Pokemon Presents, February 27 2022, Reaction Thread

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

Here's the link to today's Pokemon Presents.

A lot of new announcements from this one! What did y'all think? The free update to Legends Arceus seems really promising, especially coming out this very day. As for Scarlet and Violet, I'll keep an eye on them. I'm not yet sure whether they've changed the things that led me to skip out on Sword and Shield.

[ciphertul]

I read it's supposed to be open world, I really hope not I'm so tired of open world.

[Xenomata]

• ALOLA POKEMON IN POKEMON GO! neat.
• SOME MORE STUFF IN MASTER SEX THAT YOU ALREADY KNEW ABOUT BECAUSE DATAMINES! kay.
• CAFE MIX STUFF! don't care.
• UNITE STUFF! pass.
• CATCH SHAYMIN IN BRILLIANT DIAMON SHINING PEARL! I already caught shaymin in Legends, I don't need another one from a game I stopped playing within a week of release.
• DAYBREAK! Okay actually looks pretty neat. Hope it makes catching some of those baby pokemon a little easier.
• HISUI ANIMATED SERIES! I do actually like the shorts they've been putting out, looking forward to seeing this.

And who can forget Gen 9?

Looks fairly open, I feel like even the towns and cities feel bigger because of such.
...the player characters... no.

The starters? Cute grass kitty, fire crocodile thing that honestly looks like an apple, and a duck with a hat. Can't wait to see which one they ruin, which one looks cool, and while one will be furry bait!

...I wanted news about a possible PMD Explorers DX, so this direct was kind of a let down for me.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

That fire starter looks like a baby yoshi. Will it evolve into Beeg Yoshi?

Well, my prediction about 2022 being solely focused on Pokemon Legends and a season pass of content was off. GameFreak is done with the one game per year schedule. Instead they want 1 per year to be the absolute MINIMUM. I underestimated the crunch big time.

[vanguard333]

Gen 9 looks interesting; one can clearly see how they're using what they had developed for Legends: Arceus in this new game.

I was surprised that they plan to release it near the end of this year; one the one hand, that would be exactly three years since Sword & Shield, and that does seem to be the schedule for their games. But, on the other hand, Legends Arceus just released this year. Even remakes weren't released the same year as main series games.

 

Anyway, kind-of disappointed by the update for Legends Arceus. I'm all for making it easier to find certain Pokémon (I still have yet to find a munchlax and I know where to find them), but doing so by just randomly plopping extra groups of them just seems a bit haphazard. I would've preferred something like migratory swarms that can be seen roaming across the area map in real-time, or maybe some legendaries that challenged the player to interesting trials that utilized the new gameplay. But, given that they're making the gen 9 game, I guess this is probably the most that they could do.

Edited February 28, 2022 by vanguard333

[Seafarer]

I can't believe there's still no date for Home compatibility with BDSP and LA. Gen 9 is nice or whatever.

[Punished Dayni]

So, let's see what we got out of this aside from a new gen.

Spoiler

First off, GO, Masters EX, Cafe Remix and Unite updates, whoop de doo. That's half the time gone already.

Then there's an Oak's Letter event for BDSP (Shaymin route unlock!), bit of a let down for this to be part of this, but on trend with the rest so far.

As for PL:A, we get a montage which included me being concerned with some of these human models, a bunch of big angry pokemon and Munchlax focus. Part of the update which also has a Dialga + Plakia alt fight. It seems pretty decent in fairness. Then there's another anime series which is set in Hisui but not the PL:A plot. And three minutes left, so...

It's starts off live action with a guard walking through a building, only to be distracted by something on the periphery of his vision, goes down  corridor which supposedly reveals it's Game Freak's office, then he opens the door to a cluttered room that feels wildly out of place in the sterile building he was in. Probably some tiny details even here, but then things start moving about distracting him and a bright flash of light happens, transitioning to the first footage in game? with Starly noises and a gated city. we then cut to different areas in the region, including a massive lake, amazibad franefates on windmills, some of the returning pokemon milling about in the wild, more areas, a decent combat animation, before we come to a small house by a cliffside with washing that looks like your starting point with the guy walking into his room, we cut back to the guard having had this information beamed into his head, looking around to see our new starters in a painting. And then the titles of Scarlet and Violet (.... I guess) and it's out this year. I dunno about that myself, I think they should have slowed their roll, but this is the first trailer, we'll see if it works better than anticipated soon enough.

