[Discussion] Capturing Legendaries?

Hi guys.I was wondering about catching mythical and legendary Pokemon.In the anime,there aren't much trainers with Pokemon like those but the games give everyone an opportunity to catch Legendaries,and the availability of master ball makes it easier.So,I am asking all the game developers out there,would you put a restriction or a ban,preventing the players from catching legendaries?
In my opinion,I think it would be best to allow only battles and not capturing,with a legendary or mythical.

Absolutely not. Catching them all is a vital part of Pokemon, be it the wee little ant or the literal sky deities. Plus, it's always nice to bait your customers in the form of these one-of-a-kind big boiz, maybe in the post game or within the storyline.

In most Pre-Champion scenarios, you can only get say 1 to 3 Legendary Pokemon. The true reason for limiting Legendaries is their sheer power, which won't be much of an issue if you introduce even more powerful opponents. So I'd go with limit Pre-Champion, but don't omit entirely.

BW even has anything past beating the Champion be 'non-canon', explaining Kyurem in B2W2 even if you catch him in BW.

There are always people that take "Gotta Catch'em All" to heart (myself included) but really that depends on the game. If you are adding every Pokemon into a fan game then it seems strange not to, but if the game has a reasonable region worth of Pokemon somewhere in the range of 250-400 mons, then the games story should really be a driving factor. In the original games the 4 legendary Pokemon where Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, and Mewtwo. Mewtwo has a back story of being created in a lab to be the worlds strongest Pokemon, but he is viewed just as a really strong pokemon for anyone to catch if you a strong enough trainer and while they don't have a back story the same goes for the birds. Mew was the games mythical Pokemon and while he could only be obtained by glitches or gift events Pokemon Emerald showed us he is out there but is incredibly hard to find if you do not have the Old Sea Chart that will allow you to navigate to Faraway Island where you have to play with Mew to get a chance to battle him.

Sinnoh games on the other hand build up their legendaries to be a group of god-like monsters (even God him self), the 3 sprites that seem to be the personification of humanity, a living nightmare, as well as a hand full of others. To play up the importance of these creatures and their roles to support our world it sorta ruins the story having the player being able to catch them along with leaving plot holes that can't really be filled. Will existence come to an end if you remove the creation trio from their dimensions, if you catch Cresselia without taking care of Darkrai will there no longer be a cure for his bad dreams, If you catch God then does being champion of a region really amount to anything? It doesn't feel right to be able to catch these Pokemon regardless of your title or strength as a trainer.

But that's just my opinion.

GT-Baka said:

There are always people that take "Gotta Catch'em All" to heart (myself included) but really that depends on the game. If you are adding every Pokemon into a fan game then it seems strange not to, but if the game has a reasonable region worth of Pokemon somewhere in the range of 250-400 mons, then the games story should really be a driving factor. In the original games the 4 legendary Pokemon where Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, and Mewtwo. Mewtwo has a back story of being created in a lab to be the worlds strongest Pokemon, but he is viewed just as a really strong pokemon for anyone to catch if you a strong enough trainer and while they don't have a back story the same goes for the birds. Mew was the games mythical Pokemon and while he could only be obtained by glitches or gift events Pokemon Emerald showed us he is out there but is incredibly hard to find if you do not have the Old Sea Chart that will allow you to navigate to Faraway Island where you have to play with Mew to get a chance to battle him.

Sinnoh games on the other hand build up their legendaries to be a group of god-like monsters (even God him self), the 3 sprites that seem to be the personification of humanity, a living nightmare, as well as a hand full of others. To play up the importance of these creatures and their roles to support our world it sorta ruins the story having the player being able to catch them along with leaving plot holes that can't really be filled. Will existence come to an end if you remove the creation trio from their dimensions, if you catch Cresselia without taking care of Darkrai will there no longer be a cure for his bad dreams, If you catch God then does being champion of a region really amount to anything? It doesn't feel right to be able to catch these Pokemon regardless of your title or strength as a trainer.

But that's just my opinion.

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I had that same question about sinnoh legendaries,as well as kalos,hoenn(including swords of justice from unova).That is the main reason I started this thread in the first place:If these legendaries play a dominant role in the ecosystem,how can we capture it? Although Crowverlord has said about the legendaries only available after beating the champ,still,I don't get the idea of catching the most important parts of nature.(Just think about this,Kyogre can create heavy rain and flood the land,so if a trainer catches it,then that means the trainer can control rain,right?)

remer said:

(Just think about this,Kyogre can create heavy rain and flood the land,so if a trainer catches it,then that means the trainer can control rain,right?)

