Pokémon Games Where the Region Itself Feels Like the Real Main Character

Nintendo's Pokémon franchise is one of the most prolific and beloved multimedia franchises of all time, spawning countless fan-favorite pocket monsters and trainers over its 30 years worth of existence.

However, Pokémon is not especially well-known for its deep, dynamic, or complex protagonists in its video games, with most video game protagonists not speaking at all or having little to no personal agency in the games they feature in.

Due to this repetitive character nature of its leads, it's actually fairly common for the regions themselves to feel like the main character more than the playable trainers in Pokémon games, due to the way titles focus on events, issues, history, and the culture of various Pokémon regions. Here are the most memorable locations in the series.

8 Pokémon Platinum

The Mythology and Folklore of Sinnoh

One of the best mainline Pokémon games which truly showcases the region itself as the main character more so than the playable aspiring trainer is Pokémon Platinum and its updated arctic form of the Sinnoh region.

From the moment Pokémon Platinum begins, Sinnoh is shrouded in enigmatic intrigue with rumors of a legendary Pokémon being seen at Lake Verity, only for players to slowly learn more about Sinnoh's past and its towns' reverence to many cosmically tied Pokémon such as Regigigas' ties to Snowpoint City.

Platinum repeatedly showcases its people starting to lose faith and connection to its past traditions and festivities, with most residents of Eterna City no longer understanding the significance of its legendary statue and Champion Cynthia being one of the last residents of the ancient Celestic Town.

7 Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia

Almia's Many Plights

There are countless Pokémon spinoff titles, but oddly enough, most of them still don't develop their protagonists into fully-fleshed-out characters, with their region and its inhabitants often having to take up the slack as seen in Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia.

Set in the titular Almia region, Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia has players embody a young Pokémon Ranger graduate as they set out to save the region from natural disasters and from Team Dim Sun controlling wild Pokémon to threaten people.

Almia itself feels like a region where people and Pokémon actually live in harmony, with Blastoises helping firefighters put out a forest fire and scuba divers helping Water-type Pokémon in need.

6 Pokémon Black 2 and White 2

Unova's Evolving Nature

As one of Pokémon's few direct sequels, Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 are uniquely able to showcase how a region can quickly change overtime, with Unova's towns, people, and issues drastically evolving in just two years after the events of Pokémon Black and White.

This is largely shown through the new machinations of Team Plasma, which has since been split in two since Black and White, with one group led by N striving to return stolen Pokémon back to their trainers and another group led by Ghetsis striving to steal more Pokémon and use the legendary Pokémon Kyurem to freeze all of Unova.

Many people are still striving to move forward since Team Plasma's original attacks on the region two years ago as well, resulting in the development of many new municipalities such as Aspertia City and Lentimas Town, which has since caused more Pokémon to migrate to the region and people to take new roles such as Cheren becoming a Gym Leader.

5 Pokémon Pokopia

Kanto's Natural Disasters

The human-imitating Ditto in Pokémon Pokopia doesn't have much of a characterization beyond being a mute, helpful Pokémon with a knack for crafting human objects, but the land it helps restore actually has a rich backstory to it.

As people help restore areas and explore the ruins of towns and cities, they'll eventually discover that these areas used to be a part of the Kanto region that were destroyed long ago by natural disasters such as floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and droughts after humanity polluted the world.

Many Pokémon found in the game, such as Professor Tangrowth and Chef Dente, were actually owned by people who once strived to help Pokémon and the environment, but it's eventually revealed that a good portion of humanity was forced to leave the planet and go to space after the planet became no longer habitable for them to stay.

4 New Pokémon Snap

The Beauty of Lental

While the Pokémon Snap games do technically feature playable characters in the form of Todd Snap and the custom avatar in New Pokémon Snap, they're little more than frameworks to get people into taking pictures of Pokémon.

Unlike its N64 predecessor, however, New Pokémon Snap does take place in an entirely new region called Lental and has players take pictures as part of an investigation into Lental's mysterious Illumina phenomenon that hasn't been seen in 100 years.

With the help of Professor Mirror and Todd Snap himself, players will eventually discover that the Lental region's islands are home to millennia-old ruins and that the region was once threatened by a mysterious meteorite that caused the legendary Fairy-type Pokémon Xerneas to create the phenomenon to begin in the first place.

3 Pokémon Conquest

Warring Clans of Ransei

Tecmo Koei's Pokémon Conquest is one of the most unique Pokémon titles for several reasons, as it's not only a tactical RPG crossover with the Nobunaga's Ambition series, but it's also set in an alternate version of Sengoku period Japan filled with real-life historical figures and Pokémon alike.

Here, players embody a young warlord of the Ransei region as they attempt to conquer and unite all of its 17 kingdoms and thwart the machinations of Oda Nobunaga using legions of samurai and Pokémon.

The young warlord doesn't have much of a character themselves, but Conquest's best aspect is just how different each of Ransei's kingdoms are and the people that represent them with the Fire-type-focused Ignis kingdom resembling the Fire Nation from Avatar: The Last Airbender, for instance.

2 Pokémon Sun and Moon

Alola's Traditions and Aspirations

Pokémon Sun and Moon standout among most other mainline Pokémon titles primarily due to its Hawaii-inspired Alola region, with the archipelago only having just recently constructed its own Alola League with an Elite Four.

Due to this, Alola has no conventional Pokémon Gyms but instead features an Island Challenge wherein young trainers must complete several puzzle-like trials and defeat huge totem Pokémon on each of Alola's main islands before eventually battling each island's kahunas.

These trials already make Pokémon Sun and Moon incredibly distinct from every other mainline Pokémon game, but there's more to Alola than just the trials, as the region is home to the gang-like Team Skull and the devious Aether Foundation whose experiments with dimensional travel threaten the entire world.

Sinnoh's Ancient History as Hisui

Without a doubt, the best Pokémon game that presents the region as the main character more so than the playable trainer themselves is Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

Set hundreds of years in the past back when Sinnoh was called the Hisui region and Poke Balls were mostly made out of wood, Pokémon Legends: Arceus primarily tasks players with exploring the wilderness of Hisui while encountering small villages and ancestors of those who would become important figures during Platinum.

For example, the busting metropolis, Jubilife City, is only a small, quaint, mostly wooden Jubilife Village in Arceus, while the Galaxy Expedition Team is meant to be the ancient predecessor of Team Galactic, with Cyllene of the Team's Survey Corps heavily implied to be the ancestor of Cyrus.