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GALAR REGION Discussion & Speculation Thread

.Aerodactyl.

Well-Known Member
Is it confirmed to not be open world with a movable camera though? I don't know how to tell that from the trailers.

I agree that it really does look cramped. Like I said, I really love it. I love the motif, the aesthetic, but it really feels like it's missing another four towns/cities. Compared to Kalos, to alola... it seems scarce of a habitable population. Like even the area by the light house with the blue water arena/gym thing doesn't even look like a full town. This game looks like EVERY city but your hometown would have to have a gym just to hit six, and the rest are literally squeezed out of the woods.

It looks like maybe 7 cities/town total not counting your home town and some of those are a real stretch, like the light house area with three other buildings, the Rocky mountain range with two, maybe three other buildings? Then there's the ice area castle, which is just a castle. Maybe there's a whole town in there??? Maybe.

I don't mean to sound like a hater. I actually do love what we have and I think I will still love these games even more than USUM. It just feels really sparse. Not a lot of little cities or towns that just are. Alola even had pokemon centers between cities for long routes, this map doesn't seem to. Can't identify a place that might have a daycare/breeding center. Alola had ten cityies/towns plus over a dozen visitable locations with character like melee meadow, poni canyons, the resort, beaches, aether the paradise, etc. Most of Galar's cities look like they double as visitable locations.
 

Wulava

danger chili pepper
Staff member
Moderator
The map doesn't really give the whole region justice. It doesn't really show much. Just like the snowy area with a fountain.

I55fzsT.png
TTZESVG.png
 

Bolt the Cat

Bringing the Thunder
Is it confirmed to not be open world with a movable camera though? I don't know how to tell that from the trailers

An open world game wouldn't have all of the fences, barriers, and small paths. They don't need to say anything, we can tell just by looking at it whether or not it's linear or open.

As for the controllable camera, that's up in the air. There's a shot where the camera is spinning around the character, but it's unclear if you can actually do that in the game or if they're just doing it in the trailer. There does seem to be a lot of dynamic camera angles, but we don't know if the camera is actually controllable.

I agree that it really does look cramped. Like I said, I really love it. I love the motif, the aesthetic, but it really feels like it's missing another four towns/cities. Compared to Kalos, to alola... it seems scarce of a habitable population. Like even the area by the light house with the blue water arena/gym thing doesn't even look like a full town. This game looks like EVERY city but your hometown would have to have a gym just to hit six, and the rest are literally squeezed out of the woods.

It looks like maybe 7 cities/town total not counting your home town and some of those are a real stretch, like the light house area with three other buildings, the Rocky mountain range with two, maybe three other buildings? Then there's the ice area castle, which is just a castle. Maybe there's a whole town in there??? Maybe.

I don't mean to sound like a hater. I actually do love what we have and I think I will still love these games even more than USUM. It just feels really sparse. Not a lot of little cities or towns that just are. Alola even had pokemon centers between cities for long routes, this map doesn't seem to. Can't identify a place that might have a daycare/breeding center. Alola had ten cityies/towns plus over a dozen visitable locations with character like melee meadow, poni canyons, the resort, beaches, aether the paradise, etc. Most of Galar's cities look like they double as visitable locations.

It could be that the gyms aren't all in cities, or they're not actually gyms and they're something else. Alola didn't have 8 cities either, but it didn't need 8 cities to have 7/8 trials, it put some of them in dungeons instead.
 

.Aerodactyl.

Well-Known Member
there are 7 stadiums, in the brick/redstone area you can faintly make out a domelike shape around the base of the tower

factor in the cities etc on the map don't show everything (as evidenced by the starter town being much bigger than shown on the map) i'm sure in one of the 2 remaining big areas there will be a gym (probably in the mines)

not to mention the dragon castle area could not more clearly be either a: the legend/evil team climax location or b: the pokemon league

I've looked at the map a lot and watched the trailer a dozen times and in slow mo. I respectfully have to disagree. I do see the dome are you're talking about as another stadium area, but like the red building in the london town, I don't think it's similar enough to pass as having the same function. I mean, I might have to be wrong because if this is all their is where else can they squeeze it in?

I also do not think the starting town is bigger in the trailer than in the map. You can literally count building for building in the opening, most of those open fields don't look accessible. You can also count building for building at the green stadium. Unless it's all in caves and tunnels, it really doesn't look like a lot. I could be wrong, they could feel much higher in game but map compared to trailer certainly doesnt make me feel that way.
 

