To answer your question, starting with Pokemon Legends Arceus[1], battles take place in the same overworld that you explore in. You can see an example of this

To answer your question, starting with Pokemon Legends Arceus[1], battles take place in the same overworld that you explore in. You can see an example of this in action at 3:12 in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR7ZooH9Zos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR7ZooH9Zos [1]: This also carries over to Pokemon Scarlet/Violet, which is the latest mainline entry and will presumably remain the new standard going forward? Arceus was seen (and received) as more of a paid beta test for the system since the overworld was a bit empty at times