Which game and/or characters works best in a Pokemon crossover?

[Use the Falchion]

I saw some cool fanart of Byleth and the House Lords as Pokemon trainers yesterday and today, and the question kind of popped into my head. Which game and/or characters would best translate into a Pokemon game? Would it be Tellius so you can catch and use the Laguz as Pokemon in a very dark humor twist on Tellius' original theme? Would it be Fodlan and the Three Houses crew since rivals are already built in and maybe we can get a Golden Route unless Edelgard is the leader of the Evil Team? Would it be Elibe, since Roy is pretty young already or because choosing someone like Hector could mean a difficulty spike in the game itself? 

 

I'm just throwing out ideas. Let me know what y'all think!

[Alastor15243]

I still can't get over the fact that we almost got this instead of TMS.

"Hey Game Freak, wanna make a Fire Emblem - Pokemon crossover?"

"Sorry, we already did a strategy game crossover."

"Fuck. Alright, time for Plan B."

[Kori]

Thank you for linking that fanart!

The fact that PokéFE could have existed and we missed that is truly a tragedy. (And the existing game being named Pokémon Conquest just adds an extra level of "oh come on!")

Three Houses would probably work the best; most of your units being students that you can build more or less however you want would translate well in a pokémon setting (young trainers starting their journeys, catching whatever you choose for their teams).

Tellius might be the hardest to translate, because if you're gonna have pokémon and laguz, you now have three categories of sentient creatures living on this continent, and that means needing to put a lot of thought into your worldbuilding. Yes, it was one of the themes of the games, but it already doesn't go deep enough, and that's with two races and without the added complexity of how diverse pokémons' relationships with humans can be in the pokémon universe. (Yes, most of them have human-level intelligence, if not more. Yes, some of them willingly live with humans as pets or take orders from them. Imagine the wrench this throws in the laguz emancipation efforts.)

On the other hand, it is one of the themes of those games, so maybe that makes them more suited to it, if one is willing to put the worldbuilding in. And you could say that the characters combining Jugdral-like specialization (a specific branch of magic instead of just "uses magic", specialization in one weapon instead of just "a cavalier/paladin") and GBA-style elemental affinities gives us more material to speculate on pokémon teams. (Though of course those aren't the only things that should be considered, for example none of it points to Sanaki having a water-type but she should definitely have a Piplup.)

Whether or no it works, I do want to see Soren as the reluctant trainer of an Absol that just showed up one day and wouldn't leave.

Also, there's certainly something interesting to be done with Judgral and the 12 crusaders, each blessed by a legendary pokémon...

Edited May 13, 2022 by Kori

[henrymidfields]

I'm thinking of a fanfic that has Binding Blade's story with Pokemon Anime's setting (it branches off immediately after Ash vs Alain) and reinterpreted to be a neo-World War II, with characters not only from those two series, Gen 1-4 being Shoyo (Poke-Japan), and Unova, Orre, and Alola forming the United States of Columbia.

Team Rocket (+ General Goto from SMT and Masayoshi Shido from Persona 5), Team Plasma (in which Senator Ghetsis Gropius leads an insurrection against the United States Government), and Team Flare are the right-wing extremists that had joined forces with Zephiel's faction in Berlin (which I renamed from Bern), a Neo-Nazi faction that is working to revive the ancient legendary dragon-type Pokemon. And all of them pull a simultaneous coup in their respective nations. So not only Elibe is in massive political trouble, but so is North Columbia (Pokeverse version of America) and Shoyo, and Ash and Co must also fight to restore freedom to their region and nation.

Not only would this feature both Binding Blade and Poke-Ani characters, but I'm also going to add characters from other series:

• The original classes Three Houses would be the Pokeverse version of Eurocorps (and Claude, Dimitri, and Edelgard all staying heroic). Edie in particular is fighting against the Neo-Nazi Berlinians that took over her country.
• TMSFE, and its other parent franchise, SMT and Persona 3-5 characters will appear as some of the Shoyoese characters. I've also have in mind OCs to be added for the Shoyoese Government and Defense Force working with Ash and Co. 

