[Developing] Pokemon Gemini: Castor & Pollux

The Gemini region consists of two large islands, Castor and Pollux (also, those are the names of the paired games). One of these islands is lavish and technological, a high-tech and luxurious place where no one wants for anything. The other is rural, run-down, and filled with poverty, where people struggle just to survive. In Pokemon Castor, the poor island is Castor and the rich is Pollux; in Pokemon Pollux, it's reversed. For the rest of this description, I'll be simply calling them "Rich Island" and "Poor Island", but in the game, they'll always be Castor Island or Pollux Island.

The government of the Gemini region prevents people from living in Rich Island unless they have proven themselves worthy trainers, which is apparently an opportunity afforded to anyone through the Proof of Aptitude. (This is the Gemini version of the Pokemon League.) Trainers young and old may attempt their Proof by taking on several Proof Points ("gyms") throughout Poor Island; after defeating each Proof Proctor ("gym leader"), you'll receive a certificate ("badge") that confirms your skill. Beat all the Proctors on the island, and you can make your way to the bridge between the islands, where the only thing between you and Rich Island is a tower filled with the Gemini Greats ("elite four"). Everyone who's ever successfully completed their Proof becomes a Gemini Great, and at any given time, four of those Greats resides in the Tower, ready to test newcomers. Defeat the Greats, and you have only one last challenge: you must defeat the Twins. They are not actually siblings; rather, the Twins is a title given to the two greatest trainers in Gemini (the "champions"), and your champion battle with them is actually a double battle. Beat them, and you and your family may move to Rich Island and enjoy the luxury for the rest of your lives. Fail, and you're stuck in Poor Island in a life of poverty.

The game's story begins on Poor Island, where you, a child (let's go with age 11 as usual for now), are visiting your mother at the hospital. She's very ill, but you can't afford the medication she needs to save her life; this is a sadly common situation on Poor Island. So you decide you're going to complete your Proof and get you and your mother to Rich Island in time to get her the treatment she needs; you set out immediately. A researcher from Rich Island is giving a lecture at the local school, so you catch her after the speech to ask about the details of the Proof--this is where the player learns everything I just told you above. Having studied the economic impact of Pokemon training on the region's history, she pities you and your poverty, so she gives you one of her unused Pokemon to start out with (your choice out of 3, of course).

And then the game happens. In this game, the "evil team" is the government itself, but there's a twist! The first half of the game, you get little hints about corruption in the government, but as you're only a child, you don't get involved. And no one asks you to! Instead, you focus on your Proof and completing it. One thing that makes this game different from other Pokemon games is that you can't be overleveled for a Proof Point / gym: every opposing team inside a Proof Point, including the Proctor's, will automatically have its levels adjusted to match your team's average level if yours is higher than theirs. It won't be dropped lower, so there's always a challenge, but it's impossible to overlevel. For this reason, you can take on the Proof Points in any order you want, as long as you can succeed in battle.

If/when you beat the Twins, the game is not over! Instead, the second half begins ten years later. You're now an adult and have been a Gemini Great for a decade, and your mother is healthy and well. But something keeps nagging at you; you remember the things you heard about the government's corruption when you were a child, and it unsettles you. Doing some investigation around Rich Island, you learn that the government has been fixing the Proofs, allowing political allies into Rich Island even if they couldn't win on their own, and forcing political opposition out, even if they should have won. This artificial boundary keeping people in Poor Island has led to the deaths of many from disease, malnutrition, etc., and you (the kind-hearted person you are) won't stand for it! You join an underground Resistance movement and use your position as a Great to help fight against the government; but they're watching you, too, and now you must either lead a successful coup, or be "disappeared".

During your resistance, you discover the government has been literally making their enemies disappear using the power of a legendary Pokemon called Prestid. This Psychic/Dark 'mon, modeled after a magician, can make anything and anyone disappear from reality (represented in-game by an ability called Vanishing, which makes it semi-invulnerable for one turn whenever it's hit by a move); the government is using that ability on its opponents. The only way to stop them, and to expose the corruption, is to stop Prestid, and that can only be done by finding the second legendary, Ijitay, a Psychic/Fairy hiding out on Poor Island. (Get it? Prestid-Ijitay, as in Prestidigitation?) Its ability, Retrieval, can return vanished objects/people back to our reality (in-game, Retrieval prevents other Pokemon from using moves that grant semi-invulnerable turns, and may also prevent switching out, depending on balance). In Castor, you must catch Ijitay and use it to battle Prestid into submission; then you can expose the government without repercussions, lead the coup, and bring Gemini into a better era. In Pollux, you can't catch Ijitay, but you can convince it to battle Prestid, weakening it enough for you to battle and then catch yourself, leading to the same result.