[Discussion] Story over Game play (starter choice)

So I was thinking about giving the player a treecko as a starter and forcing them to keep the treecko with them because the story is about mega evolution and there should be a relationship between the trainer there mega evolving Pokemon. Does forcing one of the trainers pokemon to be this treecko go against pokemon? Should just have a normal set of three starters?

It doesn't "go against pokemon" because Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD give you Eeveelutions as starter pokemon without the ability to choose if you want them. Eevee, however, had 5 different evolutions to him (at the time), so it was still possible to mold the pokemon to your style. And that's the key here.

Now, it's your game, you can do what you want with it. But I think you can get the player to form a better bond with their pokemon if they choose it. Half the appeal of Pokemon is being able to form your own story with the pokemon you like and want to use. So forcing a particular pokemon onto the player is probably not going to earn you much investment in the story you're trying to weave. Especially if that story is literally about the bond the player is supposed to be forming with their pokemon.

I think you should never worry about "going against Pokemon" when making a fangame. The official Pokemon games are so formulaic that in my opinion, one of the biggest appeals of fangames is seeing how people take the Pokemon world and characters and mix things up to create a unique story or gameplay experience.

All the starters have mega evolutions no? Just force them to keep their chosen starter, rather than a predetermined starter, and the story should play out the same way. Probably.

I think forcing a singular choice is not a good idea. Not because it would "go against pokemon", but, assuming your game is similar in most other ways to official games in terms of gameplay, because your game is at its core an RPG. By limiting the player's freedom, you may tell a more specific story, but it takes away the player's ability to play the way they want to. I'm sure you can come up with alternatives that can include your desired story without forcing the player to keep one mon the entire game.

mej71 said:

I think forcing a singular choice is not a good idea. Not because it would "go against pokemon", but, assuming your game is similar in most other ways to official games in terms of gameplay, because your game is at its core an RPG. By limiting the player's freedom, you may tell a more specific story, but it takes away the player's ability to play the way they want to. I'm sure you can come up with alternatives that can include your desired story without forcing the player to keep one mon the entire game.

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Final Fantasy is an RPG, I'm still stuck with Cloud.
Being an RPG and having a main protagonist are not mutually exclusive.
In pokemon the protagonist is usually the trainer, here it would be the trainer and his starter.

I will say that I likely would never bother playing a game where I was forced to use a pokemon that I didn't like, or really forced to us any pokemon.

Take that as you will.

I also think that mega evolutions are kind of ResidentSleeper, and I never really got why people liked them so much. Theres no new pokedex entry, theres no outside-battle influence or anything, its just some weird super temporary evolution where your pokemon can apparently change typing and stuff...eh