The Pokemon world is presented differently in each form of media that it appears in — whether it's the manga, the anime, the trading card game, the main series of games, the side games, or any of the other pieces of the great Pokemon media empire.
The anime is one of the most robust and in-depth iterations of the Pokemon universe, and, as a result, has a lot going on that the games do not. Some of these features are fantastic in the anime but would be terrible in the games, but in some cases, the anime has features that would be great to see in a game one day. Here are some examples of that.
10 Pokemon Interaction
The world in the anime is a living, breathing one where Pokemon are like real-life animals that exist in the wild and lead full lives. In the games, they mostly just pop up in the grass as an individual. It would be great to see a living, breathing world where Pokemon interact with the environment and one another.
The closest fans have gotten to seeing something like this is Pokemon Snap, which is luckily getting a new release sometime soon. Sword & Shield's open-world Wild Area shows Pokemon in the environment, but they kind of just walk around, unfortunately.
9 Evolutions in the Wild
Another thing that gamers are seeing for the first time en masse in the newest generation is the presence of fully-evolved Pokemon in the wild. There have always been some evolved forms that appear in the wild, but Sword & Shield are full of evolutions that you would never expect to find out in the wild.
In the anime, fully-evolved and third-stage Pokemon are common in the wild, often taking on a "leader of the herd"-type role among their species. It would be great to see a more realistic representation of wild Pokemon in the games.
8 Traveling Between Regions
Ever since the Generation II games included another entire region, Kanto, that the protagonist could travel to in the post-game, fans have been begging for this feature to return. It probably never will, but that hasn't stopped rabid speculation with every new game.
In the anime, characters frequently travel between regions, including the protagonist, Ash. These moments typically provide some fan service, but they're still great. There are airports in places like Unova, so why can't they be used?
7 Battle Mechanics
Battles in the games are pretty straightforward. Sure, there are a lot of strategies and special moves beyond just offensive direct hits, but for the most part, moves have a certain way they work and that's that.
In the anime, battling is much more interesting. Pokemon are able to dodge, moves are used in very creative ways, and the environment in which the battle takes place plays a much more important role.
6 Companions
A recurring theme in the Pokemon anime is Ash finding new traveling companions. In each region (or arc of the show), Ash finds a few other people that are interested in traveling through the area with him. The first companions were Misty and Brock, but there have been many others over the years.
Wouldn't this be super cool in the games? Many other video games have a party system where you can recruit new companions, so why not Pokemon?
5 Good Gym Leaders
A common complaint from long-time players of the Pokemon games is that they're fairly easy. Sure, they're meant to be accessible to kids, but a higher difficulty option for more seasoned gamers would not hurt. Furthermore, the Gym Leaders are mostly pushovers. One common suggestion is that their Pokemon should scale in difficulty to your own.
The anime seems to have this as Ash has problems with each Gym Leader equally. They don't get harder as Ash goes on, instead, each one poses the same type of challenge. This is arguably how it should be.
4 Extra Gyms
On the topic of Gyms: there are far more of them in the anime than in the games, especially in the earlier seasons. Each game in the main series typically has just eight Gyms, but the anime often has a few more. Sinnoh, Unova, and Kalos are all home to more than ten Gyms, and trainers only need eight badges from any combination of them to challenge the League Conference.
Rumors flew after a misunderstood statement from developers before Sword & Shield's release that there would be more than eight Gyms. The fact that there is a Gym in Galar for each type, but only the best eight become part of the Gym Challenge, led players to believe there was a Minor League where the unofficial Gyms could be challenged.
3 Locations
It isn't just the Gyms that appear more frequently in the anime — other locations that don't exist in the games are in abundance as well. The Pokemon anime is home to dozens of really cool places that make no appearance whatsoever in any game.
Of course, it might not be possible for the games to contain as many places as the television show does, but many of them would be really cool to see.
2 Specific Eggs
Of all the things on this list, this entry represents the one that would most likely be the easiest to implement in the games: specifically-colored eggs for each Pokemon. Frankly, it's strange that it hasn't been added yet.
In the games, all Pokemon eggs (for the most part) look the exact same — beige with green spots. But, in the anime, Pokemon eggs look like the Pokemon they contain. This would be a great feature.
1 Live Combat
This is, unfortunately, something that may only ever appear in side games like Pokken Tournament, but live combat would be absolutely incredible in Pokemon. Sure, the series is one of the pillars of the turn-based battling genre, but live combat could be a whole new ball game for the series.
The anime is almost always live combat rather than turn-based. This allows battles to be more dynamic and unpredictable, making for a more exciting experience.