How would a Pokemon game with multiple mutually exclusive endings sound?

[Kathylikestoread]

It would be like Undertale, for example, losing gym battles would give you the opportunity to join the villainous team, instead of being allowed to retry every time, and failing to defeat the villainous team would lead them to succeed. There would be a good ending, bad ending and true ending.

 

[bugfacts]

This would be awesome!! It’s not the type of thing I think I see them doing for the mainline “version” games but this is absolutely the type of experimental stuff I really want to see them tackle in side projects. I hope the Legends series is only the start of more involved, narrative driven spinoff games with new takes on how to tell stories and new kinds of stories to tell in this world.

 

[ninazrdl]

It's a nice idea but I don't think GF is going to do that. Another plot line requires effort and storage. If they are not even willing to keep every pokemon in a game, I don't think they will be interested in making a new route.
However, it's a nice idea. You can have more dark type encounters as a villain, for example.
Actually, I think the setting of pokemon world makes an excellent stage for an open world game. The player can play as a hero or villain, or I don't know, open a bakery with your Fidough, maybe? It would be wonderful, but it requires so much effort and GF is not going to do that.

 

[colours]

hot take: i'm not a big fan of games with multiple endings. that's not to say i won't play them, but i'm very much a "beat a game once, see if it has an enjoyable post-game, play that, and put the game down" sorta person. see, i'm reminded of chrono trigger which has multiple different endings and as much free time as i had in my younger days, i think i've only experienced... threeish endings in that game? i don't really know if i have it in me these days to do multiple playthroughs of a game to experience each ending. i'm most likely going to attempt to make the choices that'll either take me to the true or good ending and leave it at that.

so far as pokemon's endings go - i'm good with just the one.

 

[WholesomeCryptid]

i dont think its something i personally want out of the series but im not opposed to the idea either. im all for the series trying out new and different things, im just not sure if multiple endings fits the vibe of mainline pokemon for me.

 

[cinderace]

hm.. thought i replied to this but maybe my wifi died. lol. i think this would actually be pretty cool but for a legends game! i think battles having some consequences if you dont win would be pretty interesting, or a rival that actually could end up winning if you don't beat them... i feel theres a lot of possibility but anything aside from a legends game would feel defo weird and out of place lol

 

[bugfacts]

You can have more dark type encounters as a villain, for example.

Okay, I really really like this concept! This alone makes me more sold on the idea, haha. It feels like something out of a fangame but I love it!!

think battles having some consequences if you dont win would be pretty interesting, or a rival that actually could end up winning if you don't beat them

So, I was just reading about Pokémon Yellow yesterday and this is like, remarkably similar to the way that game uses your first and second victories and losses against your rival to determine which Eeveelution your rival’s started turns into!! Which I thought was so cool!

I’d honestly love to see more of this sort of thing, even if it doesn’t result in totally distinct endings. More branching paths and unique outcomes based on your actions isn't something that feels impossible or out of place for the series, honestly!

 

[Pigrider09]

I don’t think this would work very well. There are already plenty of mutually exclusive choices in the game, such as fossils, starters, and even what game you play. Adding another with this big of an effect would add unnecessary stress to your choices. The reason that this design works for undertale is that the game is fairly short. A long RPG like pokemon would suck to play through for each ending. Like oh, you want to get the other two endings? Screw you, play the hour long tutorial again. It would also be a nightmare for gamefreaks development schedule. With the future seeming to be open world, this would either make games take a really long time to come out or be buggy messes at launch just due to how complex the choices would make the game. I’d much prefer the traditional “gyms and legendary and evil team intertwined” story or converging storylines from sv than a diverging story.