Time Travel in the 5th gen main games

[Mijzelffan]

Do we want it? Is it a good idea? If yes to both, how should it be implemented? Do you have any ideas for a plot that involves time travel? to what time should the time travel be? Or do you have any arguments why time travel in the main games is ridiculous? Etc. etc. etc.

I myself am hugely against time travel in the main games, as I think it'd be too paradoxial.


Thread dedicated to Unown Lord

 

[Battaman]

I want to go to the future, it (hopefully) wont make many paradoxes and maybe you can see the fruits of your hard work in a future, say at first you are sent into the future and team [something very, very creative] controls the region/some legendary Pokemon have nearly destroyed the region, then you must go back to fix it.

Or if we have to back in time, that's because the evil team does that, then you must stop then from chancing the past. Since you stop them there wont be any paradoxes.

But future>past.

 

[Nintengod]

I think you solved the mystery of the 5th gen villians. They mindwash a celebi and some new pkmn and corrupt time. Team Distortion!

 

[Mijzelffan]

But future>past.

Yeah I agree. I believe Unown Lord has some (long) arguments why traveling to the past is better, so brace yourself

I think you solved the mystery of the 5th gen villians. They mindwash a celebi and some new pkmn and corrupt time. Team Distortion!

All credit goes to Unown Lord. Also I really hope that's not what the gen V games'll be like.

 

[V Faction]

Time travel? In Pokemon?

Great Scott!

 

[Garren]

I usually don't agree with Unown Lord, but I'm on board with the time-travel idea. My ideas for it are probably a little different, but I think it would make a great post-game. It wouldn't get into the consequences of time-loops and everything though...that doesn't seem Pokemon's style really.

Although, rather than Celebi-induced time travel, I think it's time for humans to master it for themselves. I don't count the Time Machine in GSC as really canon-though, even before it was written out in HG/SS I considered it to just be a game play thing since no one really made a big deal Bill discovered time travel.

 

[Vasili]

I personally think that traveling to the past would be better, the criminal organization of this game could try to join forces with say Kanto Team Rocket, then you have to join up Red to stop them. But that's just an example of a possibility of a decent storyline.

 

[venusboi79]

I'd like some sort of time travel in Gen V. Maybe not the whole game, but at certain points. Maybe having to pop into the past to get certain key items. While there, you have a chance to catch a few now-extinct 'mons. Not exactly Chrono Trigger, but a nice peek into a world that's only been hinted at. And I'm not really concerned with creating a paradox by catching something that would have saved a (future) important village in a game that allows me to make a pet of an elemental demi-god.

And while I don't always agree with UL's ideas, or think that they'll necessarily be implemented, I'd much rather read his thoughts than half the idle ramblings about half-baked new Pokemon, Mary-Sue gym leaders or why we need a multi-region game.

 

[Keegman]

if they do do time travel in a game, then it would need to feature both Dialga and Celebi pretty heavily (and, as I've said before, in hopefully a Galactus/Silver Surfter type relationship). While I don't think this is impossible, GF has set a precedent for clearly preferring to just make up new legendaries to go with a new storyline rather than feature pre-existing ones in better defined, more character-rich roles.

That having been said, that leaves it perfectly open to exploitation in a side game, where they aren't allowed to introduce new pokemon.

 

[Silktree]

Why, I'm flattered that you would dedicate a thread in my honor, Mijzelffan. I didn't realize what a significant impact my ideas had on you.

Whether or not you approve of the idea or find it feasible, I think that its discussion brings more to the table than the DPPt sequel theory does. Most fans just expect Game Freak to somehow come up with a plot like that of the Hoenn and Sinnoh games (that is, independent of previous games but highly reminiscent of them), but they don't have concrete ideas in that direction as they probably realize how repetitive that would be.

