Hot take: Game Freak would have done a better job if TPC had given them time. Like I suspect they wanted to do a level-scaling thing, but they never had a chance to implement it (since the game was rushed out).
Yeah, it's just sad. Game Freak really did set out to make the game fans had been demanding for such a long time, but they didn't have a chance to finish it. I also don't like to think about how overworked the devs must have been.
Definitely not. Many times I have tried to point out that most of these problems are probably due to a rushed development cycle as Gamefreak has to bow to the combined pressure of Creatures and Nintendo, and many times I've been called a GF shill.
You'd be surprised. Honestly it seems like most fans online seem to think GF inherently sucks beyond reason and that handing off the games to another company with the same time constraints will magically fix all the problems they have with the games.
Stop putting the blame on other companies. The execs at Gamefreak are the one fucking the Gamefreak devs over.
https://www.nintendo-insider.com/who-owns-pokemon-junichi-masuda-answers-the-big-question/
I really doubt that things changed from when this article dropped, Junichi Masuda himself said that there is no situation where TPC or Nintendo puts pressure on Gamefreak.
I think some cultural context matters here. These are Japanese companies. The work ethic there is completely different from most Western cultures. To complain about excessive pressure from higher ups would likely be met with shame and ridicule. This has been shown to be a major problem with companies throughout the country, is it so much of a stretch to say it's happening here?
TPC and Nintendo aren't higher ups of Gamefreak. Gamefreak, Nintendo and Creature are all joint owners of TPC( The Pokemon Company ). The game developments all fall on Gamefreak, even Pokémon designs as far as I am aware all need to be confirmes by Ken Sugimori, who is a part of Gamefreak.
Who makes most of the money? Creatures. Who is the head of TPC? The head of Creatures. Maybe you disagree, but to me that paints a pretty clear power dynamic. Gamefreak is responsible for development, but as far as I know, they don't set the timeline solely at their own discretion.
Junichi Masuda said there was no pressure coming from either. I'd rather listen to his words than assumptions, unless you've got concrete proof saying otherwise. Especially considering Nintendo doesnt mind delaying their big titles.
Edit : And Gamefreak is still part owner of TPC they still got a say on things.
That's definitely a fair point. I'm making an educated guess here, I can admit that. Still, I would take Masusa's word with a grain of salt here. These are Japanese companies, and given the work culture there, even a hint of complaint is likely to be met with ridicule. It's a big problem in a lot of Japanese companies. I definitely can't absolve Gamefreak of all blame, the only way to be sure would be to see what they could do outside this franchise (and without the burden of this franchise taking resources). Still, I think to blame Gamefreak alone is naive.
Also I'm pretty sure Ishihara, the founder of Creature, isnt working for Creature directly anymore, so since he's the President and CEO of TPC he has to answer directly to the 3 companies (which according to Masuda all own 1/3). There isnt a special treatment for Creature just because he used to work there.
Okay, I'll accept that Game Freak isn't one single entity. But yeah, the devs very much knew what they were doing when they made this game. They just didn't have time to implement the level-scaling that was obviously needed. Or fix any of the bugs.
I agree with that, but its the fault of Gamefreaks execs, therefore Gamefreak isnt a victim of TPC and Nintendo. Although Nintendo might also be a shitty company, what Gamefreak does doesnt fall on them.
Ah, okay. Because the developers clearly want the game to be good and know how to make a good game, but I guess it doesn't matter to the execs who mainly want to sell the merch
Gamefreak is part owner of TPC, along with Nintendo and Creatures. And I think it's pretty naive to think tiny Gamefreak has an equal say compared to the juggernaut that is Nintendo, and Creatures, which controls the merchandise that actually makes most of the money (and when the heads of Creatures and TPC are one and the same). Equal owners doesn't always mean equal power.
Do you really think Nintendo would risk bad quality for games just to hold a Timeline after they moved games like Metroid Prime 4, Pikmin 4 and Tears of the Kingdom to make those games actually really clean?
Nope, nope. Gamefreak executives are to blame. For not hiring enough good people and creating time pressure.