Edited May 13, 2022 by henrymidfields

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

I'm gonna say Sacred Stones, for a simple reason - the game already gives you a clear "male protagonist" (Ephraim) and "female protagonist" (Eirika). Whichever one you don't choose could function as your sibling in-narrative, joining and helping you on your journey. Tana could function as a "friendly rival", while Innes would be the "jerk-ass rival". Rather than 8 gym leaders, we could do just six: Duessel, a Steel/Ground specialist with a Sandstorm team; Selena, a Psychic/Electric specialist with a Trick Room team; Glen, a Fire/Flying specialist with a Sunny Day team; Valter, a Water/Ice specialist with a Rain team; Caellach, a Fighting/Bug specialist with a U-Turn team; and Riev, a Poison/Rock specialist with an entry hazard team. Lyon would be the Champion, with a varied team, but Dark/Ghost specialization - plus a unique technique that lets him "summon" additional Mons. Other notable characters include Contest star L'arachel, Pokemon Center operator Natasha, PokeMart owner Rennac, and PC programmer Ewan, among others. Various characters will help you with the work previously assigned to HM slaves: Vanessa flies you places, Marisa cuts down trees, Moulder pushes through boulders, and Seth carries you through the entire game across water. Finally, there's the region's enemy team, the dreaded "Brigand Bunch", including foes like Bazba, Binks, and the blackheart Gheb himself.

[Lynsanity]

Omg, this is a favourite subject of mine. I haven't given up hope in another Pokemon strategy crossover, as was originally pitched. Especially when we'll soon be 3 generations removed from Pokemon Conquest, so there should be design and market space for a PokemonxFE.

Though one thing to consider is that FE might not even be the best IS property for Pokemon. How about a Pokemon Advance Wars? There were canonically wars fought using pokemon in the lore. Units of 5 pokemon traversing a map, getting deployed from gyms, and excelling on different terrain would fit like a glove. You can imagine past versions of the various regions, Kanto, Alola etc at war with each other and using different regional pokemon in their armies. Of course the Wars series might be having its last gasp given the star-crossed remake.

Back on topic, having human trainers for an FE-like certainly fits with the Conquest formula and the fan art is always fun. Maybe the trainers even "equip" different pokemon like they would with weapons. But I actually think the translation would work better if the pokemon were the characters themselves — inhabiting their own world and speaking to each other like in the PMD series. One reason for this is just thinking about early game fliers like Caeda, you'd want them to have the utility of flight while also having a long promotion arc. Are you going to depict them getting flown around by their Pidgey or whatever? Like that Gary Oak Spearow comic? If they are the Pidgey, that's more natural. Ditto with cavaliers riding little Ponyta and such.

The other reason is that FE characters basically already are pokemon. They gain EXP, evolve, and some even have branching evolutions. You collect them, and if you're playing with permadeath on then that's a Nuzlocke run. 🙂 You can imagine a fully evolved pokemon at the start would be your Jagen, your main lord a Riolu, Caeda a Starly, and so on. 

So to answer OP's question, I guess I've always pictured this in a proxy for Archanea, or else an original world. That way it doesn't step on the toes of FE games hoping for remakes. Imagine Tellius doesn't get remade or remastered, but instead gets put in a Pokemon crossover, lmao. However the Three Houses or Awakening settings could be fun, and they'd definitely bring in a lot of fans.

[PostZordem]

13 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I still can't get over the fact that we almost got this instead of TMS.

"Hey Game Freak, wanna make a Fire Emblem - Pokemon crossover?"

"Sorry, we already did a strategy game crossover."

"Fuck. Alright, time for Plan B."

Wait hold up, Nintendo was seriously going to release a crossover game involving Pokémon and Fire Emblem?! Dammit, that sounds like it would've been such a fun game to play... I didn't even like Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE (Such a wasted opportunity indeed...). But now that's got me thinking about some rather inconceivable Nintendo First-Party Crossovers such as Metroid X The Legend of Zelda, Mario X Kirby and whatnot (Hey, a man can dream!).

But getting back on track and answering OP's question... I'd have to say Three Houses or even Fates (Yup, it's that time of the month again, people. Prepare yourselves for another one of my essays). 