My theory isn't just about time travel. It is about exploring the ancient past of the Pokémon world as referenced in the previous games. Why the past and not the future? First of all, the two ideas are not mutually exclusive, and what I would really like to see is a story with a prologue and an epilogue, facilitated by way of time travel. But the reason for which I find the past more relevant is the number of mysteries woven into the folklore of the previous games. In a nutshell, the Sinnoh and Johto games underline that Pokémon and people used to be able to communicate in the olden days; the walking Pokémon feature in HGSS, which is promoted by Professor Elm and the player's neighbor but by no one else in the games, is said to have been commonplace before Poké Balls existed. I suspect that this is why ancient civlizations, like the one that built the Ruins of Alph and lived with the Unown (and were forced to move to the region where the Sinjoh Ruins are in present time), were much more in tune with legendary Pokémon than all the people who followed them. The only exception to this can be found in the player characters, which is why I think there should be a story where the player meets the people of the past, with whom they have something in common (in sharp contrast to most people in the present).

if they do do time travel in a game, then it would need to feature both Dialga and Celebi pretty heavily (and, as I've said before, in hopefully a Galactus/Silver Surfter type relationship).

Both Celebi and Dialga would ideally be referenced, but we wouldn't necessarily have to see either of them. Think of the portal Giratina created to the Distortion World as it kidnapped Cyrus; it was a trail, as it were, that could be followed by anyone. There was another such portal in the Turnback Cave even after Giratina had been caught, so in theory Giratina could have remained elusive and yet travel to the Distortion World would have still been feasible (althougn rather redundant).

The main idea is that there could be something similar in the new region, only involving time travel. The upcoming movie deals with a concept called time ripples, which would appear to allow travel through time even without Celebi around, which is probably something that Celebi wants to prevent. Even though the movies are infamous for their detachment from the games, we do have precedent in Movie 11 for a movie foreshadowing a new game element (the Distortion World), rather than just new Pokémon or Formes. What if this is the case now, too?

As I've expressed in numerous threads, to me it would be bad advertising if the Celebi promotion had nothing to do with the Generation V games. Celebi is completely underutilized in HGSS (and likewise for Dialga in the DPPt games), so why should it just be forgotten again as soon as the next versions are released? This is the first time that old Pokémon are receiving any amount of focus the same year as the release of a new generation (Mew was given the spotlight more than a year before Diamond and Pearl's release date). That hardly means they should be the next version mascots, but I don't buy it that the Pokémon Comapny just wanted to advertise HGSS and Generation V at the same time for no real reason.

Without going into what the new plot could be (which I could very well do, but it would be futile on my part without having some sort of confirmation first), Celebi could be implied to have been behind the time ripples. An in-game event triggered by a future Wi-Fi distribution of some item would shed light on Celebi's involvement in the main story without creating a time paradox, not unlike how the HGSS event explained that Celebi prevented Giovanni from rejoining Team Rocket. But the actual focus would be on the new legendary Pokémon; they simply wouldn't have to be the cause of the time ripples.

 

[Keegman]

Oh my God it's HIM.

Shh! Shh! Don't make any noise, lest we scare him away. Just watch, just watch.

 

[Mijzelffan]

Why, I'm flattered that you would dedicate a thread in my honor, Mijzelffan. I didn't realize what a significant impact my ideas had on you.

Actually I thought all those tl;dr posts everywhere became a bit annoying so

Never mind, let's just go with your explanation xD.

Even though the movies are infamous for their detachment from the games, we do have precedent in Movie 11 for a movie foreshadowing a new game element (the Distortion World), rather than just new Pokémon or Formes. What if this is the case now, too?

Meh, the you could've said the same about mew and the regi's appearing in the Lucario movie, or about Kyogre in the Manaphy movie. Or earlier, to the birds in the second movie (While the birds didn't even appear in GSC). I think this is just a coincidence.

As I've expressed in numerous threads, to me it would be bad advertising if the Celebi promotion had nothing to do with the Generation V games. Celebi is completely underutilized in HGSS (and likewise for Dialga in the DPPt games), so why should it just be forgotten again as soon as the next versions are released? This is the first time that old Pokémon are receiving any amount of focus the same year as the release of a new generation (Mew was given the spotlight more than a year before Diamond and Pearl's release date). That hardly means they should be the next version mascots, but I don't buy it that the Pokémon Comapny just wanted to advertise HGSS and Generation V at the same time for no real reason.

I think they included Celebi just for plot-needs actually. Also money is money, as long as they just advertise a legendary pokémon they're happy.

Oh my God it's HIM.

Shh! Shh! Don't make any noise, lest we scare him away. Just watch, just watch.