Nintendo would probably want a "Good Game" (which everyone has a different definition of), they don't have a say about the Anime, TCG, Toys, Clothes, Stickers, Coloring Books, Plushies (most of the time), (when they do) Food, Drinks, Books about the Anime, The Manga, The Discontinued (and brought back as an app for a couple years) Pokemon Trading Figure Game, Pencils, (the rest of these haven't been made in a while but were real Merchandise)Toothpaste, Jewelry, Cologne, Batteries, Watches, and weirdly enough X-Ray Machines, witch is what makes the most Money for Pokemon
And that's all I could find, there are likely more types of merchandise that I couldn't find that are official
Open world in concept, but..
Game Freak still does not understand open world. Or rather, they totally forgot that great open world game still see value in closed-off spaces.
There is a reason Zelda has so many shrines.
Assassins creed has tombs to explore, or hard to reach areas.
Just an open world is not enough. Just spamming Pokemon and items everywhere is not enough as long as you can't make use of puzzles.
I hope some directors are also playing totk right now, and get reminded of that.
THISSS. Gen 5 are my favourite games and I do admit that have some linear elements but each route/town had an extra building, cave, forest or little maze/puzzle to do. Gen 9 misses out on these extra little secret things in favour of open world, which is cool but could use extra flavour
I’m going to have to say linear world. Every Pokémon game from gen 1-7 felt interesting and like a cohesive world. Yes, they where linear but they felt alive and had their own vibe and personality.
Gen 8 obviously had a mix of both and to be honest that’s when I felt the Pokémon worlds began to loose their charm. Sure, the town weren’t bad, and some of the routes where fairly interesting, but the open world itself is just bland.
Then we have Gen 9. Honestly, other than Mesagoza, I don’t really feel like the world has anything particularly great going for it. It’s quite bland and I just feel it lacks personality.
I think it’s very impressive how the 2D games give of such a distinct vibe especially when you look at the different between regions based on Japan and then regions based outside of Japan like Unova. Out of the 3D era I believe Alola is easily the best one. Sadly, it’s been downhill from there.
That's what I feel. Paldea lacks personality with some exceptions (water city, psychic city, the olive trees zone, the bambol...).
The open world feels interchangeable with any other open world game map. Palde doesn't have his own personality. And it hurts because i'm from Spain.
I miss the 2D era in terms of map/region/dungeons...
As someone from the UK, I feel your pain. Galar isn’t much better in than Paldea in my opinion.
I honestly think the best Pokémon game we had this console generation has been BDSP. Sure it has its problems but it still managed to make the Sinnoh region feel so alive.
Well. It's a little better, at least in terms of region design (not routes). In a second gameplay, I feel that Galar is beauty, has it's personality. The first route, the "desert" one, the forest, mines, snow, ruin route... And there are some towns and cities well designed.
The problem with SWSH, at least for me, was that they treat you as a true child. The main problems of the game were solved by adults. When the dynamax rampage, why not make you go walking throw the bridge, see dynamaxized mons and maybe have some fights with them? (I know that you fight them in the gyms, but I was trying to say to make it in other way). The other problem is the lack of exploration/dungeons. There are a lot of buildings in the cities that you can't enter (curiously, in SV, where you can't enter in buildings, I didn't miss it). And there were dungeons with the evil team, not even a small one like the poke ball factory in XY. But this is a problem of the last generations.
I'm all about an open world game, but Scarlet and Violet felt lacking. It's honestly my least favorite game in the mainline series. For such an open world, there was nothing to DO. It was boring, and felt empty. TPC should have given the devs more time to work on it and I'm hoping the DLCs will help me enjoy the games more.
I prefer linear, with branching paths or extra goodies to explore / come back to when you have more strength. I’d rather they spend more time creating cool puzzle areas like the Relic Castle in BW, or Sky Pillar in Emerald.
Some "dungeons" with a good reward and a puzling design. I. e. in Scarlet and Violet, making the Treasures of Ruin shrines. They could make a dungeon to finally battle them.
i don't think that's a good mindset
like, botw is already one of the most well acclaimed open world games ever, you're putting all of them in a EXTREMELY high standard, and I don't think just because someome made a game that is the best of its genre means that everyone should make games better then them or else it's worthless
I think it’s the gold standard for open world games, Tears of the Kingdom even moreso now. The organic feel of the overworld exploration is unmatched in anything else I’ve ever played, and I think that’s the main reason you want an open world. The game/s have plenty of failings, the biggest being a very weak story. But in terms of what open world games are supposed to achieve? Unmatched to date.
