Real-world territories that will never be Pokemon regions

[QuentinQuonce]

I'll preface by saying that this is not a wishlisting thread (quite the opposite, in fact)

As you probably know, since Gen V the Pokemon world has expanded outwards from Japan-inspired regions, with games set in regions based on countries and states in Europe and North America. There are potentially dozens more areas that could be adapted (perhaps even hundreds) and it's common to see people share their thoughts on where they'd like future games to go. That said, there are certain territories I don't see as likely candidates for regions, and some that I don't think would be good choices for numerous reasons. So I'm interested to read opinions on which real-world areas would be bad choices, and if there are any you think will never be adapted into Pokemon regions.

I'm also asking out of personal interest, because if there are political or cultural impediments to a game being set in a certain territory that I'm not aware of, I'd be interested to learn about them. (But obviously let's try and stay on topic.)

To get started with a couple of examples:

• I don't think we're ever likely to see a region based on China, or any of its associated territories such as Hong Kong or Macau. Not only would there potentially be commercial concerns about the appeal of such a game to a worldwide audience, China has historically had a reputation of being quite sensitive about how it's portrayed in media. It actually had a ban on video games until fairly recently - Pokemon Go has always been banned there, and Pokemon Sun and Moon were the first set of games to be officially translated into Chinese. Given these factors, doing a China-inspired region is a potential controversy I can't see TPC wanting to create for themselves so I think it unlikely that they would want to take the risk.
• People often talk about the potential for Africa-inspired regions, but my personal take is that this is unlikely too - at least in the near future. The Japanese have historically been... not very good at depicting black characters (by Western standards). You've only to look at the controversies around Jynx or Lenora (whose original design was criticised for looking too much like the "Mammy" stereotype). Maybe this is something that will change as TPC hires more Western writers/artists: we've seen darker-skinned characters in recent games from Gen V onwards with minimal fuss. But again, doing a whole region based off an African country still feels like a source of potential controversy and I can't see TPC being too keen to set a game in a region based off of South Africa or Nigeria given their complicated real-world histories. For now, Egypt is about the only African country I can imagine being adapted reasonably well but even that's unlikely.
• For obvious reasons, I think it's highly unlikely that we will ever see a region based on Russia.

It's possible that some of these places might be used in spin-offs, which are - in general - slightly more lax about depicting a region's culture. But I wouldn't bet on it.

What other places occur to you, or do you think I'm wrong about any of these? Discuss.

 

[Hugin]

Desert regions(The Sahara, Antarctica, the Middle East) or large grasslands(Mongolia, US midwest) seem unlikely*. Too little diversity of types, civilization is too widely scattered. Maybe Australia's an exception, but that's the only desert I can see.

Middle East and Russia are both full of obvious political pitfalls, so even TPC is smart enough to avoid those regions. Another one is probably any SE Asian country other than Japan. Like, if they wanted to do a Vietnam region, they'd have to deal with IRL Vietnam expecting them to be racist, having to determine in-game whether they reference the history of Vietnam being invaded and conquered, and then they'd have to invent borders that are guaranteed to piss someone off. Much easier to just pick a new Japanese island instead of risking that.

The perks of this thread is that, no matter what you say, odds are the next 2 regions won't be set there anyway, just statistically. It's very hard to be wrong.

*Yes, Orre happened, but that was because they wanted to justify there being no wild pokemon. A mainline region is different.

 

[BIG ASHLEY]

Antarctica

i really want there to be a region based on antarctica solely to see how game freak still manage to avoid making ice-types available earlygame

 

[Nokocchi]

Anyplace the people at Game Freak don't want to take a 2-week vacation at for "studying". If anything all you need to do is look at the most popular out-of-country vacation spots for Japanese tourists are and all of the inspirations for non-Japanese regions are at or near the top. The gaps between the ones already done are the most likely choices for the next couple of gens.

 

[Samtendo09]

This might come off as anti-biased from my part but I don’t how Canada could work if GF based it off as a whole for a region without somehow going out of their way to undermine the cold side of the country.

