>>57206464I'd prefer The Forest's system, the first few days the encounters are few as you get familiar with the mechanics, as the days go by so does the level and difficulty of the enemies and as you explore more you face advanced enemies in caves and get better resources, but now these enemies roam freely around the peninsula.
I think this could be implemented in an open world with horde Pokemon, powered up forms functioning as sub-bosses, and mixing it with story elements (like a villainous group releasing high level Pokemon at some point) in such a way that it feels organic that when you go back through an area there are new challenges.
For example, near the starting town there is a forest full of Combee and low-level Teddiursa, a miniquest asks you to obtain honeycombs, some time later you have to return and now the forest is full of Ursaring due to the honey shortage, now the Tediursa had to evolve to compete for resources, in the final third you have a sidequest that asks you to catch a rare white basculin, since it is Basculin season this has attracted the oldest pokebears from the mountains and distant areas, being multiple Ursaluna of high level.
