Character Customization

[DecepticonCobra]

Sorry if I'm trotting on the beaten path with this, but is there any particular reason the games don't let you craft a custom character? After a few games of playing a generic black/brown haired boy, sans Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald and being a WHITE haired boy, yet still out of luck as a girl, it's kinda losing it's immersion factor.

If anyone has an answer, that'd be awesome.

 

[Almonds]

First of... the boy in Ruby version has a white HAT, not white hair XDD

And I think character customizing would be too much of a bother, because people are going to complain about the prepared selection collection of clothing, facial appearances etc etc

 

[Blue Dragon]

This is actually something I have been thinking of for a while now. I have always liked the idea of being able to make my character look unique to my specifications and even making the character customisable like PBR would be a good start in the Pokemon games. Don't get me wrong I like the character appearance in Black and White, but if I had a choice I would rather be able to make them look how I would invision them rather than something generic.

 

[Xenidal]

First of... the boy in Ruby version has a white HAT, not white hair XDD

That's a hat?! I always thought it was his hair, lol

Anyway, I don't like the idea of a custom character. He'd basically look the same anyway, but just with his colours swapped or a hat added. But as long as they included a default design you can choose I really wouldn't have a problem with it.

 

[Ravarian]

That's a hat?! I always thought it was his hair, lol

Look at his battle backsprite again.

And I quite like the way nearly all of the PCs look, but a bit of customisation couldn't hurt I guess.

 

[VirtualAnomaly]

I think a custom character would look cool. However, you would only see major differences in the battle sprites, and the trainer cards. The traveling version wouldn't really seem different, except for maybe different colors. That's it though.

 

[Xenidal]

I think a custom character would look cool. However, you would only see major differences in the battle sprites, and the trainer cards. The traveling version wouldn't really seem different, except for maybe different colors. That's it though.

I think the battle sprite / trainer card would look weird if it were customizable. There'd be no way to make the character fatter / skinnier or adjust his height (unless the spriters drew different base sprites for different heights / weights). Basically it would look like a recolour with different clothes and wouldn't exactly look "customized".

 

[voicerocker]

There's no real point in customization. It sounds like a good idea, but considering most of the time all you see of your character is a little tiny sprite, you'd barely be able to tell a difference.

However, if it were for say for the next "Battle Revolution", yes! That was a great feature and though it felt a tad limited, it was good enough to make me happy. I'd like to see it expanded with instead of just 1 hairstyle with a few colors, more hairstyles to choose from.

Don't get me wrong I like the character appearance in Black and White, but if I had a choice I would rather be able to make them look how I would invision them rather than something generic.

Remember that these characters have a story of their own to tell. We like to place ourselves in the mind of the character we play as, but that character is still not us. Imagine Red not looking the way he does now. They are their own characters and need to keep the appearance they have.

Though, Battle Revolution was great and I hope that the next console Pokemon game brings it back and takes it a bit further!

 

[Faye Scarlet]

Indeed, customization should stay out of the main games. But Battle Revolution was a step in the right direction! I agree with voicerocker, the next 3D Battle Sim should be like PBR, complete with improved character customization.

 

[Wiley Willy]

There's no real point in customization. It sounds like a good idea, but considering most of the time all you see of your character is a little tiny sprite, you'd barely be able to tell a difference. (...)

Remember that these characters have a story of their own to tell. We like to place ourselves in the mind of the character we play as, but that character is still not us. Imagine Red not looking the way he does now. They are their own characters and need to keep the appearance they have.

I feel like this is a pathetic excuse as to why "Game Freak" does not allow personal customization of the main character.
Although yes generally the character has a certain destiny to follow along in the story line, the fact that we have control of the main character's mind and such would mean that we should be allowed to make critical decisions for the character which could just as equally be a decision as to what kind of clothing the character could be allowed to wear.
Saying that the pokemon trainer is destined to have all the same clothing all the time, is like saying that the trainer is destined to always use only one type of pokeball all the time, or to never be allowed to change his team ever because he is destined to look exactly the same in every game.
It's completely limiting and makes us as video game players feel distant from the actual character. The reason why video games these days have many customization properties in them is to design your character so it feels like the character is a miniature you in a fantasy land that we all wish we could be in. Adding features such as these make the video games much more attractive to its players. When you have a customized character that takes a decent amount of time to design and set up, you begin putting feelings and thoughts of yourself into it. "This character has these values and this pokemon team, because this is how 'I' am as a person playing a character that represents me in a fantasy world."
Saying that this is not true is a complete lie to anybody who plays these games. When you do your walkthrough of the entire game, unless your some kind of cruel game critic, you'll always link your character to yourself in some way or another. Also when we play online we as people have the need to be distinguished from everyone else that plays the game, we like to prove our selves by running different teams, different strategies, and even desperately trying to identify ourselves through picking from a weak selection of sprites and then trying to be clever by picking a couple of winning and losing lines to repeat after we finish the battle.