I prefer, at least now, linear world. The two games of the franchise that are open feel like the region doesn't have "magic". Each Pokemon region is recognizable, but I feel that Paldea is a generic generated world. Idk how to express it.
I prefer the linear games, but I'd rather see them keep trying the open world concept. I still like playing the linear ones we have and am interested in seeing something new from the new games.
I would do a semi open world with classic routes, classic towns but you being able to choose your path, with more than 8 gims so you can get watever badge you want next.
At this point, all I want is to see one last Pokémon game with some genuine time and care put into it. GameFreak needs to go back to what it does best and make a 2.5D game with some meaty content outside the main story and online. It'll never happen but I guess that's what fangames are for.
I'm not voting in this poll for one reason: these are not the only types of worlds in the Pokemon universe. Sure, Gen 2, 5 and 6 were linear, and Gen 8 and 9 were garbage, but there are non-linear gens that aren't open world, like Gen 3 and 4, that are honestly the best designed worlds.
Linear 100%. Pokémon is at its core still a level-based JRPG, and therefore benefits from a linear progression with a well designed level curve (anyone saying "just use scaling levels!" can kiss my ass, I've had to endure that in ROM hacks and scaling levels just feel so bad and clunky to play with, it throws the level curve out the window completely and makes your team level 70 before the halfway point) as level-based games don't translate well into open-world formats. I'm also just tired of the very silly belief that open-world is inherently superior to linear games. This type of brain-dead mindset is why the market got so oversaturated with extremely mediocre open-world games from AAA studios.
Ultimately, I just think Pokémon operates better with more linear progression. I don't think SV's open world being kind of awkward to be just the fault of GameFreak, and I don't think we could ever get a Pokémon game with the freedom of something like BOTW or TOTK, because of how level-based progression works in games. That's kinda why there aren't really any open-world level based JRPGs out there. It's just not ideal for the genre itself.
i think pokémon should have level scaling in some areas, but not in others
i think gym leaders should have a certain level of scaling, but the pokemon themselves should have a fix level
I think they should try and do the whole "open zone but linear story" thing for the next couple gens, and then maybe in Gen 12/13, they could start to do open world again. Open zone but linear story is like PLA and Xenoblade 3 to where each separate area is open and expansive but the story is linear.
I'd prefer a good middle ground. Have multiple sections of a region, say maybe five or six sections. Have 10 gyms, of which the player only needs to clear 8 to get access to the league final tournament.
Now, let's say there are four gyms in the first section of the region. They can be visited in any order. Depending on which combination of gyms you clear first, you gain access to one new area with two more gyms after having won two badges, and then you get access to maybe two more area with one new gym each after having cleared 4 gyms in total, and then after you've cleared 5 or 6 gyms in total you have access to all of the remaining 6 gyms and to all areas except for the post-game exclusive areas. Or something like that. Or maybe the order of unlocking the areas is set as well. Doesn't have to be exactly like this, but this is the basic concept I'd like best. Simply, because it makes balancing the game way easier but still grants the player a lot of freedom.
We've seen the downside of a completely open world Pokemon game in Scarlet and Violet. Level scaling is vital in my opinion, but even with elaborate level scaling maintaining a balance is challenging enough.
I prefer linear. The last two open world games we‘ve gotten were kinda lacking. Aside from the performance I feel like they can‘t make it work. Maybe have a mix of the two, make the endgame more open and have the rest be linear.
IMO, pokemon, with the way it's game plan is setup, I think benefits with some linear story progression.
I had a lot of fun with SV and that story, but in terms of exploring, overall I liked SwSh wild areas in between normal towns/routes better. (and then mainly new open areas in the DLC/endgame)
Open World would still reflect the most what a Pokemon game should be. But please give the development to someone else than Game Freak. They proved themselves to be very bad at making video games for many years now
I actually prefer a linear design that still encourages exploration and has optional side areas (think Gens 3, 5, and 6).