Honestly, on the first forms, I'd say Grass > Water > Fire.

TL:DR: Lotsa mobile, BDSP only got the Shaymin event which just feels too little for the game considering what's mising, PL:A updates and anime and the reveal of Gen 9 already.... Hmmmmm. I look forward to the overanalysis.

[Lord_Brand]

Looks like the new region's based on Spain, judging by the names. I wonder what the legendary mascots will be like? A pair of bulls? A bull and some other animal? A detail my bro observed is that the version names have particular textures, a gemstone pattern for Scarlet and a spacy or glittery texture for Violet. Scarlet's font is more stylized, almost Arabic, while Violet is more straight-lined, almost sci-fi looking.

I'm expecting a regional variant of Tauros. Maybe an evolution named Taurojo?

Edited February 27, 2022 by Lord_Brand

[Acacia Sgt]

Someone pointed out this:

Grapefruits and Grapes might be significant in these games.

Scarlet Grapefruit and Violet Grape.

Not that it confirms the legendaries will be themed out of them, but still... Maybe not unlike how Galar had two wolves, but sword and shield themed.

Edited February 27, 2022 by Acacia Sgt

[Randoman]

It feels kind of weird having them go back to colors for Pokemon titles after 3 generations of using non-colors for their Pokemon titles. I suppose I technically don't find anything wrong with the titles being Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet, but it's just weird to me. I guess part of the reason I find it strange is that they've already used 4 of the 6/7 colors of the rainbow for the 1st Generation of Pokemon games, and they're only now using another rainbow color for a Pokemon game title (Violet).

Regarding the 9th generation starters, I like the grass cat the best, currently. But I always pick my favourite starter by which final evolution I like the best, so I'll have to wait to see what the final evolutions look like.

Speaking of the 9th Gen starters, there's already a fair amount of fanart of what people think the final evolutions will look like. It impresses me just how quickly people come up with fanart of things on the day they're revealed, especially when fans are predicting form changes of newly revealed creatures/characters.

 

 

Of the fan evolutions I posted above, I like the grass starter the best from the 1st one, the grass and water starter are tied for the 2nd one, and the water starter for the 3rd one.

[Use the Falchion]

My friend pointed out how similar the starters can be to Kingdom Hearts (I.e. Water Starter to one of the brothers from Duck Tales to Donald from Kingdom Hearts. The cat is a grass version of Litten Lion!Sora, and Goofy is the other Fire Starter.) 

I've heard that this new region is based off of Spain, and the place with the Pokeball looks similar to the Sagrada Familia. For this reason alone, I'm excited. A Spain-inspired Pokemon Region is something I've wanted for a long time, and I'm so happy we're finally seeing it! (Well, Spain and Egypt combined, but that's just me.) 

One of my main fears is that the game won't embrace all of Spain's history. From the early 700s to the late 1400s, Spain's primary ruling power was Islamic in religion IIRC. The culture, language, and architecture of the time reflect this, and I think leaving that out would be a big mistake. I don't think it needs to be fully addressed in a real-world way, but leaving buildings and Pokemon and historical records in-world of a different time would be a nice homage to the history of this region. 

My second fear is that Antoni Gaudi aka the architect behind the Sagrada Familia and lots of other amazing and colorful buildings in Spain (specifically Barcelona) won't have a Pokemon-world counterpart. This man's work was amazing, and to not honor not just his most famous piece, but the man behind the piece, would be a disservice to all IMO. 

[Acacia Sgt]

We're likely see some Arabic influence in whatever cities are to be found in the southern part of the region. I'd be surprised if we don't see their version of the Alhambra.

