Discussion: Story-writing and storytelling of Pokemon games

[Beth Pavell]

To some extent I think the games stories suffer from having two stories since having both the League challenge and the Evil Team means neither get fully fleshed out. BW did it differently of course (confession: I skipped Gen 5 so I can't give an in-depth analysis on it). Gen 1 and 2 were a little different in that Team Rocket weren't an apocalyptic threat like many of the later Teams were. They still had the "why hasn't anyone dealt with these bozos?" problem, arguably made worse by that NPC in Saffron City talking about how he wishes the Elite Four would come and stop them, with the game never explaining why they don't

I don't think the Yakuza references really translated that well outside Japan, which didn't help the Gen I Rocket story. A return to a Team which isn't a world-ending threat would be nice, though I can't really see it happening (In fact I rather expect the fan reaction would be "these guys suck")

Probably the best way to give the story a boost would be multiple-choice responses. The only other option when you have a blank slate protagonist is extended scenes where characters stand around and talk while player is essentially a spectator. There was a fair bit of that in Black and White, as I recall. It felt decidedly inelegant

 

[Matleo]

Maybe more overthink and not repeat the past game scenarios too much and be a little more innovative.
Old+new = something good.
Evil teams?
- Maybe not evil but rival teams in a goal and you need to choose a site?
- Maybe not rescue to world or a pokemon but a tournament for legendaries made by a legendary pokemon?

- The return of team Rocket would make only sense if for once the main antagonist , the Boss, Giovani, gives them better pokes , mega evolutions and self participates.
Then all evil teams off all past generations would battle with each other in a new region as a way to find out who should rule it and to determine the sphere of influence over it and in other regions. (some could Jail break, some would get legendaries and so on)