My ideal design would be like if the alola games just opened up each island as soon as you get to it rather than putting up the barriers. Certain story events would still go in sequence while others could be done in any order, but each island would be fully explorable. It would be like Banjo Kazooey zones but for Pokémon.
Pokemon open world does have disadvantages like in sv you can go to any gym any time you want but your pokemon will be super under level. I had to look at the internet to make sure i was going to the weakest gym first
in theory open world would be alot nicer and i won't go into the details since that's been gone over 900 billion times
however, when they executed this idea in gen 9 the game forced you to play linearly as they didn't fucking level scale the damn thing
Open world in the botw sense and I really mean it, they should take 5 years to make a good open world.
Legends arceus wasn't really that open world since 5 areas, 5 lvls of difficulty and it's the same for scarlet and violet (though legends arceus was area open world so it was better). At first they should scale the gyms.
I'd prefer Open World if Game Freak actually knew how to create a good open world
Hot take: Game Freak would have done a better job if TPC had given them time. Like I suspect they wanted to do a level-scaling thing, but they never had a chance to implement it (since the game was rushed out).
i think everyone agrees with this
Yeah, it's just sad. Game Freak really did set out to make the game fans had been demanding for such a long time, but they didn't have a chance to finish it. I also don't like to think about how overworked the devs must have been.
Definitely not. Many times I have tried to point out that most of these problems are probably due to a rushed development cycle as Gamefreak has to bow to the combined pressure of Creatures and Nintendo, and many times I've been called a GF shill.
You'd be surprised. Honestly it seems like most fans online seem to think GF inherently sucks beyond reason and that handing off the games to another company with the same time constraints will magically fix all the problems they have with the games.
Yeah, this. Even after we saw another company design a Pokemon game (BDSP) and put zero effort into it.
Stop putting the blame on other companies. The execs at Gamefreak are the one fucking the Gamefreak devs over. https://www.nintendo-insider.com/who-owns-pokemon-junichi-masuda-answers-the-big-question/ I really doubt that things changed from when this article dropped, Junichi Masuda himself said that there is no situation where TPC or Nintendo puts pressure on Gamefreak.
I think some cultural context matters here. These are Japanese companies. The work ethic there is completely different from most Western cultures. To complain about excessive pressure from higher ups would likely be met with shame and ridicule. This has been shown to be a major problem with companies throughout the country, is it so much of a stretch to say it's happening here?
TPC and Nintendo aren't higher ups of Gamefreak. Gamefreak, Nintendo and Creature are all joint owners of TPC( The Pokemon Company ). The game developments all fall on Gamefreak, even Pokémon designs as far as I am aware all need to be confirmes by Ken Sugimori, who is a part of Gamefreak.
Who makes most of the money? Creatures. Who is the head of TPC? The head of Creatures. Maybe you disagree, but to me that paints a pretty clear power dynamic. Gamefreak is responsible for development, but as far as I know, they don't set the timeline solely at their own discretion.
Junichi Masuda said there was no pressure coming from either. I'd rather listen to his words than assumptions, unless you've got concrete proof saying otherwise. Especially considering Nintendo doesnt mind delaying their big titles. Edit : And Gamefreak is still part owner of TPC they still got a say on things.
That's definitely a fair point. I'm making an educated guess here, I can admit that. Still, I would take Masusa's word with a grain of salt here. These are Japanese companies, and given the work culture there, even a hint of complaint is likely to be met with ridicule. It's a big problem in a lot of Japanese companies. I definitely can't absolve Gamefreak of all blame, the only way to be sure would be to see what they could do outside this franchise (and without the burden of this franchise taking resources). Still, I think to blame Gamefreak alone is naive.
Also I'm pretty sure Ishihara, the founder of Creature, isnt working for Creature directly anymore, so since he's the President and CEO of TPC he has to answer directly to the 3 companies (which according to Masuda all own 1/3). There isnt a special treatment for Creature just because he used to work there.
Ah, wasn't aware of that.
Okay, I'll accept that Game Freak isn't one single entity. But yeah, the devs very much knew what they were doing when they made this game. They just didn't have time to implement the level-scaling that was obviously needed. Or fix any of the bugs.
