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GALAR REGION Discussion & Speculation Thread

Hydrohs

安らかに眠ります、岩田さん。
Staff member
Super Mod
I think Pokemon is a game that lends itself very well to being linear, much like Final Fantasy, for example. They're both games with a clear purpose that the development team is setting out for the player, they're not sandboxes and they don't need to be. Perhaps it could be a little less "on-rails" in some places, but I haven't personally found the games lacking because they are still very linear.

I don't think Pokemon is ready for its Breath of the Wild moment yet.
 

amoebo

amoeboVGC
I think Pokemon is a game that lends itself very well to being linear, much like Final Fantasy, for example. They're both games with a clear purpose that the development team is setting out for the player, they're not sandboxes and they don't need to be. Perhaps it could be a little less "on-rails" in some places, but I haven't personally found the games lacking because they are still very linear.

I don't think Pokemon is ready for its Breath of the Wild moment yet.

It's also very likely that it never reaches that level in the main-line series. I can foresee a spin-off or LGPE-style game where it's technically a "main game" but isn't connected to the main line of games in terms of story progression etc.

Hell, I would say that there's a better chance of it being outsourced than anything else. The Pokemon formula as it works right now does not translate into an open world game; with all of its distinct starts and stops (how jarring would it be if you were playing BotW and out of the blue a NPC see's you, you get hauled out and have to stop in place to fight the enemy. BotW works because the combat is fluid and a part of the open world experience) and with how it essentially prints money for the company there is a nonzero chance it happens anytime soon.

Anyways, back onto the actual topic of this thread, re: Galar, the region so far looks absolutely stunning and it is clear that this is probably the most diverse region yet. There's also some suspicious clouds, per normal, so I suspect there to be more yardage on the map (could be more off to the side(s) that due to how the region is styled we cannot see, almost like a globe effect)
 

Ducolamia

SAYYYY WHAT???
I think Pokemon is a game that lends itself very well to being linear, much like Final Fantasy, for example. They're both games with a clear purpose that the development team is setting out for the player, they're not sandboxes and they don't need to be. Perhaps it could be a little less "on-rails" in some places, but I haven't personally found the games lacking because they are still very linear.

I don't think Pokemon is ready for its Breath of the Wild moment yet.

I agree. I think comparing Pokemon to BoTW is very unfair as those games had two fundamental different ideologies behind them. Pokemon games are more linear simply because they are more centered around plot/stoy-related elements. Even in the early games the openness was pretty artificial as the story was bare bones. Sure you could challenge certain gyms in whatever order you want. But that clearly wasn't the intention as the levels don't really make up for it and you still have to follow story-related segments to finish the game (Silph co, team rocket, lavender town, game corner so forth). The main problem with the more recent gens is that the pacing makes things a lot more grindy and railroaded. Now personally, it never bothered me, (I played through the game multiple times and other worse off RPGs) but I can see why it bug people who are used to just picking up and playing.

I'd much more want to see it compared to things like DragonQuest or older FF games as those games, while grindy and a bit tedious still can offer a lot from players. If anything those types of games are the way to go and I'd like to see them take a lesson from those series.

BoTW was clearly a game made for people who are already used to open world Zelda titles and wanted way more from that. We can also talk about how that game while being considered great, still gets flak for not having enough content in it's world to begin with. Despite everything it has to offer. That being said, it doesn't mean pokemon can't improve, but the people wanting a BoTW pokemon game are not going to get it simply because the same ideologies are not in place when making these games. That's just a fact. I know BoTW is great, but not every game needs those elements and SOME of them probably wouldn't work as well in pokemon as people would like to believe.

That being said:

Anyways, back onto the actual topic of this thread, re: Galar, the region so far looks absolutely stunning and it is clear that this is probably the most diverse region yet. There's also some suspicious clouds, per normal, so I suspect there to be more yardage on the map (could be more off to the side(s) that due to how the region is styled we cannot see, almost like a globe effect)

It looks like we're hiking up the region. I feel it's more of a mountain-thing like we're making our way up from the bottom to the top. I wonder if we'll have some post-game area to go around in? Maybe a tower to explore?
 

