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Which real-life place would you like a future Pokémon region to be based on?

JFrombaugh

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With all the talk about the Pokemon game for the Switch and Generation 8 and what region it is going to be based on, with most of the rumors seeming to point to Spain or Italy, this has got me thinking…what real-life part of the world do you think would make a good Pokemon region inspiration?

Personally, I would love the idea of a Pacific Northwest/Seattle-based region. I spent my elementary school years living there though, so I may be a bit biased. But I’ve always felt that things like the Pikes Place market and the Space Needle would fit in well in a major Pokemon city. Puget Sound and the system of ferries that takes cars across would open up some good ideas as well. Mt. St. Helens would be good as a volcano-type area, and the Hoh Rainforest would open up a lot of possibilities for a unique forest area as well.

Pokemon has always had a strong office base in the New York area, so using it for Unova kind of made sense, but Nintendo of America’s headquarters is actually in Seattle, so there’d be no problem with including a GameFreak office in the games & collaborating to make the region. Also, given that the PNW has a surprising number of microclimates (and constant drizzle in many places) it'd be a decent enough candidiate for including more Regional Variants of Pokémon.

Although Generation V is probably my least favorite overall (especially if you include the anime), one thing I’ve never really cared for about both Kalos and Alola is that they both feel very “monoculture” compared to past regions. In Sun & Moon this is alluded to with the whole story of Guzma and how Team Skull banded together out of a shared hatred towards Alolan culture. Compared to Kanto & Unova which feel much more like cultural “melting pots”, Kalos and Alola heavily favor those who fit the various French/Hawaiian stereotypes and molds. You can practically describe the typical character, and hit the nail on the head most of the time as you play through the games.

One of my fears about the upcoming Switch game is that if its region is in fact Poke-Spain or Poke-Italy, it could be similar in this regard...
 
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Call me biased, but being from India, I would love if the creators ever chose this country to be the setting for any future games; I would really like to see what the developers can do with the geographical and cultural diversity of this place.

Yeah, I'd vote Australia as well, with its buildings, and its deserts, for that country has me intrigued ever since watching a particular video on YouTube. GAMEFREAK, GIVE ME A SIDE-QUEST BASED AROUND THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, PLEASE! :D
 
Personally, I'd love for a region to be based on Italy. It would has a greatly varying climate, many animals to base Pokémon off of and many unique places for a player to visit. What would be interesting to see though, is how they would make a story around the legendary Pokémon.
 
Although I'm not from there, I'd like to see a game based in Indonesia.

My main reasoning for this is because of all its islands and being connected. The thing I loved most about the first 4 regions is how they were all connected as part of the same continent of sorts. I want the regions to be connected again like they did for the first 4 regions.
 
I think its time for a more snowy region again. Id like a region based on like norway scandanavia finland denmark. We get snowy area, tolkein esque rolling hills and mountains, cool viking stuff with boats, northern lights, cool looking hot springs
 
Does it need to be based on a specific place, they can just draw the covermon duo first, then make up an aestethic based on the covermon, and use it for the region, who i think is going to be a snowy one because it would be the sinnoh to alola's hoenn, kalos' johto, and unova's kanto. A bit scandinavian like but not exactly like scandinavia, just a slight motif. Could also be a christmassy fairytale motif in a specific town with the fairy gym
 
I’m a resident of the good ol’ Pacific Northwest myself and I’ve never realized just how perfect the region was for a Pokémon game. The settings you mentioned were easily able to be adapted to the Pokémon universe, and I’m glad you pointed it out. The PNW is home to a variety of ecosystems and envirmoments and it could be really interesting to see how in-depth GameFreak got with their game creative wise.

I have, however, have been dying to see a Pokémon game based off of a Hispanic or South American culture. The upcoming games have had some rumors of it being based off of Spain but I fear it could get a bit…distorted. Europe has already been “represented” in the games, while South America has not.

Brazil would be a prime candidate for future games. Their culture and icons are easily recognizable and could be tweaked to fit into the Pokémon universe, although they might have trouble with Christ the Redeemer. Some might find it rude to change in order for it to fit into the Pokémon universe, but religion has never made a strong appearance in the games and it would odd for it to do so now. The overall biological diversity, however, could be fun to base new pokémon after. The variety of birds, fauna, and wildlife is very diverse, especially considering the county boarders the sea. Rio de Janeiro would be an excellent city to base a city after, kind of like how Lumiose city was loosely based off Paris.

I also agree with you completely regarding the diversity in the Pokémon game, but Pokémon has always been…slow in that department. It was only in Generation VI where you could change your skin tone. :p
 
somewhere inland for a change, all the regions were by the sea (except orre, which doesn't quite count)

it would mean less water types, but there's a million of them already
 
  • Romania. It will be the base of a spooky region, with medieval architecture, buccolic towns, lots of countryside, a provincial and mysterious atmosphere.I think it would make an interesting and unique region.
 
So far we've had Kanto (real area in Japan), Johto (right next to Kanto, so more Japan), Hoenn (inspired by the island of Kyushu, more Japan), Sinnoh (based on Hokkaido, Japan), Unova (which I believe to be America due to them having football and soccer, etc.), Kalos (France, only because everyone says "BONJOUR!") and Alola (Hawaii).

I'mma say they spice it up and do a German or African region next.
 
I'd like to see a region based on Russia or some other place that has a totally different climate from Alola's or Hoenn's.
 