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Well, probably not. Remember in Sinnoh, they had to make the red chain using the three lake guardians to harness the power of Dialga/Palkia because a pokeball would prevent it from using its full strength.

Wouldn't be out of the question to think that would extend to the other legendaries.

Vendily said:

Well, probably not. Remember in Sinnoh, they had to make the red chain using the three lake guardians to harness the power of Dialga/Palkia because a pokeball would prevent it from using its full strength.

Wouldn't be out of the question to think that would extend to the other legendaries.

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That is only after catching them,right?But the games make that seem REALLY simple to catch a legendary (why,simply use a master ball,which is only available once,or battle them like a normal Pokemon and catch them).If they have so much power, shouldn't they be,let me say,a little more harsh-hard to catch?

It really depends on the game, I think! For Pokémon games like Totem Pokémon they were impossible to catch because they were boss Pokémon with different stats and abilities than a standard version you would find in the wild. That being said, it also isn't fair on the developers side for the lebgends to not be capturable. We all have those painful memories of not being able to catch the opposite version Reshiram/Zekrom in gen 5, however, as learned by ORAS free legends make your game way easier, as we were given a free lati@s dependent on our version. I agree that you should have every Pokémon capturable somehow without having to transfer but that required pressuring the story arc to accommodate mirage islands, Hoopa rings, and importing between X/Y and earlier generations.

Being fangames, we very clearly do not have that luxury so we are faced with the dilemma of whether or not to include *every* Pokémon or only a select few. Every Pokémon imo included should be capturable unless the player knows ahead of time that they won't be able to capture that Wimsicott owned by x trainer, etc. As a game designer you need to be aware of what kind of advantages and disadvantages being able to capture Pokémon brings as well! If you have capturable legendaries you should be able to complete the game in a reasonable manner without it! It would be horrible to shoehorn our teams!

While mythical Pokémon are generally given out as WiFi giveaways/mystery gifts, being fangames, we also don't have the luxuries of the main series as well! If you want to include them by all means, but they too are not exempt from lazy game design (i.e. ultra wormholes in USUM to have the player access every other Pokémon that's not in Alola+ gimmicks like Island Scan/pokeradar).

Very few fangames have been actually able to accomplish complete Pokédex access and have them all make sense in a way that one Pokémon straight up breaks the game! However, it's up to you to include legends and have them be capturable! Just remember to balance them!

Edit: Twould be cool and totally feasible within the essentials engine to have differing paths of difficulties based on whether or not you've captured the game's legend via game switches!

Or,what if,we allow the player to catch myths or legends with a base stats total of 600 before Pokemon league and after the Pokemon league,enable them to catch other legends but only after completing some hard challenge for each legends?It would also make a challenge if the elite four and champ has some pseudo legendaries or really strong Pokemon which aren't legends.

remer said:

Or,what if,we allow the player to catch myths or legends with a base stats total of 600 before Pokemon league and after the Pokemon league,enable them to catch other legends but only after completing some hard challenge for each legends?It would also make a challenge if the elite four and champ has some pseudo legendaries or really strong Pokemon which aren't legends.

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Gating via postgame quests is also a good idea. ORAS did that with the Delta Series line with both Mega Rayquaza and Deoxys. They kinda gave up with everything else having Jirachi be exent exclusive, and all the other legends be around from the Hoopa holes. There was some of that in USUM with travelling through Ultra Space, but I recommend stuff like the delta series, or having the player solve puzzles to initiate legendary/mythical challenges.

Even bst 600 mythical pokemon are tricky to include pre-elite 4 because most pokemon the player has access to in a story run is 450-550. Psedo legends are balanced by the fact that they evolve so late in the game while mythicals generally are 600 bst right off the bat. If you want to include mythical pokemon you better make the player work for them, else make the e4 more difficult.

To make them more balanced, you can totally make the e4 more challenging to defeat. Logically, if the player has more tools at their disposal, the challenges should increase as a result. I don't think the E4 should be unbeatable unless you have x mythical, as that forces a party and playstyle, however. I think the challenge is just balancing everything!