[Lord_Brand]

Hmm, maybe that's why Scarlet's title has an Arabic look. Dare I hope to see some belly dancers? Particularly as Trainers?

I wonder if we'll see any new types?

[Acacia Sgt]

10 minutes ago, Lord_Brand said:

Hmm, maybe that's why Scarlet's title has an Arabic look. Dare I hope to see some belly dancers? Particularly as Trainers?

I wonder if we'll see any new types?

The Alolan Dancers certainly looked the part for the region. If the Trainer Class shows up again then maybe. Though if it's about Dancers we might see them as Flamenco instead.

Someone noted that the floor sun-like painting with the types on its perimeter (seen at about the two-minute mark of the trailer) seems to only have 18 of them, so new types seems very unlikely then.

Edited March 1, 2022 by Acacia Sgt

[Lord_Brand]

An interesting theory I've seen pitched around is that the two versions are themed after infrared and ultraviolet light. Another proposed theme is apple and grape. I still suspect that my bro might be on to something with the logo textures.

Edited March 3, 2022 by Lord_Brand

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

On 2/27/2022 at 11:50 AM, Zapp Branniglenn said:

That fire starter looks like a baby yoshi. Will it evolve into Beeg Yoshi?

We can only hope so. Signature move where it swallows the opponent whole, and turns them into an egg, perhaps?

On 2/27/2022 at 11:50 AM, Zapp Branniglenn said:

Well, my prediction about 2022 being solely focused on Pokemon Legends and a season pass of content was off. GameFreak is done with the one game per year schedule. Instead they want 1 per year to be the absolute MINIMUM. I underestimated the crunch big time.

Wait... what was 2021 game? BDSP were developed by ILCA, and Game Freak hasn't headlined any non-Pokemon games since Sword & Shield. They've definitely had time to work on this one. That said, while the 3-year generation cycle has held up since Gen V, I'd kinda prefer they revert to 4 years per generation, like III and IV got. Give them extra time to come up with something that really knocks it out of the park, maybe let a side team work on a passion project, and have another company producing a spin-off title (i.e. Stadium reboot, new Pokemon Ranger, Detective Raichu) in the meantime. Interestingly, assuming there are no other Game Freak games this year, this'll mark the first full generation since Gen II where they only made Pokemon.

On 2/28/2022 at 11:57 PM, Acacia Sgt said:

Someone noted that the floor sun-like painting with the types on its perimeter (seen at about the two-minute mark of the trailer) seems to only have 18 of them, so new types seems very unlikely then.

Dare I dream that this painting might suggest we finally get a region with 18 type-masters, rather than the staid "8 gym leaders, plus an Elite Four" that's been the norm everywhere outside of Alola?

On 2/27/2022 at 10:42 PM, Randoman said:

It feels kind of weird having them go back to colors for Pokemon titles after 3 generations of using non-colors for their Pokemon titles. I suppose I technically don't find anything wrong with the titles being Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet, but it's just weird to me. I guess part of the reason I find it strange is that they've already used 4 of the 6/7 colors of the rainbow for the 1st Generation of Pokemon games, and they're only now using another rainbow color for a Pokemon game title (Violet).

Looking back, I have to ask myself - "wait, were Gens II, III, and IV named after colors? Gold and Silver are colors, yes, but also metals. Likewise with Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald being the names of colors... and precious stones. Pearl and Platinum, I could see as color names, even if it's a bit of a stretch... but Diamond? Crystal? These things are either clear, or have no defined color.

Bottom-line, this may just be the third generation that could be said to give its games proper "color" titles. 

9 hours ago, Lord_Brand said:

An interesting theory I've seen pitched around is that the two versions are themed after infrared and ultraviolet light. Another proposed theme is apple and grape. I still suspect that my bro might be on to something with the logo textures.

Hear me out - special edition joy-cons that match the color and pattern of the "Scarlet" and "Violet" logos. They would sell tremendously. Not that I see Nintendo putting in the effort to make them look good... or stop drifting...

