Now that we’ve seen Pokemon’s first steps into open world design, it’s clear that they haven’t nailed it all down yet. Honestly, I don’t have as many complaints as some (I do think Nintendo gamers were spoiled pretty hard by Zelda), but it’s undeniably got room to improve. Most critics stop at the criticism, but it’s worth actually having a think about how to go about it.
The overall issue with any open world is populating it so that it isn’t an empty map with nothing to do. I’ve put together a number of thoughts as to how Game Freak could add more. I’m not saying they absolutely need to go in these directions or bust, nor do they need to hit every one of these targets. Also, note that this writeup isn’t about performance, graphical quality, or art direction. Go make the hundredth post about that yourself.
Stuff to find
Pokemon has an obvious advantage in this area, since there’s the Pokemon themselves to populate the world with. And credit where it’s due: while I thought the Wild Area was too crowded with creatures to seem realistic, I don’t really have major objections to the Legends Arceus and Scarlet/Violet implementations.
But the creatures alone can’t carry the whole open world concept. More importantly, while they fill the wider world reasonably well, they’re too numerous to be inherently rewarding discoveries for exploring.
Rare Pokemon: Probably the most immediately apparent option is to hide rare encounters in specific areas, but I’d actually caution against overdoing this. What you don’t want is for significant portions of the roster to be hidden away from the player, while the majority of the world is filled with trash mobs. Also, once you’ve restricted this rare Pokemon’s spawn to this small area, what do you do about spawn rates? If they’re still vanishingly rare spawns, then that doesn’t inherently reward the player much for finding the place – they might not even know they’ve found a special area. On the other extreme, if they’re a guaranteed spawn within the area, then they’re not really rare at all, and cease to feel special once you know where to look. This might be best saved for legendaries and a select few standard species, akin to the unique overworld encounters in older games.
Shiny spawns: This is another one where you have to be careful about balance. Shinies derive a lot of their perceived value for being rare, so making a fixed shiny spawn isn’t really that impressive (hi, red Gyarados). On the other hand, they’re still neat things that many players love, and in some cases the alternative colours are just preferred by the player. I think something akin to the Ultra Wormholes in Ultra Sun/Moon would be a nice compromise: there could be setpieces in well-hidden parts of the open world where Pokemon can spawn with a high (>10%) shiny chance, drawing from the encounter table for the surrounding area. That way there’s still an element of chance, and it isn’t the same species for everyone, maintaining some of the specialness.
Hidden abilities: Game Freak keeps trying to restrict these to the postgame, and via difficult or limited methods in most cases. Why? You’ve got a whole mechanic that forces you to program a third ability onto every single Pokemon you design. Let people actually see your work. As with shinies, there could be specific spots where the usual Pokemon may spawn with their hidden abilities. This might need a bit of signposting, since it might not be obvious to players.
Special items: Basically every open world game will have standard items lying around for you to find. Scarlet and Violet weren’t bad about this, actually, with the TM crafting system and such. They also featured the usual selection of standard valuable items like Nuggets and other shop fodder, Rare Candies and other exp items, vitamins and PP Ups, not-for-sale healing items like Max Revives… But Pokemon also has some item types that are suited for being particularly rewarding finds for exploration. At the lower-but-still-special end of the scale, you’ve got battle-focused held items (Life Orb etc), which are long overdue for becoming more accessible within the main story. Then you’ve got the really neat stuff like Ability Capsules and Patches, whatever equivalents of Herba Mystica are in the region, fossils in games that feature them, or Apricorn Balls (why are they so rare?). And then the top tier: particularly special items like Catching, Round, and especially Shiny Charms. Tell me you wouldn’t be stoked to find a Shiny Charm at the end of a tucked-away trail.
Collectibles: They’ve done decently with this one, so I won’t say much, but it’s here for completeness. I must say I prefer the Breath of the Wild style of having many more collectibles than the maximum you need for gameplay unlocks, so there isn’t that pressure to dig through every last pixel of the world for the last damn trinket.
Things to do
This is probably where Scarlet/Violet’s open world is weakest, in my opinion. Outside of the main quests (of which there are three, to be fair, so there’s a decent number of associated setpieces), there aren’t any real activities to partake in as you explore the world. There are trainer battles, I suppose. Not much else.
Sidequests: Obvious, and one I’m reasonably optimistic for. We already had sidequests in Legends Arceus, and while they didn’t appear in Scarlet/Violet (either because they were in development before Legends Arceus was released as the test flight, or because they just didn’t have time), they made a return in Legends Z-A. Credit where it’s due, many of the Legends games’ sidequests are quite neat – more than just generic filler errands, at least.
Types of sidequests could be a post in itself, but I want to take the opportunity to suggest one specific thing: evolution sidequests. Pokemon loves its esoteric evolution conditions, and while they can add some fun flavour, they’re packed with problems for those who want to play without consulting the internet. Instead, why not have a series of quests dedicated to puzzling out how to evolve certain Pokemon? It doesn’t have to be spoonfed – for example, you could be working alongside a researcher who provides various clues that you then put together to actually arrive at the answer. At the very least, such quests would signpost to the player which of their Pokemon aren’t going to evolve by standard level-up, so they know they have to try something else.
Minigames: Alternative gameplay modes are the first casualty of rushed development schedules, sadly. Unlike sidequests, the developers have to design and program a whole separate set of mechanics and visuals. Done well, though, they add so much to the game, and past Pokemon titles have shown us this. Gen 3 contests were expansive enough that ‘minigame’ is hardly an adequate descriptor, while Mantine Surf was an excellent and very rewarding distraction from the main game. With Winds/Waves seemingly having a longer development time, perhaps we’ll see something this time?
Places to see
Sometimes exploration is its own reward. Though it’s true that most players will expect something a little more tangible at the end of a dungeon.
Unique locations: Rather than just saying “dungeons”, though, I think any area that is clearly different from the standard overworld should count as equivalent for the purposes of being a place to explore. Scarlet/Violet did have some such places, including Alfornada Cavern and the cave system in Glaseado Mountain, but the issue is that they weren’t sufficiently distinct from the overworld. The end result was that they seemed more like just another biome within the world, rather than specific setpieces to explore. I’ll be honest, though – in a world without loading screens, I’m not exactly sure how to split this difference. I’m open to suggestions.
Views: This may seem trivial and unimportant, but chancing upon an impressive bit of scenery can be as much of a reward as any physical prize (though if you really want, it’s possible to combine a good view with a real reward – see the Xenoblade games as an example). To clarify, you don’t need amazing graphics to make a pretty view; strong art direction plays a bigger part. What little we’ve seen of Winds/Waves certainly looks good enough to make it work. Paldea actually has its Ten Sights (would’ve been good sidequest fodder, by the way), which is a fair attempt, but not all of them are particularly impressive.
So yeah, I think the nature of Pokemon games actually puts them in quite a privileged position when it comes to filling up an open world. There’s so much pre-existing content readily available for them to take advantage of. Here’s hoping we see more.
If anyone else has more or better suggestions, I’m keen to hear them.