Ultra Beast Lover

Well-Known Member
The map doesn't really give the whole region justice. It doesn't really show much. Just like the snowy area with a fountain.

I55fzsT.png
TTZESVG.png
I wonder if this is the site of the Pokemon league? It must be important, a stand is there. Could be a battle facility location, but what if this is like the anime where the league takes place in a city.
 

.Aerodactyl.

Well-Known Member
It could be that the gyms aren't all in cities, or they're not actually gyms and they're something else. Alola didn't have 8 cities either, but it didn't need 8 cities to have 7/8 trials, it put some of them in dungeons instead.

Oh this is entirely true, and even if there were 8 cities I would think that even one gym might not be in a city/town. My worry is more so that there really only is about 7 citys/towns total, most combined with visitable locations. There doesn't look to be a lot.of other places to put them period, city or not. Where as even if Alola didn't have a city for every trial, they still had 10 explorable city/towns all together, and dozens of others areas you can see on the map.

The map doesn't really give the whole region justice. It doesn't really show much. Just like the snowy area with a fountain.

I55fzsT.png
TTZESVG.png
I think that's because that fountain isn't at that castle. Looks like it's at the base of the London city or thereabouts.
 
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amoebo

amoeboVGC
I've looked at the map a lot and watched the trailer a dozen times and in slow mo. I respectfully have to disagree. I do see the dome are you're talking about as another stadium area, but like the red building in the london town, I don't think it's similar enough to pass as having the same function. I mean, I might have to be wrong because if this is all their is where else can they squeeze it in?

I also do not think the starting town is bigger in the trailer than in the map. You can literally count building for building in the opening, most of those open fields don't look accessible. You can also count building for building at the green stadium. Unless it's all in caves and tunnels, it really doesn't look like a lot. I could be wrong, they could feel much higher in game but map compared to trailer certainly doesnt make me feel that way.
Well just at a quick glance there are 4(?) buildings on the map and there are most certainly more than 4 buoldings in the beginning.
 

Pokemon Fan

Knuckle Trainer
I really don't get how some people can say the region looks small, especially with how long some of the routes appear to be (and how big some of the cities seem to be). It will depend a lot on just how much of the map is actually traversable of course.
 

amoebo

amoeboVGC
An open world game wouldn't have all of the fences, barriers, and small paths. They don't need to say anything, we can tell just by looking at it whether or not it's linear or open.

As for the controllable camera, that's up in the air. There's a shot where the camera is spinning around the character, but it's unclear if you can actually do that in the game or if they're just doing it in the trailer. There does seem to be a lot of dynamic camera angles, but we don't know if the camera is actually controllable.



It could be that the gyms aren't all in cities, or they're not actually gyms and they're something else. Alola didn't have 8 cities either, but it didn't need 8 cities to have 7/8 trials, it put some of them in dungeons instead.

Think you're in for a real shock when you find all of the small paths, barriers and fences within Breath of the Wild.

On a less cynical note, I have 0 clue why after almost a quarter decade we still have hordes of people believe in the chance of an open world pokemon game when they have a formula that works that they clearly plan on using to be the basis of their games. Not to mention that an open world with turn based battles would become immensely jarring after a while, with the added issue of having to render numerous models at one time which not even BotW handled super well.
 

.Aerodactyl.

Well-Known Member
Well just at a quick glance there are 4(?) buildings on the map and there are most certainly more than 4 buoldings in the beginning.

Only one not on the map seems to be the pokemon center behind the purple building. There is the brown building that looks connected to that purple building that isn't coloured on the map, but they look the same building to me. Looking at the green stadium shot again, seems that just the pokemon center isn't shown. So, I am wrong. There is more than shown, it looks like they don't have the pokemon center buildings blocked onto the map. My apologies.

In battle scenes, there seems to be more buildings shown in the background that what was even shown walking into the city from route one, but I'm not sure that background is "true to form" or not.

Like, I hope I'm wrong. I hope they look and feel way bigger than what the map makes it seem like. I'm just not feeling it from this trailer alone in comparison. Granted, its a teaser trailer. I aim to keep an open mind.
 
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Ducolamia

SAYYYY WHAT???
Only one not on the map seems to be the pokemon center behind the purple building. There is the brown building that looks connected to that purple building that isn't coloured on the map, but they look the same building to me. Looking at the green stadium shot again, seems that just the pokemon center isn't shown. So, I am wrong. There is more than shown, it looks like they don't have the pokemon center buildings blocked onto the map. My apologies.

In battle scenes, there seems to be more buildings shown in the background that what ass even shown walking into the city from route one, but I'm not sure that background is "true to form" or not.