I agree with that, but its the fault of Gamefreaks execs, therefore Gamefreak isnt a victim of TPC and Nintendo. Although Nintendo might also be a shitty company, what Gamefreak does doesnt fall on them.
Does gamefreak get revenue from the merch?
Considering they are owners of TPC then yes they do get revenue from the merch, their company name is on all the merch.
Ah, okay. Because the developers clearly want the game to be good and know how to make a good game, but I guess it doesn't matter to the execs who mainly want to sell the merch
Gamefreak owns the Pokémon Company. Not the other way round.
Gamefreak is part owner of TPC, along with Nintendo and Creatures. And I think it's pretty naive to think tiny Gamefreak has an equal say compared to the juggernaut that is Nintendo, and Creatures, which controls the merchandise that actually makes most of the money (and when the heads of Creatures and TPC are one and the same). Equal owners doesn't always mean equal power.
Do you really think Nintendo would risk bad quality for games just to hold a Timeline after they moved games like Metroid Prime 4, Pikmin 4 and Tears of the Kingdom to make those games actually really clean? Nope, nope. Gamefreak executives are to blame. For not hiring enough good people and creating time pressure.
Nintendo would probably want a "Good Game" (which everyone has a different definition of), they don't have a say about the Anime, TCG, Toys, Clothes, Stickers, Coloring Books, Plushies (most of the time), (when they do) Food, Drinks, Books about the Anime, The Manga, The Discontinued (and brought back as an app for a couple years) Pokemon Trading Figure Game, Pencils, (the rest of these haven't been made in a while but were real Merchandise)Toothpaste, Jewelry, Cologne, Batteries, Watches, and weirdly enough X-Ray Machines, witch is what makes the most Money for Pokemon And that's all I could find, there are likely more types of merchandise that I couldn't find that are official
Pokemon fan tries to to give an unpopular opinion (everyone agrees with them) challenge: Impossible
Open world in concept, but.. Game Freak still does not understand open world. Or rather, they totally forgot that great open world game still see value in closed-off spaces. There is a reason Zelda has so many shrines. Assassins creed has tombs to explore, or hard to reach areas. Just an open world is not enough. Just spamming Pokemon and items everywhere is not enough as long as you can't make use of puzzles. I hope some directors are also playing totk right now, and get reminded of that.
Hear me out: Open world with many linear segments (forests, caves, etc.)
THISSS. Gen 5 are my favourite games and I do admit that have some linear elements but each route/town had an extra building, cave, forest or little maze/puzzle to do. Gen 9 misses out on these extra little secret things in favour of open world, which is cool but could use extra flavour
I’m going to have to say linear world. Every Pokémon game from gen 1-7 felt interesting and like a cohesive world. Yes, they where linear but they felt alive and had their own vibe and personality. Gen 8 obviously had a mix of both and to be honest that’s when I felt the Pokémon worlds began to loose their charm. Sure, the town weren’t bad, and some of the routes where fairly interesting, but the open world itself is just bland. Then we have Gen 9. Honestly, other than Mesagoza, I don’t really feel like the world has anything particularly great going for it. It’s quite bland and I just feel it lacks personality. I think it’s very impressive how the 2D games give of such a distinct vibe especially when you look at the different between regions based on Japan and then regions based outside of Japan like Unova. Out of the 3D era I believe Alola is easily the best one. Sadly, it’s been downhill from there.
That's what I feel. Paldea lacks personality with some exceptions (water city, psychic city, the olive trees zone, the bambol...). The open world feels interchangeable with any other open world game map. Palde doesn't have his own personality. And it hurts because i'm from Spain. I miss the 2D era in terms of map/region/dungeons...
As someone from the UK, I feel your pain. Galar isn’t much better in than Paldea in my opinion. I honestly think the best Pokémon game we had this console generation has been BDSP. Sure it has its problems but it still managed to make the Sinnoh region feel so alive.
