Linearity of the Main Game Story Lines

[zyrefredric]

On the topic of the ability to face gym leaders in varying orders in the older games, the first question that comes to mind is: who cares?

well getting rid of the forced linearity of the gyms allows the player to feel that he has a choice on how to play the game. using passage restriction with HM is a cheap way of enforcing how the gameplay unfolds. they could easily do somethin like:



city 3
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city 2============roadblock===city 5=
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city 4

where the sequence of doing cities 2, 3 and 4 depends on the player, with the roadblock preventing the player to continue without the three badges. it would even be neat if the sequence on which you defeat the gyms affect the game somehow.. the level and pokemon of the gym leadears might vary based on this.. for example, there are six different ways on which the gyms can be taken..

city2 (venonat, lvl 10, Kricketune lv10, scyther lv12)
city3 (koffing, lvl 16, muk lv16, nidorino lv18)
city4 (carnivine, lvl 20, lombre lv22, tangrowth lv24)

city2 (venonat, lvl 10, Kricketune lv10, scyther lv12)
city4 (lombre, lvl 16, skiploom lv16, tangela lv18)
city3 (swalot, lvl 20, weezing lv22, nidoking lv24)

city3 (grimer, lvl 10, arbok lv10, nidorino lv12)
city2 (surskit, lvl 16, venomoth lv16, scyther lv18)
city4 (carnivine, lvl 20, lombre lv22, tangrowth lv24)

city3 (grimer, lvl 10, arbok lv10, nidorino lv12)
city4 (lombre, lvl 16, skiploom lv16, tangela lv18)
city2 (shuckle, lvl 20, masquerain lv22, scizor lv24)

city4 (hoppip, lvl 10, roselia lv10, tangela lv12)
city2 (surskit, lvl 16, venomoth lv16, scyther lv18)
city3 (swalot, lvl 20, weezing lv22, nidoking lv24)

city4 (hoppip, lvl 10, roselia lv10, tangela lv12)
city3 (koffing, lvl 16, muk lv16, nidorino lv18)
city2 (shuckle, lvl 20, masquerain lv22, scizor lv24)


(just random pokemon and levels, so yeah they might be imbalanced or something).. i don't think this is too hard to pull off, and while they are at it, they can also increase the general level of the wild pokemon everytime a badge is earned.. as long as the subquests, if any, in each route are not too interrelated, then i dont think there's much problem with letting the player roam around on his own accord..

 

[GOTO2435]

@people who say that making the game more mature will sell less, people will ALWAYS identify pokemon with the anime (which by the way is for children no doubt) so it doesn´t matter how mature the game is unless it gets a +18 rating it will still be "for children" in the eyes of adults, plus children that age can´t buy the games on their own without asking money or somebody going with them to the store, personally, i played all types of games with all sorts of ratings by age 10, my parents had no problem with it, they knew it was just a videogame and in any case they would take it away if they saw it was too mature for me (see GTA :P) but yeah... say pokemon turns into a reguar RPG with people and pokemon dying, you being an 18 year old or a 20 year old for that matter, increased difficulty and the game being rated +13 (just avoid blood, gore and sexual content lol and it would stay +13) people will still buy it anyways because it is pokemon and yeah... no other reason needed. Also as somebody said earlier that the game will never be too hard for kids to play, but when i was a kid i had so much free time that by sabrina´s gym in yellow my pikachu was lvl 55, all i did was grind, the game will never loose its easiness(can´t think of another word) since grinding is soooo easy and children have unlimited free time.
On another not it would be nice to let us speed battle animations and text and stuff to x2 or x2 and add a place where IV´s can be changed and where you can EV train really easily (suppose you want sp attack ev´s, you could have the option to pick how many you wanted and trainers would keep coming until you reach the ev limit you set or something). IV´s need to have a way to be changed or increased and battles need to be made faster or people will never play competitively on the cartidges since it would be much more complicated.
also a place where the game will match you up with someone randomly would be nice.

 

[Vratix]

say pokemon turns into a reguar RPG with people and pokemon dying, you being an 18 year old or a 20 year old for that matter, increased difficulty and the game being rated +13 (just avoid blood, gore and sexual content lol and it would stay +13) people will still buy it anyways because it is pokemon and yeah... no other reason needed.

hurr... No.
First off, no matter how dark any aspect of Pokemon may seem in a Nightmare Fuel way, GameFreak would Never (repeat Never) condone killing. Even in the Pokemon Adventures manga they found ways to bring almost everyone who "died" back, ret-conning them to life.

Also, it is in fact being PROVEN that violence in video games adversely affects children <<http://at-risk-youth-support.suite101.com/article.cfm/teens_and_violent_video_games>> And yes, teens are children.

Why would the children-friendly game series released by the family-friendly console company even consider breaking that theme?

but when i was a kid i had so much free time that by sabrina´s gym in yellow my pikachu was lvl 55, all i did was grind, the game will never loose its easiness(can´t think of another word) since grinding is soooo easy and children have unlimited free time.

Another thing, when I played Gen-1 I was about 10 years old. I certainly didn't have the patience to sit there and grind nor would my parents have let me play hours and hours of Pokemon every day. Note: I am not calling your parents ability of Parenthood into question, I am calling into question your normalcy as a child. Grinding is boring. Really, really boring (hence the name "grinding"). Normal pre-teens don't actually want to grind their critters for hours on end.