More Gyms in Gen VI, Or Is 8 Enough?

[Pidgeot]

One thing I've wanted ever since the run-up to Gen V is a Pokemon game with more gyms (similar to GSCHGSS, but all gyms before the E4). But nope, we've had 8 gyms from the start of the series and that has never changed.

But I think in Gen VI, there should be 12 gyms before the E4, partially so that they can make Pokemon games longer to accommodate the 3DS.

So, what do you think? More gyms, or just stick with 8?

 

[eat]

 

[Nytik]

Why exactly do we need to change the number of gyms? To make the games "longer to accommodate the 3DS" does not seem a very strong reason to me. The games stretch well beyond the gyms and elite four; collecting Pokemon, and competitive battling for example multiply the potential playtime by many times.
It wouldn't be much of a problem in my mind if there WEREN'T eight gyms, but at the same time I don't feel like this needs to be the case.

 

[Pidgeot]

So what's so bad about having more gyms?

 

[Nytik]

As I say, there's nothing BAD about having more gyms. But if it ain't broke, why try to fix it?

 

[Pidgeot]

As I say, there's nothing BAD about having more gyms. But if it ain't broke, why try to fix it?

Well it's not like adding four more gyms is going to absolutely ruin the game, is it? It's not like I'm removing the gyms. Now if I was saying that, then the phrase 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' actually would be appropriate.

 

[Nytik]

Once again, I'm not saying it would have any negative impact. But the phrase is appropriate, because I'm saying I don't believe it will have any positive impact either.
I mean, it would allow you to showcase more types and such, sure... Here's one thing, where would you fit the gyms in? Presumably the idea is to make the levels go higher before the E4?

 

[Proxima Centauri B]

I wouldnt mind more gyms, though having more might cause the E4 levels to be higher than other games, in my opinion, they are high leveled enough( I think in most of the games Lv 50-60) if the gym leaders' Pokemon levels went past Lv 50. I think 8 gyms is a good amount. Maybe they could do something like have a few more gyms unlocked after beating the Champion in later generations and have the Gym leaders levels be higher, which would be challenging for players.

 

[dig]

I'd love to have more gyms. With eight gyms there's a limit to the levelling options of the gyms. With only eight gyms we can expect to face the elite four at level 50, give or take. Add 4 more gyms in and we can offer the players a longer game, more battles, harder trainers and perhaps a more rewarding play. I'd rather the elite four actually have high levelled Pokemon so that they are more of a challenge.

The only thing though, if more gyms are added it may water down the storyline between gyms, if each gym is a mile stone, the story could be spread thinner between 12 gyms than with 8. However there's is always the potential of more fuller storyline being developed because there is more time between first gym and last gym.

 

[Lansten]

I feel that it would ruin the consistency. It would be odd requiring you to have to get 8 badges in 5 regions, and suddenly you'll need 12. It also poses a problem with the anime. They would either need to make it longer, or gym battles would occur more often. And either way it would get tiresome. And you run into a problem with typing, where there would be 12 gyms and 4 elite four member (and possibly a champion.) That would require almost every type to be used in a gym or on an elite 4 member, which as we saw in Diamond & Pearl, would be hard for some types (fire), if they don't make enough of them.

 

[Blaze-Boy]

More gyms, more challenge. 8 gyms, less of a challenge.
I would say a few more would be worth everyone's time.

 

[smalllady]

The badge quest has already become pretty stale. No need to drag it out with 12 or 16 gyms. Gamefreak needs to find other ways to make the games interesting.

 

[Oswin]

I'd prefer it if there was more than 8 Gyms, but only 8 badges to collect, similar to the anime.

 

[Nytik]

More gyms, more challenge. 8 gyms, less of a challenge.
I would say a few more would be worth everyone's time.

I'm not sure more gyms = more challenge. How do you prepare for a gym? Typically get one or two Pokemon with a type/move advantage, make sure they're high-levelled enough, and then go and win.

The gyms are nothing more than punctuation in the Pokemon storyline, really; milestones on your journey. But not necessarily difficult in and of themselves.

 

[Blaze-Boy]

That and just EV train your pokemon too.

 

[Chronos]

More gyms could be interesting, but they could just use the extra space on the 3DS to add other good content. I think there are other aspects of the games that could use some work (post-game) before they change something that doesn't really need to be altered.

 

[Midorikawa]

I want more gyms, but in the way of GSCHGSS or else it wouldn't be a pokemon game. It's easy to level up pokemon before the first time facing the elite four, but the second time is more difficult. Gyms help to level up the pokemon easily.

 

[championsound]

I wouldn't want to add more pre-E4 gyms. The badge quest is fine as it is (if anything, it's getting quite stale and is clearly not as big a part of the games as it once was). If making the games longer is the issue, then I would much rather a longer story and side quests instead of just a longer badge quest

 

[The Outrage]

The badge quest has already become pretty stale. No need to drag it out with 12 or 16 gyms. Gamefreak needs to find other ways to make the games interesting.

That's why I proposed a new format for gyms. The solution to making a stale feature more interesting isn't to increase the quantity, but to increase the quality. We're supposed to be training to be Pokemon Masters, yet we're only ever tested on one battle style and one set of rules. That's why I think the future gym formats, along with their type specialties, should also specialize in a battle format:

- Singles
- Doubles
- Triples
- Rotation
- Wonder Launcher

These battle styles are nowhere near as difficult as people make them out to be, especially with NPC's. It's simply that people lack experience in them. It's not that weird to do it anyway given that we've had gyms in the anime use their own rules, and we've had double battle gyms in the games. Now, we could have four Singles, but I think only the first gym should be a standard battle, with other gyms having a unique rule-set. For example:

- Tourney Tree: Rather than a gym filled with gym trainers, you instead get to battle other trainers competing to fight the gym leader. This would even allow for an extra rival battle
- No Items
- Special rules: Similar to rules in facilities like the Battle Arena, where points in battle are scored in a unique fashion

I don't see the purpose of more gyms to make the game longer. That's just very artificial. Instead, Game Freak should focus on making the story in-between gyms longer by giving us more to do, and then making the post-game long as well. People seem to forget that we've had higher level curves with 8 gyms before. Gen I had them go up to 65. Gen II, despite 16 gyms, only had the strongest gyms (aside from Blue) also go up to the high fifties. Next, we have the two Unova games. BW2's initial levels were much lower than BW's, but yet, it ended with BW2's Elite 4 being at a higher level.

You know why these level curves are so variable despite 8 gyms? It's the amount of content in between. Now, unless you simply want 4 extra "weak" gyms, the solution isn't more gyms, but to increase the amount of things to do in between them.

 

[CherryXCilan]

8 Gyms is fine with me. This is tradition and nobody has ever had a problem with 8 Gyms before, so I see no necessary reason to switch the amount. Though, I am wanting to see previous Gyms from Unova in Generation 6. Especially Striaton City Gym.