Foreign media outlet Comicbook used The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake as a reference to propose four design suggestions for Pokémon: Wind/Wave, covering menu interfaces, open-world pacing, scene details, and creature scale.
What lessons should Pokémon: Wind/Wave learn from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake?
Pokémon: Wind/Wave carries high expectations from players. As the tenth mainline generation of the series, it has attracted significant attention since its announcement. Speaking of player anticipation, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Switch 2 also generated immense hype, and its post-launch performance proved that it lived up to expectations in many aspects.
The high praise for this remake is largely due to the many improvements made by the development team in game design. Some of these design concepts are also worth借鉴 (drawing inspiration from) for Pokémon: Wind/Wave, potentially helping this new title achieve better reception.
Currently, no exact release date has been announced for Pokémon: Wind/Wave, with players generally speculating a late 2027 launch. This means the development team still has ample time to polish the game content, at least superficially improving outdated designs from previous Pokémon generations. The many strengths of the Ocarina of Time remake are particularly worth借鉴 (drawing inspiration from), as both Pokémon Legends: Z-A and the previous mainline entries, Pokémon Scarlet/Violet, have been perceived by players to have numerous shortcomings.
4. Improve the menu system to reduce the frequency of players opening menus
One of the most important improvements in the Ocarina of Time remake is the redesigned menu system, allowing players to use items and equipment more easily. In the original 1998 game, players often had to switch between different menus to equip specific tools or use items, a tedious process that could become frustrating. Pokémon players can likely relate to this experience.
For a long time, the menu system in the Pokémon series has felt somewhat outdated. Players need to repeatedly switch between multiple different menus to view team members, Pokémon moves, stat values, and other useful information.
Meanwhile, the game's Pokémon storage system makes swapping team members inconvenient. Players often have to navigate carefully between different interfaces to make desired adjustments. The Pokémon series also contains many menu options that offer little practical benefit to gameplay, and some features lack clear prompts, leaving players unaware that certain functions are even available.
If Pokémon: Wind/Wave can provide more options for customizing UI and UX (User Interface and User Experience), allowing players to adjust interface layouts according to their habits, this would undoubtedly be a major step forward for the series and有望 (hopeful to) resolve some long-standing design issues troubling players.
3. Improve exploration methods in the semi-open world
Pokémon Scarlet/Violet received praise from many players for its first attempt at an open-world map. This contrasts sharply with the linear route design used in most previous series entries. Even Pokémon Sword/Shield, which featured open areas, basically required players to follow a set path from one location to another, with the overall flow not differing much from earlier series titles.
However, the world design in Pokémon Scarlet/Violet is far from perfect, with several issues affecting the overall experience. Major criticisms of its map design include:
Wild Pokémon lack dynamic level adjustment mechanisms.
There are invisible air walls preventing players from accessing certain areas.
Trainers do not adjust their teams based on the player's Pokémon levels.
The level adjustment issue permeates almost the entire gameplay of Pokémon Scarlet/Violet. Since wild Pokémon levels do not change based on player progress, players can effectively skip the normal growth curve and rapidly boost their team's strength.
For example, players can quickly gain experience points by defeating Pokémon much higher level than their own, causing their team to far exceed the recommended level before challenging the first Gym, leading to easy victories with almost no challenge.
Although Pokémon Scarlet/Violet allows players to freely explore most of the map, because trainers do not adjust their team strength based on the player's current level, the combat difficulty across different areas lacks coherence. Some battles are too easy, while others may be so difficult as to be unmanageable.
In contrast, Ocarina of Time allows players to explore the world according to their wishes, but simultaneously uses certain designs to prevent players from entering areas they are not yet prepared for. Even if players attempt to go to these places, it is difficult to exploit game glitches to skip the growth process originally set by the main storyline.
This is not simply about depriving players of choice, but rather providing multiple routes to achieve the same goal while preserving freedom, allowing them to decide the order of completion themselves.
Pokémon Scarlet/Violet actually adopted a similar approach, allowing players to freely choose the order in which they challenge Gyms, but the issue lies in the fact that Gym Leaders' strength does not change with the growth of the player's team. Ocarina of Time handled the relationship between free exploration and game progression very well.
Currently, rumors and leaks about Pokémon: Wind/Wave point towards a larger open world, with overall design likely continuing the approach of Pokémon Scarlet/Violet. However, I believe the tenth generation should not blindly pursue complete freedom, but rather appropriately limit the player's exploration range to maintain a natural growth rhythm between different areas. This gradual progression is precisely one of the reasons why early Pokémon games were so captivating.
