I would like to see an open world game for pokemon. I think it would work amazing.
Here's what I would envision an open world to look like for pokemon:
A big open-air map. With all the exploration features of BOTW: climbing, swimming, and gliding. But since this is pokemon, let's add some more elements: Diving, Flying, and Digging, Surfing. (For the digging, it would be cool if certain places had underground caverns. Filled with bio luminescent fungi and crystals). Dynamic weather that effects the gameplay. Have cooking! You find ingredients and you make your pokemon meals. It can be for bonding and also in battle.
Instead of Routes you have zones. Each zone will have a certain level of pokemon. Let's say zone 1 has pokemon from level 1-10. Zone 2 has 5-15. Zone 3 has 10-20. And so on. So on.
There are three types of pokemon:
- Pokemon that run away from you
- Pokemon that chase after you
- Pokemon that stand their ground
We can also introduce something called auras: Some pokemon have green auras. Some Pokemon have red auras. If you engage in a battle with a pokemon with green auras, it instantly goes into capture mode like LGPE. If you engage in a battle with a pokemon that has red auras, a battle starts and the pokemon scales to your average party level.
Some pokemon only come out during the morning, day, evening, night. Some pokemon only come out when its' raining, during a sandstorm, snowing. Imagine if you can only catch a surskit during the morning when it's raining. You can also have seasons, and have pokemon migrate. During the winter Ursarings are found in the caves in Zone 13, but during the summer you can find them in the forest in zone 16.
Each zone has their own set of Trainers. But these trainers are moving throughout the zone. The trainers in the zone are all at set level. However, as you beat them you can go back and rebattle them at a stronger level. Trainers can spot you up on a hill or up in a tree or climbing a cliff and challenge you in a battle. You can even add a mechanic where you can hide and sneak past trainers if you don't wanna battle them. There's also Roaming Trainers. Let's say you battle Mountain Climber Eddie in zone 8. You can then rebattle him in Zone 13. They move to different zones. There are trainers who randomly show up to you, (like the ninjas in BOTW) and they battle you. These trainers scale to your team or even the amount of badges you.
Of course we have gym leaders. In fact, we might go even a step further, and gyms aren't in cities or town anymore. They're somewhere in the middle of nature and you have to go find them.
As for shrines in BOTW, they could be trails, where you battle Totem pokemon. Imagine finding hidden coves, groves, tunnels and there are Totem pokemon in them. There are 100 totem pokemons. Finding z-crystals. Finding tms. Finding zygarde cells. Finding mega stones. It will be so much more.
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In terms of linearity here are some options for a linear pokemon game:
To keep trainers from catching high level pokemon early in the game, the trainer needs badges for them to listen to them. IF you catch a level 70 it might not listen to you if you got 3 badges.
Some areas might need certain items to get to them. Like a desert needs goggles. You need winter clothes to go up a mountain. Some islands or even section of the region can't be swam too and you need surf, or a sail. You unlock those by completing story beats and fighting gyms.
In terms of non-linear:
You can go anywhere as long as you're tough enough. Gyms scale to your party and number of badges you have. So if you have 5 badges and you're level 50, you can't switch your party to level 10s and the fight the 6th gym leader, no. They're gonna be level 50+. Each gym unlocks a story element but they're all can be rearranged. You don't need a specific order. Or the main story thread is an opt in kind of thing like Fallout 4.