[Acacia Sgt]

7 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Dare I dream that this painting might suggest we finally get a region with 18 type-masters, rather than the staid "8 gym leaders, plus an Elite Four" that's been the norm everywhere outside of Alola?

That would be way too much for just one game. Unless they split them 9 types each across each version.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Wait... what was 2021 game? BDSP were developed by ILCA, and Game Freak hasn't headlined any non-Pokemon games since Sword & Shield. 

I don't see why we're not acknowledging the one that came out a month ago? And okay, I said "Game Freak", when I meant "The Pokemon Company". So yes, the contracted game by ILCA (which Game Freak did indeed oversee and assist in developing) counts. We're talking about mainline titles, and Gen 9 is the fifth one developed for Switch. That's a lot, considering the Switch is only five years old and got no pokemon games for its first 18 months. Would have been the sixth if Sword and Shield's DLC was turned into a 'third version' game. Which they would have done in earlier generations of pokemon. It's fair to point out things are getting over saturated on a scale we've never seen.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

11 hours ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

I don't see why we're not acknowledging the one that came out a month ago? And okay, I said "Game Freak", when I meant "The Pokemon Company". So yes, the contracted game by ILCA (which Game Freak did indeed oversee and assist in developing) counts. We're talking about mainline titles, and Gen 9 is the fifth one developed for Switch. That's a lot, considering the Switch is only five years old and got no pokemon games for its first 18 months. Would have been the sixth if Sword and Shield's DLC was turned into a 'third version' game. Which they would have done in earlier generations of pokemon. It's fair to point out things are getting over saturated on a scale we've never seen.

Well, was Legends Arceus a 2021 game, or a 2022 game? If it was last year, then there's no "two games in one year" problem. Of course, then it would overlap with Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, but Game Freak's degree of involvement on those games is unclear. I watched the credits, and Game Freak's name only came up a few times at the end - once in "Very Special Credits", once in "Based on Pokemon Diamond and Pearl by Game Freak", and once with the copyright marker. Satoshi Tajiri and Ishihara received "Executive Producer" credits, but those are often just honorary. We know Junichi Masuda supervised development, and he probably brought at least a small team with him from Game Freak, but it's not at all clear.

True enough, there've been a lot of "mainline" Pokemon games in the past few years. Although, part of that may be that the definition of "mainline" is, arguably, expanding. Games like Colosseum and XD have more in common mechanically, I would argue, with each generation's "standard-bearer" games, than the likes of Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee and Legends Arceus. If those games were treated as mainline games (and I'm not saying they should be, necessarily), then the period from 2002 through 2005 would be even denser than what we're seeing now. As for the "first 18 months" point, it's worth noting that Pokemon games are chronically late to the party. Ruby and Sappire took a similar length of time relative to the GBA, Diamond and Pearl came out almost two years after the DS, and X and Y took right around two-and-a-half years following the 3DS's release.

But yeah, I broadly agree with the point that there are too many mainline Pokemon games coming out right now. BDSP released in a clearly unfinished state, lacking even a built-in start screen. Perhaps they could have been delayed... if Legends Arceus weren't there waiting for them. The closer the two games release, the worse Nintendo can expect total sales to be. So they'd either have to push both games back (even if Legends didn't really need it), or else swap the order, and have BDSP come out about 2 months after Legends. Of course, either way, customers are disappointed. And if they were to announce Gen IX before releasing either game, then the latter release would see its sales shot in the foot.

13 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

That would be way too much for just one game. Unless they split them 9 types each across each version.