For Three Houses- The game will be split into three different routes, with the player choosing one of three houses (we'll call them gyms for the Pokémon X FE Three Houses crossover) that they'll stick with throughout the rest of the game, just like Three Houses. The most important thing to note is that since Pokémon's being included in this crossover, there will be no "Part 2" or timeskip for this game. Just one long Part 1 that spans the whole length of the game within the same year. There will also be no bloodshed or permadeath either, just fainting like in the Pokémon games. Furthermore, as per the rules of the Pokémon games, only the Pokémon themselves shall be able to partake in battle. The group of students whose gym you choose will all work as Pokémon trainers, and can only hold onto one special, singular Pokémon. Byleth, however, will be able to catch and hold up to 6 Pokémon at a time and store any additional ones in boxes (Note: I won't mention this in Fates, but it'll work out the exact same gameplay-wise in my hypothetical Pokémon X FE Fates crossover).

The general story for Pokémon Three Houses would probably involve a bunch of mock-battles between the 3 gyms with all of the fun student bonding times found in the Academy phase still intact. Now, Edelgard could still be a twist villan towards the end of the game, where it reveals that she was actually apart of "Team (Insert Team name Here)". Though the game wouldn't actually tell you this until late in the game. Team (Insert Team name Here) would be similar to Those Who Slither In The Dark, and they would battle you about as frequently as any X Team does in any of the Pokémon games. The final opponent you face in Pokémon Three Houses will of course depend on which gym you chose at the beginning. For pro-church Black Eagles, Edelgard would be the final boss since I believe it adds to the emotion and tragedy of the whole thing. For pro-Empire Black Eagles, like in Crimson Flower, Rhea would be the final boss here (though I'm not sure if I should still have her and The Immaculate One as one being or separate them and make TIO its own Pokémon of sorts. Sort of like fighting a legendary, really). As for Blue Lions and Golden Deer routes, I'm not really sure what to do with those, since my main idea was to crop out all of Part 2, which limits the options for final battles greatly. Maybe just have it end with a battle against the champion "Rhea in this case" but she's not mad at Byleth because they didn't betray her as shown in Three Houses if Byleth sides with Edelgard in the Holy Tomb. Either that or find a way to incorporate Nemesis or a few legendary Pokémon into the mix and have those serve as final boss battles instead. 

For Fates- Have both a Hoshido and Nohr route so that there's two different paths to take, just like how Fates was split up into two different games (plus a DLC route). Though in the Pokémon X FE Fates crossover, there will be no Revelation, or third route. Now, I can see the game release going one of two ways: 1. Nintendo does what they did with Fates (and every Mainline entry Pokémon title for that matter) and release the game as two separate versions, one called Pokémon Birthright, and another called Pokémon Conquest (I know that name's already taken but let's just forget about that for a second). 2. Nintendo releases the game simply as: Pokémon Fates. Both routes will be included in this one singular version. Now ideally, the latter option would be more convenient, but realistically, the former option would probably be the one Nintendo chooses to go with if they did do a Pokémon X FE Fates crossover.

The general story for Pokémon Fates would be that Corrin is forced to choose between the Hoshido gym (we'll call them gyms here for the crossover too) and the Nohr gym. Whichever gym Corrin chooses will give the player a good number of allies in the form of fellow Pokémon trainers and maybe even a gym leader or two. The opposing gym that Corrin didn't choose will be the main enemy of the game for Corrin and Co. The majority of the game will involve the player catching Pokémon and leveling them up to then take down sub-gyms headed by either the Hoshido or Nohr groups depending on who Corrin didn't pick. Once the player beats all the sub-gyms, only the final major gym with the "region champion" left remains. By the way, the FE "Pokémon trainers" that you defeat will not die in this game, just be defeated and allow you passage to the next path. Anyways, once Corrin and their group defeats the champion of either Hoshido or Nohr's gym, then the other gym will be crowned as the victor of the gym "war". Not sure what I'd do for a post-game for either a Fates or Three Houses Pokémon crossover. Maybe just "Catch-Em All!" or something involving some potential DLC as seen in Pokémon Sword/Shield's DLC.

My creative muscles weren't really fluxing as much with this topic, so I could only think of some general ideas for a hypothetical Pokémon X Fire Emblem crossover title regarding Three Houses and Fates. There's probably a few important things that could be changed such as: "Pokémon Fates (story-wise) being just like Fire Emblem Fates but with Pokémon" and "The final bosses for Blue Lions and Golden Deer being described better". If anyone can expand upon or modify my interpretations of a Pokémon X FE crossover to better fit the worlds involved, than I'm in support of it. I'm just throwing in my two cents in regards to what I believe a Pokémon X Fire Emblem Three Houses/Fates crossover would look like.