*puts on glasses and starts making notes*

 

[Falconwing]

time travel is okay as a side event, MAYBE. But as part of the main plot? As the reason for the plot? As the reason for the setting of the plot? No.

 

[FusengerShadow]

Time travel is a cliched plot device these days, really. Using it for throwaways is one thing (and arguably a waste itself), but using it as the entire point of the plot is, I agree, rather overdoing it.

Especially when you consider the theory that changing things doesn't affect the future of your timeline but simply creates a splintered-off timeline from that point.

 

[Slenderman]

time travel is okay as a side event, MAYBE. But as part of the main plot? As the reason for the plot? As the reason for the setting of the plot? No.

Fail. I think time travel as part of the main story would be AWESOME. It could kinda go like PMD2 did. You have to battle celebi after the 5th gym and you constantly go back and forth in time without control over it. Then, after you beat all of the gyms you have to battle dialga to stop the time travel. As for the villan team? I'm not sure about that. I guess it would be in the present of future.

 

[dman_dustin]

time travel is okay as a side event, MAYBE. But as part of the main plot? As the reason for the plot? As the reason for the setting of the plot? No.

Well I wouldn't be too negative on the subject of time travel.

Maybe the player character itself shouldn't time travel during the main story, but I would be fine if some person from the future talked to the main character, and warned him or her of a tragedy, that must be averted.

Not sure how well it would work if the player couldn't travel through time, but I could still see it.

Although unless the new legendaries have something to do with time travel, I'm not sure it makes too much to have a time travel theory. Since usually (recently) the legends have actually played a role in the story.

So if the plot did revolve around averting disaster in the future, then the legendaries would have to be involved somehow.

 

[Silktree]

time travel is okay as a side event, MAYBE. But as part of the main plot? As the reason for the plot? As the reason for the setting of the plot? No.

How enlightening. You seem awfully sure that everyone else agrees with you.

but using it as the entire point of the plot is, I agree, rather overdoing it.

Using it as a plot device is not the same as making it the point of the plot (as in the final objective akin to becoming a Champion). Again, the Distortion World was not part of Team Galactic's plan and played no role until Platinum's climax. Likewise, Generation II Kanto, the Sevii Islands and the Battle Zone were not crucial to their respective games, but they extended the gameplay and brought more depth to the overall story.

There are essentially three ways for Game Freak to go about incorporating time travel:

• Time travel will take place at various points throughout the story, being triggered by an item (like the Explorer Kit) or a HM.

• The story climax will take place in the past in a manner akin to how Platinum's climax occurred in another world.

• The past will explored as a way to extend the story after the Elite Four. While it will be possible to return to the present at any time, completing the story will require staying in the past.

I'm in favor of the first suggestion, as I like the idea of time travel providing a prologue to the present story, thereby making the climax a more fulfilling experience. I think that Emerald and Platinum, despite having engaging events at their climax, suffered from the lack of interesting build-up towards those events. The encounters with the evil teams were little more than a tease at their real plans, and the legendary Pokémon felt artificial due to only appearing when it fit the main villains. Shouldn't we see more of the interesting characters before the end of the plot, and shouldn't the realization of the villains' agenda be the culmination of a long chain of events?

Especially when you consider the theory that changing things doesn't affect the future of your timeline but simply creates a splintered-off timeline from that point.

Time travel isn't always about attempting to change the past or the future; that certainly isn't the case in the HGSS Celebi event. If the player only goes through a closed loop (as in they always took part in some past event, only without knowing it), no time paradox or parallel universe is created.

So if the plot did revolve around averting disaster in the future, then the legendaries would have to be involved somehow.

Of course. But that doesn't mean they would have to be responsible for the player being able to move through time, so they could be about something else entirely.

 

[Slenderman]

Oh, NO! It's starting again! The extremeley long posts about time travel! Everyone! RUN!!!

 

[Silktree]

I wasn't aware that limiting one's arguments to simple points that don't require explanation was a prerequisite on this forum.

 

[Joshawott]

Ranger 3 used Time Travel. If anything, give Gen V space travel.

"So young boy/girl, you've defeated the league of fighting animals. I entrust you with this Rocket ship, like we do with all 10 year olds. Have fun."