The creators of Pokémon are making a new RPG about a town. It’s called Town.
Say what you will about the September 13th Nintendo Direct, it had at least one announcement no one saw coming.
We saw the first footage of Pokémon creator Game Freak’s next RPG for the Switch… but in a shocking twist, it wasn’t a Generation 8 Pokémon game. Instead, we got a look at an intriguing new title that features gorgeous graphics, an unusual premise, and an apparently gimmicky battle system. Though Game Freak does occasionally make games unrelated to Pokémon, this is the first time they’ve made a turn-based RPG outside the realm of collecting monsters.
This brings us to the title of this game: Town.
To be fair, this is a tentative title, so it could change before the final release. Then again, the same was said about Octopath Traveler, and look how that turned out. It’s a title that, the more you look at it, the more it doesn’t look right. Town is just one of those words that isn’t descriptive enough to stand on its own. If anything, it sounds like a film student’s documentary about their hometown that is also a metaphor for all of rural America, featuring music by Dave Matthews Band.
So based on what we know, here are seven things that Town could be called instead. We’re not saying any of these are good, but we are saying they are not Town.
1: Pokéfolks
We know you can summon people from your town into battle, so this is just the logical step to utilize that preexisting brand recognition
2: Lavender Town
Nothing about Town looks inherently creepy, but this alone would make so many Creepypasta fans happy in one fell swoop. I mean, there is supposed to be some secret about the town, so who says there won’t actually be binaural beats that drive hoards of children mad?
3: Game Freak’s Game Break
Looking at their release history, Game Freak gets around to making a non-Pokémon video game every 3-5 years. If we’re already being on the nose with a title like Town, why not just go all the way?
4: My Neighbor Shipoo
Visually, this game’s about as Studio Ghibli as you can get outside of a series that actually started as a collaboration with Studio Ghibli. Might as well drive the homage home.
Alternate titles could be Nez’s Delivery Service or Spiritown’d Away.
5: Mother 4
I don’t have a good justification for this, I just really want another Mother / Earthbound game.
Fun fact: Mother / Earthbound was developed by Ape Inc., which eventually was reformed into Creatures Inc., a company that helps develop the Pokémon games. Within that sentence is some vague justification for me to be talking about Mother 4 here.
6: Pokémon: A Hideo Kojima Game
Okay, but what if Town actually is a Generation 8 Pokémon game and they’re just being coy about it? Think about it: PT turned out to be Silent Hills, Hideo Kojima got let go from Konami shortly after the reveal, why wouldn’t he also secretly add his own twist to the Pokémon franchise?
I promise all of these ideas are making progressively more sense and not the other way around.
7: Video Game
Without any other facts to go off of, it’s hard to say what a good title for Town could actually be. However, based on what we do know, I am confident in saying that Video Game is actually more indicative of what Town is than Town.
… Honestly, the more I look at it, the more I think Town might actually be the best video game title ever. In fact, I hope Marvel’s next movie or comic book franchise is just called Person.
