Still confused about the exact timeline of the Pokemon games? Well, there may be a simpler way to visualise the whole Pokemon universe.

In a recent interview with Gameinformer, Junichi Masuda tackled the arduous question of how the Pokemon series timeline actually worked. In response, Masuda admitted somewhat that it was difficult to view the series as a linear timeline. Instead, Game Freak takes a much looser approach to world-building – such as using recurring characters as an indicator of which ‘era’ each game takes place in:

Q: What’s the deal with the Pokémon timeline?

Masuda: It starts to get a little complicated if you pay too much attention to timelines. Like, there might be a professor that appears and it wouldn’t make sense at all if we applied that kind of timeline logic. So we try not to apply it too rigorously. Maybe one hint is that if a character is appearing with Professor Oak, they’re living in the same era. Rather than some series where it makes sense to have the timeline progress as you go and the story evolve, the approach that Pokémon takes is expanding the world, like what the regions are, and making it richer as we go. Rather than a timeline, it’s more of a physical space thing.

What do you think about Masuda’s explanation of the Pokemon timeline? Feel free to share your thoughts below!