.Aerodactyl.

Well-Known Member
I think Pokemon is a game that lends itself very well to being linear, much like Final Fantasy, for example. They're both games with a clear purpose that the development team is setting out for the player, they're not sandboxes and they don't need to be. Perhaps it could be a little less "on-rails" in some places, but I haven't personally found the games lacking because they are still very linear.

I don't think Pokemon is ready for its Breath of the Wild moment yet.

Understanding open world a bit better, I'm inclined to agree with this. Not necessarily that it isn't ready, but that the games actually work best with a more linear style of play for plot. I mean, I'd love a camera I could move around, I love big, detailed explorable areas that are more "off the rails" (this was well described) but I don't mind going to cities in order and being kept back from certain open plains. I imagine in games like Breath of the Wild you are eventually walking past something you can't cross or traverse.

I care more about towns and cities that are bustling with people and have different buildings to explore and shops to buy from then a completely open forest.
 

Bolt the Cat

Bringing the Thunder
I agree. I think comparing Pokemon to BoTW is very unfair as those games had two fundamental different ideologies behind them. Pokemon games are more linear simply because they are more centered around plot/stoy-related elements. Even in the early games the openness was pretty artificial as the story was bare bones. Sure you could challenge certain gyms in whatever order you want. But that clearly wasn't the intention as the levels don't really make up for it and you still have to follow story-related segments to finish the game (Silph co, team rocket, lavender town, game corner so forth). The main problem with the more recent gens is that the pacing makes things a lot more grindy and railroaded. Now personally, it never bothered me, (I played through the game multiple times and other worse off RPGs) but I can see why it bug people who are used to just picking up and playing.

I'd much more want to see it compared to things like DragonQuest or older FF games as those games, while grindy and a bit tedious still can offer a lot from players. If anything those types of games are the way to go and I'd like to see them take a lesson from those series.

BoTW was clearly a game made for people who are already used to open world Zelda titles and wanted way more from that. We can also talk about how that game while being considered great, still gets flak for not having enough content in it's world to begin with. Despite everything it has to offer. That being said, it doesn't mean pokemon can't improve, but the people wanting a BoTW pokemon game are not going to get it simply because the same ideologies are not in place when making these games. That's just a fact. I know BoTW is great, but not every game needs those elements and SOME of them probably wouldn't work as well in pokemon as people would like to believe.

Yeah, those aren't facts nor are they ideological differences. Story and openness don't directly contradict each other, they can have a story while still allowing you to complete it out of order, they just need to get more creative with how they handle it. That's not an ideological difference, an ideological difference is in the core concept of the series. And Pokemon's core concept does not require a story. Its core concept is to go out on an adventure through a large region, finding Pokemon to catch, and then training and battling them. Open world doesn't ideologically contradict that, in fact open world can complement that.
 

Ducolamia

SAYYYY WHAT???
And Pokemon's core concept does not require a story. Its core concept is to go out on an adventure through a large region, finding Pokemon to catch, and then training and battling them.

I agree to an extent. I still firmly believe that the design ideologies are different for each game and you are correct in the fact they don't have to directly contradict with one another, but as you mentioned above pokemon's core concept does not require a story, but THE PROBLEM is that they clearly want one. They've been wanting a better one since gen 5. And gen 7 is when we got even more of that. The director even specifically mentioned in interviews they wanted to create a more cinematic game. If pokemon want to continue these story elements, it's going to keep some of that linearity for the sake of convenience.

