WARNING LONG POST AHEAD
this post is dedicated to my mans, user
Ransei
ok with all the talk about removing mons from the game, i feel like it's the right time to bring up a past game that did the same thing: pokemon conquest. with a detailed piece of artwork required for each mon [
example] as well as a less detailed sprite with a set of animations, it's somewhat understandable why they'd need to do something like that. as a result, only some select strong mons/fan favorites are in the game, with all my favorites being gone and only 199 pokemon total making the cut. it's a pretty bleak situation.
the gameplay is kinda cool, but can get somewhat repetitive with only 1 real way to play. there are two main things to do, managing your kingdom and participating in battles. for those, i have to explain a few core mechanics of conquest:
the ransei region, where pokemon conquest is based, is composed of 17 little regions, one for each type (fairy didn't exist yet). inside each region, there are a couple areas where you can find wild pokemon and warriors/warlords of the corresponding type. (for example, you'd find fire-types in the fire region). some also have things like a shop, a gold mine to get money, and a ponigiri shop (to increase your mons' energy).
each of the 17 little regions can hold up to 6 people (warriors or warlords) at once, with each person being able to "hold" multiple mons but only being able to use 1 in battle. also, each region has its own dedicated warlord, with some having one or two additional ones. the warlords generally function the same way as warriors, except they generally have stronger mons.
your initial goal is to conquer the entire ransei region by challenging each dedicated warlord on their region-specific battlefield. battles work on a grid system, by the way, with you having all your mons out at once. each mon only has one attack depending on its species (all gurdurr will have wake-up slap), which really simplifies things, but some attacks hit varying spaces, like water gun hitting the 2 spaces in front of you.
here is an example of the gameplay in case this explanation wasn't sufficient. it's pretty fun the first time, but what happens when you get to the postgame?
each warlord gets their own specific "mission", where you start as them and usually have to conquer at least some of the region. there are like 50 warlords. it's easy to see how this could get boring really fast. so, what else is there to do?
perfect links.
a link is basically like a level, with each pokemon being assigned one, links increasing after every battle, and the number ranging from 2 to 100. but each warrior only has 1 pokemon species (or evolution line) with which they can achieve a 100% link; all others are capped at lower numbers like 50 or 70. it's also worth noting that the pokemon carry over after you move to the next story (although their link levels don't).
this completely changes the dynamic of the postgame. instead of just a slog through the region 50 times, the goal is to try and get perfect links on all the warriors. you can really feel your hard work pay off when you start a new story and instead of the usual oshawott/piplup/panpour you immediately have perfect linked samurott/gyarados/quagsire at your disposal.
and this is also why i don't really care about all the mons not being in the game. because this is the game that, more than any other pokemon game i've played, really encourage you to use every pokemon in them. each story starts you off in a different place, with a different warlord, so you don't have to go out of your way to avoid using the same stuff as usual. the high amount of postgame stories mean that you never have a permanent "party".
something else cool is that the game is actually remarkably well balanced. in most pokemon games, you just want the mon that hits really hard and a couple guys to complement its type weaknesses. but in conquest, things work differently. most of the hard-hitting and bulky mons are slow-moving (they can only move 2 squares at a time, compared to most which can move 3 to 4). playing a fast and strong pokemon recklessly will cause it to quickly get revenge killed by nearby pokemon due to lack of bulk.
the less powerful pokemon often have potent abilities that allow them to remain good. froslass has flame body but for freezing, spiritomb has shadow tag for pokemon adjacent to it, and audino automatically restores the hp of adjacent allies. defense is also a viable strategy, because if your kingdom is being conquered, you automatically win if you can stall out the turn limit. i've gotten some neat wins vs super strong pokemon this way. field control ends up being as important as raw power.
now obviously, there are some things that are just really dumb. forretress sucks because his move is gyro ball, so if you make him stronger his move gets weaker (and there's also a weird mechanic where if the other mon is significantly faster, your move becomes really inaccurate). the guardian charm item is BROKEN and carries between stories. mons like gyara and hydreigon are a bit too powerful. musharna's move is uhhh...dream eater (so it can't do anything unless someone is asleep). arceus is broken, although i guess that's how it's supposed to be. but in the grand scheme of things, these aren't a super big deal, and most mons are balanced out pretty well.
one more thing that i want to point out is how in the postgame, the opposing kingdoms naturally get more powerful, so you can kinda set their own level curve and beat the game at your own pace. this is super helpful for getting stuff like hydreigon, stone evolutions, and swarms (swarms SUCK tho they only happen like once every 25 months and there are like 10 swarm exclusive mons). this is just generally cool plus it feels awesome when u really take your time and everyone has broken mons.
so yeah. pokemon conquest, despite having only 200 mons in it, one (1) thing to do in it, and relatively exploitable ai as the only thing you can fight, still manages to be one of my favorite games to this day. shoutouts to conquest, man.