Although they were met with critiques regarding their performance on launch, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet did revolutionize the franchise in many ways by breaking longstanding traditions, boldly embracing new features, and going in new directions with the story. This doesn’t mean that the games were perfect, but rather that the stakes are already high for Pokemon Gen 10 and even Gen 9’s own DLCs, the first of which will drop this fall. There are still many things that Game Freak can do to change the Pokemon formula in a meaningful way, and perhaps it should look no further than Ghost of Tsushima.

Game Freak’s new IP, which was teased earlier this month, is seemingly portraying a samurai in a forest from the only official artwork available thus far, and it’s not a stretch to think that the company could draw inspiration from Ghost of Tsushima were it to work on such a project. Doing this could prove useful for Game Freak’s new game in collaboration with Private Division, but more importantly, it could inspire the studio to do something entirely new for new Pokemon games – be it a Pokemon Legends: Arceus sequel or a full-fledged Gen 10 title.

Pokemon Gen 10 Would Benefit From Ghost of Tsushima’s Weather-Changing Mechanic

An interesting mechanic from Ghost of Tsushima is that the game’s weather changes in two meaningful ways. For starters, players are at first encouraged to use Jin’s samurai ways to defeat the Mongols invading the island, but this changes when progressing through the game, as they unlock more and more Ghost skills that make the protagonist seemingly defeat his opponent dishonorably. As this happens, Ghost of Tsushima‘s weather changes from sunny days and a refreshing breeze to thunderous storms hitting the island and the Mongols themselves. This further cements the idea that Jin is abandoning his honorable ways to free the island from the Mongols thanks to the setting becoming darker.

The weather acts as a secondary character of sorts in Ghost of Tsushima‘s world as it was built by Sucker Punch and becomes more alive and more frightening. This is not the only way players can influence the weather in the game, as playing the flute in Ghost of Tsushima allows Jin to immediately change the weather based on the song he is playing. There are four songs in total that players can learn that do exactly what they say on the tin, respectively The Sun’s Warm Embrace, Lament of the Storm, Shadows in the Fog, and A Chorus of Raindrops.

Since Pokemon Sword and Shield did have multiple varying weather conditions that also determined which critters appeared in the overworld or in tall grass, and a similar mechanic carried over to Gen 9 with the day and night cycle and the weather itself. A reason why Game Freak allowing players to change the weather on demand would be a good thing is that some evolutions, like Sliggoo into Goodra, do require specific weather conditions – in this case, rain. This was often bypassed in Gen 8 by changing the Switch’s internal date and time, which would also change the weather, but this was never intended to be part of the Pokemon gameplay experience.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet‘s open world would have benefitted from having the option to choose the weather conditions in some areas, especially while trying to obtain specific Marks on the critters that are only available at random when it’s rainy or there’s a sandstorm, for example. On top of that, it would make exploration more immersive or call for great screenshots, all thanks to another layer of customization. It could also help Pokemon Gen 10 lessen the impact of the Switch’s date and time change gimmick as well as the game’s dependency on dated features that are still a big part of the gameplay experience. Finally, Pokemon‘s history with flutes could even allow the game to borrow the mechanic from Ghost of Tsushima as is, wearing the inspiration on its sleeve.