There are probably Pokémon adapted to environments so hyperspecific that even if people did find them they’d never be able to actually have them due to not being able to survive outside it, just like some life in the real world
It would be nice to see them in spin-off games though, like a new game that’s something like Pokémon snap and legends arceus where you’re sent to document Pokémon such as these, maybe you’re given a Pokémon that can withstand such environment but don’t necessarily need them to surviveoh fuck tardigrade Pokémon this is how they can introduce tardigrade Pokémon this is how tardigrade Pokémon can STILL WIN!
Anyway. Areas like this can include obvious places like the deep sea or high up in the mountains where oxygen is thin, as well as places with high radiation or high up in the atmosphere where rayquaza lives(could be a late or endgame area because of that), hot springs and places on the extreme ends of the ph scale may be difficult to document but they may be worth it
Pokémon could include pallas cats(could be a variant or a new Pokémon), blobfish(do NOT remove them you know damn well what happens), yeti crabs(perhaps a deep sea crabominable variant), that snail with the iron shell, brittle stars and perhaps some Pokémon based on lesser known eukaryotes, such as halophilic fungi, and even Pokémon that live in places real life creatures have no chance in. This is a fantasy world, do whatever.
Now the creatures that live in these areas are usually, well, Fucking Tiny, but if a tick can be 4 inches, I think they can make microscopic creatures be inch big Pokémon. This can also be where the camera comes in, it will have a big zoom function so you can get up really close to the little guys without having to act get near them. The aforementioned tardigrade Pokémon could help you interact with the environment if you’re unable to for whatever reason, such as a hot spring or a place too radioactive for most life or you’re in a small submersible in the ocean or That Is Actual Fucking Lava. You could also be supplied with a ditto to help you with further documentation, since while you can’t use the actual Pokémon, a ditto can help fill in the gaps pretty well if they’re just as able to withstand the environment as well as the Pokémon they’re copying.
The game won’t be focused in one specific region, but various areas around the world, both preexisting and new regions. I have a thought for a tiny, undiscovered Pokémon near the hot springs in hoenn, or something that only lives within stark mountain in the battle zone near sinnoh, perhaps even a Pokémon that somehow migrated there from firespit island from the hisui days, and you can’t tell me paldea’s area zero Doesn’t have some hyperadapted Pokémon in there, maybe in the water at the bottom, though I don’t think you’d be allowed there for a While(lategame area probably). Pokémon world Antarctica, Iceland, and Yellowstone are not safe from documentation. When exploring regions, only small parts will be available to you, such as the locations previously mentioned.
Now a lot of people probably wouldn’t like a game with almost entirely new Pokémon look at black and white’s initial reception and variants, almost none of which that you can even use not counting ditto copies, but since this would be a spinoff mostly used to help with world building, I’d say those people can Suck It Up and let us have our fun, pokemon doesn’t have to cater to you specifically all the time, you may like the battles, but some of us enjoy worldbuilding and speculative biology.
I don’t have any concept art at the moment as I started writing this down shortly before dinner, but I’ll reblog this post with some once I have enough.