You see, Canada is known for having a wild weather over here. It takes the cake on the northernmost regions, where things get notably colder, and much less warm during summers than regions that are nearer the USA. As such, cold mountains will be a common sight in Canada.

But because GF refuses to put cold locations outside of lategame sections, it might cause a history repeat with Unova, with mostly grassland.

If indigenous people, the countryside and colder part of Canada would be emphasized, as well as focusing on one region instead of Canada as a whole, then it might work. However, I doubt GF, and Japan as a whole, would be familiar enough with even one part of Canada for them to work as a basis for a region.

 

[Ironmage]

This might come off as anti-biased from my part but I don’t how Canada could work if GF based it off as a whole for a region without somehow going out of their way to undermine the cold side of the country.

You see, Canada is known for having a wild weather over here. It takes the cake on the northernmost regions, where things get notably colder, and much less warm during summers than regions that are nearer the USA. As such, cold mountains will be a common sight in Canada.

But because GF refuses to put cold locations outside of lategame sections, it might cause a history repeat with Unova, with mostly grassland.

If indigenous people, the countryside and colder part of Canada would be emphasized, as well as focusing on one region instead of Canada as a whole, then it might work. However, I doubt GF, and Japan as a whole, would be familiar enough with even one part of Canada for them to work as a basis for a region.

I would definitely expect them to only focus on a particular area, since that's what was done with the US as Unova as well. Canada is much larger than any country that got to be a Region in its entirety.

Of course, I keep the position that no further real-life locations should be used in order to make environments interesting enough to be worth the open-world focus they insist on applying to current games.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Desert regions(The Sahara, Antarctica, the Middle East) or large grasslands(Mongolia, US midwest) seem unlikely*. Too little diversity of types, civilization is too widely scattered. Maybe Australia's an exception, but that's the only desert I can see.

Orre aside, I could actually see a region based on the central USA/midwest being completely viable. States like Colorado and Wisconsin have cold areas, the Rocky Mountains make volcano/desert areas viable, and there are forests in pretty much every state. If you extend out to Louisiana you've got a swamp area. I mean hell Unova didn't even adapt the whole of New York state so you can play around with the geography a fair bit to incorporate all the usual biomes.

It's definitely doable, is my point, and that part of the world has enough of a cultural identity and aesthetic to be distinctive and appealing.

Though I would say that Texas (possibly with some bits of California/Mexico added) seems large and diverse enough to be its own region.

Weirdly when I look at the map of Paldea it just kind of looks what I always imagined an Australia region should look like. A couple of big cities and some smaller settlements but mostly just open-world grasslands and mountainous areas.

Middle East and Russia are both full of obvious political pitfalls, so even TPC is smart enough to avoid those regions. Another one is probably any SE Asian country other than Japan. Like, if they wanted to do a Vietnam region, they'd have to deal with IRL Vietnam expecting them to be racist, having to determine in-game whether they reference the history of Vietnam being invaded and conquered, and then they'd have to invent borders that are guaranteed to piss someone off. Much easier to just pick a new Japanese island instead of risking that.

Yes, the middle east is another area TPC probably would avoid.

A theory I read a lot a few years back was that Fiore was based on Korea (I'm not actually sure where exactly Fiore is meant to be, it's the one region that I can't see any clear analogue to) but I agree that any other SE Asian countries are probably going to be a no-no, not just China; Malaysia and Indonesia have similarly fractious relationships with Japan, and obviously they're not going to make Taiwan a region.

This might come off as anti-biased from my part but I don’t how Canada could work if GF based it off as a whole for a region without somehow going out of their way to undermine the cold side of the country.

You see, Canada is known for having a wild weather over here. It takes the cake on the northernmost regions, where things get notably colder, and much less warm during summers than regions that are nearer the USA. As such, cold mountains will be a common sight in Canada.

But because GF refuses to put cold locations outside of lategame sections, it might cause a history repeat with Unova, with mostly grassland.

If indigenous people, the countryside and colder part of Canada would be emphasized, as well as focusing on one region instead of Canada as a whole, then it might work. However, I doubt GF, and Japan as a whole, would be familiar enough with even one part of Canada for them to work as a basis for a region.

Hmm... I don't know about this.

