Does anyone feel as though the portrayal of the Pokemon world changed in later generations?

[Fryer]

In the earlier gens, the games and the anime made me feel as though the Pokemon universe was in a world of its own. As the series progressed towards the 3DS era, I can't help but feel that the portrayal of the regions made it more akin to the real-world. I do not know if this is due to a change towards 3D graphics, but something certainly did change.

[Slumber]

The games have always been based on real-life. The Kanto region in Pokemon is based off of the Kanto region in Japan(Didn't even bother to change the name here).

It just seems like it more now because:

A) Like you said, the move to more realistic, 3D graphics

And B) Now they're starting to use Western places that we all recognize. The east coast of America, the Paris area and Hawaii. Two American-based locations and one of the most well-known European areas.

Edited August 2, 2017 by Slumber

[Rex Glacies]

Yes, it did change, mostly starting with Unova. Prior to that, the regions were basically the same with only a few differences in culture (like, Sinnoh was colder, Hoenn was tropical). Jotoh was the odd one before Gen V though, as it had a clear Japanese inspired culture.

However, I think in Gen V was when they really decided to change things up by basing a region off of America. By doing that, they made the games (and by extension the anime) more "setting" inspired, which changed the portrayal of the entire Pokemon world, I think.

Of course, I think the biggest difference began with Gen VI and Kalos with the numerous French references.

[Acacia Sgt]

I would say the portrayal was switched from "taking place on actual Earth" to "taking place in an planet based on Earth". Gen I, and to a lesser extent Gen II, didn't tried to hide it. It had plenty of references to the real world. Barring remakes and application of the Grandfather-clause, they began to shift away from that around Gen III or so.

Edited August 2, 2017 by Acacia Sgt

[Tamanoir]

9 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I would say the portrayal was switched from "taking place on actual Earth" to "taking place in an planet based on Earth". Gen I, and to a lesser extent Gen II, didn't tried to hide it. It had plenty of references to the real world. Barring remakes and application of the Grandfather-clause, they began to shift away from that around Gen III or so.

Yeah, which is why I have actually the opposite feeling. The anime having animals from the real world early on is the most well known example.

It's now accepted (since at least Gen V) that Pokémons are eaten, for once, and the mythology became more and more complex (just compare the legendaries throughout the different games, being mostly an afterthought in gen 1, and being now the main point of the story (Gen V and Gen VI (?) evenrequires you to capture them before you can continue.) 

We have whole story counting the lore of the creation of the world, in Gen IV and V. And Gen V really expande our universe by showing there were regions outside of japan (they didn't even tried to change the name of the region back then) where all the well known pokémon aren't found. Gen VII have regional variants of ancient Pokémon. And we even have the presence of a Pokémon Multiverse since gen VI (allowing to explain why both remakes and original can cohabit.), but that's a whole other can of worm. 

The Pokémon is getting bigger, and while the influence of the real world is more well known and shown than before, it's certainly it's own thing now.