Excellent Pokémon ROM hacks, such as Pokémon Odyssey, have proven that the series can benefit from open-world designs that dynamically respond to player actions. Making the world change according to player actions can make exploration routes more logical, rather than simply randomly opening all areas to the player.
2. Enrich details in different areas to make each location unique
Limited by the Nintendo Switch's performance, the open world in Pokémon Scarlet/Violet often appears quite rudimentary. Although the game achieves 60FPS on Switch 2 through graphical upgrades, this is not enough to completely resolve the visual issues of the ninth generation. Textures for grass, sand, and other terrains remain very rough, looking more like simply laid-out decals rather than carefully designed natural environments.
The characters in the game also lack sufficient diversity, with NPCs in towns often failing to leave a lasting impression on players. The scene design in some areas is overly monotonous, making the exploration process less appealing and making it difficult for players to develop genuine interest in certain locations.
In comparison, the environmental presentation in the Ocarina of Time remake is stunning, with each location rich in detail, making the entire world feel more alive. From majestic castles to bustling city streets, the remake improved the outdated visuals of the original N64 game in almost every aspect. Even those character models that initially looked somewhat eerie, like dolls, gradually become pleasing to the eye after playing for a while.
While the game features interesting character dialogues, the true appeal of the Ocarina of Time world lies in the player's ability to tangibly interact with the environment. In Pokémon Scarlet/Violet, many locations feel like filler areas added merely to enrich the map's appearance, offering players little reason to explore further.
For Pokémon: Wind/Wave, the development team needs to consider how to create truly vibrant game scenes. Pokémon Legends: Z-A has already shown some commendable designs in this regard, adding不少 (quite a few) environmental details, though limited by its relatively smaller scale, the overall presentation still struggles to match the level of the Ocarina of Time remake.
Switch 2 possesses stronger performance, capable of supporting better graphics and richer visual details. Pokémon Wind/Wave can fully leverage this to create a Pokémon world with greater depth, worthy of repeated exploration.
If the tenth generation titles can reach the level of scene detail and world design seen in Pokémon Platinum or Pokémon Black/White, they will surely win widespread acclaim from players.
1. Adjust Pokémon size representation to create a realistic sense of proportion
Currently, we only know that Pokémon: Wind/Wave will feature three cute, small-sized starter Pokémon, whose designs align with the series' recent trend towards modernization.
Starting with Pokémon X/Y, the series gradually shifted from traditional 2D sprites to a 3D model battle system, which also changed Pokémon designs. However, this change somewhat diminished the intended size differences among Pokémon. Often, no matter how massive a Pokémon is supposed to be, it looks like a plush toy in-game, barely differing in size from the player-controlled character.
If the Ocarina of Time remake proves anything, it is that reasonable size proportions play an important role in creating tension and immersion in the game world.
In Ocarina of Time, Link often faces enemies vastly larger than himself, especially during the early game when playing as young Link, where this size difference is particularly pronounced. Even later in the game, after mastering more combat techniques, players still feel a distinct sense of oppression when facing certain massive enemies.
Meanwhile, whether buildings, natural landscapes, or the horses Link rides, they all appear much taller than him. This makes Link look like an ordinary person situated in a world far grander than himself.
Pokémon can similarly enhance the world's impact in this way. If the game allows Pokémon to display their true sizes according to Pokédex descriptions during open-world exploration, players will have the opportunity to experience something entirely different.
During the development of Pokémon: Wind/Wave, the team could fully借鉴 (draw inspiration from) Ocarina of Time's approach, giving players reasons to actively pay attention to and approach the Pokémon they see in the wild.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus achieved this by having wild Pokémon actively attack players. In Pokémon: Wind/Wave, perhaps just seeing a massive Wailord on the sea surface, or looking up to spot a Dragonite flying across the sky, would be enough to deliver the same shock to players.
Making Pokémon truly an不可忽视 (unignorable) part of the regional environment, whether through massive size, cute appearance, or natural integration into the surrounding ecology, helps enhance the realism of the entire world.
If Pokémon: Wind/Wave can draw inspiration from the design philosophy of the Ocarina of Time remake, allowing players to rediscover the charm of the Pokémon world, then this tenth-generation title has the opportunity to become a truly memorable celebration for the series.