The allowance for further customization boosts this feeling of being emotionally attached to our characters and there is nothing wrong with having this what so ever. From a writers perspective, the more you are attached and identify with the main character, the more you feel engrossed in the storyline because you feel that you can follow along the character as if he were you dealing with various trials. Now I know that most books and stories can not actually customize their characters to your personal specifications, but look at games such as well any great RPG with customization capabilities. Ask yourself, how much did you enjoy that game and how carefully did you think about your decisions in that game simply because you felt like it was you in that game.

From a video game business point of view, it is positively ridiculous to want to pass up the ability to customize your character. The more you as a customer are engrossed with your character in your game the more likely you are to enjoy the game for longer periods of time as well as be more encouraged to pay for more upgrades to your character or being more encouraged to continuously buy more of the games from that series.

All in all, using the games to fill in a simple destined role to tell an ongoing story that is not allowed to change just so you can have a minor amount of accuracy across multiple story lines can not beat the fact that customization allows for more engrossing gameplay and a much more attractive way of brining in new crowds of people who would want to play a game where customization allows you to be the best in the game as well as show off to other players how good you look so that they remember who they were defeated by in the game.

All we players want is to be recognized, is that too much to ask for?

Edit: When I speak of customization I mainly focus on things such as Trainer card and such. It would be nice to be able to see your character in various different types of outfits and items. I guess it would have to affect your running sprite appearance but not by much (since it's so small), unless it was a fairly large/bulky costume. I still stand by my argument for the need in customization, it honestly shouldn't be that hard to implement for Game Freak, they make about 150 new pokemon every game but can't be bothered to add a selection of varying walking sprites and different outfits? Sounds ridiculous to me that they wouldn't do so.

 

[Beck]

I don't see why simple customization can't be implimented. Something as simple as the change in hair colour could vary things up quite nicely. I don't see a need to customize anything else like eye colour, height or weight. It's all just unnecessary.

 

[Oswin]

I'd love character customization. Maybe something akin to Dragon Quest IX. And skin tone would be nice. Maybe new clothes could be brought after a new gym badge or something.

 

[Xenidal]

Remember that these characters have a story of their own to tell. We like to place ourselves in the mind of the character we play as, but that character is still not us. Imagine Red not looking the way he does now. They are their own characters and need to keep the appearance they have.

This I agree with. RPGs and other games where you assume a character's role should have that character be that character. You don't see a customizable Mario or Link or Final Fantasy character. Nearly all games that allow customization have it on a generic character with no background... the characters in the Pokémon games aren't like that.

I don't see why simple customization can't be implimented. Something as simple as the change in hair colour could vary things up quite nicely. I don't see a need to customize anything else like eye colour, height or weight. It's all just unnecessary.

I think hair colour seems unnecessary. It does mix it up a bit, but what's the real point to that? If it was full customization then at least you could make the character look like yourself or look a certain way... just changing the hair colour is no big deal. Especially because the characters (especially the male characters) usually wear hats... changing hair colour would hardly be noticable.

 

[Ghetsis-Dennis]

I'm skeptical about this idea because what if they plan to add use another trainer of the current gen in a future SSB game but can't because there's no default design for that gen? I'd rather go with customizable outfits because then they'll keep their default looks.

 

[Oswin]

I'm skeptical about this idea because what if they plan to add use another trainer of the current gen in a future SSB game but can't because there's no default design for that gen? I'd rather go with customizable outfits because then they'll keep their default looks.

They could just use the default trainer, I.E the one you are before you customise your character.

Maybe character customisation will be implemented in future games, like the possible future 3DS one. It would be much better than just assigning your character to a class.

 

[Ghetsis-Dennis]

I'm skeptical about this idea because what if they plan to add use another trainer of the current gen in a future SSB game but can't because there's no default design for that gen? I'd rather go with customizable outfits because then they'll keep their default looks.

They could just use the default trainer, I.E the one you are before you customise your character.

I doubt it because what if the official artwork of the trainers for that gen look a lot different than the default character you have before customizing it?

 

[Oswin]

I'm skeptical about this idea because what if they plan to add use another trainer of the current gen in a future SSB game but can't because there's no default design for that gen? I'd rather go with customizable outfits because then they'll keep their default looks.

They could just use the default trainer, I.E the one you are before you customise your character.

I doubt it because what if the official artwork of the trainers for that gen look a lot different than the default character you have before customizing it?

What?

Say Hilbert was the default, and you could customise his clothing, then his original default would be what would be featured. I don't see how your argument means anything about not being able to include character customisation.

 

[Ghetsis-Dennis]

What?

Say Hilbert was the default, and you could customise his clothing, then his original default would be what would be featured. I don't see how your argument means anything about not being able to include character customisation.

There's a difference. that example involves customizing outfits. This topic is about customizing your character's looks (hair style, eye color, size, etc.), which I'm skeptical about when it comes to SSB.

 

[Almonds]

If character customization were allowed, we're still going to complain on the number of options they gave us. Like, why didn't they give us more diverse eye colors or hair colors..

 

[Garland]

If character customization were allowed, we're still going to complain on the number of options they gave us. Like, why didn't they give us more diverse eye colors or hair colors..

Unless we can create colors using tints and have endless downloadable clothing.

Any type of customization is a start!