I've been to Canada, and it was pretty temperate - I don't think it would be so far-fetched for a Canada region to just... have mostly normal weather like the others do, with one cold area in the lategame. You could have it be like Sinnoh in Platinum where it is canonically a cold region overall but still ordinary and liveable. Everyone's just in long sleeves and jumpers rather than t-shirts.

The perks of this thread is that, no matter what you say, odds are the next 2 regions won't be set there anyway, just statistically. It's very hard to be wrong.

Well, yes, but I'm more interested in specifically talking about the problems/pitfalls of given locations, not trying to guess at the next game's setting. Usually that's quite easy to tell from the off; I'm pretty sure Kalos=France, Alola=Hawaii, Galar=Britain, and Paldea=Spain/Portugal were all being discussed from the first trailers for each of the games in question.

 

[ceal]

For the examples you listed, I think Africa doesn't make much sense, at least the way you argued it. The only real racism moment Pokemon ever had (that I'm aware of) was Jynx and that was 25 years ago. They've done a fine job including black people and I don't see how going to Africa would suddenly shoot them back to the 1950's. If they could get Hawaii down with next to no issue I fail to see how sub-Saharan Africa would be any different.

As for my own ideas, I think Korea is probably not gonna go. The northern half of the peninsula for obvious reasons, but even the for the more democratic South, Korea and Japan have historically had awful relations, especially in the last century, and I could see the Koreans being very anal about how they're represented by a Japanese video game series, especially if some of the aesthetics of the region directly reference the era in which Japan occupied the country. I have enough faith Gamefreak wouldn't include anything racist against Koreans, but who knows how things could get lost in translation.

It's a shame about Russia, because there's some genuinely interesting culture and history there, but even if they weren't currently persona non grata I wonder if they would avoid it because of the Soviet era. Then again, having a Stalin stand-in for the evil team's boss would be pretty hilarious.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

For the examples you listed, I think Africa doesn't make much sense, at least the way you argued it. The only real racism moment Pokemon ever had (that I'm aware of) was Jynx and that was 25 years ago. They've done a fine job including black people and I don't see how going to Africa would suddenly shoot them back to the 1950's. If they could get Hawaii down with next to no issue I fail to see how sub-Saharan Africa would be any different.

It's not so much that I'm expecting "racism moments"; I agree they've done a fine job of including darker-skinned characters in recent games and I don't think there's any problem on that score. It's more the culture and history of countries in Africa that strikes me as potentially contentious. Just based off some of the reactions I read about ScVi amalgamating Spain and Portugal into one region, I feel like there's a potential minefield of controversial aspects to navigate when it comes to nations in Africa

Idk maybe that's me overthinking things but to give another example it's notable to me (being half Irish myself) that Galar has no Northern Ireland equivalent. The history between Ireland and the UK is long and complicated and still quite touchy to many people, and it's not something you can easily brush over. Many people I know in the UK still talk (innocently enough, but still very ignorantly) as though the Republic of Ireland is part of the UK, which it very much isn't. So I can see why TPC might sidestep the issue entirely and not create an area based on the island of Ireland - it's a tricky thing to handle. If you imply that the entirety of that area is part of Galar you risk a big media shitstorm. On the other hand, to specifically go out of your way to explain that only the northeastern chunk of the island is part of Galar and the rest is a different region means you're just highlighting the real-world situation.

But idk. I'd personally be all for a region based on various countries in Africa (Kenya, Ghana, Mali, Egypt, the DRC, Morocco, Madagascar, et al) but I just personally don't think it's likely.

As for my own ideas, I think Korea is probably not gonna go. The northern half of the peninsula for obvious reasons, but even the for the more democratic South, Korea and Japan have historically had awful relations, especially in the last century, and I could see the Koreans being very anal about how they're represented by a Japanese video game series, especially if some of the aesthetics of the region directly reference the era in which Japan occupied the country. I have enough faith Gamefreak wouldn't include anything racist against Koreans, but who knows how things could get lost in translation.

It's a shame about Russia, because there's some genuinely interesting culture and history there, but even if they weren't currently persona non grata I wonder if they would avoid it because of the Soviet era. Then again, having a Stalin stand-in for the evil team's boss would be pretty hilarious.

