Pokémon battles in water

Battles aren't currently very realistic, with any Pokémon being able to battle in any type of terrain. What would you think about battles in the water being made more realistic? So only aquatic/water/Pokémon that know Surf being able to battle in water, for example. Would you support this type of change? Can you think of any other battles that can be altered to be made a little more realistic/interesting?

It sounds like Sky Battles from XY. It works well on paper but I can't remember last time I actually had one, simply because I had no eligible Pokémon or I had only one against the whole team made to counter it. Water Battles could work better, since there are more Water-Types and they're usually more common than Flying-Types.

I would personally extend it to any Pokemon that is water type, knows levitate, or is flying type. Basically any Pokemon that can't properly fight on, in, or above the water wouldn't be able to participate. I'm generally not a fan of these restrictive kinds of battles- never was really into sky battles either!

personally I was always kinda confused why one could bring any sort of Pokemon into a battle in the water anyway. even more surprising is how you can send pokemon that are normally too heavy to float in water and somehow they're just... completely fine? weird stuff.

I would personally only like this if it was optional. Much like the sky battles are. I'm more of an old school player at times. I tend to ignore any new ways to battle too. Heck, I don't even like double or triple battles much. D: So, this would be something that I'm not sure I'd really like.

I'd be open to this tbh

I don't think I would enjoy only being able to use Water pokémon in ocean battles. Sun and Moon (or X and Y) have already fixed the Jesus Pokémon nonsense anyway with that little shallow puddle whenever you battle in the water.

Honestly I *would* like that. Make types more relevant. I'm down to design my team around battling in different environments.
I do see this as maybe something that could happen in a spinoff at some point.

Seeing it in a spin-off is a valid way to see how it works, imo. I don't know about a main game though because can you imagine Hoenn with that kind of restrictions? I can see it more happening in a region where there isn't a lot of bodies of water like... Kalos. I can definitely see it working out a little better there since the only route that really has swimmer is an optional location!

Alternatively if they were to do this for water Pokemon limit it to say ... divers. So say you're diving using a Pokemon (via HM or the Alolan way etc) and if you encounter a diver only Pokemon who can swim in water can battle. That'd be kinda neat.

I'm not a big fan but it seems kinda cool
But I prefer flying battles.

Having more of these types of battles definitely forces you to think more strategically about how to design a team. You have to make sure to bring something with you that can participate in such battles. I think the main problem in such restrictions are: what to do when you don't have anything that can participate in such a battle? Forcing someone to run back to grab something that suits the requirement is kinda dumb. Making these battles optional also kinda takes away from their appeal.

A lot of balancing would need to be done, but I can see how this can be more enjoyful. Especially when you want more challenge out of the games without having to resort to custom challenges.