[Kori]

7 hours ago, Lynsanity said:

I actually think the translation would work better if the pokemon were the characters themselves — inhabiting their own world and speaking to each other like in the PMD series. One reason for this is just thinking about early game fliers like Caeda, you'd want them to have the utility of flight while also having a long promotion arc. Are you going to depict them getting flown around by their Pidgey or whatever? Like that Gary Oak Spearow comic? If they are the Pidgey, that's more natural. Ditto with cavaliers riding little Ponyta and such.

The other reason is that FE characters basically already are pokemon. They gain EXP, evolve, and some even have branching evolutions. You collect them, and if you're playing with permadeath on then that's a Nuzlocke run. 🙂 You can imagine a fully evolved pokemon at the start would be your Jagen, your main lord a Riolu, Caeda a Starly, and so on.

Oh, I love this too. I'd be totally on board to play the adventures of Marth the Riolu (I don't know about assigning all the main lords Riolu, but it works here) and Caeda the Starly, and their allies Jagen the old Stoutland, Cain and Abel the Persian and Tauros, Lena the Chansey, Julian the Thievul, Linde the Espeon, Minerva the Druddigon (...TIL that Druddigon apparently can't fly, but shh, it's for the aesthetic), her Happiny sister and her three Pidgey (?)... and i'm blanking on a suitable dragon for little Tiki.

[Alastor15243]

To answer the question, honestly, I think it would work better if it were simply a world where animals were replaced with pokemon. Rather than a world where pokemon battles wholesale replace sword and sorcery medieval combat, what if pokemon became part of sword and sorcery medieval combat? You have a smaller human cast than normal, but each one you deploy can summon their own pokemon to fight alongside them. Or perhaps to be their mounts. Imagine rapidash cavaliers or dragapult fliers.

I imagine pokemon allies' moves would function like 3H spell charges, usable a limited number of times but refreshed each battle.

[vanguard333]

Conquest; that way, when the crossover is made, they will announce their new game: Pokémon Conquest, and everyone will be confused and ask, "Didn't you already make that?"

 

Jokes aside, a Pokémon x Fire Emblem crossover would probably work best with an original setting and characters, rather than using any of the existing FE continents. Established FE characters would probably work best as bonus characters or DLC.

[Alastor15243]

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

Conquest; that way, when the crossover is made, they will announce their new game: Pokémon Conquest, and everyone will be confused and ask, "Didn't you already make that?"

 

Jokes aside, a Pokémon x Fire Emblem crossover would probably work best with an original setting and characters, rather than using any of the existing FE continents. Established FE characters would probably work best as bonus characters or DLC.

Agreed. On the subject of that DLC though, I'd rather see Pokemon trainers re-imagined as medieval soldiers than medieval soldiers re-imagined as Pokemon trainers.

[vanguard333]

16 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Agreed. On the subject of that DLC though, I'd rather see Pokémon trainers re-imagined as medieval soldiers than medieval soldiers re-imagined as Pokemon trainers.

Now I'm trying to picture Pokémon Trainers in the various FE classes. Akari and Rei from Legends: Arceus would probably be assassin or archer because of all the sneaking around they have to as part of the survey corps, but I have no idea what the rest would be.

What did you think of my Pokémon Conquest joke?

[Alastor15243]

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

Now I'm trying to picture Pokémon Trainers in the various FE classes. Akari and Rei from Legends: Arceus would probably be assassin or archer because of all the sneaking around they have to as part of the survey corps, but I have no idea what the rest would be.

Honestly I'd take cues from what sorts of pokemon they have. There are a couple of gym leaders it'd be pretty damned easy to typecast.

Anyone psychic would make a good mage, anyone fairy would make a good light mage, anyone dark would make a good dark mage...

...Water specialists would make good pirates...

...Steel specialists would make good knights...

...Fighting specialists would make good fighters or brawlers...

...Poison types would make good thieves/ninjas...

A lot of these write themselves.