Would you like to play as NPCs?

[Almonds]

I had been thinking this for awhile - would you like to play the games as NPCs? There were a lot of hacked versions of NPC playing games. Like, there had been a Gold-version game based on Team Rocket. You get to choose as either James or Jessie, and your starters would be Ekans, Koffing, or Meowth.


Personally, I think it would give the games more diversity - especially if you could play a whole different story.

 

[Blue Dragon]

Yes actually I would like this and as another idea it would be great if you could actually customise your characters with colours, gear, and clothing to make them much more unique to the individual player.

 

[nationalhero]

I agree that would be super cool, but I think the plots for the relevant characters would have to be very well developed and comparable in interestingness(?) for it to be feasible. Very cool idea, though. I had a similar idea with having a choice between contests and gyms, and it would be decided by whatever poster you chose to look at (or something similar).

 

[Likeitornot.]

Yes, I'd love to- it would be a more unique exprience and I always wanted to try out different trainer classes more specifically.

I'd also like the players themselves to have their own vibrant perosnalites and see how they are viewed in someone else's shoes. That'd be refreshing.

 

[Gama]

I don't know why you would start as Jessie or James in a GSC based game since they don't feature at all. It would be much more interesting to star as one of the Executives, beginning in FRLG and rising through the ranks until you had an opportunity to become the boss. I've always wanted a game where you play as the villains (you sort of get this in Colosseum, but not really), but I don't think it's particularly likely to happen unfortunately.

As for other NPCs... It's been hinted that most of the Champions (with the possible exclusion of Lance) have had journeys themselves. It's pretty heavily implied that Cynthia went on a journey and was given a 'Dex by Rowan (perhaps this is even explicitly stated? I can't remember). I think it would be really interesting to play as them.

Any of the rivals would make a great game too. Wally or Silver would probably be my top choices because both of them seem to have their own thing going on which is almost completely independent of the main character.

 

[Okami Takahashi]

It'd certainly be interesting; imagine playing as N, and finding out all sorts of things about Team Plasma that weren't mentioned or revealed in-game, like which region he went to after you beat him and Ghestis.

 

[Composer]

I think Pokemon + Nobunaga's ambition has such a thing in form of special episodes.

In main series,in my opinion,it wouldn't work since the PC in main series games never talks and this would break the tradition,which is not something GF is likely to do.

 

[smalllady]

No, I wouldn't want to play as a Non-Playable Character. Because then they wouldn't be so non-playable anymore. And since the protagonists of Pokemon are always silent protagonists, any NPC would essentially have their personality/character rendered null and void.

 

[El_]

The only reason that I would want to play as a NPC is if it involved some kind of "mission" part of the game or something that required for you to take control of that character. Like if you are the PC, but then the game required you to take control of a Champion or Gym Leader for a very brief period of time. Like an expansion of when Steven Stone teamed up with the PC, or Lance in GSC when he was fighting Team Rocket. I can see the appeal in that, a lot of games today utilize this method.

However starting out as a NPC is a big no. They already have their own preset characters and such, so the only appeal is being "them" for a little while. Pokemon is too open a game to be locked like that, and you should get to play as you want to. I'd rather just be the PC than somebody else, unless like I said above it involved a brief mission story, then it could be cool, but definitely not for the entire game.

 

[Wiley Willy]

I don't think the issue of the games is that we don't have enough "characters" to play, I think the issue is that we don't have enough choices to choose from.
If you want to have the possibility of choosing from multiple characters it might be wise to first expand on the characters they already have.
Why can't my normal character be evil? Why can't my normal character be a professional Pokemon Breeder? Why can't my normal character be a policeman?
I think "Game Freak" needs to expand on the realm of possibilities for our single character before they ever get close to adding new characters to design and write for in the game.

 

[Peachy]

I wouldn't want to have the whole game change because of the person you choose. I'd rather there be missions where you have to play as another person and have completely different Pokemon.

 

[UnovaCastaway]

If it's a spinoff game, sure.

If it's a main series game, no.

 

[Gama]

I think people who are objecting to this on the basis that the main character never talks are really missing the point here...

Alright, let's say they can talk, would you like it then?

There's basically no point discussing this idea in terms of its practicality - it's obviously never going to happen. I think the point of this discussion is whether you would find it interesting if it hypothetically did happen. I think since we are taking that liberty with realism, we can say, sure, I'd prefer it if the main character talked.
@Wiley Willy you raise an interesting point. I suppose having an NPC become the main character might be kind of like that though? I mean, as I said, I've always wanted a Pokemon game about a villainous character. This could theoretically be done through a spin off game through the eyes of an NPC of one of the other games.

 

[Elso579]

I would like to in the form of special episodes like in Explorers of the sky.

 

[Xenidal]

I'm thinking of making a Team Rocket-based game... not sure if I'll go through with it or not though.

But anyway, I voted "Other". I would not like to play as an NPC unless it was like, a Pokémon MMORPG where it would make sense to have hundreds of characters to choose from so you don't end up with like 1000 of the main character on the screen at the same time. Other than that, no. I wouldn't consider a Team Rocket-based game to be an NPC though... its basically a game where they are the character. They have their own background story, etc... if they are playable then they are just as much a character as Red is. As for temporarily taking control of an NPC... no, I don't think I'd like that. That's what I didn't like about KH2... you played as Mickey at times and you briefly switched to Riku at one point. That's not really "role playing"... Sora never swaps bodies or anything so the player should never swap characters. It just seemed to me like a gimmick.

 

[voicerocker]

No. NPCs should stay that way. If I'm a Pokemon trainer trying to become the Champion, I don't want to play as someone else.

It also makes no sense to play as a villian. Why do you think we always have a Team "Something" to face? So we can stop them! Anyone that uses Pokemon for the wrong reasons is considered scum in that world. Besides, the Teams always lose. Why play as a bunch of losers?

So, no, I wouldn't want to see this in a future main series game. Totally unnecessary and serves no purpose. Sure, other games might do it, but Pokemon is a game unlike any other and can't be compared to other games. And Game Freak intentionally leaves certain parts of the stories without answering all the questions. Pokemon has a mysterious element to it, which makes it more interesting. They'll never answer all the questions because they want them to stay unanswered.

 

[Soulweaver]

Yes, of course. Though following Game Freak's ideology for not introducing many popular ideas, not expecting it to ever happen.

 

[voicerocker]

Yes, of course. Though following Game Freak's ideology for not introducing many popular ideas, not expecting it to ever happen.

Why do you think that GF wouldn't want you to do this, especially as the leader of say Team Rocket, Galactic or Plasma? They aren't going to make a kids game where the goal is to take over or destroy the world by abusing Pokemon.

 

[Soulweaver]

Yes, of course. Though following Game Freak's ideology for not introducing many popular ideas, not expecting it to ever happen.

Why do you think that GF wouldn't want you to do this, especially as the leader of say Team Rocket, Galactic or Plasma? They aren't going to make a kids game where the goal is to take over or destroy the world by abusing Pokemon.

People have been looking forward to such a game since Gen I, and nothing has come out of it to this day, so I won't hold my hopes high for something not likely to happen.

 

[The Outrage]

If it's a spinoff game, sure.

If it's a main series game, no.

I don't know why Game Freak can't make spin-offs based on events that happened in the main series. Its a way for them to expand their own universe, but sadly, it never happens.