[24 / 4 / ?]
Has anyone else noticed how NOT British the Galar region is? At first I thought it might be just because all the previous regions had similar "broad strokes" for addressing the culture of their real-world basis, but no, that doesn't seem to the be the case.
Gens 1 to 4 are all based on Japan so you can pretty much write off all the lore, legendaries, areas and monsters as being vaguely Japanese or having general real-world counterparts outside of Japanese culture.
Gen 5 is America and while there were still very Japanese elements (and the region felt like a hodgepodge of climates) it at least tried to BE America. We had lots of Pokemon based on North and South American critters, attempts to make American-feeling locales, trainers that reflected American culture, and even the lore (somewhat) could be seen as feeling American (this is a huge stretch though).
Gen 6 and 7 reflected France and Hawaii pretty well. Beyond also having random biomes that didn't seem to match, the lore, locales and monsters reflected the regions decently well. If we can just imagine legendaries as being loosely based on the real-world locations, both Kalos and Alola feel like the places they were trying to be.
But then we have Galar. It has a lot of English names for things and the trainers feel English inspired. There's a handful of monsters that are based on British folklore or animals, sure, and the whole gyms = football thing is very cool. But doesn't it feel, I dunno... lacking? The box legendaries are loosely "King Arthur" inspired. We are missing a LOT of Pokemon that could fit into this region, including old ones like the literal Yorkshire terrier, lion and bulldog Pokemon. There's not much in the lore to reflect the rest of the legend of King Arthur, Ancient Roman rule, druids, the British Empire... It seems like a half-baked region. We got shit like a crow and Stonehenge and "le quirky gentleman" Weezing... the mixed up fossils... but there wasn't MORE? More they could do?
Gens 1 to 4 are all based on Japan so you can pretty much write off all the lore, legendaries, areas and monsters as being vaguely Japanese or having general real-world counterparts outside of Japanese culture.
Gen 5 is America and while there were still very Japanese elements (and the region felt like a hodgepodge of climates) it at least tried to BE America. We had lots of Pokemon based on North and South American critters, attempts to make American-feeling locales, trainers that reflected American culture, and even the lore (somewhat) could be seen as feeling American (this is a huge stretch though).
Gen 6 and 7 reflected France and Hawaii pretty well. Beyond also having random biomes that didn't seem to match, the lore, locales and monsters reflected the regions decently well. If we can just imagine legendaries as being loosely based on the real-world locations, both Kalos and Alola feel like the places they were trying to be.
But then we have Galar. It has a lot of English names for things and the trainers feel English inspired. There's a handful of monsters that are based on British folklore or animals, sure, and the whole gyms = football thing is very cool. But doesn't it feel, I dunno... lacking? The box legendaries are loosely "King Arthur" inspired. We are missing a LOT of Pokemon that could fit into this region, including old ones like the literal Yorkshire terrier, lion and bulldog Pokemon. There's not much in the lore to reflect the rest of the legend of King Arthur, Ancient Roman rule, druids, the British Empire... It seems like a half-baked region. We got shit like a crow and Stonehenge and "le quirky gentleman" Weezing... the mixed up fossils... but there wasn't MORE? More they could do?