I disagree - in Gold, Silver, Crystal, and the remakes, we had 16 gym leaders, 4 Elite Four members, and a Champion. Even if we cut out Lance and Blue, that's still 19 type-specialists. Half of the gym leaders are in the postgame, of course, but they still make for a great campaign in their own right. And while the old games saw most towns and cities have a Gym, starting with Ruby and Sapphire, that got pared down to only a bit more than half having a Gym. We could've easily seen a region with 12 gyms - say, Slateport, Fallarbor, Lilycove, and Pacifidlog all receiving one. Even in such a model, Littleroot, Oldale, and Verdanturf would've remained gym-less. Or in X and Y - make the Parfum Palace a gym, put ones in Ambrette Town and Couriway Town, and add a second gym to Lumiose City, in light of its size. Even in this model, Vaniville, Aquacorde, Camphrier, Geosenge, and Dendemille all remain gym-free.

Point is, if the next region resembles any of the larger, city-and-town-rich regions we've seen in previous games, then I think it's very reasonable to have a region with as many as 12 gym leaders. Couple them with an "Elite Six", or even just an "Elite Five" with a type-specialist Champion, and suddenly we have all the types represented in some official capacity. I'm not saying they "must" do this, in any sense, but I don't think it's a too unrealistic ask. At the very least, seeing the same "Eight plus Four" model trotted out everywhere except for Alola is pretty tiresome.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

True enough, there've been a lot of "mainline" Pokemon games in the past few years. Although, part of that may be that the definition of "mainline" is, arguably, expanding. Games like Colosseum and XD have more in common mechanically, I would argue, with each generation's "standard-bearer" games, than the likes of Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee and Legends Arceus. If those games were treated as mainline games (and I'm not saying they should be, necessarily), then the period from 2002 through 2005 would be even denser than what we're seeing now.

For what it's worth, I would have counted the gamecube games as mainline at the time they came out. They have the core tenants of pokemon (battling and catching), with only one new, ambitious mechanic (shadow pokemon) that replaces Wild Pokemon almost entirely. It's only with hindsight do we see pokemon regress into a handheld only series of "generations" after those two games. So of course I count Legends and Let's Go as mainline titles as well. When Battling and Catching comprise the vast majority of gameplay. GameFreak agrees with me on those two, even if they don't on the gamecube titles.

Quote

But yeah, I broadly agree with the point that there are too many mainline Pokemon games coming out right now.

Good. Then there is no need to debate what games 'count' whenever somebody complains about this.

[Acacia Sgt]

5 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I disagree - in Gold, Silver, Crystal, and the remakes, we had 16 gym leaders, 4 Elite Four members, and a Champion. Even if we cut out Lance and Blue, that's still 19 type-specialists. Half of the gym leaders are in the postgame, of course, but they still make for a great campaign in their own right. And while the old games saw most towns and cities have a Gym, starting with Ruby and Sapphire, that got pared down to only a bit more than half having a Gym. We could've easily seen a region with 12 gyms - say, Slateport, Fallarbor, Lilycove, and Pacifidlog all receiving one. Even in such a model, Littleroot, Oldale, and Verdanturf would've remained gym-less. Or in X and Y - make the Parfum Palace a gym, put ones in Ambrette Town and Couriway Town, and add a second gym to Lumiose City, in light of its size. Even in this model, Vaniville, Aquacorde, Camphrier, Geosenge, and Dendemille all remain gym-free.

Point is, if the next region resembles any of the larger, city-and-town-rich regions we've seen in previous games, then I think it's very reasonable to have a region with as many as 12 gym leaders. Couple them with an "Elite Six", or even just an "Elite Five" with a type-specialist Champion, and suddenly we have all the types represented in some official capacity. I'm not saying they "must" do this, in any sense, but I don't think it's a too unrealistic ask. At the very least, seeing the same "Eight plus Four" model trotted out everywhere except for Alola is pretty tiresome.

GSC had the benefit of being able to include a second region. Crimson and Violet, unless we learned otherwise in the future, is only going to be one region. They've never put that much content in one region before. Well, they haven't really showed a case of wanting to deviate from the formula. Even Alola was mostly traditional. Since there was 7 Trial Captains (and evidence exists Kahili could've actually been a fightable eight, if the datamined Golf Course was any indication) + 4 Kahunas. The only real deviation was that you didn't had to fight all 7 in one game, and that the 4 were spread out instead of being a gauntlet at the end (since we still got the traditional Elite Four for that). Galar followed suit in having version exclusive GYM Types, which could be done again for C&V.

