This month looks like a promising one for "Pokémon Sun" and "Moon" fans after April was a total flop. CoroCoro, which misled fans into believing that its April issue would have a feature about the upcoming game, will actually have information this month. Now, with official info confirmed to be arriving in its May issue, let's look at one thing that may hopefully be addressed down the line: regions.
Each Pokémon game in the series takes place in its own region, and each is based on real world locations. For example, the first four regions - Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh - are based on regions in Japan, while the fifth region, Unova, is based on New York, and Kalos is based on France (the Prism Tower in Lumiose City is strikingly similar to the Eiffel Tower, right?).
All of the regions became quite dynamic in most aspects as the series progressed and evolved. However, one thing that stayed disappointingly stale was the interaction between them. "Pokémon Red" and "Blue" get a pass because Kanto was the only region at the time, but almost all the later entries had older regions to visit and missed that opportunity every single time. The only exception to this was in Generation II with "Gold" and "Silver," which allowed players to visit Kanto for post-game content once their adventure in Johto was complete.
Fans had expected Nintendo and Game Freak to revisit this once-expected paradigm, but their hopes were dashed with each new release. However, this year's "Sun" and "Moon" has provided them with a new glimmer of hope thanks to a few cryptic words that were dropped in the game's announcement trailer in February. In one part of the trailer, after the six previous generations of games were displayed, it was stated, "(all the years) and now in 2016, it all comes together in an all new Pokémon adventure."
This means many things, such as the development team taking everything they learned and pooling it into a new game. However, this is something that the team should have been doing to begin with, so there's no real need to announce this. On the other hand, the announcement could also be taken to mean that the Pokémon world will be connected and players will be able to revisit old regions.
Fans were of a similar mind and quickly latched onto the idea. Some referenced the precedent that everyone thought developer Game Freak had established in "Gold" and "Silver," while at least one person referenced the Space Center added to Mossdeep City in "Omega Ruby" and "Alpha Sapphire," suggesting that space travel might be a possibility.
Multiple regions being in the same game is certainly possible - they've done it before, after all - but what are the chances that it can happen? Looking at Nintendo and Game Freak's actions in the past, the likelihood isn't too high. As mentioned before, the last time a Pokémon game had multiple regions the players could visit was in "Gold" and "Silver," and that feature has yet to be repeated, even with the option to include DLC.
Furthermore, the existence of the Pokébank puts a hamper on expectations. Pokémon, first and foremost, has been a game about raising Pokémon, meeting new ones as you travel and raising them through battles along the way. However, once "Sun and Moon" arrive, players will be able to use the app to transfer Pokémon from older games to the newest one. That isn't to say that the app definitively kills any chances of multiple regions coming to play, but revisiting old regions loses some appeal when the Pokémon once thought unique to a specific region can easily be obtained elsewhere.
The final nail in the coffin might be a statement from series director Junichi Masuda himself, who, when asked about the possibility of all regions being included a future game responded, "If we could come up with a way to really make that interesting, then it's something we'd implement - but for me, personally, as a theory, I think it would be more fun for us all to enjoy different locations and then share that experience together than all have the same experience in the same region."
Of course, that statement is a response to all the regions, but it can easily apply to any number of them.
The issue that "Sun" and "Moon" is facing from the get-go is the lofty expectations they set for themselves simply by existing and the region that they will be located in will come under major scrutiny. Kalos received a lot of flak for having a lack of content and a relatively empty world, and the newest game could fall into the same trap if it's not careful, as it might justify Kalos-level content by adding a second region - which unless they add a seconed new region, would be Kalos itself.
Should "Pokémon Sun" and "Moon" have multiple regions? Yes, but the quality of the main one comes first.