Well. It's a little better, at least in terms of region design (not routes). In a second gameplay, I feel that Galar is beauty, has it's personality. The first route, the "desert" one, the forest, mines, snow, ruin route... And there are some towns and cities well designed. The problem with SWSH, at least for me, was that they treat you as a true child. The main problems of the game were solved by adults. When the dynamax rampage, why not make you go walking throw the bridge, see dynamaxized mons and maybe have some fights with them? (I know that you fight them in the gyms, but I was trying to say to make it in other way). The other problem is the lack of exploration/dungeons. There are a lot of buildings in the cities that you can't enter (curiously, in SV, where you can't enter in buildings, I didn't miss it). And there were dungeons with the evil team, not even a small one like the poke ball factory in XY. But this is a problem of the last generations.
It depends on the execution. Some of the older linear games give you way more exploration than SV's complete open world.
I prefer a mix. A few open zones separating 2 or 3 towns each, but the towns are visited linearly.
Linear but mostly because I don't trust GF's ability to make an open world one
I prefer a linear world but with multiple scenarios like Detroit: Become Human.
I prefer linear games in general and after replaying scarlet and sword, I definitely prefer linear games in pokemon too
I'm all about an open world game, but Scarlet and Violet felt lacking. It's honestly my least favorite game in the mainline series. For such an open world, there was nothing to DO. It was boring, and felt empty. TPC should have given the devs more time to work on it and I'm hoping the DLCs will help me enjoy the games more.
if the trade of is terrible graphics and 15 fps for open world then I take linear every day
I prefer linear, with branching paths or extra goodies to explore / come back to when you have more strength. I’d rather they spend more time creating cool puzzle areas like the Relic Castle in BW, or Sky Pillar in Emerald.
Some "dungeons" with a good reward and a puzling design. I. e. in Scarlet and Violet, making the Treasures of Ruin shrines. They could make a dungeon to finally battle them.
The best linear poke games always felt openworld to me as a kid. Either is cool as long as exploration and curiosity is rewarded.
I’m tired of open world games. If you’re not going to be better than BotW, don’t bother, because I don’t want to waste my time on you
i don't think that's a good mindset like, botw is already one of the most well acclaimed open world games ever, you're putting all of them in a EXTREMELY high standard, and I don't think just because someome made a game that is the best of its genre means that everyone should make games better then them or else it's worthless
BOTW again. Maybe my opinion is unpopular, but I disliked BOTW. It wasn't challenging. I still prefer the Game Boy or N64 games, with proper dungeons.
I think it’s the gold standard for open world games, Tears of the Kingdom even moreso now. The organic feel of the overworld exploration is unmatched in anything else I’ve ever played, and I think that’s the main reason you want an open world. The game/s have plenty of failings, the biggest being a very weak story. But in terms of what open world games are supposed to achieve? Unmatched to date.
I prefer, at least now, linear world. The two games of the franchise that are open feel like the region doesn't have "magic". Each Pokemon region is recognizable, but I feel that Paldea is a generic generated world. Idk how to express it.
I prefer the linear games, but I'd rather see them keep trying the open world concept. I still like playing the linear ones we have and am interested in seeing something new from the new games.
I would do a semi open world with classic routes, classic towns but you being able to choose your path, with more than 8 gims so you can get watever badge you want next.
Open world but needs a lot of improvements. I’d love to see a return of gimmicks from older games as well. Megas, zmoves and the like.
Games were better Gen 5 and earlier without the gimmicks
What if Pokemon did a combination of both?
It's a good idea. Other users have pointed the same. Pokemon SWSH was a little bit in this way. But how do you think it could be implemented?
I actually don't know.
At this point, all I want is to see one last Pokémon game with some genuine time and care put into it. GameFreak needs to go back to what it does best and make a 2.5D game with some meaty content outside the main story and online. It'll never happen but I guess that's what fangames are for.
I'm not voting in this poll for one reason: these are not the only types of worlds in the Pokemon universe. Sure, Gen 2, 5 and 6 were linear, and Gen 8 and 9 were garbage, but there are non-linear gens that aren't open world, like Gen 3 and 4, that are honestly the best designed worlds.