So yeah, we'll have to wait and see.

[Lord_Brand]

Galar is said to have Gym Leaders for all 18 types, and we see 10 of them.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

29 minutes ago, Lord_Brand said:

Galar is said to have Gym Leaders for all 18 types, and we see 10 of them.

Interesting bit of lore! I didn't play Sword & Shield, so I didn't know this. I do think different gyms between versions was a neat touch, though. Hopefully, if Pokemon is wedded to the multi-version model, they can at least keep putting in differences like this.

4 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

GSC had the benefit of being able to include a second region. Crimson and Violet, unless we learned otherwise in the future, is only going to be one region. They've never put that much content in one region before. Well, they haven't really showed a case of wanting to deviate from the formula. Even Alola was mostly traditional. Since there was 7 Trial Captains (and evidence exists Kahili could've actually been a fightable eight, if the datamined Golf Course was any indication) + 4 Kahunas. The only real deviation was that you didn't had to fight all 7 in one game, and that the 4 were spread out instead of being a gauntlet at the end (since we still got the traditional Elite Four for that). Galar followed suit in having version exclusive GYM Types, which could be done again for C&V.

So yeah, we'll have to wait and see.

Mind you, I certainly don't expect to see a specialist for every type... but I'd still like to. I do think we're likely to see version-specific gyms again. In this light, suppose they had 8 gyms, but 4 were version-specific, for 12 total. Then, of the Elite Four, 2 members could differ between versions. So even if they stick to the "Eight-plus-four" model (which I find overdone, but whatever), they could pull off at least one specialist per type for the games combined.

[Lord_Brand]

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Interesting bit of lore! I didn't play Sword & Shield, so I didn't know this. I do think different gyms between versions was a neat touch, though. Hopefully, if Pokemon is wedded to the multi-version model, they can at least keep putting in differences like this.

Mind you, I certainly don't expect to see a specialist for every type... but I'd still like to. I do think we're likely to see version-specific gyms again. In this light, suppose they had 8 gyms, but 4 were version-specific, for 12 total. Then, of the Elite Four, 2 members could differ between versions. So even if they stick to the "Eight-plus-four" model (which I find overdone, but whatever), they could pull off at least one specialist per type for the games combined.

If they had a completely different set of Gym leaders per version, then you could rep 16 of the 18 types right there. However, they might want two of the Gym leaders to stay the same to leave 4 types for the Elite Four. For example:

• Gym Leaders
  • Normal
  • Grass
  • Flying/Bug
  • Rock/Ground
  • Water/Ice
  • Fairy/Ghost
  • Poison/Dark
  • Fire/Electric
• Elite Four
  • Fighting
  • Psychic
  • Steel
  • Dragon

Though version-specific Elite Four are an interesting prospect as well. Shoot, why not go one step further beyond and have a different Champion for each version?

You've got me thinking about how a future Pokemon game could revolutionize the League model: What if, instead of just eight specific Gyms that you have to clear to enter the Championship, there are more than eight Gyms of which you only need to clear eight in order to challenge the Elite Four? Of course there's a reward for clearing every Gym as well.

Of course, Galar didn't have an Elite Four, either; instead, all qualifying participants enter a tournament to decide who is Champion. During that tournament, you can rematch Gym Leaders you'd battled earlier in the game. The participants include you, Hop, Marnie, Bede, Opal, Milo, Nessa, Kabu, Alister/Bea, Melony/Gordy, Pierce, Raihan, So, this new model I'm suggesting could adapt that. Get 8 of the 18 Badges and you can enter the Championship Tournament. No Elite Four, just a tournament including you, your rival, your friendly rival, 18 Gym leaders, the Champion, and plenty of other Trainers besides. For an even number of 1v1 battles, you'd need a 32-Trainer roster like this:

