[Discussion] Pokemon game with all regions.

From what I've seen, games that feature all regions aren't really seen as a great idea. Not because the developer just loses interest and cancels the project, but because there's not really a good way to put all that content into one game.

One of the biggest problems is the leveling. In a normal Pokemon game, the player's team is usually hitting about Lv: 50, which is halfway to the maximum of Lv: 100. So if you kept leveling up the opponents to match up with the player's team, then they'd likely hit max in the second or third region. That could potentially ruin any real fun in the next couple of regions, as it's just continually using the same team over and over and over again to screw over your opponents.

One solution I've seen for this is to raise the maximum level. Which doesn't really work out too well if you raise it too high. Personally, 125 is as high as I would go. The higher you go, the more re-balancing and tweaking you'll need to do. Otherwise, the player's and the foe's Pokemon will just keep getting stronger and stronger and stronger and that's it. Nothing really new. It'd get a bit stale.

Another approach is to just lock the player's team in a box at the end of reach region and have them start from scratch each time. But honestly, at that point, why not just make it a whole new game instead? It really kills the player's hard work to have to just start over.

And then there are other concerns such as map limitations (I've heard you can only have 999 maps in a single RMXP game file), storyline (if it's just recreations of official games, then it gets a bit boring - while coming up with a full new story for each region is quite difficult) and time (it can take several years to complete a single region fan-game. Including all in one could take well-over a decade.)

Honestly, I get the appeal of an "all-region" game. The concept of having a single character go through all regions on a huge Pokemon journey sounds really, really awesome. But it's just really, really impractical if you ask me. If you can find a way to make it all work, then more power to you.

And please don't take this as an attempt to bash this project - I'm not trying to tear it down. If you want to go for it, then go for it. I'm merely just pointing out some of the problems that you might encounter.

Oh I don't take it as you bashing me. I thought a lot about how to go around it and make it fun and not get boring or stale. I have a couple main ideas in thought like I could raise how much a EXP you would need to have to level a Pokemon to each level. Which adds more difficulty to the game. I have quite a few others in mind too. But your advice is really nice because its honest and I love hearing people opinions.

So, the games has all regions with each own's graphics?
If you look from the player's perspective, there's nothing new, and if I were someone that already played all generations, I'd be bored with it, since it's the same already played.

Yeah I'm still trying to figure out the main plot and or anything else. That is the last thing I want is the game to be boring. I want to create something challenging and fun,

I can see this involving a time warp or maybe jumping through universes.

• Player gets thrown into different universes or time warps depending on certain events
• Player goes back and forth traversing through time or universe. This way you don't have to restart in every new region and your Pokemon levels can be much more manageable
• Each Pokemon universe will have it's specific sprites and tilesets. Or mix up the sprites - Gen 1 pokemon sprites with gen 6 tilesets or vice versa
• Each universe or time will have it's appropriate release date displayed(i.e. Red is 1996)
• Maybe meet other trainers(PLAYER), rivals or gym leaders from the past games

Story could involve fixing time or universe. Break the 4th wall while you're at it. i.e. Trainer gets to meet the player or programmer, something like that.
It all sounds like a mess but see if any of this could be of use to you.

That's sounds really good actually and it makes sense. This is going to be my first game to actually release to people and I want it where people will love it etc.

the way to do it if you want to do it right.... is taking over regions then being a pokemon master... you being the bad guy ...and have to do a few missions on each place before you take over the land. obviously once you do the missions the gym master will defend his land and you beat him.... lets say you can only have level 5 pokemon to the first gym....then level 8 pokemon....... lets say your at level 20 when you beat kanto.... you have to protect move sets as you move one...and also have catching all the pokemon be a main stint in the story. lets say more pokemon you catch...the more rare pokemon come out....or areas where you can rarer ones..... have an occaisinal resistence force try to stop you..... add some heros from other games with pokemon and there story behind it to keep it freash..... xenoblad chronicles, yugioh, metal gear solid, or whatever it is...people get a kick out of that. have a mini game like triple tirade in it ....and have that as a break from battleing.... achivements (like fable a list of things you've done, morale ... yada yada.. and I think you could make a fun game with all regions in it....cut scenes also people fearing your arrival, and things like that...... good luck mate...

Thanks for the idea. I really appreciate it.

Actually That's a great Idea, Maybe I'll try to do it.

Like I said on an older thread, I believe that a good game with more than two regions is possible, but isn't an easy thing. Seven is VERY harder! The developer need to think a lot for a interesting plot to spread into these several regions (something like MagicalEye posted, but better). Leave each region for only badge quest will bore the player very fast.

And before starting a game with several region, I recommend finishing a game with a single or dual region first. One step at a time.

The best way to do it would be to make it sanbox, make it revolve around catching all of the pokemon by recreating the pokemon locations. For trainers, maybe have each region have a set level scale? like Kanto 5-25 ect..

Pokemon Startos had that dream…

I've got an idea for a project of mine where the reason you can't go the other regions with your Pokemon is because quarantine laws and the effects of exotic Pokemon on the environment. Only after you've beaten the elite four for that region, will your Pokemon be finally out of 'quarantine' and ready to use in that region lol.

Truthfully I would love to see this happen, but as mentioned above the length of the game would hinder the over all experience of visiting every region if it played like a traditional pokemon game. supereffective had a nice though about taking over the world... but to me that would suffer from the same cons as before; beat people up, beat more people up, beat your rival (or in this case heroes from other games), beat up the gym leader, move on and do the same thing again.