I always found the reference to Russia in RBYFRLG so intriguing... but of course it was scrubbed in LGPE, as most real-world references have been. But yeah, Russia is way too much of a minefield for TPC to touch I think.

 

[pika pal]

i really want there to be a region based on antarctica solely to see how game freak still manage to avoid making ice-types available earlygame

Spend the entire game inside the school/lab/insulated setting because the Antarctic is dangerous, and then cross the Tundra at endgame for the final boss in a Glacier or something.

For an actual nomination, I wonder about India. While not the most familiar with the history of the Country for international relationships overall, I know there is, to put it lightly, a rocky history with Great Britain/the UK, which also has a Pokemon analogue in Galar. While I don't necessarily expect TPC would make much of it, it feels like a topic you'd see a lot of speculation and theorizing about, both in good and bad faith, that they may simply not want to invite given how much "fandom marketing" plays a role in Pokemon or any brand nowadays.

That said I'm not in the mind of GF developers or the marketing heads or know how much the Global Selling vs Japanese-developed aspects of the IP influence their decisions, so I'll also hang the disclaimer that I'm just kind of spitballing and could just as easily see myself being wrong.

 

[Cobalt Empoleon]

New Zealand seems unlikely, even though it would work really well as a Pokemon region. Australia would always be used as inspiration first and NZ would most likely either be a couple of misshapen blobs in the south-east corner of the map or not seen at all. It could work as a DLC, but I'm wary of how it'd be represented on that smaller scale (although I'll reserve judgement until we see how the SV DLC goes).

Getting inspiration from the Southern Hemisphere might at least force the devs to choose between their two favourite design staples (starting the game in the bottom half of the map and having no early-game Ice-types).

 

[Nokocchi]

Getting inspiration from the Southern Hemisphere might at least force the devs to choose between their two favourite design staples (starting the game in the bottom half of the map and having no early-game Ice-types).

I don't think that would do squat, considering that most of the southern land masses are closer to the equator than not and thus don't have a freezing southern tip. They would just make a mountain the snow place.

 

[Cobalt Empoleon]

I don't think that would do squat, considering that most of the southern land masses are closer to the equator than not and thus don't have a freezing southern tip. They would just make a mountain the snow place.

I'm assuming that they're continuing with the open-world model, in which case being able to at least partially walk up a mountain isn't out of the question in the early game. I was thinking of New Zealand specifically, which has a snowy mountain range spanning most of the South Island and a number of glaciers closer to sea level, but Australia also has snowy mountains in the south-east.

I mean I guess they could entirely erase the Southern Alps and make something like Mt Ruapehu their designated snow area but that seems a little silly.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Spend the entire game inside the school/lab/insulated setting because the Antarctic is dangerous, and then cross the Tundra at endgame for the final boss in a Glacier or something.

For an actual nomination, I wonder about India. While not the most familiar with the history of the Country for international relationships overall, I know there is, to put it lightly, a rocky history with Great Britain/the UK, which also has a Pokemon analogue in Galar. While I don't necessarily expect TPC would make much of it, it feels like a topic you'd see a lot of speculation and theorizing about, both in good and bad faith, that they may simply not want to invite given how much "fandom marketing" plays a role in Pokemon or any brand nowadays.

That said I'm not in the mind of GF developers or the marketing heads or know how much the Global Selling vs Japanese-developed aspects of the IP influence their decisions, so I'll also hang the disclaimer that I'm just kind of spitballing and could just as easily see myself being wrong.

I mean, they included curry as Galar's iconic dish and Copperajah seems to be a very obvious reference to the British occupation of India, so I don't think they're as wary of this as you're thinking. I don't think it would work so well the other way (as in, I don't think you could put a Pokemon with an obvious British design influence in an India region) but it obviously wasn't deemed too controversial for SwSh.

 

[LunaStik]

I don't think that would do squat, considering that most of the southern land masses are closer to the equator than not and thus don't have a freezing southern tip. They would just make a mountain the snow place.