Spoiler

1. Player
2. Friend
3. Rival
4. Normal-Type Gym Leader
5. Fighting-Type Gym Leader
6. Flying-Type Gym Leader
7. Ground-Type Gym Leader
8. Rock-Type Gym Leader
9. Bug-Type Gym Leader
10. Poison-Type Gym Leader
11. Ghost-Type Gym Leader
12. Steel-Type Gym Leader
13. Fire-Type Gym Leader
14. Grass-Type Gym Leader
15. Water-Type Gym Leader
16. Electric-Type Gym Leader
17. Psychic-Type Gym Leader
18. Ice-Type Gym Leader
19. Dragon-Type Gym Leader
20. Dark-Type Gym Leader
21. Fairy-Type Gym Leader
22. Champion
23. Extra Trainer A
24. Extra Trainer B
25. Extra Trainer C
26. Extra Trainer D
27. Extra Trainer E
28. Extra Trainer F
29. Extra Trainer G
30. Extra Trainer H
31. Extra Trainer I
32. Extra Trainer J

That would result in five battles for you, taking the place of the traditional Elite Four and Champion battles from past Generations. Extra Trainers A-J could be anyone: friends in the vein of Wally, Cheryl, Riley, Buck, Mira, Marley, Cheren, Bianca, Shauna, Tierno, Trevor, Lillie, and Marnie, (possibly reformed) Team members, visitors from other regions, etc. If they introduce new Types, they could also add extra Gym Leaders for those types to help fill up that list.

If they want to keep the default tournament roster to local participants, they could add a World League Tournament for challengers from other regions, including protagonists, rivals, Gym Leaders, Elite Four, and Champions.

Edited March 5, 2022 by Lord_Brand

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

22 hours ago, Lord_Brand said:

You've got me thinking about how a future Pokemon game could revolutionize the League model: What if, instead of just eight specific Gyms that you have to clear to enter the Championship, there are more than eight Gyms of which you only need to clear eight in order to challenge the Elite Four? Of course there's a reward for clearing every Gym as well.

I like this model! In the broad sense, I'd like to see it done in a "challenge the gyms in whichever order you like, but they get stronger" model. So, the first leader you face has two Pokemon under level 10, whereas the 18th leader has a full team in the 80s. Even if they don't do a "free order", they could probably do "route splits", so that you can pick one of two gym leaders to face to progress. And the minimum number of gyms to beat for a complete route is 8. Of course, to get all 18 badges, you'd have to return to whichever leaders you skipped in this manner. It could look something like:

Spoiler

1. Normal

2. A. Water, B. Fire, C. Grass

3. Flying

4. D. Fighting, E. Psychic

5. D. Electric, E. Ice

6. Da. Ghost, Db. Dark, Ea. Steel, Eb. Rock

7. D. Ground, E. Dragon

8. F. Fairy, G. Poison, H. Bug

So if you chose the "D" path before the 4th gym, then you have to beat 4D, 5D, either 6Da or 6Db, and 7D, before getting to choose amongst the three "8th gym" options. The only gyms that everyone would've faced, in such a model, are 1. Normal and 3. Flying.

22 hours ago, Lord_Brand said:

That would result in five battles for you, taking the place of the traditional Elite Four and Champion battles from past Generations. Extra Trainers A-J could be anyone: friends in the vein of Wally, Cheryl, Riley, Buck, Mira, Marley, Cheren, Bianca, Shauna, Tierno, Trevor, Lillie, and Marnie, (possibly reformed) Team members, visitors from other regions, etc. If they introduce new Types, they could also add extra Gym Leaders for those types to help fill up that list.

I like the "Tournament" concept, too! Makes the last series of battles less predictable - you need to prepare for anything. Hm... maybe after 18 badges, you unlock what's essentially a "Hard Mode" of the Tournament? It'd be the same trainers, but at a slightly higher level, more held items, and better AI (i.e. switching when debuffed too far). Beating that would reward you with the "True/Secret Ending", and give the player access to a new Legendary or Mythical encounter.