I believe something of this caliber should be treated for what it is... fan service! No, I am not talking about panty shots and shower scenes with way to much "steam", but rather giving people what they want (unless they are wanting the fore mentioned underwear and bathing scenes, then they are out of luck.) Let me explain further, but before I do I would like to say that this comes from my personal experience of wants, expectations and the wants/expectations of those whom I have discussed this very idea with. (Don't lie to me, if you played pokemon before the 3rd gen came out, then you always played a game that had all the regions in it and complained with your friends how disappointing it was when Hoenn was released by itself and how cool would it be if a pokemon game was released with every region in it.)

Okay, so most people (at least from my experience) want a game with every region in it just for the sake of because, it would be cool, they like some location in a few games and wished they could visit them all in one game, or to catch them all (which doesn't help if you consider in the core games a hand full of pokemon have never been catch-able.) So the biggest one to focus on is being able to visit said location. That will probably be the peak excitement and top the nostalgia factor. BUT WAIT! That is a lot of locations wouldn't that still suffer from the problems of people have pointed out? Yes, yes it would. So lets address that.

When you think of putting every region in one game you might think that everyone would be foaming at the mouth to play a game where EVERY LOCATION is available... But this might not be accurate, while yes having every map lovingly remade into one game would be awesome, a lot of people probably focus on their favorite location (a.k.a. the main locations) like Mt. Silver, the Space Station in Hoenn, Lumiose City, ect... It's unlikely that they are super excited to see Route 13 in Kanto any time soon. So whatever the main story is (outside of getting gym badge, or heck make battling the gym completely optional) should take the player to the more memorable locations to do challenges or quests (IE: visiting Mt. Moon to beat up 100 Zubat, Go pay your respects at the pokemon tower in Lavender Town, Look around the burned mansion in Cinnabar Island to learn something about Mew) then move on to the next region while letting the player go do what ever they want to before they move on, like battle the gyms, catch pokemon, go kill another 100 Zubat because F-YOU ZUBAT! That way the player can decide when to move on.

Let me give an example, lets say you want to travel across The States, you want to get a good feel of the location before you move on, so at each stop you spend about a week there to enjoy yourself... That would be 50 weeks!!! That sounds nice, I would love to skip work for a 50 week vacation, but after so long it wouldn't feel like a vacation any more and you would wind-up getting annoyed more that relaxed or having fun, so instead you should split the trip up into locations you want to visit, NY with the Statue of Liberty, Miami Florida, San Diego California, ect... with the freedom of making any minor stops along the way for any length of time. Just like heading from The Smoky Mountains from Tennessee to go visit that statue of a giant lady in the harbor of New York with the pit stop of Washing DC, the player could be going from Mount Moon to Lavender Town, but choose to stop at the Pokemon Fan Club in Vermilion City, something some might enjoy, but not necessary for those that don't want to go out of their way. The game could be short for those that want to go to places that they want to go to and catch what they want to, it could be long and drawn out for those that are willing to beat every gym in between quests on their journey, or any length in between based on how much the player wants to explore that particular region.

*Honestly feel free to regard all of this, it is 1 o'clock in the morning my time and I have to get up for work in 4 hours... I don't know what I'm doing right now*

Edit:Okay, 4 hours later and I'm up!

What about story? I know everyone that wants to make a game wants to have their own story added to it, make the world as they see fit. But most pokemon games have a pretty bad story... (the region/world/universe is in danger! The leader of Team "EVIL ORGANIZATION" wants to rule the region/world/universe, but only YOU and 10 year old child is the only thing standing in their way, because they have a bunch of low leveled Rattata or something,,,,) As a few youtubers have mentioned that its more about the lore in the back of the game when you go out of your way to learn a little bit more about the world of pokemon that makes the games more interesting to play. And with 7 regions to play with one could cram a ton of lore into the game for the player to find/stumble across.

*Ya... I'm up but not really awake.... If this turns out to be gibberish that just sounds good in my barley function head, then just over look this and move on with your life.*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tHHQ-535cs

Eigen has a lot of interesting points about this actually but from a designer point of view it sounds really complex. On the other hand I think it would really help give you ideas c: good luck friend!

Sounds awesome! good luck! {:3}

I've been trying to recreate Kanto for many years. There's a lot of things that pop up that you don't expect to take as long as they do; for example, I've spent a bunch of time recently telling Essentials where every individual map in Kanto (indoor and outdoor) belongs on the town map.

I think it's possible to have a game with many regions if you're willing to sacrifice some detail. If you don't have every NPC/trainer/item/area in a region, your job becomes many times more manageable. But, as others have said, it's not necessarily a good idea (real life time-wise, gameplay-wise).

I agree that the best way to make a multi-region game interesting would be to abandon the badge-quest dynamic and go for a more quest-focused story - such as trying for 100% dex completion. Plus, if each group of legendaries having their own side-quests, THESE can be what unlocks other areas and introduces you to significant people (such as Morty in a Ho-Oh quest or Rowan in a Lake Guardian quest).

A way to reduce the amount of maps would be to make the game more akin to real life. Only enter public buildings and don't go wandering into strangers' houses! XD

^ I really agree with the last part about reducing the amount of maps by getting rid of lots of indoor areas. There are so many maps in each region with just people, some flavor text, and nothing that affects gameplay. These places are nice for atmosphere, but the player might only visit them once (if at all), and they take a huge amount of time to make (if you tried to make all of the houses for every region...or even just all the Kanto houses like I did).