Topic: What cultural influence would u like to see in the next POKEMON game?

Japanese, European, English/Medieval influences are all too common in Pokemon and in the game industry as a whole, which can feel exhausting. I did like Legends: Arceus using more heavy Japanese influence since its been a while that they used that theme in full. I hope they go all out with the Japanese theme again but not anytime soon.

Scarlet Violet using Mexican Spanish (hopefully Aztec too) influence feels very refreshing and new! I'd like to see ancient Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, African, or Indian cultures next! They could also just create a fresh new world with its own culture too!

@Vivianeat
Indonesia 🇮🇩 , my country.
Imagine the Pokemons get inspired from the things in Indonesia such as Gamelan, Komodo, Hanuman, Kecak dance, etc.

Canada, Moose and Coffee Pokemon pls

I would love to see African cultures next. Or a legends version of India. Neither will happen.

I think Peru would be interesting, there's a lot to take inspiration from there, between things like Machu Picchu and the Nazca Lines. Would be the perfect opportunity to add a llama pokemon too, which I'm surprised they haven't already done.

@Kermit1 That would be a very foresty and rivery game lol. Boating to towns would b cool!

@Kermit1 Don't forget the obligatory Maple Syrup Pokemon. 😉

@Vivianeat The thing is that some not as well known European cultures don't get represented. It's usually the same few ones, italian, french, german, nordic, british, non specific eastern or russian. Spanish is not as common, I'd say, so it's nice to see now in Pokémon. But if you have Spanish cultural representation, you probably won't then have Portuguese, say, and some interesting things they could do by representing both.

@TowaHerschel7 oh yea, I almost forgot lol

Camden Town.

My heart wants Ireland because good lord did we get shafted when Galar came around (there's SO much cool stuff you could do with Irish folklore alone man), but if I had to think realistically, India would be a great pick. It would be our first Asian region since Sinnoh, it has some great mythology, landscapes and animals inhabitating it and we do have a precedent for something like it with Copperajah. With Spain taking the mantle of an open-world region, India could fit right into that mould as well.

Alt-right culture.

The Pokémon league champion could be based on Trump and when you beat him he’d just refuse to accept that you won.

The game would be basically unbeatable!

@StuTwo We technically already have that.

(also, for the love of God, DO NOT LOOK UP CLAIR ON GOOGLE IMAGES. Worst mistake of my life)

I'd like to see the next game takes place in a region based on latin american countries. Mexico, Perú, Argentina, Brasil... There's many countries with beautiful places and great culture. I expected to see that in this game but it doesn't seem to be the case aside from the Pokemon games based on Spanish language and still that isn't much as it could also mean that it's based on Spain. The trailers didn't seem to show anything that I could be sure that is based on latin american countries either.

Had the Iberian peninsula not seemingly been SV's influence, I would have said Greece. Absolutely teeming with potential with the ancient mythology influence, numerous islands, etc. Other great ones imo would be Egypt, northern Scandinavia, and Peru or Brazil.

@Rambler that could be fun. Gym leader Priti Patel sends you to Rwanda where you must face the challenges of having no human rights like being disappeared or tortured, gym leader Nadine Dorries uses fake news type Pokemon, gym leader Rishi Sunak doesn’t know what to as his wife is not around to puppet him, gym leader Jacob Rees Mogg asks his nanny to battle for him as he has his feet up in Parliament etc until you get to the Champion Bojo who’s Pokemon know the special move Ruffled Hair which makes them a preform a dance on tv to make them look buffoonish to lure your Pokemon into forgetting what he actually is but before you can face him you must go through The Elite Bullingdon Club!

I would love to see a Scandinavian region.
I know I'm biased, but we have a lot of mountains, forests, fjords etc. I think it could be pretty cool.

Honestly I'm a bit bored of Pokemon games bouncing from overt representations of one country to another. Galar really overdid it IMO with its on-the-nose representations of British culture (Polteageist I'm looking at you). Moving forward I'd rather cultural inspirations would a bit more subtle, and that collectively each region (and even individual Pokemon designs) would take inspiration from a blend of cultures if they were to go that route.

@Buizel I reckon Gamefreak did a really good job at capturing some of the subtleties of the cultures mixed in the UK, but I agree. I'd happily see them start mixing more downplayed influences, like you suggest, or simply just go back to being loosely based on regions of Japan.

@Buizel I totally get u. Galar is my least favorite, art direction wise. It was very British lol. All the main Pokemon games usually have that hint of Japanese essence too, but it missed it this time around :/