I like Pokémon Scarlet, which I played on Nintendo Switch. The game (allegedly, I haven’t played other Pokémon games) follows less of a narrative than a typical Pokémon game and instead provides a free world in which you can explore, collect Pokémon, and try to battle your way to be the best. I would categorize this under discovery, challenge, and a bit of fantasy/narrative. The discovery aspect is primarily due to the ability to openly explore a world with various biomes, which contain unknown Pokémon and other small hidden gems (nice views, shops with various items, and coins). The challenge comes from trying to level up your Pokémon enough to beat all of the gyms, which have varying levels of difficulty. Guides online allow players to progress more naturally by ranking the gyms based on their difficulty, but in-game, you have the freedom to do whatever order you want. If you lose a battle, your Pokémon lose health, which can be revived quickly and for free, but there are no huge consequences. This mechanic allows players to challenge themselves without risking everything and lends itself to the open-world format. Players would likely become frustrated and want more guidance if they lost all of their items because they didn’t know they were at the hardest gym first.
