Whenever people talk about wanting a Pokemon game like Breath of the Wild, they mean a very specific thing. A large open world with freedom to go anywhere, more traversal options, roving Pokemon who impact the environment in meaningful ways, and a story that lets you carve your own path. For some, Scarlet & Violet’s openness was the first step towards that, despite the issues with the game at a launch and many still present today. That’s not really what I mean though, and it took me until Tears of the Kingdom to realise that.
I’ve never been a hardcore fan of Zelda. I played a few of the games as a kid, caught up on a couple more as an adult, and put in some solid 20 hours with Breath of the Wild before realising it was not for me. I’m back for Tears of the Kingdom, but so far it’s the same story. This is why I had never made the connection before. And in the red corner, we have my colleague Jade King. Everything I just said about myself and Zelda applies to Jade and Pokemon, while Jade is a major Zelda fan and I’m in the deep end of Pokemon. Between us, we cracked the code.
Jade has been full of praise for Tears of the Kingdom, and has analysed the lamentations that ol’ Zelda ain’t what it used to be. Even as a casual player, I’m aware Breath of the Wild marked a significant change in direction, but it wasn’t until I read Jade’s thoughts that I realised how it impacted Pokemon. When speaking of why Zelda needed to change, she cited “overlong tutorials and a narrative structure which followed predictable beats” - sound familiar?
Pokemon has been spinning its wheels in a similar fashion. We’ve gotten the Wild Area, we’ve been able to chart our own course, but for the most part, it’s the same game. We pick from three starters in the same three types, have a long and laborious tutorial where the mechanics of a game many of us have played for 25 years are explained to us, and then on we go with a basic ‘beat eight gyms, win’ narrative.
You can point to individual tweaks right the way back to Gen 5, from different moves, changing the gym or Elite Four format, and giving the map a greater sense of explorability. But ultimately, it’s the same game. Long tutorial, phoned in story. New creatures. $70 please.
When I say Pokemon needs its Breath of the Wild moment, I don’t mean it needs to copy Breath of the Wild. I don’t need it to be a lonely, puzzle based adventure in an open grassy world. We just need it to be different. Breath of the Wild was the Zelda team looking at what it had created in the past and thinking ‘this is good, but it could be better’. Pokémon’s thinking is stuck on ‘this is good’. Minor improvements come and go, but the underlying foundation ain’t broke, so no one is brave enough to fix it. Maybe someone should break it and build something new instead.
Breath of the Wild is still recognisably a Zelda game, but it manages to achieve this by throwing out all of the things you would consider the core building blocks. There are no temples or dungeons, Link is alone for almost the entire game, there’s no sense of direction or areas to unlock, and its attitude to combat and weaponry are completely different. It doesn’t even give you a sword - you make do with a breakable stick. Good luck, kid.
Pokemon has so much potential, I’d argue even more than Zelda thanks to its enormous fanbase and ability to reinvent itself far easier than what is essentially the story of a chosen knight rescuing a princess in a variety of ways across different timelines. Pokemon can be anything it wants. It’s odd that it keeps choosing to be ‘the previous Pokemon game with small changes’.
Zelda has always been a little bolder. Ocarina of Time marked a major shift for the series, as did (less successfully) Skyward Sword. Pokemon has given itself a new lick of paint down the years, but Legends: Arceus is the only game that has radically altered the framework. After that there’s Scarlet & Violet, a step backwards from Arceus but hopefully still positive momentum for the series, and the all-too-often ignored spin-offs. When it comes down to it, Pokemon just isn’t as brave as Zelda.
Still, there’s a real chance this could happen. Several devs have already copied Breath of the Wild’s individual mechanics, and Tears of the Kingdom has proven lightning can strike twice. Scarlet & Violet, for all its flaws, was the most open to change a Pokemon game has been with its open world, but it was held back not only by bugs but by a loyalty to a formula that no longer works. There was bravery in Scarlet & Violet, and I hope Tears of the Kingdom encourages that to grow. Pokemon needs its Breath of the Wild moment, but that might not mean what you think it does.