Overall, the whole game just smacks of quality to me. The whole package - the graphics, differences in game play, the style and choice of inspiration, all state a definitively more Western/European society in this game as opposed Japanese.
The Pokemon designs reveal a little of this change in inspiration, though I emphasize that the range of generic species in the 5th generation, covers both northern and southern hemisphere, Western, Eastern and European culture, and many other besides.
The European connection starts with the grass starter has been described as "western" or "European" referring to the common or garden (North American)
Rough Green Snake, which shares some etymology with the European Grass Snake. The design of deer is specific to that found in Scotland, and most of central Europe, namely the red deer. The common pigeon, of Great Britain - the feral pigeon - and its specific colourings, match up with our Mamepeto. The swan Pokemon, is again, a European variant with white colouring. The Mole Pokemon is yet another European influence, and possibly based on the German Maulwürfe. The first of the revealed legendary trios, are based on
The Three Musketeers - a french influence.
The country itself, Isshu, is based on New York (from what we know from Pokemon Pia).The overall art style of the major cities have some similarities with several well known European cities - Hiun City for New York, is obviously American, but Sanyou City has some Germanic architecture (most notably in the style of its gym). The mountain regions, with mountain located towns, are more Alpine, perhaps in the style of the French or Swiss. The style of the tiled roofs suggest nothing less. There's also a decidedly British style half roundhouse, for steam engines, in the top left hand corner of the map.
This is all conjecture, of course, based on that I've been able to garner from Serebii.net's excellent resources. But it serves to illustrate a point that this game feels decidedly more global in its influences than previous games have done, both in the style of the environment and the creatures which inhabit it.
I'm very much excited at the thought I'll be playing this game in under a week, at the very least. The opportunity to capture more in this generation than even the first generation is a challenge not to be passed up, and the old mantra "gotta catch 'em all" has never sounded quite so challenging as of now!