In the first Pokémon games, becoming the champion was the game – once you did that, there was pretty much nothing to do but swan about trying to get the rest of the little blighters. And that was fine – the legendary birds and Mewtwo did a good job of keeping that interesting – but then Gold and Silver came out and completely changed that. Now, becoming the champion was only half the game, and there was another entire region available for you to explore. This kind of took a step back in Gen III, Gen IV I’m ashamedly yet to complete, and Gen V had a pretty decent post game experience as well, what with the whole new area that opened up and hunting down Ghetsis’ mates.
The post-game experience is the only place that Gamefreak can really play around with Pokémon and not change their precious forumla. But in order to figure out how they can use this space to improve Pokémon, we first need to establish what is ‘wrong’ (hah!) with the games in the first place. The main problem is that a huge chunk of the games combat mechanics are, for the average player, completely shrouded in mystery. I’m talking about the EV/IV system, breeding and natures. Even the way that temporary stat changes (like those from Growl, Tail Whip et al) effect a Pokémon is never explained, instead just stating that a stat went up or down. By how much? Does Swords Dance actually make a meaningful difference to a Pokémons stats? Is it better to use one Swords Dance and an attack, or just attack twice?
For those in the know, these answers are pretty obvious and mostly contextual, but that’s because we have the benefit of a community of players who pick through the games code and find these answers for us. So I’m proposing a solution.
- Upon completing the game, PokéHunter shops open around the region (or preferably regions. Come on guys, you did it in Gen II, why not let us go back to other regions again?). The player can go to these shops to get information about the whereabouts of rare Pokémon, or receive information about a specific Pokémon that they need to catch to receive a reward of some kind. They’ll be told about the whereabouts of shiny ‘mon, making them easier to obtain, or ‘talented’ ones, basically meaning they have good IVs (either max in a few stats, or all above a certain threshold, say, 25). This has the added benefit of giving the player randomly generated quests to go on that increase the length of the game indefinitely, beyond just the battle subway or whatever.
- When a few of these talented Pokémon have been captured, they’ll be prompted by one of the PokéHunter workers to show them to the region’s professor, who will ask to take the Pokémon for study. Eventually, he’ll contact the player and tell them he’s made an amazing discovery that will surely change the way that humanity views Pokémon.
- He then explains the IV system to the Pokémon, saying that in addition to the Pokémon’s inherent abilities (base stats), each Pokémon has a unique genetic code that sets it apart from every other one. He’d then introduce the player to a few new resources the player can use.
- The first of these is the PokéChecker. The PokéChecker is used to examine a Pokémon’s base stats and IVs. The second is the Battle Lab. The BL is the newest incarnation of the Battle Tower. The player is encouraged to seek out talented Pokémon and use them in the Lab.
- After a a few battles in the Lab, the player is informed that the professor has made another ground breaking discovery – that a Pokémon’s experiences shape their growth in a highly predictable way. He now explains the EV system, and gives the player some goggles or something that can be used to see a wild/enemy Pokémon’s EV yield. The player is given access to the Power items (Power Anklet, Power Bracer etc), and the PokéChecker is upgraded with arguably its most useful feature. The ability to reassign EVs.
- By using some kind of item that the player can find throughout the region, they can reassign EVs from one stat to another, meaning that your beloved team is no longer useless in online battles, and in fact you can turn them into the power houses you always wanted them to be.
I don’t think this change is too drastic, and will add massive amounts of longevity to the game. The PokéHunting probably has the most potential, and wouldn’t have to just be shinies and talented dudes. You could have trainers going to the PokéHunter shops saying that they’ve lost a Pokémon somewhere, and the player has to go and find them. The Pokémon would be recognisable by it’s nickname or whatever.
There’s probably a whole lot more you could do with this set-up, and I’ve had loads of other ideas that I’ve forgotten between coming up with them and writing this, but you can see the basics and hopefully, why it’ll improve the game – without touching the forumla.