Heroes don't always win

[Nah]

So in every main series Pokemon game (idk how it is in the spin-offs, only spin-off I've played is Pokemon Conquest.....and the Stadiums), and in a lot of games in general, we've always been required to win every single major storyline battle. Maybe it's because we're supposed to be the heroes of the story or some child prodigy at battling or something. But there are some games where there's a specific battle or two that you're supposed to lose as part of the story (usually due to an enemy that's far more powerful/skilled than you).

So what I'm asking is, would you want there to be a battle in future Pokemon games where the player gets beaten, made to taste defeat for once? I would. Sure, it's nice that good always triumphs for some people, but I find that to be a little too idealistic and unrealistic for my tastes.

 

[Alfieri]

Yes I really would love that. I hate how I keep beating my rivals like Serena or May and they always look so disappointed about it. Then they go on to tell me that they will beat me the next time we face yet I am never allowed to lose because I'll white out into the Pokemon Center.

However, this may not count since you're probably referring to the hero getting beaten by one of the villains but: You can still lose to your rivals during the first battle (Like with Barry) and still continue on with the story.

 

[Hiatus]

I feel the games are currently designed in a way that, when we're done going through main story-line, we would be rewarding ourselves with some good "happy" feeling of sorts; we'd be glad. This works especially on younger audience, I believe, and although I understand their games are meant to be aimed towards everyone, it's still there.

If they would still like to keep this method going while trying something new--having trainer defeated rather than allowing them to be successful--I believe it could work. Of course, they would have to allow main character to still win at the end, one way or another. Off top of my head, one idea that comes to mind right now is permitting antagonist to go through with their plan, then perhaps have hero come in to reverse around fifty-percent of them? I hope we're understanding what I'm trying to get into here, haha.

All-in-all, I feel it would be a nice experiment; it'd lend them some chance of trying something new, and give us, the fans, an opportunity to see how Pokémon is like outside of the regular defeat-evil-team-and-become-champion formula.

 

[Mega_Kris]

I remember Final fantasy would offer something like that. Even Kingdom Hearts. I believe it would be nice but an on going thing with the rival....it really would build that competitive attitude...but then again pokemon has moved far away from the rivals of earlier games.

 

[Megan]

Ever played Lufia 2? There's a point early in the game where you encounter one of the main antagonists for the first time. You then fight this guy, but he's extremely powerfull. That is, of course, because you're supposed to lose the fight and the story progresses normally.
The important thing about that, though: if you grind your way up so you can beat him, you get a really really cool item which helps you immensely in the upcoming part of the story.

Instead of building battles into the game that you have to lose, it would be better seeing battles that you're supposed to lose, but you can still win and that rewards you in doing so.

 

[Oreanna]

I like the idea. The closest to winning my rival ever did was beating gym leaders before I did.

 

[epicbiscuit23]

Yeah but what if they made a pokemon game where you could choose to be good like if you chose good you would be the good guy and save everyone but if you chose bad you could be part of the games team (example team rocket) and you would be enemies with the good character and if you chose bad you would. Lose in the end

 

[mew_nani]

Actually there IS a fight you're allowed to lose; when you first fight your rival in Pokemon FR/LG, you can lose the battle, and the game will carry on. I dunno if this applies to your rivals in Black and White though. It would be neat though if there was a battle you couldn't possibly win, and it had some effect on the storyline.

 

[Hiatus]

If we're speaking of losing while still having the game carry its events, such as in FireRed and LeafGreen as stated above, I don't believe it would be so bad.

If it were real life, things would depend on outcomes--in Pokémon world, this method could be put onto battling and whatnot--and if same method were applied to games, it would certainly be interesting. This way, only time we would have to be concerned about losing is when fighting off against Gym Leaders, Elite Four, and Champion. Aside from that, things would happen naturally.

If they do go towards this route, I feel we would be engaged more into the game, as things would generally be more realistic and whatnot. Lately, this is what they were seemingly trying to aim more towards, and having such a process implemented would help in that regard.

 

[Mega_Kris]

Actually there IS a fight you're allowed to lose; when you first fight your rival in Pokemon FR/LG, you can lose the battle, and the game will carry on. I dunno if this applies to your rivals in Black and White though. It would be neat though if there was a battle you couldn't possibly win, and it had some effect on the storyline.

