Topic: Pokemon Trainer: the future of Pokemon?

[Svevan]

First off, I have to say that Brawl's greatest innovation is Solid Snake: each A and B button move with Snake activates a different weapon or item. It is really awesome to have such a massive amount of control over many different Snake weapons; no other character really has this level of variety and flexibility. If I want to play an entirely melee attack game, I can. Or I can do it entirely with explosives, or with two types of mines and artful dodging.

Second to Snake is the Pokemon Trainer (and Olimar to an extent). Each of the Pokemon have "moves" which are not just attacks that can be combined willy-nilly, but specific moves that come in handy in specific situations. I think this is what Smash was always meant to be, a strategic combination of moves, not just a beat-em-up that looked fancy and played easy. Those characters that melee only are really boring compared to the ones that have lots of awesome and varied abilities.

I honestly believe, with an honest and totally truthful heart, that they could make an awesome game based on the Pokemon Trainer. During the Subspace Emissary, the Pokemon trainer only has control over a single Pokemon, but as he meets up with other Pokemon he can add them to his roster by beating them in a fight. Unlike Pokemon proper, you have direct control over your Pokemon via Smash controls, and for some reason I still felt like I was playing Pokemon. It was rather awesome to be fighting Charizard with both Squirtle and Venusaur, and know that I was going to gain access to Charizard if I beat him.

My proposal: why not make a Pokemon game where you control your Pokemon in a fairly direct way, like in Smash? Use basic Smash controls, where each Pokemon controls the exact same way, but with different attacks. Slow the game down a tad bit, add some strategic elements to the already strategic Smash system, and I think you have a winner.

[Ceric]

Hey its Monster Rancher...

I don't want to directly control my Pokemon.  Because I play the role of a Trainer not a Pokemon.  Though I would love to have the ability to actually direct and honest to god train my Pokemon, like in Monster Rancher .  While I'm ranting I also would like to be able to stalk and catch Pokemon.

[Mashiro]

I like that concept Svevan. It certainly would change up the repetitive nature of the current main pokemon line of games.

[Mikintosh]

See, I love the formula of the portable Pokemon games, so I'd like to keep those going as is, but this would be a nice idea for a non-RPG console version.

[mantidor]

Because the gaming community still hasn't understand how PLAIN AWFUL turn based gameplay is, so we will have to stick to these same old games over and over and I will stick to not buy them.

[DAaaMan64]

Snake is so so good,  I really like him. But his moves are so proprietary, and it sucks if you like to move from character to character.

[RABicle]

Your idea sounds crap but I definitely agree about what sort of game smash bros is. Smash Bros is doing the right attack at the right time, not memorising combos exploiting glitches.

[Svevan]

you suck

[Mikintosh]

Because the gaming community still hasn't understand how PLAIN AWFUL turn based gameplay is, so we will have to stick to these same old games over and over and I will stick to not buy them.

So objectively, it's awful because you think it's awful, even though the rest of the people who have the same credentials as you (being able to purchase video games) seem to think they're alright?

[Svevan]

Because the gaming community still hasn't understand how PLAIN AWFUL turn based gameplay is, so we will have to stick to these same old games over and over and I will stick to not buy them.

So objectively, it's awful because you think it's awful, even though the rest of the people who have the same credentials as you (being able to purchase video games) seem to think they're alright?

bitch no you didn't

[Ceric]

This is fastly moving to a need to go to the Funhouse thread.

[Spak-Spang]

Personally I believe if they are going to move the game more to a MORPG, then this is the direction they need to go...break the game down into Exploration and Battle.

I like the idea of Battle being real time, and you control the Pokemon Directly.  One of the aspects of the show I find cool is that despite fighting against an opponent your Pokemon has no advantages over, sometimes the trainer wins from sheer outplanning and strategy.  This is usually not represented well in a turn based system, because your characters take turn hitting each other with powerful attacks, and if yours is already weak to that attack...then it is just going to do more damage. 

But move it into a 2D Real Time Battle or even 3D if you like...but 2D would be best.  Now you can Fly around and dodge with your characters, and all the normal attacks real time.  It gives you a chance to really shine with your characters and show what you can do.  It could be very fun, and if you noticed...Brawl already has 6 Pokemon represented and all are fairly cool.  So it is doable.

The exploration aspect of the game needs more traditional Pokemon, and walking around a map battling and such...but it would be nice to have puzzle areas were you have to solve puzzles within the world to gain hidden items, or access to other areas of the map.