Or even just the Galar treatment: they flipped it 180 degrees, and made the new north colder. Or not flip and make the north colder anyways. They don’t have to follow the base region’s climate.

 

[Rapti]

Anyplace the people at Game Freak don't want to take a 2-week vacation at for "studying". If anything all you need to do is look at the most popular out-of-country vacation spots for Japanese tourists are and all of the inspirations for non-Japanese regions are at or near the top. The gaps between the ones already done are the most likely choices for the next couple of gens.

This is definitely the right answer (until like generation 25 when they run out of "suitable" countries)

I don't think we're ever likely to see a region based on China, or any of its associated territories such as Hong Kong or Macau. Not only would there potentially be commercial concerns about the appeal of such a game to a worldwide audience, China has historically had a reputation of being quite sensitive about how it's portrayed in media. It actually had a ban on video games until fairly recently - Pokemon Go has always been banned there, and Pokemon Sun and Moon were the first set of games to be officially translated into Chinese. Given these factors, doing a China-inspired region is a potential controversy I can't see TPC wanting to create for themselves so I think it unlikely that they would want to take the risk.

This on the other hand, I'm betting directly against; Gamefreak has invested significantly in the chinese market for the last five years, and heck, even ignoring the fact that this generation's legendaries (which we know are given more attention than regular pokemon) are not only chinese inspired but have chinese names everywhere in the world, there are already signs of the Pokemon Company favouring its chinese audience.

So invested they are in fact, that notoriously-protective-of-their-own-work Gamefreak outright lets chinese developers update one of the games they made

At this point I'm willing to bet we'll get a chinese inspired region by 2031 at the latest.

 

[pika pal]

This on the other hand, I'm betting directly against; Gamefreak has invested significantly in the chinese market for the last five years, and heck, even ignoring the fact that this generation's legendaries (which we know are given more attention than regular pokemon) are not only chinese inspired but have chinese names everywhere in the world, there are already signs of the Pokemon Company favouring its chinese audience.

So invested they are in fact, that notoriously-protective-of-their-own-work Gamefreak outright lets chinese developers update one of the games they made

At this point I'm willing to bet we'll get a chinese inspired region by 2031 at the latest.

I do think there is the distinction to be made between giving Chinese developers/companies access to the IP (Unite is developed by a Subsidiary of Tencent I believe as well), referencing the culture in small or less direct manners (even before the Treasures of Ruin, many people correlated the Therian Forces of Nature to the Four Auspicious Beasts, especially with the addition of Enamorus), and outright depicting a region that is meant to emulate and portray an approximation of the Culture and world throughout.

The last one is where I could see GF and TPC, if not staying away entirely, walking on eggshells for how they would do such a region. My only two points of reference for Chinese reactions to outside media depicting their country/culture are Kung Fu Panda (extremely well regarded in that regard) and the two Disney Mulan films (which are much less popular in that particular aspect). Attempts by non-Chinese creators in depicting China seem as though it can legitimately make-or-break your brand in that market, so I would definitely believe that GF and TPC value that market highly enough to not risk stepping on toes if they come up short, whether by general "International depiction" standards or specifically in the eyes of the Chinese players and business partners.

 

[Ravenson]

One thing to keep in mind is that China will almost certainly be large enough for many Pokemon regions. It would be very easy to sidestep a lot of the issues by just choosing the right area of China to adapt (though I guess this risks running afoul of the One China thing??? Seems more negotiable though.) A small region around the Bohai Sea, getting Beijing and the Yellow River and also having a nice urban/rural split, would probably be quite workable as a portrayal that highlights the beauty of the region while dodging awkward political problems like the outlying provinces or Hong Kong and Macau.

 

[guys the ret]

One thing to keep in mind is that China will almost certainly be large enough for many Pokemon regions. It would be very easy to sidestep a lot of the issues by just choosing the right area of China to adapt (though I guess this risks running afoul of the One China thing??? Seems more negotiable though.) A small region around the Bohai Sea, getting Beijing and the Yellow River and also having a nice urban/rural split, would probably be quite workable as a portrayal that highlights the beauty of the region while dodging awkward political problems like the outlying provinces or Hong Kong and Macau.