I'm biased because I live there, but I'd like to see Florida become the basis for a region. There'd be swamps, tropical islands, big cities, a theme park area, a space center, maybe some tropical jungles in the southern area, and some old St. Augustine-esque cities.

Also it'd be a good excuse for a generation
 
I think I've got it

Gen 8 (2019) - Scandinavia (to continue the city\rural\warm\cold cycle)
Gen 9 (2022) - breaks rules by straying away from being based on a specific place. Is a space station hundreds of years in the future. Instead of routes, the space station stops to alien planets to catch those planet's home Pokémon. You also meet alien trainers on the various planets, but the space station itself was built in Mossdeep space center and first sailed from there. (Likely even named after a character or Pokémon or an item\move\ability\place from the first four gens) This means that main character is a PokéHuman and so are most of the space station's population. End of the game you finally get to go to various routes from the previous games and catch Pokémon from those.
Gen 10 (2025) - It's an high fantasy world. You've got Elves and Dwarves and Orcs and stuff like that. You're a regular PokéHuman but you can learn magic\aura to become like a temporary 7th member of the party. The space station has brought some Gen 9 Pokémon to the Gen 10 region.

And then they will stop at 10 gens and 1000 Pokémon and only make remakes from then on.
 
Gen 9 (2022) - breaks rules by straying away from being based on a specific place. Is a space station hundreds of years in the future. Instead of routes, the space station stops to alien planets to catch those planet's home Pokémon. You also meet alien trainers on the various planets, but the space station itself was built in Mossdeep space center and first sailed from there. (Likely even named after a character or Pokémon or an item\move\ability\place from the first four gens) This means that main character is a PokéHuman and so are most of the space station's population. End of the game you finally get to go to various routes from the previous games and catch Pokémon from those.
Gen 10 (2025) - It's an high fantasy world. You've got Elves and Dwarves and Orcs and stuff like that. You're a regular PokéHuman but you can learn magic\aura to become like a temporary 7th member of the party. The space station has brought some Gen 9 Pokémon to the Gen 10 region.
As fancy as it sounds, I don't consider this to be probable sadly. The route, the game developers have been treading on all these years looks promising as is, and I don't see them straying from this route in favor of something fantastic. :)
 
Yes, most likely they won't have actual elves as trainers, or a region that's a space station. But they can make the gen 9 and 10 regions not be based on any specific country, with gen 9 straddling on Sci-Fi and gen 10 straddling on High Fantasy
 
Scandinavia, Greenland, etc. Something along those lines. While there are plenty of unique tropical/warm locales to still represent, we have seen enough for a while. Scandinavia is really underrepresented, yet beautiful. Would love to see a region based on it, especially if GameFreak gets better with graphics.
 
We have to remember that japanese developers usually favor regions that have some meaning to THEM. France was chosen because guess what, it's actually #1 tourist destination for the japanese. Hawaii was chosen because there is a lot of Japanese people living there. And USA for Unova was chosen because Japan thinks USA is cool, admires its cars, etc. Plus again, there is a big Japanese community in USA. So, judging by this, Brazil is the most plausible destination. It's beautiful, friendly, its nature is very diverse and its Japanese community is VERY BIG. Plus, Brazil is all about sports and don't forget, Japan is also all about sports plus Pokemon franchise is a sport mascot ambassador for Japan.

Countries that also have a chance: Germany, Italy (NOT because of Axis but believe me, these countries influenced Japan through their union. Yeah, even Miyazaki admired Italian planes so old habits die slowly, kinda...) China - because despite hostility, China influenced all of japanese culture through the ages. Also UK because they admire Sherlock, respect thetheir power and had some nice pre-war II connections where UK influenced them.

Unlikely countries: any Arabian countries (Muslim depiction controversy incoming...), Sweden or other scandinavia (not enough nature diversity and I think the Japanese aren't familiar enough with them), any Slavic country (same reasons)

Personally, I want to see India and China, Brazil too. But China most of all.
 
If they do a Scandinavian or Eastern European region they would propably branch out with the nature diversity things and do Pokémon that are not really associated with the place the region is based on. For example:

Gen 1 is set in Japan's Kanto region, if not a poisonous wasteland version of it. It has a mime, a kangaroo, and a valkyrie.
Gen 2 is very Asian (well, Kansai region) and has an hula dancer, roman alphabet F in a runic-themed font, and a giraffe.
Gen 3 is based on south Japan mostly Kyushu, and has gala ballerina guardian angels, an hopskinville goblin, and camels\dromedaries.
Gen 4 is based on north Japan mostly Hokkaido, and has beavers, a witch, a parrot, egypt-themed jackals, and hippopotami.
Gen 5 is based on New York State, and has monkeys from chinese proverb, incense burner-themed bakus, crocodiles, darumas, nazca line, sarcophagi, scarab and medieval knight who become medieval knight and ninja when traded with each other, and japanese bandits.
Gen 6 is based on France, and has lions and pandas.
Gen 7 is based on Hawaii, and has a koala, asian-style dragon, and a orangutan and lemur who are rivals.
 
Unova (which I believe to be America due to them having football and soccer, etc.)
Believe? It's confirmed.

Gen 5 is based on New York State, and has monkeys from chinese proverb, incense burner-themed bakus, crocodiles, darumas, nazca line, sarcophagi, scarab and medieval knight who become medieval knight and ninja when traded with each other, and japanese bandits.
I recall reading an interview which said that the inspiration behind Unova was seeing how multicultural America was.

Also, don't forget the 99 Flake Pokémon and golems.
 
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