An MMO Is Exactly What I Need To Get Back Into Pokemon

Rumor has it that a Pokemon MMO is in the works. It’s a difficult rumor to accept at face value because, for many Pokemon fans, this is exactly what they’ve been waiting years for. The earliest games included the ability to trade creatures with your friends, yet we’ve never had a Pokemon game that really took advantage of the full might of the internet to push those social mechanics further.

TemTem and Palworld are both Pokemon-inspired game that allow players to interact in a shared world, but thus far, Game Freak hasn't tackled the same concept.

But, reportedly, a game that aims to do just that is in the works. Codenamed Project Seed, it would bring back the Japan-inspired regions from the first four Pokemon generations: Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh. It could even incorporate the Kitakami region from Scarlet and Violet's The Teal Mask DLC, another area inspired by Japan.

I Don't Go Here Anymore… Or Here Either

I haven’t gotten into an MMO since the Morrowind expansion dropped for The Elder Scrolls Online way back in 2017. Since then, I’ve dipped into my fair share of live-service games, but the only MMO I’ve played in that time is Star Wars: The Old Republic.

And I played less than ten hours, I’m sure.

Similarly, I haven’t finished a Pokemon game in six years, and when I borrowed Pokemon Sword from my local library in 2019, it was the first time I’d made time for a mainline entry in over half a decade. That 2013 foray was into Pokemon Black, which was already three years old at that point. I ended up dropping it because I was in my college era, and wasn’t playing much beyond Smash Bros. with my floor mates.

I’ve dabbled with spin-offs. I took Pokemon Go-inspired walks in the summer of 2016 like everyone else, played a round or two of Pokemon Unite, and gobbled up all of Pokemon Concierge on a flight. But I’ve never recaptured the love I had for the series as a kid. Like many, Pokemon was my first real obsession, and nothing has managed to bring me back in.

This is a common experience, I think. Though new Zelda and Mario games are routinely feted, Game Freak’s frantic production pace rarely allows for classic games. So while Breath of the Wild and Odyssey managed to make me feel like a kid again, playing a new Pokemon usually just feels like I’m playing a game for kids.

Though I’ve stayed away from the two halves of this equation in recent years, a Pokemon MMO might just have the alchemy to get me to commit to both.

I Want World Of Wartortle, But Maybe Not For The Reasons You Expect

The rumor that the game will be multi-region, bringing together the first four Pokemon maps, is the most appealing part. Given that I religiously played the first four generations of games, and the last Pokemon generation I put serious time into was Diamond and Pearl, this seems like it has been laser-targeted to get me on board.

Being able to seamlessly explore a world that contained the locations where all of my childhood Pokemon experiences took place is very exciting. As is the idea that, instead of diving back into a Pokemon game and being disappointed by how streamlined and straightforward the story is, I could make my own story with friends. If the Pokemon MMO builds on some of the Minecraft and Animal Crossing-inspired town-building mechanics from Pokemon Pokopia, it could be a great way to just hang out in the world of Pokemon.

It could also be an excellent way to experience more of the Pokemon world than the mainline games have been able to provide. Obviously, you would still likely need to be a Pokemon trainer, but the game could potentially provide an array of other jobs to take on. Maybe you could become a gym leader (or one of their lackeys), or run a Poke Mart, or join Team Rocket. Giving players ways to express themselves could lead to a fuller exploration of this world than we've seen before.