Well, for Hong Kong and Macau, you could do a Pearl River Delta region with Shenzhen, Zuhai, Guangzhou etc. and just make Hong Kong and Macau the DLCs. The problem is that the Pearl River Delta leans too much towards Urban, except for Hong Kong.

 

[Eeveeto]

I want a Pokemon region based on the Balcans and theme being "respect your neighbours"

 

[Amir]

"Welcome to the middle east, don't wander alone in the desert, there could be a minefield or [insert mine-related Pokemon name here, like Mine.Jr or Mr.Mine]. You might find a wide range of ground, rock, and steel pokemon but no water pokemon, the desert is too arride for that."
Or perhaps, "Don't you hate walking 10 miles in the desert just to find Sudocacto (Sudowoodo regional variant), which contains no water whatsoever, but still manages to survive."

There is a lot of unexplored potential for desert-related pokemon, think of Hyrule and Gerudo desert, which could fit the style nicely for futuristic pokemon games.

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

Any non-Japan Asian region is very unlikely, as pretty much every country in East and Southeast Asia has a fraught history with the others. Lots of invasions, lots of racism, smattering of genocide, etc.

Australia got mentioned above but the Outback is way, way too big and empty to portray in a way that's both accurate and interesting for gameplay. I think a transition towards less directly inspired regions is more likely, since that lets the designers explore themes and environments they haven't before without boxing themselves in.

 

[guys the ret]

"Welcome to the middle east, don't wander alone in the desert, there could be a minefield or [insert mine-related Pokemon name here, like Mine.Jr or Mr.Mine]. You might find a wide range of ground, rock, and steel pokemon but no water pokemon, the desert is too arride for that."
Or perhaps, "Don't you hate walking 10 miles in the desert just to find Sudocacto (Sudowoodo regional variant), which contains no water whatsoever, but still manages to survive."

There is a lot of unexplored potential for desert-related pokemon, think of Hyrule and Gerudo desert, which could fit the style nicely for futuristic pokemon games.

Mine.Jr aand Mr.Mine are genius names. Got me laughing.

 

[Rapti]

I do think there is the distinction to be made between giving Chinese developers/companies access to the IP (Unite is developed by a Subsidiary of Tencent I believe as well), referencing the culture in small or less direct manners (even before the Treasures of Ruin, many people correlated the Therian Forces of Nature to the Four Auspicious Beasts, especially with the addition of Enamorus), and outright depicting a region that is meant to emulate and portray an approximation of the Culture and world throughout.

Honestly, I think that these 2 kinda go hand in hand
you wanna know how to respectfully represent a chinese inspired region?
why not ask the chinese developers that are already working alongside you in the same franchise?

also, just to give people a frame of reference, this image made with Full Scientific Rigor ™ , clearly shows which countries Japan's (children which is the only demographic Gamefreak actually cares about are) familiar with

BEHOLD

also ignore the flag, Jester's from Brazil, nobody cares about portugal

so while many of even those countries won't be made into Pokemon regions, countries not pictured here have absolutely 0% chance to depicted in Pokemon for the next 100 years or so

(oh and also no Mexico or Hong Kong, Hong Kong cause China won't allow it unless is as a part of a bigger chinese region, Mexico cause we already have Spain making Mexico redundant in good ol' 1950's cartoon logic which is what Gamefreak uses Africa is all just one country y'all alls)

 

[Bakugames]

The only real racism moment Pokemon ever had (that I'm aware of) was Jynx and that was 25 years ago

The last #big racist moment was the entirety of PLA, so 2 years ago, and it had racist designs in most gens.



Anyway, I agree that the different regions are often "killing two birds with one stone", in that they'll always pick regions that they want to go for tourism reasons (it's why all non japanese regions are extremely shallow lol).
I remember tourism to china being more common than koreas, but I might be completely misremembering it. In any case, I think a chinese region is actually more likely than a korean one, and would be one of the best reps because the government would be involved with it. Koreas would be a dumpster fire lmao.

Africa is another one I don't see the devs wanting to spend their vacation on. I also don't think they'll do mexico or any spanish latam country, and any latam rep will be brazil