What if there was a Pokemon Affinity System?

[Miss Doronjo]

The speculated "bond" system with trainers and pokemon got me to thinking; certain pokemon also have affinities with one another, at least according to the pokedex. But, what if in X&Y, introduced a system on where these affinities were incorporated in the games?

For example, take a look at pokemon vs pokemon battles. While there are affinities with pokemon and trainer with happiness, and possibly the newly speculated "bond system" in X&Y, what if there was a system on factoring the relationships between certain pokemon? For example, Zangoose and Seviper have been major enemies for many generations, according to the pokedex. Could these new pokemon games develop a system that factors in the relationship between Zangoose and Seviper? Like, say... maybe they would do more damage to one another? Or maybe the system forces Zangoose and Seviper to stay in battle, so their trainers can't switch out until one of them have fainted?

What about outside of battles? Aside from abilities, when you encounter a wild pokemon, and the pokemon you have at the front of your party has a high affinity for the wild pokemon, the catch rate for the wild pokemon could go up. So, let's take two pokemon with a "high affinity" for an example: Plusle and Minun. If you are trying to catch a wild Minun, and Plusle is at the front of your party, you will have a much higher chance of catching it than if you had, say, a Magikarp at the front.

So, would you like something like this implemented in these games? Do you have any other thoughts?

[Elendil]

It makes sense, but it would limit itself to a certain bunch of Pokemon and that's it. Not all Pokemon are tied to each other like the ones you've mentioned, but I can perhaps see it work. Jynx Electrobuzz and Magmar could work, and the birds/rodents/4 footed animals could also have affinities for each other, like Hoothoot and Pidgey or Rattata and Watchog.

[Sabrewulf238]

I'm not sure if this would work....it seems a too situational and specific to really work that well. Not every pokemon has an obvious relation to another pokemon, you would have a heap of pokemon who have no preference towards any other pokemon.

I feel like it would work better if pokemon on your team could have friendship/bond values that could be increased (like the current pokemon to trainer friendship levels) between each other. So that having a team that gets along well would give your pokemon boosts and other advantages.

It makes sense in a way, trainers have always had friendship with their pokemon but there isn't much said about how the pokemon on your team get along. They might as well never interact with each other.

So I think you're on the right track, but it needs to be part of a bigger system and not just between two pokemon in a battle.

[Magmaruby and Aquasapphire]

Perhaps there can be attack bonuses between two Pokémon in double battles who are close (sort of like the system in Fire Emblem awakening but for Poke friendship instead of Human friendship/couples)

[Jake♫]

No, no thank you. I feel like this would just be extremely gimmicky and would affect more than you think it would. Relationships between two Pokémon outside of certain small things (the Rivalry ability and Return/Frustration pretty much) should have no affect on the power of their moves or switching abilities during a battle. It would just make it so much more complicated than it needs to be.

[Ash493]

I think it would be pretty interesting...
And the fact that it wouldn't be for everyone makes it even better.
It would make people use those Pokémon more.
And as easter egg, it would be pretty nice
It doesn't necessarily need to be feature =) As an easter egg, it works pretty well