The same for GSC. But there should be some battles where you cant win. Not just the possibility of losing.

 

[Lycanthropy]

But there should be some battles where you cant win. Not just the possibility of losing.

There exist hacks where this is implemented. I remember this in Pokemon Snakewood.

Spoiler:

Watson had some machine magnifying the power of his Pokemon, which were level 100, totally unbeatable with the Pokemon you had by then (around level 30/40 I guess). You had to turn off that generator first in order to reduce the level of his Pokemon.

 

[Astraea]

I wish that in main Pokemon games, they would make player lose at a point where he fails to become a pokemon champ but gets a 2nd or 3rd place prize or something like that would be cool.

 

[Warspirit]

Yeah I'd like the idea of it, it would certainly make the game more realistic. It feels too easy when you're beating your rival/gym leaders/etc all the time.

 

[Hiatus]

I wish that in main Pokemon games, they would make player lose at a point where he fails to become a pokemon champ but gets a 2nd or 3rd place prize or something like that would be cool.

Yep, getting second or third place in a championship match would be rather cool, actually!

This would sort of eliminate the need for us to pay more attention to our team and whatnot (making sure they're well-built so that we could win), I imagine, and allow us to focus more on other things that the game has to offer, so to speak.

Although I do understand that there's not much to it once main story-line is over, but I believe it would be unique to see a game not actively leaning towards earn-badges-defeat-and-become-champion (at least) for once, if this makes sense.

 

[Astraea]

Yep, getting second or third place in a championship match would be rather cool, actually!

This would sort of eliminate the need for us to pay more attention to our team and whatnot (making sure they're well-built so that we could win), I imagine, and allow us to focus more on other things that the game has to offer, so to speak.

Although I do understand that there's not much to it once main story-line is over, but I believe it would be unique to see a game not actively leaning towards earn-badges-defeat-and-become-champion (at least) for once, if this makes sense.

Yeah, more side quests for a change, not only Pokemon battling but some kind of contest or rescuing someone who is kidnapped, I mean more anime taste and also like we originally challenge e4 directly, instead of that there will be tournament between different trainers and if they win it they will get chance to challenge e4 or something like that would be great

 

[Pendraflare]

I too always felt that it was sad whenever I would have to beat rivals like Serena/Calem who wanted to get stronger, so the thought of a game where you have to lose would be something new.

But if they were to do that, I can only picture if they'd intentionally make it hard or if they would just have you get defeated. I know there's this one hack that resembles the anime where you're kinda supposed to lose for storyline purposes...

 

[Hiatus]

Yeah, I could also imagine them doing this; when they want us to lose without results affecting our game-play and whatnot, they would likely make the opponent much, more than normal. I've seen this done in plenty of other games (Zelda, for example), so this is nothing new; unless we use cheating devices to get around, I could imagine the method to do its job pretty well, actually, haha.

 

[YellowTemperance]

The Disgaea games pull this sort of thing off with aplomb, if I recall correctly. In the first Disgaea, there's a battle against an Overlord of another universe's Netherworld that is impossible to win your first go around, forcing you to lose before the story can continue. In Disgaea 2, you fight against Etna, one of the playable characters from the first Disgaea, and end up having to lose against her to continue the story.

Those are good examples Game Freak could crib from: Just make an in-story reason why the player can't win at that time, either by the opponent being just too powerful or by cheating and having the match called off in the middle of it. I'm fairly sure the script coding could do something like that too.

In closing, I do think a hero should lose once in a while. It bolsters the spirit to succeed even more. Heroes become heroes from good conflict, emboldening them to push onwards to victory.

 

[Lycanthropy]

I remember from a Final Fantasy game that at some point two directions on the overworld could be the right one. If you took the wrong one you would meet a group of overlevelled monsters in a few steps and die. As the story goes on in that direction your party grows stronger and when you arrive at the point at which the story tells you to go to a town in the other direction, your levels are high enough to survive there and move through.

 

[KamikazeSSoH]

I would like for a Pokemon Game that you fight the Champion and the Champion beat you and then you have to fight over the 8 gyms again but then the second time you go against the Champion he has a Legendary Pokemon i would play the sh#$ out of that.