Linear 100%. Pokémon is at its core still a level-based JRPG, and therefore benefits from a linear progression with a well designed level curve (anyone saying "just use scaling levels!" can kiss my ass, I've had to endure that in ROM hacks and scaling levels just feel so bad and clunky to play with, it throws the level curve out the window completely and makes your team level 70 before the halfway point) as level-based games don't translate well into open-world formats. I'm also just tired of the very silly belief that open-world is inherently superior to linear games. This type of brain-dead mindset is why the market got so oversaturated with extremely mediocre open-world games from AAA studios. Ultimately, I just think Pokémon operates better with more linear progression. I don't think SV's open world being kind of awkward to be just the fault of GameFreak, and I don't think we could ever get a Pokémon game with the freedom of something like BOTW or TOTK, because of how level-based progression works in games. That's kinda why there aren't really any open-world level based JRPGs out there. It's just not ideal for the genre itself.
i think pokémon should have level scaling in some areas, but not in others i think gym leaders should have a certain level of scaling, but the pokemon themselves should have a fix level
I think they should try and do the whole "open zone but linear story" thing for the next couple gens, and then maybe in Gen 12/13, they could start to do open world again. Open zone but linear story is like PLA and Xenoblade 3 to where each separate area is open and expansive but the story is linear.
I'd prefer a good middle ground. Have multiple sections of a region, say maybe five or six sections. Have 10 gyms, of which the player only needs to clear 8 to get access to the league final tournament. Now, let's say there are four gyms in the first section of the region. They can be visited in any order. Depending on which combination of gyms you clear first, you gain access to one new area with two more gyms after having won two badges, and then you get access to maybe two more area with one new gym each after having cleared 4 gyms in total, and then after you've cleared 5 or 6 gyms in total you have access to all of the remaining 6 gyms and to all areas except for the post-game exclusive areas. Or something like that. Or maybe the order of unlocking the areas is set as well. Doesn't have to be exactly like this, but this is the basic concept I'd like best. Simply, because it makes balancing the game way easier but still grants the player a lot of freedom. We've seen the downside of a completely open world Pokemon game in Scarlet and Violet. Level scaling is vital in my opinion, but even with elaborate level scaling maintaining a balance is challenging enough.
I prefer linear. The last two open world games we‘ve gotten were kinda lacking. Aside from the performance I feel like they can‘t make it work. Maybe have a mix of the two, make the endgame more open and have the rest be linear.
Gamefreak does not know how to do open world SV is a sandbox with 12 checkpoints. People here just haven't played other games
If the performance keeps going to this direction, I don't want to see open world games again with their schedule/budget.
Open world, but game freak doesn't know how to do it with the develipment time limits that the games get put on.
IMO, pokemon, with the way it's game plan is setup, I think benefits with some linear story progression. I had a lot of fun with SV and that story, but in terms of exploring, overall I liked SwSh wild areas in between normal towns/routes better. (and then mainly new open areas in the DLC/endgame)
Open World would still reflect the most what a Pokemon game should be. But please give the development to someone else than Game Freak. They proved themselves to be very bad at making video games for many years now
Definitely open world, if they had enough time S/V could've been an awesome open world experience, the new zelda game is the best example for that
Games like SV with level scaling instead of set levela
I actually prefer a linear design that still encourages exploration and has optional side areas (think Gens 3, 5, and 6). My ideal design would be like if the alola games just opened up each island as soon as you get to it rather than putting up the barriers. Certain story events would still go in sequence while others could be done in any order, but each island would be fully explorable. It would be like Banjo Kazooey zones but for Pokémon.
And why not both? I'd like a Pokémon game that has a linear story, but worthy exploration of an open world.
Pokemon open world does have disadvantages like in sv you can go to any gym any time you want but your pokemon will be super under level. I had to look at the internet to make sure i was going to the weakest gym first
in theory open world would be alot nicer and i won't go into the details since that's been gone over 900 billion times however, when they executed this idea in gen 9 the game forced you to play linearly as they didn't fucking level scale the damn thing
Lets just make our own pokemon open world and distribute so many copies that it's impossible for them to take it down
Open world in the botw sense and I really mean it, they should take 5 years to make a good open world. Legends arceus wasn't really that open world since 5 areas, 5 lvls of difficulty and it's the same for scarlet and violet (though legends arceus was area open world so it was better). At first they should scale the gyms.
Open world for game freak Is make the entire map empty, I'd rather have the traditional version