take too long for the entire game to open up. If it does, that's not open world. They might restrict you to the first gym at best, but I doubt it'll be long before you can go anywhere on the map.
What I imagine is pretty much similar to you, I think the games will work pretty much as expected to, in that the game will be open world from pretty much the beginning, but still have some places inaccessible until we progress further in game, just like every other Pokémon game (eg. some places being unreachable until we can surf across water).
 
It usually doesn't take too long for the entire game to open up. If it does, that's not open world. They might restrict you to the first gym at best, but I doubt it'll be long before you can go anywhere on the map.

I doubt it. While I believe that much of the map will be available early on, certain locations or areas should only become accessible as the story progresses, like in Final Fantsy an, to a lesser extent, even the Witcher, for example. That is, while there will be greater freedom of exploration, in my view, Gamefreak is considering as an open world a game that takes place in a single map/area, without loading screens, and not one in which there will be no linearity imposed by the history, as the Pokemon games are, first and foremost, linear, including Pokémon Legends.
 
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I doubt it. While I believe that much of the map will be available early on, certain locations or areas should only become accessible as the story progresses, like in Final Fantsy an, to a lesser extent, even the Witcher, for example. That is, while there will be greater freedom of exploration, in my view, Gamefreak is considering as an open world a game that takes place in a single map/area, without loading screens, and not one in which there will be no linearity imposed by the history, as the Pokemon games are, first and foremost, linear, including Pokémon Legends.

Having a seamless open world just so they can block you off from certain areas until you reach a certain point in the story is difficult to do and largely defeats the purpose of having one in the first place. If you're blocked off until a certain point the game doesn't really feel all that seamless and open. And just because no Pokemon game is linear doesn't mean this one is and they'll always make linear games from now until the end of time, Pokemon's broken other such barriers already. If they've decided to make the jump to full open world they've probably also thought through how they'd want to address the issues that have kept it linear, such as leveling your party up throughout the game.
 
To be fair, Swinub, Vanillite, Snover, Delibird, and Snorunt are all available before Galar's first Gym as well as the first major city.

Oh yeah, that's true. I was thinking about the native ice type of the region that's usually found in the icy biome.
 
I feel like even if you can technically go anywhere as a result of it being open world, I feel like things like ride Pokemon and higher levelled areas will probably be there to keep players going in a certain direction. (at least generally) I have a hard time believing you'll be able to go absolutely anywhere you want right from the start.

I'm sure it'll still be possible to get to places you shouldn't though, since it's open world I'm sure there will be ways to get around obstacles the devs didn't account for.

To be fair, Swinub, Vanillite, Snover, Delibird, and Snorunt are all available before Galar's first Gym as well as the first major city.

While that's true, a lot of people like using entirely new Pokemon when playing a new gen game. I half considered picking up a Swinub when I played but I had too many new Pokemon I wanted to use.

As far as I know I don't think any newly introduced ice type Pokemon were available in the first part of Sword/Shields wild area. There's a good chance I would have used Frosmoth on my team if it had been available early.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of stuff was gated behind prerequisites because Gamefreak thinks about young players before anyone else. I'm gonna assume they think those players would get lost if you could literally go anywhere at the beginning of the game (i know adults that get lost in those games and eventually stop playing).
 
I wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of stuff was gated behind prerequisites because Gamefreak thinks about young players before anyone else. I'm gonna assume they think those players would get lost if you could literally go anywhere at the beginning of the game (i know adults that get lost in those games and eventually stop playing).
I can see that being the case. Sure, there will also be a map of the region. I tend to also get lost in open world games if I am not using the map.
 
With a seamless open-world setting, they should bring back the ability to see other players running around like in Sword and Shield, but not only that, have the Pokemon they chose to be following them to actually follow them around too. Shouldn't be too demanding with the Switch's capability.
 
Yeah, following pokemon only really worked in 2D in my opinion. Seems 3D just doesn't mesh all that well with that mechanic.
 
With a seamless open-world setting, they should bring back the ability to see other players running around like in Sword and Shield, but not only that, have the Pokemon they chose to be following them to actually follow them around too. Shouldn't be too demanding with the Switch's capability.
This could be a possibility. Both new areas in the SwSh DLC allowed Pokémon to follow you, and now that the entire game is open world, it makes more sense to have Pokémon follow you around everywhere now, rather than just being restricted to a few areas.
 
Well, the official website confirmed it. You can visit any area in any order.

Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet offer an open-world experience that only the Pokémon series can deliver—one welcoming even to newcomers to the series.,

You can experience a new style of adventure, with a world that you’re free to explore at your leisure and not in an order dictated by the story. You will, of course, journey to hone your skills as a Pokémon Trainer, but many more discoveries and stories await you. Meet a variety of people and Pokémon, and adventure in the world of Pokémon the way you want to.


They even upped the ante by not only letting you explore it wherever you want, but with up to 3 other players. Co-op was something that completely fell off my radar when speculating about these games (probably because I figured they would have other priorities) but I'm glad it's here.

Next big question: can we complete gyms (or whatever equivalent they may decide to include in this game instead) in any order? It's not confirmed yet, but at this point it's looking incredibly likely. I just can't see them letting you get to the entrance of the gym and them saying "sorry, but you need the ____ badge to challenge this gym". I thought they might confirm this today as well, but they may be saving that for a later reveal.
 
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Next big question: can we complete gyms (or whatever equivalent they may decide to include in this game instead) in any order? It's not confirmed yet, but at this point it's looking incredibly likely. I just can't see them letting you get to the entrance of the gym and them saying "sorry, but you need the ____ badge to challenge this gym". I thought they might confirm this today as well, but they may be saving that for a later reveal.
"not in an order dictated by the story" would seem to indicate that we'd be able to challenge whichever, whenever. unless they're going on some kind of inane technicality with "story."
 
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