Like, I hope I'm wrong. I hope they look and feel way bigger than what the map makes it seem like. I'm just not feeling it from this trailer alone in comparison. Granted, its a teaser trailer. I aim to keep an open mind.

I mentioned this early but just for a recap Joe mentioned that the map they show us really doesn't do the game justice this time around:

https://twitter.com/JoeMerrick/status/1100797159610503168

It seems that the areas are a bit bigger than what was presented in the trailers. My opinion is that the region seems to be more based on the countryside of Britain. There's a lot of fields and plains and such. I think the cities are where the real action is going to be. I do wonder about transportation. Maybe a Metro we unlock later on?
 

Bolt the Cat

Bringing the Thunder
Think you're in for a real shock when you find all of the small paths, barriers and fences within Breath of the Wild.

None of the barriers in BotW block off significant portions of the overworld though. There might be a few blocking off cities, but in general if you want to go in a direction, there's nothing stopping you.
 

.Aerodactyl.

Well-Known Member
Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, I don't know what qualifies as "open world" I figured as soon as its not grid based its considered open world? It seems like a very open concept to me, but like, I dont play a lot of games outside pokemon to know the difference. Even if open world I'd still expect the pokemon games to be fairly linear. Like I said before, it seems like an open map to me but like a SMALL open map. I'm glad my initial analysis is looking incorrect but I'm still feeling like it's small.
 

UltimateNinja

Praying for the holy relics
An open-world is just that: An open-world.

A world where you can travel to any point of the world without any (or only a couple) restrictions. In BotW you can travel to any point of the map after you left the starting area. You can choose when you're going to too any location and in the order you want.

Technically this should be also working for a Pokemon region. The difference here which makes an open-world in Pokemon so difficult is the fact that it's an RPG. One artificial restriction would be the level of the trainers at a certain point. In BotW even if you only have three hearts you can still beat any monster in the world. Would take forever and it would be insanely difficult, but it should be possible.

In Pokemon it's almost impossible to win with a Lv5 starter against a trainer with Lv50 Pokemon. You could trade a strong enough Pokemon in the game but then we have forced restriction in form of story elements which forces you to visit another place first.

What should be possible though would be making the routes look like a big, non-linear area to explore where all paths you can theoretically choose will end at the very same spot. And maybe that could happen in Sword&Shield in some places after looking at the map. But completely open world? I don't think there was any chance.
 

Bolt the Cat

Bringing the Thunder
Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, I don't know what qualifies as "open world" I figured as soon as its not grid based its considered open world? It seems like a very open concept to me, but like, I dont play a lot of games outside pokemon to know the difference. Even if open world I'd still expect the pokemon games to be fairly linear. Like I said before, it seems like an open map to me but like a SMALL open map. I'm glad my initial analysis is looking incorrect but I'm still feeling like it's small.

A game is generally only considered open world if it has a seamless overworld. In other words, you can walk in any direction, literally 360 degrees, and not hit a wall. You don't follow a specific route to get from one city to the next, you don't progress through the region in a specific order, you just go anywhere you want anytime you want. So by definition, if Pokemon were to go open world it can't still be linear. They're polar opposites.

To put things in perspective, here's a screenshot of BotW:

Main-Day.jpg

It should pop out at you that there are no paths whatsoever. It's just one big field and there's nothing stopping you from going in whatever direction you want. That's what an open world is.

An open-world is just that: An open-world.

A world where you can travel to any point of the world without any (or only a couple) restrictions. In BotW you can travel to any point of the map after you left the starting area. You can choose when you're going to too any location and in the order you want.

Technically this should be also working for a Pokemon region. The difference here which makes an open-world in Pokemon so difficult is the fact that it's an RPG. One artificial restriction would be the level of the trainers at a certain point. In BotW even if you only have three hearts you can still beat any monster in the world. Would take forever and it would be insanely difficult, but it should be possible.

In Pokemon it's almost impossible to win with a Lv5 starter against a trainer with Lv50 Pokemon. You could trade a strong enough Pokemon in the game but then we have forced restriction in form of story elements which forces you to visit another place first.

What should be possible though would be making the routes look like a big, non-linear area to explore where all paths you can theoretically choose will end at the very same spot. And maybe that could happen in Sword&Shield in some places after looking at the map. But completely open world? I don't think there was any chance.

There's a way around that in the form of level scaling though. Make it so the trainer levels increase the more badges you have and then you can travel anywhere you want while the difficulty follows your progress. Problem solved.
 
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