The last region included in Gen 9 fixed its gaze on Spain and Portugal for inspiration, widely incorporating elements of geography and culture into the fictional world. There have been plenty of suggestions and theories as to where the next region will take trainers, but there is one country that stands tall above the rest.

Pokémon Often Uses Real-World Locations In Games

This Highlights Where Future Pokémon Regions Could Take Place

It's a well-established practice to have Pokémon regions mirror real-world locations, aesthetics, and all. Not only does this usually include the geography of the area, as demonstrated by the Pokémon game maps, but it can often include the culture and history of the region. For example, the Galar region deviated from the standard city and town naming conventions to include areas such as Circhester, Wyndon, and Stow-on-side.

Gen 8 also introduced the Pokémon Stonjourner, which resembles the famous historical landmark found in the south of England, Stonehenge. With each new generation, the corresponding geographical projection becomes much clearer. Below you can view a table of each Pokémon region and its counterpart present in our world.

From Pokémon Red & Blue to Pokémon Diamond Pearl & Platinum, all the in-game worlds were based upon regions of Japan, but the Pokémon in each region remain distinct. Kansai and Kanto are regions of mainland Japan, whereas Kyushu and Hokkaido are islands off the West and North coasts, respectively. Since Black and White released in 2010, every region has branched out to explore the globe. Most recently, the Scarlet and Violet games take place in Paldea, inspired heavily by areas in Europe, including Portugal and Spain.

Pokémon has plenty of real-life areas that haven't been explored yet, and opportunities exist for diverse and bustling locales. Every real-life country that has been covered by the IP has been carefully crafted to capture elements of everyday society, culture, history, and geography. In more recent Pokémon games, The Pokémon Company has been more lenient with sacrificing established gameplay elements in an effort to be more faithful to the source material. With this in mind, future Pokémon games could take place in fictional regions based on areas in Scandinavia, Italy, South Korea, Greece, or, most likely, Australia.

Why Australia Could Be A Great Location For Inspiration

An Exciting Opportunity To Solve Problems Pokémon Games

Upon inspecting the art direction and gameplay design of each Pokémon game, it makes the most sense for the next region in Pokémon to draw inspiration from Australia. Of course, it hasn't been used as a template for a region in the past, so it's certainly on the backlog of potential in-game regions. Additionally, the distribution of cities in Australia polarizes itself towards the east and west of the country, with Western Australia, Queensland, and New South Wales. Geographically, the country is in the Southern Hemisphere of the globe.

This means that its current season is opposite to countries situated in the Northern Hemisphere. This could add an interesting gameplay dynamic concerning seasons, and it has the potential to revive the season system that was present in the Gen 5 installments. Due to the space in between the western and eastern sides of Australia, there's potential for a large Pokémon area similar to the wild area in Pokémon Sword and Shield.

Entire landscapes could alternate between opposite climates based upon the day and night cycle of the game in a way never previously seen in Pokémon games, besides Shoal Cave in the Gen 3 games. This space between cities could also act as a pivotal natural progression point for the player, like the journey up to Lavaridge Town in Hoenn or the voyage to Cianwood City in Johto. In the way of Pokémon to fill the regional Pokédex,

There Are More Reasons Why Australia Would Make Sense

Diverse Ecosystems & Creatures

Australia is known for having very diverse ecosystems. From the savannas and mesas of the desert to the insects, reptiles, and mammals that inhabit the country. This even stretches to the coasts and oceans, with the reefs and beaches that the country is known for - if the next Pokémon region is set in Australia, then there will almost certainly be plot points that make use of the offshore biodiversity, in addition to major Pokémon design changes.

Perhaps this could re-imagine the diving seen in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. In the way of legendary Pokémon, the cover legend could be a giant wombat, an armadillo, a Pokémon based on flying foxes, or even a rainbow serpent. If The Pokémon Company managed to incorporate elements of Australian geography and culture into the next set of Pokémon games, it would greatly benefit the franchise and the future of Pokémon. Not only would it introduce a brand-new inspiraton for a region, it could also be the birthplace of a whole new type of Pokémon based mainly on the history or creatures of the region.

It would continue the trend of wanting to explore the real-life world while using the game(s) as a medium. There are many countries that can provide an excellent template for world-building, but with the excess of biodiversity and geological signposts, it makes the most sense for the next installment of the Pokémon franchise to take place in a region that faithfully pays tribute to the country of Australia.

Pokemon

Created by

Satoshi Taijiri, Ken Sugimori, Junichi Masuda

Video Game(s)

Pokémon GO

First Film

Pokemon: The First Movie

Latest Film

Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle

First TV Show

Pokémon

First Episode Air Date

April 1, 1997

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