Some people just want the basic battling and such, but others also prefer a story (I'm in the later camp). I pointed to games such as FF and DQ because while those games have traditional RPG elements I think they solves the non-linearity issue well enough with their story elements. The reason I think comparing the games to BoTW is unfair is because Zelda is an adventure game in which that genre gives you way more freedom to begin with while RPGs generally do not. So I personally think taking an example from DQ ( the fast travel, party members and how they're handled and some small creative aspects) and FF ( linear story, but still plenty of places to move around to and sidequests to do) is a better idea for possibilities to expand upon. I think comparing Pokemon to better RPGs gives you more of an idea of what they could work from instead of another genre that had it's own sets of issues.
 

Stygian

Well-Known Member
The region map has me insanely excited man. The overall cozy vibe we see from the trailer, and the colder/snowier areas make Galar feel like a cross between sinnoh and kalos at first glance. I'm here it.

It looks huge too especially because the trailer shows that areas are much larger and open than they are on the map.
 

King Shuckle

Don't be daft
If you notice at the bottom of the map, where your starting house is at, there is a path as you leave that turns a sharp left and looks like it leads to a forested area or perhaps a hidden area we haven’t seen yet?

I’m also noticing there isn’t any water routes, routes to surf on, unless those beach-like areas on the left side of Galar are our water routes, in which case, I wonder if we will get an “island town” that’s hidden in those massive cloud groupings. I see a few lakes, but that’s really it. I’m still think there is more to the region than what we see on the map, but only time will tell.
 
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Ducolamia

SAYYYY WHAT???
If you notice at the bottom of the map, where your starting house is at, there is a path as you leave that turns a sharp left and looks like it leads to a forested area or perhaps a hidden area we haven’t seen yet?

I’m also noticing there isn’t any water routes, routes to surf on. I see a few lakes, but that’s really it. I’m still think there is more to the region than what we see on the map, but only time will tell.

They did show a really dark forest in the trailers. I don't really see a big forest area in the map, so it could be somewhat hidden. I wouldn't be surprised if they limited the water routes this gen considering we went to a bunch of islands in the previous gen.
 

Dragalge

"Orange" Magical Girl
As for my thoughts on the region, some of the locations look pretty neat. I'm somehow reminded of New Pork City from Mother 3 when looking at that upmost city to the north haha. I will say that I will miss Poni Island's untamed wilderness. That place proved that you don't need big utopias to be an interesting place (and let's face it, not every place in the world is inhabitable by humans lol even if there was the Battle Tree and Seafolk Village)!
 

Gen82

Well-Known Member
With all the sport like stadiums around I wonder if the Pokemon gyms will play out more like the tournament in the Best Wishes anime than the previous gyms.
 

Lumineon457

Well-Known Member
Okay. So, until I see an in-game map not skewed by the curvature of the Earth, I'm going to stick with my "just Scotland" theory. Here are my guesses as to what locations we might see.

Galar.jpg
 

JohnLynch

Well-Known Member
I'm British (England) and while I'm glad they did a region based on my country...I really wish they had included Ireland and Wales.

The map at a glance seems really linear, unless one loops round to the big city a lot.

It could also be really big but we'll see.
I thought so at first. But if you look closer at the high res version there's actually quite a few optional routes and shortcuts back to earlier towns. It might not be as linear as first assumed.
 

shadowF

Well-Known Member
Where does everyone think the 8 gyms will be scattered and where the Pokemon League will be?
 

Wulava

danger chili pepper
Staff member
Moderator
Just for fun, I am trying to match the game map with the real world counterparts, especially following upside-down Britain.

Pretty sure London is on the topmost, and Manchester is the steampunk city. But the location of the hill figure, assuming it's the Cerne Abbas Giant, doesn't match because it's in Dorset, which is far from Manchester. Then I'm assuming the middle Draconian city is Birmingham since it's the 2nd largest city next to London. The snow city is Liverpool or Cardiff?

Then there's the rocky wall. If it's reversed then it's Antonine Wall, not Hadrian.

The lakes are supposed to represent the Lochs of Scotland... I think?

The city just above our hometown is Glasgow?

The previous regions were easy to match. Galar is so difficult, I'm not so sure anymore. Haha. >____>
 
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